The Shackleton AEW, despite its World War II-era engines and radar was expected to defend the United Kingdom from the air arms of the Warsaw Pact at their most potent. This was not a plastic digital jet, but a noisy living monster as analogue as a hammer. We spoke to former RAF pilot Trevor Williams about flying the immortal ‘Shack’.

Describe the Shackleton in three words...

 Noisy, Slow, Heavy

What was its role and was it effective?

     Airborne Early Warning – a flying radar station. We would, ideally, detect low flying targets, report their position etc to the Air Defence Ground Environment and control friendly fighters to intercept them. Additionally, we had a secondary role doing the equivalent for enemy ships. We would broadcast their positions (Surpic – Surface Picture) and control friendly attack a/c (eg. Buccaneers) onto them (Vasstac – Vector assisted attack). Our tertiary role was Search and Rescue. The Nimrod force were the experts, and we were never on SAR standby as they were, but I flew 4 SAR flights during my 7 years on 8 Sqn.

As for effectiveness, the Shack was distinctly sub-optimal at AEW, operationally valid at Surpic and Vasstac, and probably the best SAR visual search platform then flying in the world.

What was the best and worst equipment on the aircraft and why?

As an ex-maritime aircraft it is almost obligatory to say that the best equipment on board was the galley. Given that our raison-d’etre was AEW, the radar would have to count as the worst. For our peace-time training we depended on Secondary Radar (IFF) like a blind man depends on his white stick. Probably the most under-rated, and under-used, equipment on board was the Orange Harvest Radar Warning Receiver (ESM)

What was the radar and well did it work? 

It was the AN/APS-20, the world’s first AEW radar, developed under the code name of Project Cadillac in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbour attack. Although it was the ‘F’ model – the 6th upgrade – it was profoundly basic (although still in use on USAF Super Constellations until the Americans finally got the E3 AWACS to work in the mid 70s). When it was working well we could do a (very) good job, within certain limits, and any AEW capability is better than none. On a bad day however, there wasn’t much in it. Although the media and politicians billed us as ‘the national asset’ the Squadron’s primary task (as stated in the Statement of Unit Policy) was to provide a ‘pool of trained manpower’ for the new aircraft. When the Squadron formed up with Shackletons in 1971 the ‘new aircraft’ was intended to be the E3, and was due to enter service in 1975/6. The AEW Shack was a stopgap, that served for 20 years…

As for the radar, there were some plusses – It was powerful, as an analogue radar it could be ‘interpreted’ by an experienced operator, and it didn’t suffer from contacts/information falling below a threshold and disappearing as was the case with digital processing. For the ground crew it was very old technology and was very satisfying to work on. For the aircrew it could be very satisfying, and very frustrating. I shudder to think of the hours I spent flying around over the sea while the radar team tried to make the radar work properly – ‘Changing the Low Volts power pack’, ‘tuning the crystals’, ‘by-passing the PA’ and goodness knows what else.

Su-27s and MiG-31s would have eaten Shackletons presumably. Were you scared of them?

No. Because of our antiquity we would have been a very low priority target, and because we operated at low-level it would cost any hostile jet aircraft a significant amount of fuel to come and get us. And I doubt that the Russians had a world-beating look-down, shoot-down capability 

What was the best thing about the Shackleton? And why?

Easy. It was a ‘crew’ aircraft. We flew as constituted crews which was brilliant. And to get the system to work well required the whole crew to work well together. All of us treasured both aspects.

You were offered the chance to fly the Lancaster, what is a Shack pilot’s perspective of the Lancaster?

I remember sitting in the cockpit of the Lancaster, looking out at the engines and thinking that they looked more like starter motors than proper engines like the Shack’s Griffons. Side by side it was the differences between the two aircraft that struck one. The Shack was bigger, heavier and sat much closer to the ground than the Lancaster. Compared to the Shack the Lancaster was a hot ship. I believe that it could reach 200 kts, at 20,000 ft. The Shack could do one or the other, but certainly not at the same time, and it took a long time to achieve either.

What was the worst thing about the Shackleton?

The unreliability of the radar system. If the aircraft had been equipped with the radar that was fitted to the Navy Sea Kings in the aftermath of the Falklands War I would have happily stayed flying it for years and years, and would be permanently hard-of-hearing as a result.  

Did you always get on with your crew? Who is the happiest and least happy person in a Shackleton?

The crews were always happy, unless the Captain was a difficult character. With 9 in a crew there would inevitably be someone you didn’t gel with but that still left 7 people to like and the crew always sorted themselves out. Shortly after I left one crew I asked the Captain what it was like having so-and-so (a confirmed social hand grenade) on the crew. He replied “he’s embarrassing, but he’s ours”.

As a trade group I think the Flight Engineers were the most happy.

What should I have asked you? 

What is the spark plug on top for ? (easily the most asked question at air displays, depressingly followed quite closely by ‘how did you get it here’?). The spark plug was the ESM. We almost never used it because it diverted the radar operator in the ‘C’ position from looking at his radar. However we did really pay attention to it when we ‘rushed’ a Shack out to Cyprus to provide AEW after the Americans bombed Libya. We had to transit from Gibraltar to Akrotiri, at low level, without being able to find out where the US 6th Fleet might be, but we DID know they were likely to be trigger-happy. One Chas Buckingham, a recently arrived ex-maritime AEO, sat in the ‘C’ seat and did nothing but listen to the ESM output. I was very impressed at the volume and quality of the information that he provided. Some years later, the shiny new E3 flew its very first Quick Reaction Alert mission for the RAF. Apparently, the Russian aircraft was first detected by the LORAL ESM some time before the radar picked it up, which didn’t surprise me at all.

What is a long mission like?

Tiring, and inevitably boring for everyone sometime during the flight. My wife quickly appreciated me going for a drink in the bar with the crew after a long flight. If I went straight home after a trade sortie I would be both tense and tired. After unwinding with the boys (some of whom were old enough to be my dad) I would at least be more relaxed.

Order The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes Vol 1 here. Pre-order Order The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes Vol 2 here. Hush-Kit is struggling with funding, if you’ve enjoyed an article and value what we do please consider supporting us on Patreon or via the donate button on each blog page. Big thanks to those who already do!