North Luffenham

410 (F) Squadron Aerobatic Team

The appearances at Newcastle and Ypenburg planted the seed for the RCAF's first foreign-based aerobatic team. The squadron had participated in a number of public flypasts, including those commemorating the Battle of Dieppe in August and the Battle of Britain in September of 1952. It was following a similar multi-national flypast over Fontainbleau, France that the subject of a dedicated team came up. F/L Grant Nichols was the senior member of 410 Squadron present at the time and explains:

"Whilst debriefing at a local cafe in Reims over a couple of jugs of champagne, F/O Garth Cinnamon suggested that 410 should form an aerobatic team before some other squadron thought of it. By this time I was a Flight Lieutenant and a Flight Commander, so that made me the leader! On the next flight ater returning to base, Garth and I tried some formation loops and rools - no problem. A few flights later, F/O Len "Speed" Bentham went up with us; we put him in the box and he liked it. We then tried two or three others in the left wing position until F/O Al Robb asked to go along - he fit in the No. 3 slot like an old glove.

All of this was done on the sly and took some time since we did our practice aeros at the tail end of our regular flights. It wasn't always possible to get the prospective team members up together. I think we had only flown one or two flights with the four of us together when I approached the Squadron OC, S/L Duke Warren, and suggested it would be a splendid idea to have a 410 Squadron aerobatic team! When he agreed, I then allowed that, in fact, we could have one right then and there as we had done a couple of practices. He said "show me" and then flew his Sabre in trail to watch the four of us put on a short practice routine. Happy with what he saw, he subsequently went to the station CO and got permission for us to do a "show" for a visiting dignitary, Field Marshal Alexander. That took place on November 14th, 1952 and was our first chance to use the airfield and go on "public display".

Our concept was to stay close to the display area at all times by doing high climbing and diving dumbell turns, consequently changing speed, altitude and direction. I timed the completion of the dumbells to be in front of the focal point and then proceeded into the next aerobatic manoeuvre without a break. We changed formations during the dumbells. In due course the four of us got very comfortable flying together. "Speed" took great pride in the fact that his tight flying in the box resulted in the top of his tail being blackened by my exhaust. A black nose painted on my Sabre was the only non-standard marking - other than that there were no official team markings. There weren't any altitude restrictions to begin with, so we used about 100 feet. Of course, a big problem in England was the weather and the routine had to be modified as necessary from time to time. We did four plane formation take-offs but a normal fighter break and stream-landing. In those days the break constituted a power off, hard 360 degree turn, rolling out just before touchdown. It was a point of pride to pull "streamers" on the break.

I was posted to Korea in January 1953 and returned to the Squadron in early June. At that point S/L Warren was sent to Korea and I took over 410 Squadron for six months. We started up the team again and put on a few more shows at RAF bases. The only official "media" comment I am aware of was a favourable one in Flight magazine. We were doing an "official" day at a Royal Navy flying base in southern Wales and the weather was quite poor with low overcast cloud and rain. The other performing teams contented themselves with straight flypasts in different formations, as did we - except I decided to show the flag a bit. We did a slow roll in box formation which got everyone's attention and received favourable comment in the magazine. One of our last shows was for Air Force Day at North Luffenham in 1953. By this time, both 441 Squadron and 439 Squadron had aerobatic teams which performed as well. Later that year, 410 was chosen to perform for the Chief of the Air Staff at the official opening of 2 Wing Grostenquin, France. We got airborne out of Luffenham but were recalled when the weather deteriorated over Grostenquin, culminating in a hangar roof blowing off.

Because we had relatively little practice, "we" meaning all of these first Sabre teams, we had some interesting moments. We were practicing between cloud layers one day and just as I started up in a barrel roll, an Oxford appeared in front of us. We cleared him nicely in the inverted position and never heard anything later. I often wonder if he ever saw us, and if he did, if he rechecked his instruments! Our bomb burst manoeuvre was always interesting. We would pull up into the vertical in box formation at which point Speed would roll 180 degrees. Farth and Al 90 degrees, and we would all loop through, coming back across the field from four different directions. The idea was to adjust the speed so all four aircraft crossed centre stage simultaneously as low as possible, with each man watching out for the man on his right. With a runway as a guide it wasn't too bad with lead and No. 4 each flying down the right edge of the runway, but it was a bit exciting at times..."

Within three weeks of their first show in mid-November 1952, Flight magazine of the UK sought and received permission to fly with the 410 Squadron team. Two flights were made on the 4th and 7th of December with the resultant photo spread being released on December 26th. As Al Robb recalls, the flights were not routine:

"The two-seat Meteor 7 with the cameraman could not stay with us at our normal aerobatic manoeuvring speeds. The rolls were okay, but to accomplish a loop we had to formate on him at a lower speed. The top of the loop produced a good picture despite the fact we were almost stalled - "Speed" ran out of power in the slot which caused him to fall back from his normal position".

Nevertheless, this exposure by a highly respected aviation magazine did much to highten the awareness of the Canadian presence in Europe and underscored the valuable role an aerobatic team could play in fostering good will among its allies and their citizens. This was clearly evidenced by the huge crowd of over 35,000 spectators that turned up for the "At Home" Air Force Day at North Luffenham on September 19th, 1953. It was a busy day for the 410 team - after doing a full show at Luffenham, they landed, refuelled and then took off again to do abbreviated performances at three RAF stations, all on the same flight!

The fun and challenge of doing airshows in the Sabre was by no means limited to a dedicated "team" of pilots, and most squadron pilots got the opportunity to do their thing "solo" at various venues around England and on the continent. Low-level aerobatics required a high degree of skill, knowledge and discipline (not to mention a healthy dose of self-preservation), but were a natural extension of low-level flying and air-to-air combat which all squadron pilots were required to do. Fighter aircraft of all descriptions were always in high demand around Battle of Britain Sunday each September. In 1953, for example, 410 had tree pilots do low-level aerobatic displays that day: F/L Gibson at North Luffenham, F/O Potter at Thorny Island and F/O Knox-Leet at Weston Zoyland. Pilots who weren't involved in doing aerobatics of some description on these days were usually wrapped up in some kind of formation flypast with the rest of the wing.

Reprinted from "A Tradition of Excellence - Canada's Airshow Team Heritage" courtesy Dan Dempsey. - Web Site -