The Airwork Fleet Requirements Unit (FRU) was a civilian-operated unit of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy and is responsible for the delivery of naval air power both from land and at sea. The Fleet Air Arm operates the F-35 Lightning II for maritime strike, the AW159 Wil ...

managed by Airwork Limited. It was established on the 1 September 1952, at Hurn Airport, operating for 20 years before merging with another unit to become the Fleet Requirements and Air Direction Training Unit (FRADTU), on the 1 December 1972.

History

Airwork Limited, referred to as Airwork Services Limited from 1957 for defence support work, secured a contract in September 1952 with the Royal Navy, to operate the Fleet Requirements Unit (FRU) at

Hurn Airport Hurn is a village and civil parish in the Historic counties of England, historic county of Hampshire and the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. Situated between the River Stour, Dorset, River Stour and River Avon, Hampshire, River Avon, admin ...

, situated on the edge of

Hurn Hurn is a village and civil parish in the historic county of Hampshire and the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. Situated between the River Stour and River Avon, administratively Hurn is part of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole unitary ...

village, north of

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

. It used ex-Fleet Air Arm

aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...

as targets to provide training for Royal Navy

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

operators, however,

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

pilots An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

were employed to fly the aircraft. Recently retired Fleet Air Arm de Havilland Sea Mosquito aircraft began arriving for use in August 1952. These were later replaced during 1953 by

de Havilland Sea Hornet The de Havilland DH.103 Hornet, developed by de Havilland, was a fighter aircraft driven by two piston engines. It further exploited the wooden construction techniques that had been pioneered by the de Havilland Mosquito. Development of ...

aircraft. The Fleet Requirements Unit's tasks were expanded to include all aspects of Fleet requirement duties. For example, this included target towing for gunnery purposes, and not only for UK based

destroyers In navy, naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a Naval fleet, fleet, convoy or Carrier battle group, battle group and defend them against powerful short range attack ...

and

frigates A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

, but also eventually required to support training for the Mediterranean based Fleet, following the disbandment of

728 Naval Air Squadron 728 Naval Air Squadron (728 NAS) was a Naval Air Squadron of the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm. It was formed in 1943 as a Fleet Requirement Unit, operating from airfields around the Mediterranean before settling for most of its existence in Malt ...

at RNAS Hal Far (HMS Falcon), on Malta, in 1967, which had previously provided Fleet Requirement support for that area.

Hawker Sea Fury The Hawker Sea Fury is a British fighter aircraft designed and manufactured by Hawker Aircraft. It was the last propeller-driven fighter to serve with the Royal Navy, and one of the fastest production single reciprocating engine aircraft e ...

, a

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

, which was the last

propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...

-driven fighter to serve with the

, were acquired in 1955. However, the initial

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines. Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, je ...

type used by FRU was the

Supermarine Attacker The Supermarine Attacker is a British single-seat naval jet fighter designed and produced by aircraft manufacturer Supermarine for the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm (FAA). The type has the distinction of being the first jet fighter to enter oper ...

, a single-seat

naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

jet fighter, which were also received in 1955, but these only lasted at Hurn for a couple of years. These jets were followed at the FRU by

Hawker Sea Hawk The Hawker Sea Hawk is a British single-seat jet day fighter formerly of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), the air branch of the Royal Navy (RN), built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its design origina ...

, a single-seat jet

day fighter A day fighter is a fighter aircraft equipped only to fight during the day. More specifically, it refers to a multi-purpose aircraft that does not include equipment for fighting at night (such as a radar and specialized avionics), although it is some ...

aircraft. Modifications for FRU work included a Harley Light being fitted into the nose of the port underwing fuel tank and each aircraft received a distinctive all-over gloss black paint scheme. The unit primarily used

fixed-wing aircraft A fixed-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air flying machine, such as an airplane, which is capable of flight using wings that generate lift caused by the aircraft's forward airspeed and the shape of the wings. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinc ...

, however,

Westland Dragonfly The Westland WS-51 Dragonfly helicopter was built by Westland Aircraft and was an Anglicised licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-51. Design and development On 19 January 1947 an agreement was signed between Westland Aircraft a ...

helicopters A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

were operated between 1958 and 1961. Target towing was undertaken using

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...

aircraft, acquired from 1961. These were the TT.20 variant, a high speed target towing conversion of the mark NF.11. The following year saw the last of the Sea Fury leave Hurn and from this point the FRU operated solely with jet aircraft. June 1966 saw

Supermarine Scimitar The Supermarine Scimitar was a single-seat naval strike aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Supermarine. Operated exclusively by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, it was the final aircraft to be entirely designed a ...

aircraft arrive, a single-seat naval strike aircraft, but by 1970 these were completely retired, due mainly to difficulties in keeping them operational. 1969 saw the withdrawal of the Sea Hawk aircraft from FRU duties, however,

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

aircraft arrived that year. A manoeuvrable day

interceptor aircraft An interceptor aircraft, or simply interceptor, is a type of fighter aircraft designed specifically for the defensive interception role against an attacking enemy aircraft, particularly bombers and reconnaissance aircraft. Aircraft that are cap ...

, initially single-seat GA.11 variants were operated, and later, two-seat T.8C mark were acquired.

English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havil ...

TT.18 target tug variant, a conversion of B.2 aircraft, were received in September 1969, these replaced the Gloster Meteor aircraft, which were withdrawn, on target towing duties. In December 1970 the unit started to operate a detachment of

de Havilland Sea Vixen The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen is a British twin-engine, twin boom-tailed, two-seat, carrier-based fleet air-defence fighter flown by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm during the 1950s through to the early 1970s. The Sea Vixen was designed by ...

aircraft at

RNAS Yeovilton (HMS Heron) Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, or RNAS Yeovilton, (HMS ''Heron'') is an airfield of the Royal Navy and British Army, sited a few miles north of Yeovil, Somerset. It is one of two active Fleet Air Arm bases (the other being RNAS Culdrose) ...

, sited a few miles north of

Yeovil Yeovil ( ) is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the district of South Somerset, England. The population of Yeovil at the last census (2011) was 45,784. More recent estimates show a population of 48,564. It is close to Somer ...

, in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. In October 1972 the unit moved to Yeovilton, where, albeit operated separately, it worked alongside Airwork Services’ Air Direction Training Unit (ADTU). The FRU and ADTU were merged into a single unit on the 1 December 1972, creating the Fleet Requirements and Air Direction Training Unit (FRADTU).

Aircraft flown

English Electric Canberra TT18, UK - Navy AN1348612

A number of aircraft types and variants were used over the years at Hurn by Airwork Services, operating as the FRU: * de Havilland Mosquito PR Mk.XVI (1952 - 1953) * de Havilland Sea Mosquito TR Mk.33 (1952 - 1953) * de Havilland Sea Hornet F.20 (1953 - 1955) * de Havilland Sea Hornet NF.21 (1953 - 1955) * Hawker Sea Fury FB.11 (1955 - 1962) * Supermarine Attacker FB.2 (1955 - 1957) * Hawker Sea Hawk F.1 (1956 - 1958) * Fairey Firefly TT.Mk 4 (1957 - 1958) * Hawker Sea Hawk FB.5 (1958 - 1963) * Westland WS-51 Dragonfly HR.3 (1958 - 1961) * Gloster Meteor TT.20 (1958 - 1971) * Hawker Sea Hawk FGA.6 (1961 - 1969) *

Gloster Meteor T.7 The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...

(1962 - 1971) *

Supermarine Scimitar F.1 The Supermarine Scimitar was a single-seat naval strike aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Supermarine. Operated exclusively by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm, it was the final aircraft to be entirely designed a ...

(1965 - 1971) * Hawker Hunter T.8C (1969 - 1972) * Hawker Hunter GA.11 (1969 - 1972) * English Electric Canberra TT.18 (1969 - 1972) * English Electric Canberra B.2 (1969 - 1972) * English Electric Canberra T.4 (1969 - 1972) * de Havilland Sea Vixen FAW.2 (1970 - 1972)

References

Citations

Bibliography

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External links