CANBERRA – T.4, WH850

Built at Preston as the last in a 12 aircraft contract for T.4s, WH850 was ready for collection on 14 June 1954. It was taken onto the charge of 15 Sqd (B.2s at RAF Cottesmore) where it served for a while until being transferred to RAF Honnington’s Station Flight, probably when 15 Sqd moved to Honnington in February 1955. 15 Sqd closed down in April 1957 and this may have been the event that caused WH850 to move back to the Station Flight at RAF Cottesmore.

It was soon on the move again, this time to Germany when it joined 88 Sqd (the first of the B(I)8 Strke Squadrons) at RAFG Wildenrath. It would seem to have stayed with 88 Sqd when they were re-numbered as 14 Sqd at Wildenrath in December 1962. Later, after a stint on Station Flight at Wildentrath, WH850 moved to the Station Flight at RAFG Laarbruch, probably when the B(I)8 squadrons were gathered there in the early 1970s. From Laarbruch, WH850 transferred back to the UK joining 231 OCU for a while before being put into store at RAF St Athan in June 1972, exactly 18 years after it was delivered to the RAF.

WH850 was eventually sold to BAe in November 1981 and stored at Samlesbury in December 1986. However the cockpit section has been preserved and bought, in 1988, by the Macclesfield Historical Avaition Society, Chelford. It is now displayed at Barton airfield, Manchester.