Shetland Times 23 March 1956 First jet to land at Sumburgh Flying Officer William Smith, Roadside, South Whiteness, made a little bit of Shetland history last Saturday when he became the first person to travel to the islands by jet aircraft. F/O Smith is a navigator in Canberra jet bombers and when he learned that a Canberra was to make a routine training flight to Shetland, he arranged to travel home in the plane for a week’s leave. The object of the flight was partly to test the suitability of Sumburgh Airport for use by this type of aircraft. The Canberra left Marsham, Norfolk, at 10.50 and at 11.55 it was circling Flying Officer Smith’s home 450 miles away! A few minutes later it made a perfect landing at Sumburgh. The captain of the aircraft, F/O M.K. Adams, and the navigator, F/O D. Adams (they are not related) spent the weekend in Shetland, returning to Marsham on Monday morning. Another Canberra is due at Sumburgh today, and F/O Smith asked his squadron to wire him so that he can return as quickly as he came. If all goes well, take-off from Sumburgh today will be about 2.30 p.m. Flying Officer Smith, aged 21, has 3½ years R.A.F. service behind him. He did training in Canada, and readers may remember that his picture appeared in “The Shetland Times” when he received his navigator’s wings.
Posted on: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 12:12:54 +0000
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