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TUESDAY. SEPTEMBER 8. 1981

RAAF'S SENIOR ENGINEER RETIRES

NO. 193/81

V

Air Vice Marshal Rodney Noble, the Chief of Air

Force Technical Services, retired from the RAAF this week

after 37 years service.

He was the RAAF's most senior engineer and was

a former aircraft performance pilot.

Air Vice Marshal Noble was born in Sydney, the

son of well-known former Australia Test Cricket captain of

the 1930s, M.A. ('Monty') Noble. He joined the RAAF in

19^3 after graduating as a aeronautical engineer from Sydney

University.

Performance Unit at RAAF Laver ton, Vic., where he carried v

out performance and handling tests on a variety of aircraft,

including Dakota, Wirraway, Liberator, Hudson, Spitfire

and Beaufort aircraft.

He left the RAAF in 1946 to become a foundation

engineering executive with Trans-Australia Airlines (TAA).

AVM Noble rejoined the RAAF in July 1949 and

after serving for two. years at Air Force Headquarters, then

in Melbourne, he was posted to the Aircraft Research and

Development Unit, Laverton, for engineering and flying duties

He trained as a pilot, then joined No. 1 Air

Â£

For the next three and a half years he flew Lincoln, Dakota,

Mustang, Vampire, Percival Prince and Winjeel aircraft. He

carried out trials on the first of the single-seat Vampires

(the RAAF then had no dual Vampires) and the trials on the

first Winjeels.

During this period he visited France and the

United Kingdom to investigate high-speed flight research then

being carried out, including the so-called 1  sound barrier1.

Also, in 1953Â» he went to Emu Plains in South Australia for

the first British atomic bomb tests, and was in charge of

experiments to gauge the effects of flash, blast and radiation

contamination, using parked Mustang aircraft.

In 1959 he was posted to Canberra to assist, in the

plans for the introduction into the RAAF of electronic data

processing, and the following year went to Washington as senior

RAAF engineer. For mqre than two years he worked on aircraft

acquisition programs, including the Sioux helicopter for

the Army and Iroquois helicopters for the RAAF.

Following a period at Headquarters Support Command,

Melbourne, on engineering staff duties, AVM Noble was posted

to command the RAAF School of Technical Training at Wagga,

NSW, for the next three and a half years. During that period

the student population of the school trebled to 1600 and an

extensive building program was initiated.

AVM Noble has been based in Canberra since 1969

in senior engineering appointments associated with aircraft

maintenance policy and aircraft engineering. He was appointed

Controller of Service Laboratories and Trials in 1975 and in

1979 became Chief of Air Force Technical Services.

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Air Vice Marshal Noble, married with two sons

and one daughter, lives in the Canberra suburb of Campbell

He has been succeeded by Air Vice Marshal Joseph

Anthony ('Tony') Dietz.

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Further Inquiries: Mr Bill Smither 65 2999 (switchboard)

65 3313 (direct)

49 7810 (after hours)

