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120-560: The Stabilised Automatic Bomb Sight ( SABS ) was a Royal Air Force bombsight used in small numbers during World War II . The system worked along similar tachometric principles as the more famous Norden bombsight , but was somewhat simpler, lacking the Norden's autopilot feature. Development had begun before the war as the Automatic Bomb Sight , but early bomber operations proved that systems without stabilisation of

240-679: A Private Finance Initiative with newly purchased Sikorsky S-92 and AgustaWestland AW189 aircraft. The new contract means that all UK SAR coverage is now provided by Bristow aircraft. In 2018, the RAF's vision of a future constellation of imagery satellites was initiated through the launch of the Carbonite-2 technology demonstrator. The 100 kg Carbonite-2 uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components to deliver high-quality imagery and 3D video footage from space. The Royal Air Force celebrated its 100th anniversary on 1 April 2018. It marked

360-637: A wing commander and, for a fast-jet squadron, have an complement of around twelve aircraft. Independent flights are so designated because they are explicitly smaller in size than a squadron. Many independent flights are, or have been, front-line flying units. For example, No. 1435 Flight carries out air defence duties for the Falkland Islands , with four Eurofighter Typhoon fighters based at RAF Mount Pleasant . Support capabilities are provided by several specialist wings and other units. Command, control, and support for overseas operations

480-403: A ball-and-disk system, the output of the height disk feeding the input of the airspeed. Both were driven from a single constant-speed electrical motor. The range control wheel was fed into the speed calculator, adjusting it in a similar fashion. The two other calculations concerned the ballistics of the bombs. To account for the effects of terminal velocity and thus the actual time it took for

600-453: A bombsight that would allow the bomber to take any sort of evasive action throughout the bomb run. This, in effect, demanded the use of stabilization in order to allow the bomb aimer to continue making adjustments while the bomber manoeuvred. At that time the ABS was still at least a year away from production. It did not support stabilization; adding this feature would further the delay. The Norden

720-495: A carefully choreographed progression. Data on the cards could be added, subtracted and compared with other data and, later, multiplied as well. This progression, or flow, from machine to machine was often planned and documented with detailed flowcharts . All but the earliest machines had high-speed mechanical feeders to process cards at rates from around 100 to 2,000 per minute, sensing punched holes with mechanical, electrical, or, later, optical sensors. The operation of many machines

840-558: A decisive air power contribution in support of the UK Defence Mission". The mission statement is supported by the RAF's definition of air power , which guides its strategy. Air power is defined as "the ability to project power from the air and space to influence the behaviour of people or the course of events". Today, the Royal Air Force maintains an operational fleet of various types of aircraft, described by

960-754: A front-line training responsibility – their job is to group the University Air Squadrons and the Volunteer Gliding Squadrons together. The commanding officer of No. 2 FTS holds the only full-time flying appointment for a Group Captain in the RAF, and is a reservist. Mechanical computer Mechanical computers can be either analog , using continuous or smooth mechanisms such as curved plates or slide rules for computations; or discrete , which use mechanisms like pinwheels and gears. Mechanical computers reached their zenith during World War II, when they formed

1080-644: A minor role in the Korean War , with flying boats taking part. From 1953 to 1956 the RAF Avro Lincoln squadrons carried out anti- Mau Mau operations in Kenya using its base at RAF Eastleigh . The Suez Crisis in 1956 saw a large RAF role, with aircraft operating from RAF Akrotiri and RAF Nicosia on Cyprus and RAF Luqa and RAF Hal Far on Malta as part of Operation Musketeer . The RAF suffered its most recent loss to an enemy aircraft during

1200-465: A one-item-per-card basis. Unit record machines came to be as ubiquitous in industry and government in the first two-thirds of the twentieth century as computers became in the last third. They allowed large volume, sophisticated data-processing tasks to be accomplished before electronic computers were invented and while they were still in their infancy. This data processing was accomplished by processing punched cards through various unit record machines in

1320-560: A potentially war-winning weapon. At a time when the US was firmly isolationist , military thinking was centred on repelling a seaborne invasion. With the Norden, USAAC bombers could destroy such a fleet while it was still hundreds of miles from shore. As the reality of war sank in, and it became clear the US would be involved in some fashion in attacks on foreign lands, the USAAC would go on to develop an entire strategic bombing concept based on using

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1440-620: A quarter of Bomber Command's personnel were Canadian. Additionally, the Royal Australian Air Force represented around nine per cent of all RAF personnel who served in the European and Mediterranean theatres. During the Battle of Britain in 1940, the RAF defended the skies over Britain against the numerically superior German Luftwaffe . In what is perhaps the most prolonged and complicated air campaign in history,

1560-594: A single Hawker Tempest F.6 in January 1949. Before Britain developed its own nuclear weapons , the RAF was provided with American nuclear weapons under Project E . However, following the development of its own arsenal, the British Government elected on 16 February 1960 to share the country's nuclear deterrent between the RAF and submarines of the Royal Navy, first deciding to concentrate solely on

1680-626: A support enabler role. A Control and Reporting Centre (CRC) at RAF Boulmer is tasked with compiling a Recognised Air Picture of UK air space and providing tactical control of the Quick Reaction Alert Force . In order to achieve this Boulmer is supported by a network of eight Remote Radar Heads (RRHs) spread the length of the UK. The UK operates permanent military airfields (known as Permanent Joint Operating Bases) in four British Overseas Territories . These bases contribute to

1800-541: A typical bombing altitude, down to 130 yd (120 m) at 10,000 ft (3,000 m). Between February and March 1945 this had further improved to 125 yd (114 m), while Air Marshal Harris puts it at only 80 yd (73 m) from 20,000 feet (6,100 m). Two other precision-bombing squadrons formed up during this period, but used the Mk. XIV. These squadrons were able to achieve 195 yd (178 m), an excellent result that offered performance roughly equal to

1920-416: A value known as the range . Using simple trigonometry , this distance can be converted into an angle as seen from the bomber. This angle is measured by setting iron sights to this angle, known as the range angle or drop angle . During the approach to the target, the bomb aimer sets their sights to that angle and then drops the bombs when the target passes through the crosshairs. A basic system like this

2040-436: A variety of inputs such as the angle to the target and its estimated speed, these systems calculated the future position of the target, the time that the ordnance would take to reach it, and from this, the angles to aim the guns in order to hit the target based on those numbers. They used a system of iterative improvements for the estimated values to calculate any measure that could not be made directly. For instance, although it

2160-490: A war that remained under low profile. The Konfrontasi against Indonesia in the early 1960s did see use of RAF aircraft, but due to a combination of deft diplomacy and selective ignoring of certain events by both sides, it never developed into a full-scale war. The RAF played a large role in the Aden Emergency between 1963 and 1967. Hawker Hunter FGA.9s based at RAF Khormaksar , Aden , were regularly called in by

2280-521: A wide range of motions. The stabiliser was powered by a 60 lb compressed air feed, fed from the same unit that also powered the automatic pilot . The system took considerable time to stabilize, the vertical gyro taking as long as 15 minutes to reach full speed. Very near the end of the war, Arthur Harris asked the Air Ministry to begin investigating adapting the SABS to support an autopilot like

2400-406: A workable design delivered for testing in 1931. The Norden bombsight demonstrated itself able to drop bombs within a few yards of its targets from altitudes between 4,000 and 5,000 feet (1,200 and 1,500 m). The Navy saw this as a way to attack ships from level bombers at altitudes outside the effective range of the ship-borne anti-aircraft guns . The US Army Air Corps also saw the Norden as

2520-480: Is a common problem in air navigation , and its calculation was semi-automated in the Course Setting Bomb Sight of late World War I vintage. To use such a vector bombsight , the bomb aimer first requires an accurate measurement of the speed and direction of the wind. This was taken through a variety of methods, often using the bombsight itself as a reference. When these figures were dialled into

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2640-999: Is also responsible for the RAF Medical Services, RAF Support Force, consisting of the RAF's engineering, logistics, intelligence, signals, musical and mountain rescue assets, RAF's Combat and Readiness Force, comprising the RAF Regiment , and the Air Security Force, comprising RAF Police . It oversees stations at RAF Benson and RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, RAF Henlow in Bedfordshire, RAF Honington in Suffolk, RAF Odiham in Hampshire and RAF Northolt in West London. No. 11 Group

2760-501: Is at RAF High Wycombe co-located with Air Command. Groups are the subdivisions of operational commands and are responsible for certain types of capabilities or for operations in limited geographical areas. There are five groups subordinate to Air Command, of which four are functional and one is geographically focused: No. 1 Group is responsible for combat aircraft (comprising the Lightning Force and Typhoon Force) and

2880-436: Is easily adapted to the bombsight role. In this case, the unknown measurement is not the target's speed or heading, but the bomber's movement due to the wind. To measure this, the bomb aimer first dials in estimates of the wind speed and direction, which causes the computer to begin moving the bombsights to stay pointed at the target as the bomber moved toward it. If the estimates were correct, the target would remain motionless in

3000-432: Is missing one important factor, the effect of winds on the speed and course of the aircraft. The bombing range numbers are taken in still air, but in a wind, these numbers are no longer correct and the bombs will fall off-target. For instance, wind on the nose will reduce the ground speed of the aircraft, and cause bombs to fall short of the target. Some early bombsights had adjustments that could account for wind directly on

3120-814: Is part of the Ministry of Defence and body legally responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories . The Chief of the Air Staff chairs the Air Force Board Standing Committee (AFBSC) which decides on the policy and actions required for the RAF to meet the requirements of the Defence Council and His Majesty's Government . The Chief of the Air Staff is supported by several other senior commanders: Administrative and operational command of

3240-412: Is possible to accurately measure the relative position of a target, it was not possible to directly measure the speed. A rough estimate could be made by comparing the relative motion of the ships, or by considering factors like the bow wave or speed of her propellers. This initial estimate was entered along with the measured location of the target. The calculator continually outputs the predicted position of

3360-657: Is responsible for integrating operations across the air , cyber and space domains whilst responding to new and evolving threats. It includes the RAF's Battlespace Management Force which controls the UK Air Surveillance and Control System (ASACS). The group oversees stations at RAF Boulmer in Northumberland, RAF Fylingdales in North Yorkshire and RAF Spadeadam in Cumbria. No. 22 Group

3480-731: Is responsible for the supply of qualified and skilled personnel to the RAF and provides flying and non-flying training to all three British armed services. It is the end-user of the UK Military Flying Training System which is provided by civilian contractor Ascent Flight Training . The group oversees stations at RAF College Cranwell in Lincolnshire, RAF Cosford and RAF Shawbury in Shropshire, RAF Halton in Buckinghamshire, MOD St Athan in

3600-784: Is the air and space force of the United Kingdom , British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies . It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Following the Allied victory over the Central Powers in 1918, the RAF emerged as the largest air force in the world at

3720-517: Is typically provided through Expeditionary Air Wings (EAWs). Each wing is brought together as and when required and comprises the deployable elements of its home station as well as other support elements from throughout the RAF. Several Expeditionary Air Wings are based overseas: The RAF Schools consist of the squadrons and support apparatus that train new aircrew to join front-line squadrons. The schools separate individual streams, but group together units with similar responsibility or that operate

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3840-643: The 1948 Arab–Israeli War : during the withdrawal of the former Mandatory Palestine in May 1948 where British Supermarine Spitfire FR.18s shot down four Royal Egyptian Air Force Spitfire LF.9s after the REAF mistakenly attacked RAF Ramat David airbase; and during encounters with the Israeli Air Force which saw the loss of a single de Havilland Mosquito PR.34 in November 1948 and four Spitfire FR.18s and

3960-653: The British Army as close air support to carry out strikes on rebel positions. The Radfan Campaign (Operation Nutcracker) in early 1964 was successful in suppressing the revolt in Radfa, however it did nothing to end the insurgency with the British withdrawing from Aden in November 1967. One of the largest actions undertaken by the RAF during the Cold War was the air campaign during the 1982 Falklands War , in which

4080-647: The British Empire , including establishing bases to protect Singapore and Malaya. The RAF's naval aviation branch, the Fleet Air Arm , was founded in 1924 but handed over to Admiralty control on 24 May 1939. The RAF adopted the doctrine of strategic bombing , which led to the construction of long-range bombers and became its main bombing strategy in the Second World War . The Royal Air Force underwent rapid expansion prior to and during

4200-569: The Gnome et Rhône factory in downtown Limoges ; 11 Lancasters then dropped a combination of 1,000 lb General Purpose and 12,000 lb Blockbuster bombs directly on the factory, with the last falling in the river beside it. The factory was knocked out of the war, with few or no civilian casualties. General accuracy improved dramatically as the crews gained proficiency with the system. Between June and August 1944, 617 recorded an average accuracy of 170 yd (160 m) from 16,000 ft (4,900 m),

4320-678: The London Eye , the RAF Memorial and (at 13.00) the Ministry of Defence building . Four major defence reviews have been conducted since the end of the Cold War: the 1990 Options for Change , the 1998 Strategic Defence Review , the 2003 Delivering Security in a Changing World and the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR). All four defence reviews have resulted in steady reductions in manpower and numbers of aircraft, especially combat aircraft such as fast-jets. As part of

4440-594: The Pathfinder Force before being turned over to No. 617 Squadron RAF , starting in November 1943. This squadron's Avro Lancasters were undergoing conversion to dropping the 12,000 pounds (5,400 kg) Tallboy bomb as a precision weapon, and required the higher accuracy of the SABS for this mission. In this role the SABS demonstrated superb accuracy, routinely placing bombs within 100 yards (91 m) of their targets when dropped from about 15,000 feet (4,600 m) altitude. The system throughout its history

4560-584: The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). This was done as recommended in a report prepared by the South African statesman and general Jan Smuts . At that time it was the largest air force in the world. Its headquarters was located in the former Hotel Cecil . After the war, the RAF was drastically cut and its inter-war years were relatively quiet. The RAF was put in charge of British military activity in Iraq , and carried out minor activities in other parts of

4680-609: The Royal Navy 's Fleet Air Arm and the British Army 's Army Air Corps also operate armed aircraft. The Royal Air Force was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the third independent air force in the world after the Mexican Air Force (established 5 February 1915) and the Finnish Air Force (established 6 March 1918), by merging the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and

4800-417: The UK Military Flying Training System which is dedicated to training aircrew for all three UK armed services. Specialist ground crew training is focused at RAF Cosford , RAF St Mawgan and MOD St. Athan . Operations are supported by numerous other flying and non-flying stations, with activity focussed at RAF Honington which coordinates Force Protection and RAF Leeming & RAF Wittering which have

4920-631: The United States Air Force , the RAF formed its own RPAS squadron in 2007 when No. 39 Squadron was stood up as a General Atomics MQ-9A Reaper unit at Creech AFB , Nevada. The RAF's 90th anniversary was commemorated on 1 April 2008 by a flypast of the RAF's Aerobatic Display Team the Red Arrows and four Eurofighter Typhoons along the River Thames , in a straight line from just south of London City Airport Tower Bridge,

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5040-740: The Westland Puma HC2 for search and rescue. No. 230 Squadron , based at Medicina Lines , Brunei, also operate the Puma HC2. A flying squadron is an aircraft unit which carries out the primary tasks of the RAF. RAF squadrons are somewhat analogous to the regiments of the British Army in that they have histories and traditions going back to their formation, regardless of where they are based or which aircraft they are operating. They can be awarded standards and battle honours for meritorious service. Most flying squadrons are commanded by

5160-513: The earthquake bomb concept was pushed forward, a system that demanded more accuracy than the XIV could provide. In 1942 the Norden was still not available for license, in spite of it being used on US bombers arriving in the UK to attack Germany, thereby eliminating the Navy's primary argument that it should not be given to the RAF as it might fall into German hands. In response, earlier concepts of mating

5280-416: The 1930s. The US Navy had found that bombsights were almost always used with the sights not properly levelled with respect to the ground, so any angles measured through the sight were wrong. An error of only a few degrees represents an error of hundreds of feet when bombing from high altitudes. Stabilization, which automatically levels the sight, was found to roughly double overall accuracy. The Navy began

5400-708: The 1991 Gulf War , the 1999 Kosovo War , the 2001 War in Afghanistan , the 2003 invasion and war in Iraq , the 2011 intervention in Libya and from 2014 onwards has been involved in the war against the Islamic State . The RAF began conducting Remotely-piloted Air System (RPAS) operations in 2004, with No. 1115 Flight carrying out missions in Afghanistan and Iraq with the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator . Initially embedded with

5520-441: The ABS to a new stabiliser platform were carried out to produce the SABS. Like the Norden, the stabiliser was separate from the bombsight proper, although in the case of SABS the stabiliser moved the entire ABS bombsight, rather than just the aiming reticle as in the Norden. Unlike Norden, the SABS's stabiliser did not serve double-duty as an autopilot, as RAF bombers were already equipped with one. Instead, directional corrections from

5640-466: The American models. Another request was the addition of variable magnification in the sighting system that could be changed at will. Neither modification made it into service. Using the SABS was a relatively straightforward procedure; although a number of steps were involved, these took place in sequence and left the bomb aimer with relatively easy tasks and low workload on the final approach. Prior to

5760-547: The Battle of Britain contributed significantly to the delay and subsequent indefinite postponement of Operation Sea Lion , Hitler's plans for an invasion of the UK. In the House of Commons on 20 August, prompted by the ongoing efforts of the RAF, Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a speech to the nation, where he said " Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" . The largest RAF effort during

5880-569: The Berlin Blockade take place. As part of Operation Pitting , the RAF helped evacuate over 15,000 people in two weeks. Between April and May 2023, the RAF helped evacuate over 2,300 people from Sudan due to the 2023 Sudan conflict as part of Operation Polarbear . In April 2024, Typhoon FGR4s operating from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, engaged and destroyed Iranian drones over Iraqi and Syrian airspace during Iran's strikes against Israel . The professional head and highest-ranking officer of

6000-673: The Houses of Parliament, Conservative MP and Minister of State for the Armed Forces , Andrew Robathan , announced that the RAF's QRA force had been scrambled almost thirty times in the last three years: eleven times during 2010, ten times during 2011 and eight times during 2012. RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire and RAF Lossiemouth in Moray both provide QRA aircraft, and scramble their Typhoons within minutes to meet or intercept aircraft which give cause for concern. Lossiemouth generally covers

6120-544: The Mk. XIV could provide. SABS was used operationally for the first time by No. 617 on the night of 11/12 November 1943 for their attack on the Anthéor railway viaduct at Saint-Raphaël, Var in southern France. No hits on the viaduct were recorded by any of the ten 12,000 lb (5,400 kg) Blockbuster bombs . SABS was used both for direct aiming during daylight missions, and for aiming at target indicators dropped by other aircraft flying at much lower levels at night. In

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6240-496: The Norden ran into continual problems and increased frustrations between the two future allies. These negotiations were still ongoing, without result, when the war began a year later. In early operations, RAF Bomber Command concluded that their existing bombsights, updated versions of the World War I-era CSBS's, were hopelessly outdated in modern combat. During low-level attacks, the bombers had only moments to spot

6360-476: The Norden to attack factories, shipyards and other high-value targets. News of the Norden filtered to the UK Air Ministry in 1938, shortly after they had begun development of their own Automatic Bomb Sight (ABS). The ABS was similar in concept to the Norden and offered similar accuracy, but it lacked the stabilization system and was not expected to be available before 1940. Concerted efforts to purchase

6480-415: The Norden was the automatic "erection" system. Gyroscopes have no preferred direction of rotation and will hold whatever angle they initially started up in. In the Norden, adjusting the gyros to an absolute "up" required a time consuming operation that could take as long as eight minutes. The SABS solved this with a pendulum mechanism consisting of a weight on the end of an L-shaped bracket. The weight caused

6600-421: The RAF as being "leading-edge" in terms of technology. This largely consists of fixed-wing aircraft, including those in the following roles: fighter and strike , airborne early warning and control , intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR), signals intelligence (SIGINT), maritime patrol, air-to-air refueling (AAR) and strategic & tactical transport . The majority of

6720-689: The RAF is delegated by the Air Force Board to Headquarters Air Command , based at RAF High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire . Air Command was formed on 1 April 2007 by combining RAF Strike Command and RAF Personnel and Training Command , resulting in a single command covering the whole RAF, led by the Chief of the Air Staff. Through its subordinate groups , Air Command oversees the whole spectrum of RAF aircraft and operations. United Kingdom Space Command (UKSC), established 1 April 2021 under

6840-408: The RAF operated alongside the Fleet Air Arm . During the war, RAF aircraft were deployed in the mid-Atlantic at RAF Ascension Island and a detachment from No. 1 Squadron was deployed with the Royal Navy, operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Hermes . RAF pilots also flew missions using the Royal Navy's Sea Harriers in the air-to-air combat role, in particular Flight Lieutenant Dave Morgan

6960-546: The RAF's intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities. It oversees stations at RAF Coningsby and RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, RAF Lossiemouth in Moray and RAF Marham in Norfolk. The group's Eurofighter Typhoon FGR4 aircraft protect UK and NATO airspace by providing a continuous Quick Reaction Alert capability. No. 2 Group controls the Air Mobility Force which provides strategic and tactical airlift , air-to-air refuelling and command support air transport (CSAT). The group

7080-427: The RAF's rotary-wing aircraft form part of the tri-service Joint Aviation Command in support of ground forces. Most of the RAF's aircraft and personnel are based in the UK, with many others serving on global operations (principally over Iraq and Syria ) or at long-established overseas bases ( Ascension Island , Cyprus , Gibraltar , and the Falkland Islands ). Although the RAF is the principal British air power arm,

7200-401: The Royal Air Force is the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS). He reports to the Chief of the Defence Staff , who is the professional head of the British Armed Forces . The incumbent Chief of the Air Staff is Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton who was appointed in 2023. The management of the RAF is the responsibility of the Air Force Board , a sub-committee of the Defence Council which

7320-478: The Second World War. Under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan of December 1939, the air forces of British Commonwealth countries trained and formed " Article XV squadrons " for service with RAF formations. Many individual personnel from these countries, and exiles from occupied Europe , also served with RAF squadrons. By the end of the war the Royal Canadian Air Force had contributed more than 30 squadrons to serve in RAF formations, similarly, approximately

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7440-423: The Suez Crisis, when an English Electric Canberra PR7 was shot down over Syria . In 1957, the RAF participated heavily during the Jebel Akhdar War in Oman, operating both de Havilland Venom and Avro Shackleton aircraft. The RAF made 1,635 raids, dropping 1,094 tons and firing 900 rockets at the interior of Oman between July and December 1958, targeting insurgents, mountain top villages and water channels in

7560-433: The Tirpitz, causing it to capsize in the fjord it was hiding in. Another celebrated attack was made during daylight on 14 June 1944 against the E-boat pens at Le Havre . One bomb penetrated the roof of the heavily guarded base, knocking it out of the war. As the war in Europe wound down, plans were made to start a strategic bombing campaign against Japan as Tiger Force . Requiring long range, Tiger Force planned on using

7680-421: The United States and works in close cooperation with the U.S. Air Force in the development of the Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning . No. 80 Squadron is part of the Australia, Canada and United Kingdom Reprogramming Laboratory (ACURL) at Eglin Air Force Base , Florida, and is tasked with compiling and testing the Mission Data File Sets (MDFS) for the F-35. No. 84 Squadron is located at RAF Akrotiri, operating

7800-578: The Vale of Glamorgan, RAF St Mawgan in Cornwall and RAF Valley on Anglesey. The No. 22 Group also manages the Royal Air Force Air Cadets . An RAF station is ordinarily subordinate to a group and is commanded by a group captain . Each station typically hosts several flying and non-flying squadrons or units which are supported by administrative and support wings. Front-line flying operations are focused at eight stations: Flying training takes places at RAF Barkston Heath , RAF College Cranwell , RAF Shawbury and RAF Valley , each forming part of

7920-433: The advent of electronic computers , data processing was performed using electromechanical machines collectively referred to as unit record equipment , electric accounting machines ( EAM ) or tabulating machines . By 1887, Herman Hollerith had worked out the basis for a mechanical system of recording, compiling and tabulating census facts. "Unit record" data processing equipment uses punchcards to carry information on

8040-439: The air force's V bomber fleet. These were initially armed with nuclear gravity bombs , later being equipped with the Blue Steel missile . Following the development of the Royal Navy's Polaris submarines , the strategic nuclear deterrent passed to the navy's submarines on 30 June 1969. With the introduction of Polaris, the RAF's strategic nuclear role was reduced to a tactical one, using WE.177 gravity bombs. This tactical role

8160-417: The aircraft is crabbing to adjust for any winds from the side, this also causes the trail to move to the side—the bombs are falling straight down although the aircraft is actually flying sideways into the wind and imparts this velocity to the bombs. To account for this side trail , the sight was rotated to one side or the other. The range unit also contained the bomb release mechanism. On the bombsight, this

8280-434: The aircraft was approaching along the correct line as indicated by the sights, often several miles long. During the 1930s, advances in mechanical computers introduced an entirely new way to solve the bombsight problem. These sorts of computers were initially introduced for naval uses around the turn of the 20th century, later examples including the Admiralty Fire Control Table , Rangekeeper and Torpedo Data Computer . Fed

8400-418: The altitude accounted for this. After bombs are released, drag causes them to fall behind the motion of the aircraft. By the time they reach the ground, the aircraft is hundreds or thousands of feet in front of the impact point. This distance is known as trail . The SABS adjusted for trail by simply tilting the entire range unit aft on a trunnion , rather than sending adjustments into the calculator itself. If

8520-449: The angular rate of motion of a stationary location on the ground, which provided the ground speed of the aircraft, and output this to a reflector sight mounted on the left side of the bombsight. The key component of this system, and other tachometric designs, was the ball-and-disk integrator . This is a form of continuously variable transmission that allowed an output shaft to be driven at a controlled speed relative to an input. The input

8640-415: The approach. Another advantage, perhaps more important, was that the measurement was made simply by aligning a sight on an object on the ground through a small telescope or reflector sight . All of the complicated calculations and setup of the vector designs were eliminated and the chance of user error along with it. These tachometric or synchronous bombsights were an area of considerable research during

8760-612: The arrival of jet fighters and bombers. During the early stages of the Cold War, one of the first major operations undertaken by the RAF was the Berlin Airlift , codenamed Operation Plainfire. Between 26 June 1948 and the lifting of the Russian blockade of the city on 12 May 1949, the RAF provided 17% of the total supplies delivered, using Avro Yorks , Douglas Dakotas flying to Gatow Airport and Short Sunderlands flying to Lake Havel. The RAF saw its first post-war engagements in

8880-633: The basis of complex bombsights including the Norden , as well as the similar devices for ship computations such as the US Torpedo Data Computer or British Admiralty Fire Control Table . Noteworthy are mechanical flight instruments for early spacecraft, which provided their computed output not in the form of digits, but through the displacements of indicator surfaces. From Yuri Gagarin 's first spaceflight until 2002, every crewed Soviet and Russian spacecraft Vostok , Voskhod and Soyuz

9000-422: The bomb aimer were sent to a pilot direction indicator in the cockpit, similar to the original Norden models. Small numbers of SABS became available in early 1943 and were initially sent to No. 8 Group RAF , the "Pathfinder Force". They used them only briefly before turning their examples over to No. 617 Squadron RAF , who were in the process of converting to the earthquake bomb and required higher accuracy than

9120-432: The bombs to reach the ground, the "bomb class" input moved a pointer over the altitude gauge. Selecting the altitude against this pointer changed the height setting to account for this portion of the ballistics problem. So, for instance, if a given bomb had a lower terminal velocity than another it would take longer to reach the ground, which is the same as the other bomb being dropped from a slightly higher altitude. Adjusting

9240-462: The bombsight crosshairs were extremely difficult to use under operational conditions. A stabiliser for the ABS began development, but to fill the immediate need for a new bombsight, the simpler Mark XIV bomb sight was introduced. By the time the SABS was available, the Mark XIV was in widespread use and proving good enough that there was no pressing need to replace it. The SABS briefly saw use with

9360-412: The bracket to be pulled vertically, and if the gyro was not level, the bracket pressed against the side of the gyro's shaft, forcing it in the appropriate direction. The gyros were connected to air valves on an associated supply line. This lowered or raised the pressure on one side of a servo piston, the other side being attached to the original supply without passing through the valve. Any precession of

9480-448: The calculator from the bombsight itself to a separate box, which also included instruments that automatically input altitude, airspeed and heading, eliminating the manual setting of these values. In general use, the bomb aimer simply dialled in estimates for the wind direction and speed, set a dial to select the type of bomb being used, and everything from that point on was entirely automated. Although relatively complex to build, production

9600-474: The capabilities needed to ensure the security and defence of the United Kingdom and overseas territories, including against terrorism; to support the Government's foreign policy objectives particularly in promoting international peace and security". The RAF describes its mission statement as "... [to provide] an agile, adaptable and capable Air Force that, person for person, is second to none, and that makes

9720-414: The command of Air Vice-Marshal Paul Godfrey is a joint command, but sits "under the Royal Air Force." Godfrey is of equal rank to the commanders of 1, 2, 11, and 22 Groups. The new command has "responsibility for not just operations, but also generating, training and growing the force, and also owning the money and putting all the programmatic rigour into delivering new ..capabilities." UKSC headquarters

9840-594: The decline of the British Empire, global operations were scaled back, and RAF Far East Air Force was disbanded on 31 October 1971. Despite this, the RAF fought in many battles in the Cold War period. In June 1948, the RAF commenced Operation Firedog against Malayan pro-independence fighters during the Malayan Emergency . Operations continued for the next 12 years until 1960 with aircraft flying out of RAF Tengah and RAF Butterworth . The RAF played

9960-462: The development of a gyroscopically stabilized sight with Carl Norden during the 1920s. Norden's solution used an existing bombsight mechanism known as an "equal distance sight" that was attached to his gyroscopic stabilizer system. The Navy asked him to replace the bombsight with a tachometric design on the same stabilizer. He initially refused, but eventually took a sabbatical in Europe and returned with

10080-537: The early SABS attempts, and far outperforming the average result by the more famous Norden. The SABS' best-known role was in the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz on 12 November 1944, by a combined force from 617 and No. 9 Squadron RAF . Known officially as Operation Catechism , 30 Lancasters attacked the Tirpitz at altitudes from 12,000 to 16,000 feet (3,700 to 4,900 m). At least two bombs from 617 hit

10200-431: The effects of air drag , wind and gravity , bombs follow a complex path that changes over time – the path of a bomb dropped from 100 meters looks different from the one when the same bomb is dropped from 5,000 meters. The path was too complex for early systems to calculate directly, and was instead measured experimentally at a bombing range by measuring the distance the bomb travelled forward during its fall,

10320-591: The end the point was moot, as the war ended before Tiger Force was deployed. Those Lincolns that were equipped with SABS, including those of 9 and 44 Squadron, continued use in the post-war era. The SABS were not used after the Lincolns were withdrawn from service, replaced by the English Electric Canberra jet bomber and other types. The Canberra had initially been designed with no optical bombsight at all, relying entirely on H2S radar . However,

10440-434: The evolution occurred in the 1970s, with the introduction of inexpensive handheld electronic calculators. The use of mechanical computers declined in the 1970s and was rare by the 1980s. In 2016, NASA announced that its Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments program would use a mechanical computer to operate in the harsh environmental conditions found on Venus . Starting at the end of the nineteenth century, well before

10560-569: The first hint of something abnormal, a controller has the option to put them on a higher level of alert, 'a call to cockpit'. In this scenario the pilot races to the hardened aircraft shelter and does everything short of starting his engines". On 4 October 2015, a final stand-down saw the end of more than 70 years of RAF Search and Rescue provision in the UK. The RAF and Royal Navy's Westland Sea King fleets, after over 30 years of service, were retired. A civilian contractor, Bristow Helicopters , took over responsibility for UK Search and Rescue, under

10680-522: The great bulk of the RAF's bombing campaign, mainly due to Harris, but it also developed precision bombing techniques for specific operations, such as the infamous "Dambusters" raid by No. 617 Squadron , or the Amiens prison raid known as Operation Jericho . Following victory in the Second World War, the RAF underwent significant re-organisation, as technological advances in air warfare saw

10800-402: The gyros, due to movement of the aircraft, caused the pistons to move due to the differential pressure. This motion was smoothed by an oil-filled dashpot , one for each of the three servos. The entire ABS sat within the stabilised frame that was powered by the servos. The platform had fairly wide range of motion, between 20 and 25 degrees off horizontal. This allowed it to track properly through

10920-737: The highest scoring pilot of the war. Following a British victory, the RAF remained in the South Atlantic to provide air defence to the Falkland Islands, with the McDonnell Douglas Phantom FGR2 based at RAF Mount Pleasant which was built in 1984. With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the RAF's focus returned to expeditionary air power . Since 1990, the RAF has been involved in several large-scale operations, including

11040-782: The latest 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 maritime patrol aircraft was cancelled due to over spending and missing deadlines. Other reductions saw total manpower reduced by 5,000 personnel to a trained strength of 33,000 and the early retirement of the Joint Force Harrier aircraft, the BAE Harrier GR7/GR9 . In recent years, fighter aircraft on Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) have been increasingly required to scramble in response to Russian Air Force aircraft approaching British airspace. On 24 January 2014, in

11160-488: The latter cases, the accuracy of the drops was dependent on the accuracy of the marking, which varied. For instance, during attacks on the V weapon launch site at Abbeville on 16/17 December 1943, Tallboys were dropped with a circular error probable of only 94 yd (86 m), a superb result, but the markers were 350 yd (320 m) from the target. Better results followed; on the night of 8/9 February 1944, Wing Commander Leonard Cheshire visually dropped markers on

11280-433: The mission, or early on in flight, bomb data was entered on two settings dials on the top of the range unit. These set the trail scale and bomb class letter , estimating the amount the bomb would slow in forward motion (trail) and how quickly it would reach the ground due to the effects of terminal velocity (class). These settings were not changed during the mission. Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force ( RAF )

11400-415: The new Avro Lincoln bombers, along with other designs whose range would be extended using aerial refuelling . As less than 1,000 SABS had been delivered, supplies for the new force were hard to come by. A great debate broke out in the RAF about the relative merits of the two bombsights; although the SABS was more accurate, the Mk. XIV was generally easier to use and offered greater tactical flexibility. In

11520-431: The northern sector of UK airspace, while Coningsby covers the southern sector. Typhoon pilot Flight Lieutenant Noel Rees describes how QRA duty works. "At the start of the scaled QRA response, civilian air traffic controllers might see on their screens an aircraft behaving erratically, not responding to their radio calls, or note that it's transmitting a distress signal through its transponder. Rather than scramble Typhoons at

11640-413: The nose or tail, but this seriously hampered operational use. Not only did it make attacks on moving targets like ships almost impossible unless they just happened to be moving in the same direction as the wind, it also allowed the anti-aircraft gunners to pre-sight their weapons along the wind line, knowing that aircraft would be flying that direction. Using vector algebra to solve for the effect of wind

11760-478: The occasion on 10 July 2018 with a flypast over London consisting of 103 aircraft. Between March 2020 and 2022, the RAF assisted with the response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom as part of Operation Rescript . This saw the service provide repatriation flights and aeromedical evacuations of COVID-19 patients, drivers and call-handlers to support ambulance services and medics to assist with

11880-499: The physical defence and maintenance of sovereignty of the British Overseas Territories and enable the UK to conduct expeditionary military operations . Although command and oversight of the bases is provided by Strategic Command , the airfield elements are known as RAF stations. Four RAF squadrons are based overseas. No. 17 Test and Evaluation Squadron is based at Edwards Air Force Base , California, in

12000-423: The release circuit at the right moment for the drop. The same system also included a set of contacts that connected earlier, turning on a red lamp on top of the bombsight and another in front of the pilot. These remained lit through the approach, for about ten minutes, and turned off the instant the bombs were released. The sight was driven electrically from the aircraft's 24 V DC power supply. This powered both

12120-460: The required version of the radar was not ready when the aircraft began to arrive, and they were redesigned to carry a bombsight. For this role the Mk. XIV was selected instead of the SABS, connecting it to the Canberra's internal navigation computer to feed it accurate wind information and thus eliminate the former source of inaccuracy. The Mk. XIV, having been designed to accept external inputs from

12240-419: The same aircraft type. Some schools operate with only one squadron, and have an overall training throughput which is relatively small; some, like No. 3 Flying Training School , have responsibility for all Elementary Flying Training (EFT) in the RAF, and all RAF aircrew will pass through its squadrons when they start their flying careers. No. 2 Flying Training School and No. 6 Flying Training School do not have

12360-415: The sight rotation motor as well as various lamps and the electrical contacts that triggered the bombs to drop. The stabiliser unit consisted of two parts, a box containing two gyroscopes , and a pneumatically powered frame that kept the range unit flat in comparison to the ground. In modern terminology this would be known as an inertial platform . One advantage of the SABS compared to similar devices like

12480-410: The sights. If the sights moved away from the target, or drifted , the estimates for wind speed and direction were updated until the drift was eliminated. This approach to measuring the wind had two significant advantages. One was that the measurement was taken while on the approach to the target, which eliminated any problems with the winds being measured long in advance and then changing by the time of

12600-475: The staffing of hospitals, testing units and vaccination centres. Under Operation Broadshare , the RAF has also been involved with COVID-19 relief operations overseas, repatriating stranded nationals and delivering medical supplies and vaccines to British Overseas Territories and military installations. The UK's 20-year long operations in Afghanistan came to an end in August 2021, seeing the largest airlift since

12720-400: The start, was much easier to adapt to this role. The SABS consisted of three primary parts, the bombsight itself, also known as the "range unit", the stabilizing system, and the "bombing directional indicator" for the pilot and other indicators. The range unit was the heart of the SABS, and the earlier ABS. This was a mechanical calculator with three internal functions. The first calculated

12840-406: The system, the calculator moved the sights fore or aft to account for the wind, as well as side-to-side to indicate the proper approach angle. The accuracy of such systems was limited by the time taken to measure the wind in advance of the bomb run, and the care taken to calculate the results. Both were time consuming and error-prone. Moreover, if the measurement was incorrect or the wind changed, it

12960-475: The target and then manoeuvre for an attack, and often had to dodge fire all the while. When the bomber was turning, the bombsight, fixed to the frame of the aircraft, pointed out to the sides and could not be used to adjust the approach. On 22 December 1939, at a pre-arranged meeting on bombsight policy, Air Chief Marshal Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt stated flatly that the CSBS did not meet RAF requirements and asked for

13080-440: The target based on the estimated motion from this initial location. If the initial speed estimate is inaccurate, the target will drift away from the predicted location over time. Any error between the calculated and measured values was corrected by updating the estimated speed. After a few such adjustments the positions no longer diverged over time, and the target's speed was accurately revealed. This system of progressive estimation

13200-590: The time. Since its formation, the RAF has played a significant role in British military history . In particular, during the Second World War , the RAF established air superiority over Nazi Germany 's Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain , and led the Allied strategic bombing effort. The RAF's mission is to support the objectives of the British Ministry of Defence (MOD), which are to "provide

13320-555: The war was the strategic bombing campaign against Germany by Bomber Command. While RAF bombing of Germany began almost immediately upon the outbreak of war at first it was ineffectual; it was only later, particularly under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Harris , that these attacks became increasingly devastating, from early 1943 onward, as new technology and greater numbers of superior aircraft became available. The RAF adopted night-time area bombing on German cities such as Hamburg and Dresden . Night time area bombing constituted

13440-411: Was an electrical contact system attached to the same output shaft as the sight, and a second contact connected to the cam-based trajectory calculator. The two contacts, along with automatic indicator slides, one for the viewing angle of the bombsight to the target, the other to the calculated drop angle at the bomb release point, would approach each other as the bomber flew towards the target, and completed

13560-598: Was considered a good solution, but the US Navy still refused to license it or sell it for RAF use. Both offered more accuracy than was really needed, and neither was going to be available immediately. Accordingly, in 1939 the Royal Aircraft Establishment started examining a simpler solution under the direction of P.M.S. Blackett . These efforts produced the Mark XIV bomb sight . The Mk. XIV moved

13680-666: Was continued by the V bombers into the 1980s and until 1998 by the Panavia Tornado GR1 . For much of the Cold War the primary role of the RAF was the defence of Western Europe against potential attack by the Soviet Union , with many squadrons based in West Germany . The main RAF bases in RAF(G) were RAF Brüggen , RAF Gutersloh , RAF Laarbruch and RAF Wildenrath – the only air defence base in RAF(G). With

13800-500: Was directed by the use of a removable plugboard , control panel , or connection box . Early electrically powered computers constructed from switches and relay logic rather than vacuum tubes (thermionic valves) or transistors (from which later electronic computers were constructed) are classified as electro-mechanical computers. These varied greatly in design and capabilities, with some units capable of floating point arithmetic. Some relay-based computers remained in service after

13920-511: Was equipped with a Globus instrument showing the apparent movement of the Earth under the spacecraft through the displacement of a miniature terrestrial globe , plus latitude and longitude indicators. Mechanical computers continued to be used into the 1960s, but had steadily been losing ground to digital computers since their advent. By the mid-1960s dedicated electronic calculators with cathode-ray tube output emerged. The next step in

14040-399: Was normally attached to some sort of value to be measured, say the height of water in a sluice, and as it moved up and down, the output rotation of the disk sped or slowed. The total number of turns of the output shaft was an integrated version of the input. The SABS version of the integrator worked with two values, one for the height over the ground, and the second for the airspeed. Both used

14160-403: Was not obvious during the approach how to correct for this—changes to either wind speed or direction would have similar visual effects, but only one would place the bombs correctly. Generally, any inaccuracies had to be left dialled in, as attempts to correct them using the multi-step calculation procedure generally made matters worse. Even without such problems, a long bomb run was needed to ensure

14280-467: Was produced in small numbers, all built by hand. Ultimately the 617 was the only squadron to use the SABS operationally, using it with the Tallboy and the larger 22,000 pounds (10,000 kg) Grand Slam bombs. Some Avro Lincolns also were also fitted with SABS, but saw no operational use. The basic problem in bombing is the calculation of the trajectory of the bomb after it leaves the aircraft. Due to

14400-432: Was started in both the UK and US, and the new design quickly equipped most of Bomber Command by the time of the large raids starting in 1942. Although it was a great improvement over the earlier CSBS, it was by no means a precision sighting system, later being referred to as an "area sight". Although the Mk. XIV served the RAF's basic needs, the requirement for a more accurate sight remained. This need became more pressing as

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