[Thanks to Dave Robinson (Aviation Ancestry) for this advertisement]
Flying In The Missile Age
"I should like to say a word about the future of the Royal Air Force . . . The introduction of new weapons will be a gradual process, extending over a good number of years, and even then there will still remain a very wide variety of roles for which manned aircraft will continue to be needed. I therefore hope that young men who have the ambition to be pilots, as well as those who are interested in new technical advances, will continue as before to look to the R.A.F. for a fine and useful career."
MINISTER OF DEFENCE, APRIL 16TH 1957
THE NEED FOR PILOTS, navigators and air electronics officers is as urgent as ever ...and the career prospects no less promising. Weapons change, tactics change, but the role of the Royal Air Force today remains the same.
MORE OPPORTUNITIES NOT LESS. To a young man ambitious to fly, and with the ability to lead others, the R.A.F. offers a fine and useful career. Men of high quality are required to fly the V-bombers, fighters and high-speed reconnaissance and transport aircraft. Even for those functions where unmanned missiles will in time give the answer, manned aircraft must continue in service for a number of years yet. Moreover, manned aircraft will always he needed for those functions to which the human brain in the air is indispensable.
And, whatever new instruments of air power are evolved, the R.A.F. will always need men of initiative who have been trained to master the problems of the air in the air. For such men this is a time of opportunity. Not only can they fulfil their ambition to fly for as long as they serve. They will have the chance of a full and satisfying career. Aircrew do much more than fly. T hey are often seconded for other important work in Britain and abroad. Variety is more than ever the essence of a career in the R.A.F. Whatever a man becomes - pilot, navigator, air electronics officer - there is no limit to what he may achieve. Quality counts. There is, and always will be, room for good men.
A SURE FUTURE—GOOD PAY. You can join the R.A.F. through the Direct Commission Scheme, confident of a permanent career right up to pension age. Or you can choose a twelve-year engagement with the option of leaving after eight. If you leave after 12 years you take back to civilian life a tax-free gratuity of £4,000! Alternatively, there is a five-year Short Service Commission Scheme, and for University Graduates, a special four-year Short Service Commission. Whichever you choose, the pay is good. At the new rates, a Flight Lieutenant of 25, can draw, with full allowances, about £1,500 a year.
HOW TO FLY WITH THE R.A.F. You must be between 17; and 25 and absolutely fit. You must have General Certificate of Education or Scottish Leaving Certificate or their equivalents. You must he able to lead others, and you must have aptitude as well as enthusiasm for flying. If you feel you have all these qualities, write at once for details of the schemes of entry and an informative booklet, to the Air Ministry (FRI ), Adastral House, London, W.C.1. Give date of birth and educational qualifications.
RESPONSIBILITY. To fly with the R.A.F. is to work with the most depend-able men in the world, confident and well qualified for each of the many calls on their skill and initiative.
ADVENTURE. R.A.F. personnel were aboard the M.V. Theron as she returned with the advance party from the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, on the 23rd March this year.
The advent of the stand-off bomb (air-to-ground missile, for despatch several hundred miles from a target) actually enhances the vital role of the Valiant and other V-bombers for many years to come.
Royal Air Force - Flying and a Career.