Lindholme Gear (also known as Air Sea Rescue Apparatus Mk 4) was a British air-dropped rescue equipment designed during the Second World War to aid survivors in the water and was still in use in the 21st century.

Design and development

The Lindholme Gear was developed at

RAF Lindholme Royal Air Force Lindholme or more simply RAF Lindholme is a former Royal Air Force station in South Yorkshire, England. It was located south of Thorne and north east of Doncaster and was initially called RAF Hatfield Woodhouse. Early years ...

by Group Captain Waring during the 1940s to provide a simpler rescue system than the air-dropped lifeboats then in use. The Lindholme Gear is five cylinder-shaped containers joined together by lengths of

floating rope Floating may refer to: * a type of dental work performed on horse teeth * use of an isolation tank * the guitar-playing technique where chords are sustained rather than scratched * ''Floating'' (play), by Hugh Hughes * Floating (psychological phe ...

. The centre container would house a nine-man inflatable dinghy with the other containers housing survival equipment such as emergency rations and clothing. The containers were discarded containers from the tail-units of 500lb and 250lb bombs.

Operation

The Gear would be carried in the weapons bay of the aircraft and dropped in a long line up-wind of the survivors. The Dinghy would inflate on impact and then drift towards the survivors. The survivors could then use the dinghy, haul in the containers of equipment, and await rescue. The Lindholme Gear was originally designed to be carried by

Handley Page Hampden The Handley Page HP.52 Hampden is a British twin-engine medium bomber that was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was part of the trio of large twin-engine bombers procured for the RAF, joining the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley and Vickers ...

aircraft but was mainly carried by

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

maritime patrol aircraft like the

Vickers Warwick The Vickers Warwick was a British twin-engined bomber aircraft developed and operated during the Second World War that was primarily used in other roles. In line with the naming convention followed by other RAF heavy bombers of the era, it wa ...

and later the

Avro Lancaster The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British World War II, Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to ...

Avro Shackleton The Avro Shackleton was a British long-range maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) which was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the South African Air Force (SAAF). It was developed by Avro from their Lincoln bomber, which itself had been a developm ...

and

Hawker Siddeley Nimrod The Hawker Siddeley Nimrod is a retired maritime patrol aircraft developed and operated by the United Kingdom. It was an extensive modification of the de Havilland Comet, the world's first operational jet airliner. It was originally designed ...

. The Gear was also used by the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...

and the South African Air Force

. Lindholme gear was also carried in the bomb bay by the Royal Australian Air Force maritime patrol aircraft

Lockheed P-3 The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. It is based on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner by Lockheed; it is ea ...

B & P-3C Orions, consisting of two 10-man liferafts and two stores containers; this equipment was later replaced by ASRK (Air Sea Rescue Kits).

References

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Flight International ''Flight International'', formerly ''Flight'', is a monthly magazine focused on aerospace. Published in the United Kingdom and founded in 1909 as "A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport", i ...

, page= 617 {{cite journal , date=21 May 1943 , title=Canadian Air Men Cheat Davey Jones , journal=The Millburn & Short Hills Item , page=14 , url=http://www.millburn.lib.nj.us/40s/1943/May21/1943.pdf {{cite book , year=2002 , title=AVRO Shackleton , publisher= Crowood Aviation Series , page=114 Rescue aviation Rescue equipment

Design and development

Operation

See also

References