Here comes transitional change from props to jets

In the year 1950 saw the transition of piston-driven propeller aircraft to jet-propulsion types with the arrival of the first five de Havilland Vampire FB Mk.5's to Singapore.. The Royal Air Force had re-equipped No.60 Squadron discarding their Spitfire Mk.18’s for the new jets and stationed them at Seletar airbase. The sleek and streamlined fighter-bomber flew all the way from UK to Singapore, the longest flight undertaken by the RAF covering a distance of 8,500 miles. The 'Vampire' was built (according to specification D.H.100) and like the 'Mosquito' (Wooden Wonder) was of metal, balsa, plywood and glue. Despite of it's small size it was heavily armed with 4 x 20mm cannon in the nose, could carry two 1,000lbs bombs or two smaller 500lb bombs with rocket projectiles and external fuel tanks.The short fuselage houses a single centrifugal-flow 'Goblin 2' turbojet engine rated at 3,300lb static thrust giving a maximum speed of 548 mph(883 km/h) slightly faster than any piston-driven propeller aircraft at that period including the Spitfires or P-51 Mustangs. Two booms from either side of the wings supported and kept the tail-plane clear of the exhaust blast from the tail-pipe. Now new planes were getting faster and faster as the emphasis was on speed as the ultimate advantage. At the closing of Second World War, brilliant German scientists invented a revolutionary idea of jet-propulsion engine that removed large external propeller that drive conventional aircraft. The first jet fighter of the Second World War was sleek, streamlined, had tri-cycle under-carriage and powered by a twin-jet propulsion engine. The German built Messerschmitt Me262 was a beauty and entered into squadron service.

The first jet-fighter Messerschmitt' Me262' (Model 1/72 scale)


The German Luftwuffe chief Adolf Galland deployed them as fighters but Hitler wanted them as bombers so there was a conflict of interest, a rift that created a negative effect to the future outcome of the war. Meantime in England the British inventor Frank Whittle had produced his own jet-engine to power his little Gloster E.28/39 and the race was on. The invention of jet-propulsion engine was an amazing discovery in which large external propellers are done away. I can imagine what a shocking surprise those other pilots were, when they saw the Me262 without any external propellers just flew past them with ease. I was curious and wanted to know how a cute, small jet-propulsion aircraft could fly even faster than propeller-driven ones. I was then very young and dumb, scratching my head trying to figure it out how it works. I later understood that the 'Vampire' had 'Goblin' engine by which this revolutionary concept did not rely on large external propeller blades, instead it is replaced by internal sets of much smaller blades. Two sets of wheels fitted with multiple small blades are arranged on a single shaft at either ends. The front a larger wheel is the first stage where the blades acts as impeller when it rotates, it sucks in air through the two wing-root air intake on either side into the engine combustion-chamber. Here compressed air mixes with fuel, heated up and combustion takes place, turning the second stage turbine-wheel with tremendous force to propel the jet forward in what is measured as static thrust. In the advent of the newly found technological advancement, the propeller-driven aircraft had simply lost out to jet-propulsion.

‘Vampire’ fighter-bomber Mk.5 (model)

In the year 1954-55 when I was an air cadet with the Malayan Air Training Corps/Singapore Wing we had a retired propeller-driven Supermarine Spitfire Mk.24 in our compound acting as a gate-guardian.



MATC Headquarters/Singapore Wing at Waterloo Street


Our Spitfire model was a Mk.24 (Pk683) the final series of the Spitfire family, the ultimate, the best of the best, the epitome of design and always remembered together with the Hawker Hurricane in the 'Battle of Britain' that bored the blunt of the German aerial assault. The Spitfire was sleek, streamline, heavily armed with 4 x 20mm cannon, with all-round vision 'bubble canopy' and powered by a Rolls Royce Griffon in-line engine of 2035hp driving a five-bladed propeller at a maximum speed of 448mph. We always gathered around our icon and were really proud of it.

One time while camping at HMS ‘Simbang’ a Royal Naval Air Station located at Sembawang, the land-base home of the Fleet Air Arm. At times FAA aircraft are flown off from their carriers and are temporary stationed ashore. I once saw a 'Fairey Firefly' propeller-driven 2-seat carrier-borne naval fighter-bomber starting up. The ignition was by cartridge that went off with such a big 'bang' that it startled me, gave me an awful shock. The mighty Rolls Royce Griffon engine of 2,245hp belching out smoke before it burst into life, roaring thunderously loud to a deaffening effect. My ear drums almost breaking by the constantly high pitch rhythm ringing in my ears until it hurts.



Fleet Air Arm Fairey Firefly carrier-borne fighter-bomber

In jet-propulsion engine unlike propeller-driven, it starts with a low whining pitch and slowly and gradually the sound increases in volume as the pilot pushes the throttle feeding more fuel into the engine. By my time in 1955 the Malayan Emergency had gone into it's eight year and the Colonial Government had gained an upper hand in containing the Communist terrorists deep in the jungle. The Royal Air Force had initially launched the aerial campaign termed "Operation Firedog" in 1948 employing a diversity of propeller-driven aircraft from single-engine Supermarine 'Spitfires' Mk.18's,PR.19's, Hawker 'Tempests II', to twin-engine Bristol 'Beaufighters' and 'Brigand', de Havilland 'Mosquitoes' PR34’s and 'Hornets' to the mighty 4-engine Short 'Sunderland' flying-boats. The Sunderlands forming the Far East Flying-boat Wing were stationed at Seletar airbase, Singapore. It made up of 3 squadrons, Nos. 88, 205 and 209 and No.205 being the ‘First’ had their motto inscribed in Bahasa Melayu “Pertama di-Malaya” (meaning the first in Malaya)

During the ‘Emergency’ period the ‘Sunderlands’ temporary undertook bombing missions until the arrival of suitable heavy land bombers like Avro 'Lancasters’ and 'Lincolns'. By 1950's with the arrival of ‘Vampire’ jets, started to replace Spitfires. Thus begun the gradual exit of the propeller-driven types especially in the fighter role, making way to jet-propulsion aircraft. From No.81 Squadron at Seletar the last operational flight by a Spitfire Mk.PR19 (PS888) on 1st April,1954 and Mosquito,PR34 (RG314) on the 15th December, 1955. It was followed by the 4-engine Sunderland flying-boats (DP199) of No.205 Squadron on the 15th May, 1959. A year after the ‘Beaufighter’ TT.10 (RD761) also from Seletar made it’s final sortie on 17th May. Jet aircraft replacement initiated by the 'Vampire' move on rapidly with the ‘Vampires’ themselves being replaced by the 'Venom' an up-graded version of the ‘Vampire’ with more powerful 'Ghost' engine increasing the airspeed to 640mph and equipped with ejection-seat. The replacements speeded up by a series of twin-jet fighter aircraft like the modified Gloster 'Meteors' (photographic and night fighter) and 'Javelin' an all-weather fighter to more advanced Hawker Hunters FGA-9's for ground-attack. Finally in 1960’s the supersonic English Electric ’Lightnings’ interceptors of No.74 Squadron (The Tigers) replaced the ‘Hawker Hunters’ of No.20 Squadron. The Jet-bombers came in the form of the twin-jet engine 'Canberra' light bombers; the Royal Air Force first jet-propulsion bomber and like their predecessor the ‘Mosquito’ was unarmed; relying on speed and altitude for safety. Fortunately the Communist did not have any anti-aircraft weapons and thereby no opposition from the ground. The Royal Air Force maintained total air supremacy.

Malaysia was granted Independence by Britain on the 31st August,1957 and ceremoniously handing over to a Malay Prince Tengku Abdul Rahman at Stadium Mederka, Kuala Lumpur. By 1960 came the official Government announcement the end of the ‘Malayan Emergency’ (1948 – 1960) after 12 long years fighting the Communist Guerillas led by Chin Peng (Secretary- General of the Malayan Communist Party) gave up. The Royal Air Force followed up with termination of “Operation Firedog”. Meanwhile the British stayed on in Singapore even after Singapore being booted out of Malaysia on the 9th August,1965. Britain was scaling down it’s forces but could still provide temporary a defence shield while tiny Singapore started slowly building up from scratch our military capability. For our Army we had two battalions of Singapore Infantry Regiment (Nick-named in Chinese as ‘Ang Tau Peng’ (Red Head Army, as they wore red side-caps), the Navy had two miserable wooden gun-boats named ‘Panglima’ (an old Ford class patrol boat built in 1956) and ‘Sri Bedok’.(a small ex-Marine Police patrol boat). And no Air Force at all.


Finally In 1971 the British threw in the towel and said ‘quits’ totally withdrawing from East of Suez.