No. 1321 Flight RAF

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No. 1321 Flight
Vickers Valiant WP201
Active	April 1954 - January 1956
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Air Force
Role	Aircraft Evaluation
Garrison/HQ	RAF Wittering
Commanders
Officer Commanding	Squadron Leader D. Roberts
Aircraft flown
Bomber	Vickers Valiant

No. 1321 Flight RAF was established at RAF Wittering in April 1954 as a Vickers Valiant unit to integrate the Blue Danube nuclear weapon into Royal Air Force service.

It was commanded by Squadron Leader D Roberts, formerly commanding officer of No. 617 Squadron. Squadron Leader Roberts reported to Wisley the Vickers-Armstrong test airfield, expecting to take a three week conversion course to the Valiant. Instead he remained there for 15 months until he reported to Wittering to command 1321 Flight.

1321 Flight's first aircraft was the Valiant WP201. Roberts and his crew flew it from Wisley to Wittering on 15 June 1955 to begin an intensive program of integration tests. The tests had two main separate components:

Ballistic performance of the bomb casing at various altitudes and speeds
Testing of the equipment from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment under operational conditions

A variety of dummy bomb (Ballistic Test Vehicles-BTV's) and drops were carried out at various heights and speeds at the experimental Bombing Range on Orfordness. The ballistic performance of the weapon was found to be so good that there was a risk of it not leaving the slipstream of the bomber and consequently flying along with the aircraft. Retractable spoilers were fitted to the underside of the fuselage, just forward of the bomb bay in order to induce turbulence within the bomb bay enabling the bomb to fall away.

All the live nuclear weapons dropped at Maralinga (Australia) and Christmas Island (Pacific Ocean) were assembled, pre-drop tested and loaded on to specially prepared Valiant bombers of 49 Squadron and 138 Squadron by the small team of technical specialists from 1321 Flight.

The short life of 1321 Flight came to an end on 23 January 1956 when it became C Flight, No. 138 Squadron, the first regular Valiant unit.