Browsing back numbers of The Illustrated London News I came across two stories about RAF Abingdon as a parachute training centre.
The wreckage of Britain’s worst air disaster for eight years in which 41 servicemen were killed when a Hastings of R.A.F Transport Command, on a parachute training flight, fell into a barley field a few minutes after taking off from Abingdon. The aircraft was to have landed at Benson after dropping parachutists at Weston on Green, but soon after take-off the pilot radioed that he was in difficulty. A board of enquiry was set up. Meanwhile all R.A.F Hastings have been taken out of service for a thorough examination. (17 July 1965)
The Falcons, which is what the display team of No 1 Parachute Training School, Abingdon, Berkshire, call themselves, have established a new British free-fall parachuting record. This was a six-man chain falling at a speed of 120 mph, from a height of 12,000 feet over the North African desert. The men jumped separately at half-second intervals, then linked up in mid-air. (21 January 1967).
Thanks to the Illustrated London News.
I used to love watching the parachutes float down as a pre-schooler in the late 60s/early 70s. Summer afternoons from the back garden, watching the aeroplane circle higher and higher, seeing if I could see the tiny dots in the sky before the ‘chutes opened. Simpler days.
I remember my step brother telling me he did Parachute Training in Abingdon. Old style chutes, not these new fangled para sails.
We also used to watch the parachutists jump from a barrage balloon which was attached to a truck. Little dots in the sky from where I lived.
The highlight was when the unmanned balloon came adrift and sailed gaily past our windows at Larkmead school, much to our delight.
I also remember a Blackburn Beverley of Transport Command crashing near Drayton. That had a number of RAF dogs on I believe. A lady was killed in her house, the mother of one of Larkmead’s pupils
I was stationed ther 1956/ 1958, 6 moths at Culham permanent staff inPara Regiment, wonderful memories.
As a sergeant Air Signaller joining Transport Command, I was sent to R.A.F. Abingdon in 1956 to train as a Dispatcher. It involved full parachute training and last about 2 weeks. Useful for all aircrew to have done in those days.
I joined the 16th . Independent in Lincoln in October 1956 . I completed my para course on the 19th. October .
I was 15 on the 11th. of July . I got into trouble for missing two weeks at school !!!!
Regards to everyone.
My dad will of been through your hands in 1957.
I was a trainee para at Abingdon just after the accident. We only found out about it after. They obviously didn’t want it to affect our training. If I remember rightly we did 4 drops from a balloon and 4 from a combination of Beverles and Hastings. I remember the pilot of the Hastings on my first drop walking down aisle between the seated paras saying you must all be mad. On one of our drops over Weston on the green, my mate Charlie’s chute simply dropped him as he hit the deck he had not fasted the harness fully. We were at Abingdon with soldiers from the Gurka regiment, they won every completion we had in the hanger when weather prevented flying. They were also allowed to take there Kukris into the canteen. You had a great sense of personnel achievement when at the end you received your wings. I am 80yrs of age and still consider it the best thing I ever did, and oh the stories one could tell.