PICS : farewell to the RAF HS.125 Dominie T1s...

[Stratofreighter]

...according to
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/ ... ement.html .

Yet another "sad farewell"...

[Stratofreighter]

And it looked like this:

and


as taken from http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/v ... 70#p154970
But apparently this Wednesday is the final, last ever fly past by Dominie T1s, and this was only practice

[CUJO]

as taken from http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/v ... 70#p154970
But apparently this Wednesday is the final, last ever fly past by Dominie T1s, and this was only practice

If you read it all carefully, it states that the final flight will be on Thursday with reserve day on Friday.
All can be seen (and all are referrring to the same NOTAMs) e.g. here:
http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=30110 or here
http://www.iconicaircraft.co.uk/forum/v ... 4&p=162675 or here
http://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/v ... 7&p=154651 or here
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=106276 or here
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/ ... ement.html (to quote your own source).

But despite that - you're doing as great job in digging though the net to search for news - Thank you for that.

Greetings Cujo

[Stratofreighter]

Key - Gary Parsons

http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive.cfm? ... 58EAC6BD45
and
http://www.key.aero/view_news.asp?ID=29 ... n=military

Dominie retires from the RAF
The Royal Air Force has retired the Dominie T1 after 46 years of operations.

Gary Parsons - 20-Jan-2011

January 20: An unintended victim of the 2010 UK Strategic Defence and Security Review has been the Royal Air Force’s Dominie T1, as operated by 55(R) Squadron at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

With the cancelation of Nimrod MRA4 in particular, added to the future drawdown of the Tornado GR4 force, the need to train WSOs (Weapons Systems Officers) and WSOps (Weapons Systems Operators) has declined drastically and as a result the Dominie has been retired two years early.

A six-ship formation at RAF Cranwell today signalled the end of Dominie operations after nearly 46 years.

They were the oldest aircraft in the RAF (outside the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight) and two are destined to be preserved in museums.
For more on this story see the March issue of AirForces Monthly, out on February 1.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/20 ... iners.html

Six Dominie T1s performed a final flypast at their home base at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire on 20 January. In all, 22 of the Rolls-Royce Viper-engined 125-2-series aircraft were delivered to the service between 1964 and 1966, says Flightglobal's MiliCAS database.

"The cancellation of the [BAE Systems] Nimrod MRA4 and a reduction in the number of [Panavia] Tornado GR4s has resulted in the RAF ceasing any further weapons system officer (formerly navigator) training," the service says. It has also removed the need to train new sensor operators "for the next few years", it adds.

Longer term, a replacement for the Dominie will be acquired via the UK Military Flying Training System programme.

Potential candidates include the Cessna Citation Mustang being promoted by a BAE-led team, and undisclosed platforms being offered by rival contenders Cobham/EADS Cassidian and Elbit Systems.

Operations with six younger 125-700B airframes assigned to the service's 32 (The Royal) Sqn at RAF Northolt are to continue.

These were delivered in 1983-4, says MiliCAS.

The Dominie's retirement comes just over a month after the RAF and Royal Navy halted operations with their BAE Harrier GR9 ground-attack aircraft, and shortly before the air force's last Tornado F3 fighters and Nimrod R1 electronic intelligence aircraft will leave use.

Both types will be retired on 31 March.