RAF Armourers | 1970s | Job Role | Royal Air Force | The Sharp End

[@Daniel-S1]

Thanks.

[@robertevans9148]

That drogue chute looked well messy going in, used to be a tighter fit and neater.

[@allandavis8201]

@ 0:10+, Armourers, an Elite group, wow, my dad would have loved to know that he was part off an elite group, he probably never heard that before, but joking aside I think that ALL RAF aircraft trades are an elite group, Airframe (Riggers) techs being the most elite, Armourers not last, and by no means least, in the “pecking order”. My dad was still serving in 1970 I think 💭 (my memory is not so good anymore) so I will see if he might make an appearance, but in the meantime I will sing (in my head) A I’m an Armourer, B I’m an Armourer, C I’m an Armourer D I’m an Armourer………….. so on and so forth, sorry dad and all the Armourer types out there who might be watching 👀. Ah, @ 2:38, a block of pig iron and four precision holes drilled into it, that is after you get the bloody thing square and highly polished, to some a degree of precision that made my eyes water when I first started my trade training and dad never warned me about, thanks dad, but I reckon he never told me in case it put me off the trade off “Rigger”, and tbh Rigger was not on my list of trade preferences when I applied to join up, I won’t incriminate myself by saying what but when I finished the aptitude tests and was told that I couldn’t be any of those trades but I could be an “Aircraft Mechanic” I didn’t know what that was, I had to ask dad (he had to be with me because I was only 15 years old and he had to sign the consent form to allow me to enlist) and he told me to snap their hands off, and so I did, even though I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, and 24+ years later I didn’t regret that snap decision, thanks dad your advice was spot on, even though you were a “bomb-head”. I wish we had carried on using the Harrier, it would have meant either a massive upgrade to almost every system or brand new aircraft, and it would probably have worked out cheaper than the F-35, I know the F-35 is far superior in almost every aspect but the Harrier was the perfect aircraft for close air support and ground attack so, like the A-10, it didn’t need to be supersonic able or stealthy it wasn’t necessary for it to fly at very high altitude or to have to dogfight, low altitude and near supersonic speed was the name of the game for the Harrier, the added bonus was the Harrier didn’t need a runway, if the F-35 was bought as an ‘A’ model and the carriers fitted with’Cats & Traps’ then that would have made sense, the Harrier could still have been embarked on the carriers but would probably have to always take of vertically and landed conventionally by doing a slow rolling landing, but as per usual the M.O.D wanted to save money so opted for the F-35b and had the ski ramp instead of Cats & Traps to save money, but what they forgot was that our carriers can only accommodate aircraft that is VTOL, which in this day in age means the F-35 only, scrapping the Harrier was a foolish decision, a decision we might not live to be able to regret. Thanks for sharing another excellent piece of RAF history which brought back some great memories. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇦🇮🇱

[@stockyport]

That was not 1970. The wooly pully did not come in until about 74/75 and one of the cal labels on a bit of kit in the film shows 77! Bit nit picky I guess! Good film though.

[@johnnunn8688]

Plumbers aren’t as important as they used to be, they are now Trade Gp 2. Jelly Tot also gone.