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Question: What does squadron service mean?

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cyclewheel

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Heard this term, and I'm not really sure what it means. Can somebody explain?

Sorry if this isn't the right place for this.
 
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swt_passenger

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It's 'aircraft based' slang, really just means the majority of the ordered fleet (or sub-fleet) is in normal timetabled service right across the intended routes, and I'd say using normally rostered train crew.

Hence the opposite situation is that you might have a couple of early arrivals running around a subset of the network being used for initial training of staff, with only a small number of staff qualified to operate them.

As an example, you'd probably say that both the 458/5s and the 387s were not yet in 'squadron service'...

Oh, and welcome to the forums - this probably is the most suitable subforum for this type of question anyway.
 
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cyclewheel

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It's 'aircraft based' slang, really just means the majority of the ordered fleet (or sub-fleet) is in normal timetabled service right across the intended routes, and I'd say using normally rostered train crew.

Hence the opposite situation is that you might have a couple of early arrivals running around a subset of the network being used for initial training of staff, with only a small number of staff qualified to operate them.

As an example, you'd probably say that both the 458/5s and the 387s were not yet in 'squadron service'...

Oh, and welcome to the forums - this probably is the most suitable subforum for this type of question anyway.

Thanks for your help!
 

cjmillsnun

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It's 'aircraft based' slang, really just means the majority of the ordered fleet (or sub-fleet) is in normal timetabled service right across the intended routes, and I'd say using normally rostered train crew.

Hence the opposite situation is that you might have a couple of early arrivals running around a subset of the network being used for initial training of staff, with only a small number of staff qualified to operate them.

As an example, you'd probably say that both the 458/5s and the 387s were not yet in 'squadron service'...

Oh, and welcome to the forums - this probably is the most suitable subforum for this type of question anyway.

Hmmm in squadron service in the RAF means in active service.

In that context both the 458/5s and the 387s are in squadron service (they carry passengers).
 

GrimsbyPacer

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I am not sure if this is relevent but the unbuilt production design of the Advanced Passenger Train was to be called APT-S with Squadron being the ''s''.
 

Murph

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There's also APT-U (better known as the IC225). I have no idea what the "U" stood for. "Untilting", maybe?
 

GrimsbyPacer

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There's also APT-U (better known as the IC225). I have no idea what the "U" stood for. "Untilting", maybe?

No, the ''U'' in APT-U meant Ultimate. The Experimental is ''E'' also.

Edit: an APT-POP also existed, it was an unpowered 3-car test set.
 
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sprinterguy

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I suspect APT-S would have had the power cars at the ends (or at one end) to avoid the impractical block in the middle.

Neil
Going off topic somewhat, but you're correct. APT-S would have had a power car at one end of the train, nine passenger trailers and a driving van trailer (idenitifed as such as early as 1981) at the other end; not dissimilar to the formation of the IC225s, but retaining vehicle articulation and tilt.

The APT-U design re-introduced two power cars, one at each end of the train sandwiching ten passenger trailers, but also dropped vehicle articulation.
 

cjmillsnun

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Wasn't APT-E given to the original gas-turbine unit (with the "E" standing for Experimental) and APT-P given to the production units (with the "P" standing for Production)

P stood for prototype. They certainly weren't production, nor were they ever intended to be.
 
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Hmmm in squadron service in the RAF means in active service.

Not quite - it means in large-scale use (ie whole squadrons using a particular aircraft type day to day to achieve a task - hence the name). Because of the length of time taken to conduct tests and trials on new kinds of aircraft and then train people on them, there can be periods of years where a few prototypes are in 'active service' but not in 'squadron service'. Right now that could be said of the Wildcat - admittedly that is an Army and Navy machine, not RAF, but the principle stands. Across the Channel, the A400M is at a similar stage with the French Air Force: 5 out of 50 have been delivered, the aircraft has seen active service in Africa, but it is still being trialled and evaluated = not yet in 'squadron service'. Later this year, the RAF will be at a similar stage with the A400M.
 
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