Shackleton in Queen's flypast - now looking for the individual aircraft

[Heraldcoupe]

Some years ago, I was given a wonderful picture of a Shackleton MR2 flying over Trafalgar Square. It was an image I'd seen in the short-lived National Monuments and Records gallery in Swindon, my wife subsequently bought the print for me. An official image, it's taken virtually head-on from another aircraft in close formation. I'll see if I can get a low-res copy of the photograph to post here - my scanner is currently disconnected so it may take a little fiddling.

I've been able to trace the picture through the Historic England archive, it's one of three taken in quick succession, none of them showing any details to identify the individual aircraft. The images were taken on one of two possible dates - June 2nd, 1953 (Queen's Coronation) or May 31st, 1956 (Queen's Birthday).

Does anyone know of how I could find out which squadrons were been involved in an official event like this?

Cheers,

Bill.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Heraldcoupe

[Lazlo Woodbine]

There's a book called Coronation Wings by Eric Bucklow at a reasonable used price on Amazon uk, this has profiles and photos of aircraft in the flypast and the order in which they flew.

Gary

[Heraldcoupe]

There's a book called Coronation Wings by Eric Bucklow at a reasonable used price on Amazon uk, this has profiles and photos of aircraft in the flypast and the order in which they flew.

Gary

The book covers the review at Odiham on July 15th, 1953, rather than the London Flypast of June 2nd,

Cheers,

Bill.

[Lazlo Woodbine]

Cheers, was on the bus when I typed this.

Gary

[Heraldcoupe]

Cheers, was on the bus when I typed this.

Gary

No problem, it got my hopes up

Cheers,

Bill.

[Gary West]

On the off chance that some of your data could be wrong? 220 Sqn flying MR1s over flew London on 5th June 1952 as part of the Coronation flypast. VP257 was amongst the formation although I have no idea how many were in the formation.

Different occassion or inaccurate date somewhere?

Edited December 2, 2015 by Gary West

[Heraldcoupe]

On the off chance that some of your data could be wrong? 220 Sqn flying MR1s over flew London on 5th June 1952 as part of the Coronation flypast. VP257 was amongst the formation although I have no idea how many were in the formation.

Different occassion or inaccurate date somewhere?

The dates were given to me by Historic England as the two possibles for the picture, June 2nd 1953 being the date of the actual coronation. I don't know how they arrived at these dates, the fact there were two different possibilities suggests they're not specifically linked to the photographs in the archive.

Edit: I've failed to find any reference to a 1953 flypast other than the Odiham review mentioned earlier, I suspect this date is a red herring.

What was the occasion of the 1952 flypast? My picture is undoubtedly and MR2 at close range.

Cheers,

Bill.

Edited December 2, 2015 by Heraldcoupe

[XV107]

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/110558-buckingham-palace-flypast-1956

Any relevance/help? (Wrong location, but...)

And if it is this event -

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1956/1956%20-%200630.html

Edited December 3, 2015 by XV107

[Heraldcoupe]

http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/110558-buckingham-palace-flypast-1956

Any relevance/help? (Wrong location, but...)

And if it is this event -

https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1956/1956%20-%200630.html

Bingo, that has to be it!

The image over the palace looks to be from the same film, of the same aircraft. With 18 aircraft in the flypast I guess it will be impossible to establish which one of them is in the picture.

Cheers,

Bill.

[Gary West]

What was the occasion of the 1952 flypast?

I dont know any more than I added above and it could be in fact that these dates are wrong - taken from the book "Shackelton, Guardian of the sea lanes" - there is an image of a Mk1 flying over London with Westminster Abbey clearly below.

Its definately a Mk1 in the image so it would suggest that there was another flypast.

Sorry I couldnt add more info

[Phil Evans]

Coronation Wings states that there were 2 formations of Shackletons, both with a mix of MR.1 and MR.2. There is a colour profile of MR.2 WL737 coded T-K of 220 Sqn. In the same squadron there are WL745 T-O and WL743 T-P. The squadrons are 42,120, 206, 220, 240 and 269.

Phil

[Heraldcoupe]

OK, now I know the date is May 31st 1956.

Squadrons involved were 42, 120, 204, 220 and 228. From the records here, it seems that 42, 204 and 228 Squadrons were equipped with Shackleton MR2s at the time. I've been through the records to find which MR2s were on strength with each of these squadrons on the day of the flypast.

The photograph here shows part of the code painted on the nose of the aircraft. From what I can make out, the character looks like an O, Q or D. My own image taken at a very shallow angle from the opposite side seems to show the leading face of the character being flat, but it's not conclusive. Balance of probabilities makes this a D, which was the individual code of WL737 of 42 Squadron.

Now I have seen it claimed that the aircraft photographed is in fact WR960, now preserved in AEW2 form in Manchester. I can't reconcile this to the code letter shown, records and photographs both show the individual character P painted on the nose at this time. More to the point, WR960 was photographed with no upper gun turret in 1956 (provided the photograph is correctly dated) and is recorded as undergoing some modifications in 1955 and 1957, but none during 1956.

I'm still pulling together various books on the Shackleton, but does anyone know of any photographs of WL737 around 1956? Other possible candidates could be WR959 - 228 sqn - O, or WR961 - 228 sqn - Q. There may be others where code letters aren't known, I'd welcome pointers to photographs of any 42, 204 or 228 Squadron MR2s around 1956.

Sorry for the rambling question,

Cheers,

Bill.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Heraldcoupe