No. 228 Operational Conversion Unit was a

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 ...

Operational conversion unit. It was formed in No. 12 Group at

RAF Leeming Royal Air Force Leeming or more simply RAF Leeming is a Royal Air Force station located near Leeming, North Yorkshire, England. It was opened in 1940 and was jointly used by the RAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Between 1950 and 19 ...

from Nos. 13 and 54 OTUs in 1947. The tasking of the OCU was the training of

night fighter A night fighter (later known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor post-Second World War) is a largely historical term for a fighter aircraft, fighter or interceptor aircraft adapted or designed for effective use at night, during pe ...

crews and its aircraft were the

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its airframe was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or " ...

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneere ...

Bristol Brigand The Bristol Brigand was a British anti-shipping/ground attack/dive bomber aircraft, developed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company as a replacement for the Beaufighter. A total of 147 were built and were used by the Royal Air Force in Malaya duri ...

, and

Gloster Javelin The Gloster Javelin is a twin-engined all-weather interceptor aircraft designed and produced by the Gloster Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force from the mid-1950s until the late 1960s and was the final aircraft design to b ...

over the years. The OCU lasted until 1961 at Leeming when it was disbanded. The unit's next incarnation saw it again training night fighter crews, this time at

RAF Leuchars Royal Air Force Leuchars or more simply RAF Leuchars is a former Royal Air Force station located in Leuchars, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. Throughout the Cold War and beyond, the station was home to fighter aircraft which policed northe ...

. The aircraft was again the Javelin and the training particularly emphasised preparing crews for overseas service, and whilst at Leuchars it took on the

shadow squadron ''Shadow Squadron'' is a 1995 Space flight simulation game#Space combat game, space combat simulation video game developed and published by Sega for the 32X. In the game, players assume the role of a recently promoted flight officer from the t ...

number of No. 11 Squadron. The unit was taken with this role for 18 months in 1965 and 1966 before disbanding again. Its final incarnation was as a training unit for the

McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American tandem two-seat, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by McDonnell Aircraft for the United States Navy.Swanborough and Bower ...

RAF Coningsby Royal Air Force Coningsby or RAF Coningsby , is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located south-west of Horncastle, and north-west of Boston, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is a Main Operating Base of the RAF and h ...

. The unit was activated there in 1968 and moved to Leuchars during May 1987 - this time with the shadow number of No. 64 Squadron. The OCU fell victim to post-Cold War cutbacks and was permanently disbanded in January 1991.

References

External links

RAF Web
{{RAF Conversion units Military units and formations established in 1947 Conversion units of the Royal Air Force

See also

References

External links