Pat Lelliott recounts what it was like working with 1 AIDU in the pre-digital world
In the late 1950s/60s I was with No. 1 Aeronautical Information Documents Unit as the Corporal in charge of the master briefing room for the western hemisphere, including behind the Iron Curtain.
Our information came in from various sources, such as telexes, foreign data literature etc. This information was stored by cardex systems, files, and, graphically, on RAF overprinted Ordnance Survey maps which we wallpaper pasted on the walls of the briefing room.
The information was held on these maps by coloured tapes and large coloured headed pins. Areas where there might be special hazards, such as firing or flying exercises, were highlighted by manually plotting the coordinates on the maps and sticking coloured plastic sheeting over them which we cut out ourselves. Readers might be forgiven for thinking all of this sounds very ‘Blue Peterish’. It did, however, work!
For security, we would put the information files and cardex systems into a pair of ancient five-foot safes when we went off duty. We also drew the curtains over the barred windows!
Retrieving the information necessary to plan a flight for royalty or other VIPs took four of us about four days. This was then typed and sent to The Queen’s Flight, then based at RAF Benson. Unbelievably, in the light of modern terrorist and other threats, these briefs were sent by post in envelopes marked “OHMS” IMPORTANT FLIGHT INFORMATION DOCUMENTS”!
Thankfully, there were no instances of any such documents going astray. However, one morning we arrived at work to find the RAF’s Special Investigation Branch waiting for us. The aircraft carrying the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh had apparently flown through a fighter exercise along the route I had previously checked. An official enquiry was ordered and we were sent back to our billets to sweat it out. Thankfully the Dutch Air Force were found to be at fault, but I was sure the flight had only gone over German airspace. Only much later did I learn the truth. With the war still fresh in the memory and Germany only recently being allowed to re-arm, it had been decided that the public were better off not knowing that their beloved monarch’s aircraft had nearly been downed by the German Air Force on exercises – so the Dutch gallantly stepped in!
Pat Lelliott, far right, and the team setting up a royal flight or ‘purple airway’.
