2025
February 2026
Welcome to the first report from WNAS and Happy New Year for 2026 as the January meeting was cancelled due to adverse weather. Firstly and most importantly the answer to my question from December. sic “In western Europe the F104 Starfighter was a very popular combat aircraft in the 70’s and 80’s, by popular myth what was the easiest way to obtain an example?” Answer: “Buy a field and wait” To those younger readers this references the truly appalling crash statistics of the F104 which was designed as a high altitude interceptor and wasn’t really suited to low level ground attack role it found itself in for the majority of its service. Between 1961 and 1989 the West German Air Force lost 292 out of 916 F104 aircraft delivered (nearly 33% of the fleet).
Enough of this gloom this weeks offering was a DVD on Concorde which was to say the least, diverse, in that there were large sections referencing the B747, Nimrod and bizarrely a long portion on the joys of Las Vegas and how it can be a very cheap holiday IF you can resist the other offerings at the casino’s! After the usual delicious sandwiches and cake a short discussion ensued re the relative merits of Concorde. Most interesting from my point of view was the reasoning behind the extra ‘e’ at the end of Concorde thus spelling it the ‘French’ way. As it was an Anglo French endeavour I always assumed it was a sop to the French but apparently if you leave the ‘e’ out the meaning in French is Con Conk ( poor translation I’m sure), which bearing in mind the droop snoot on the machine seems vaguely appropriate!
January 2026
Cancelled due to adverse weather conditions
March 2026
Tonights talk was presented by Charles Howard-Vyse on the subject of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and it relevance in the modern world. Charles was a RAF Navigator and spent most of his flying career on the Panavia Tornado, indeed he reckons he has ‘Tornado’ imprinted through him like a stick of rock. He made certain to empathises that he was aircrew on the mud moving version (Strike/Attack) and not what I gathered from his tone the the not overly impressive, in his view, ’Fighter’ version. Other viewpoints are available!
In order to continue his career progression he opted to move over to NATO in 2012 and served at various locations throughout Europe. He made clear that NATO is a political organisation, not a military one and as such suffers from all the issues that politics suffer from in various countries, including a bloated bureaucracy, the ability to boot significant issues so far down the road they disappear into the long grass or just talk around a problem in language so pretentious and elongated that the meaning is lost aka the BBC comedy ‘Yes Minister'*
He was also pretty scathing about the ability of MoD to mess up our defence procurement, and that fact the young inexperienced advisors are asking either the wrong questions, or massaging their questions in such a way they get the answer they want. Worrying but very relevant in light of recent events especially as it seems to take over a fortnight to dispatch a destroyer to the Mediterranean, when in 1982 we put together a complete Task Force inside a week, and they were worried about cutbacks then. I reckon they’d be spinning in their graves now!
Notwithstanding all of the issues Charles reckoned that NATO was a worthwhile organisation and despite everything it does actually work, indeed at the moment it is the only viable show in town. Discuss?
Next month we have guest speaker Simon Gladas from the Bentwaters Aviation Society please feel free to join us on Tuesday 07 April 2026 at Mundford Bowls Club, Doors Open 1915 for 1930 start. Further details www.westnorfolkaviationsociety.com. Please note from April there will be an Entrance charge to non members of £5pp for guest speakers and £2pp if its a club speaker. Price includes a light Buffet Supper.
* Available on BBC Iplayer and Highly Recommended by your scribe!
Mark Burch
WNAS Scribe
April 2026
Simon Gladas presented tonights talk which was a truncated (due to time constraints) history of RAF Bentwaters in Suffolk.
Interestingly there is no such place as Bentwaters, the airfield is named after a couple of cottages/farms on which the airbase is built. This is quite unusual if you stop to thunk about it, RAF Horsham St Faith (now Norwich Airport) built near Horsham St Faith and RAF Coltishall built near, well you get the idea, but Bentwaters nope no such place. Interesting and little known fact No1 is that Bentwaters was the last airfield to be completed and handed over during WW2. For many years it had very poor infrastructure and was home to 6 RAF Mustang squadrons up to the end of the war. It then became a conversion unit for those pilots moving to the early jets, a pretty risky business so accidents were fairly common.
Eventually the airfield was passed to the United States Air Force(USAF) in 1951 after a period of Care and Maintenance a loosely used term which generally means abandoned. It took the USAF many years to bring the airfield infrastructure up to a decent standard. It was home to F86 Sabres and F84 Nuclear Strike Thunderjets. Following this the F101 Voodoo was resident for a number of years, built initially to escort the massive B36 Peacemaker bomber which were rendered instantly obsolete with introduction of Surface to Air Missiles. This left the F101 without a job and they were rounded up and all sent to RAF Bentwaters where they remained for 7 years the only base in the USAF to operate the type.
Next came the F4 Phantom a truly brutish aircraft and one which the speaker was clearly in awe of. It was the main type operated from mid 60’s until the introduction of the A10 in the, late 70’s. The A10 was withdrawn from Bentwaters in 1993 and allegedly retired as a type from the USAF, however its abilities remain unique and it is STILL in use in 2026, 50 years after it entered service in 1976, as those of you who saw the excitement last week when I believe 12 arrived at RAF Lakenheath! Not a bad advert for keeping things simple! Can’t imagine the current batch of electronic wonders currently in service will still be going strong in 2076!!
This was an entertaining talk and our thanks go to Simon for making the long trek from deepest Suffolk.