…... of the Battle of the Somme, particularly when considering the fact that the Squadron consisted of multiple aircraft types and had to contend with almost constant aircraft deployment as the war developed. For Bromet, the challenge must have been immense. Change, it would seem, was the only thing that has actually stayed the same throughout 208’s 100 years - from its 24 different aircraft types flown, to the 84 airfields it has operated from, down to its closure on two previous occasions. Interestingly, at its inception, all of the squadron’s aircrew were volunteers and, despite the various different aircraft types and the constant movement, its esprit de corps was reportedly very high indeed. Wing Commander Kidd would come back to this later.
Click on this link to read the history of the formation of Naval Eight:
In keeping with this history, the Squadron found itself, nearly 100 years later, not in a period of stability, but again facing a period of change: not only would this be the closure of 208(R) Squadron, but also the end of Fast Jet flying training on the Hawk T1 - an aircraft that entered service almost exactly 40 years prior to the Centenary Celebrations in April 1976. At its peak, the Royal Air Force maintained a fleet of 175 airframes which were operated at 3 flying training bases. By 2012, nearly 1000 aircraft had been produced, with over 750 being sold to export customers. The aircraft had been the stalwart platform of choice for Advanced Flying Training and Tactical Weapons training for over 90% of all Royal Air Force and Royal Navy fast Jet pilots for the previous 40 years. To put that into perspective, pretty much every single fast jet pilot that had served on every single fast jet squadron, wing, group and command in the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy for the previous 40 years had been trained on this aircraft and, for the previous 22 years, they had all been trained by 208(R) Squadron. To give you an example of the magnitude of the achievements of this aircraft, Wing Commander Kidd provided some impressive statistics:
To 1 April 2016, the Hawk T1 had flown over 1,179,000 flying hours whilst in Royal Air Force service. Of those, nearly 230,000 hours were flown at RAF Valley and of those just over 130,000 hours had been flown by 208(R) Squadron, equating to 11% of all Hawk T1 hours flown. 208’s hours broke down into a massive 228,772 sorties with the most sorties flown in a single day being 100, flown on 21 July 2003. But, to put that into context, in that same month, both squadrons at RAF Valley flew a combined total of 1950 hours, nearly 100 hours on each working day. This sortie rate was a true testament to the design of a great aircraft, being maintained by an extremely professional team of engineers. Hawk and RAF Valley had been intrinsically linked for over 20 years and, whilst the T1 would no longer operate from Valley, the link would endure through the good work that IV(R) Squadron was doing with the Hawk T2 under MFTS.
