No. 11 Squadron, equipped with Supermarine Attacker was the first jet squadron of Pakistan. Thirty-Six Attackers (FB.l model) were inducted in the RPAF from January 1951 and all delivered by May 1952....
No. 11 Squadron, equipped with Supermarine Attacker was the first jet squadron of Pakistan. Thirty-Six Attackers (FB.l model) were inducted in the RPAF from January 1951 and all delivered by May 1952. The Attacker was airframe-limited to 505 KIAS (or Mach 0.78) against the Fury’s 425 KIAS. With the sweeping modernisation of the Air Force in the mid-1950s, this odd and only jet fighter with a tail wheel (the other being the reconnaissance U-2) was prematurely retired in 1956. The scene for this painting by Hussaini occurred during the RPAF’s first major exercise involving both jet and piston-engined fighters. The wargame was named Exercise “November Handicap”, and the Peshawar-based Fighter-Bomber Wing with its 5, 9 and 14 Squadrons (all equipped with Hawker Fury FB.50s) flew out eastward to operate from different MOBs and FOBs. To give both the ‘enemy’ and ‘friendly’ forces a feel for what it was like to have jets on its side, No. 11 Squadron’s Attackers, led by Squadron Leader Fuad Shahid (“F.S.”) Hussain switched sides half way through the exercise, operating first as part of the Red Force, then Blue, from Sargodha FOB and after that from Chaklala MOB. The painting shows two Furies of No. 14 Squadron manoeuvring against “F.S.”— with easily predictable results. In the two roles, this exceptionally gifted Pakistani pilot demonstrated his leadership and piloting skills with the natural ease of a grand master. (As a Flight Lieutenant a few years before, he had set an air-to-air gunnery record while doing his Pilot Attack Instructor’s course at Britain’s Central Gunnery School at RAF, Leconfield). During the exercise, “F.S.” was frequently seen with intensely attentive pilots of both Fury and Attacker fighters, teaching them the strengths and weaknesses of the two platforms. The propeller spinners of Nos. 5, 9 and 14 Squadrons were painted blue, red and black, and the Furies of all three squadrons could not escape coming under the gunsight reticule of “F.S.” Personal scores mattered little to “F.S.”, but as seen in the painting, his proud pilots had made sure that their CO’s cine camera-based ‘kills’ were painted on the side of his Attacker. Before his very untimely and greatly mourned death (from Diabetes) at a young age, Air Commodore Fuad Shahid Hussain, the PAF’s most admired role model, had held the office of ACAS (Operations).