CAPFlyer wrote:
All the aircraft in the picture were still in RAF service at the time of the photo. The Venoms had all been retired and none retained. The Hurricane and Spitfire are from BBMF, the Meteor is either a drone conversion or with Boscombe Down, the Hunter was still in service, the Javelin was in the process of being retired that year, and the Lightning was the "state of the art".
That photo was taken in 1960......and certainly not a time that the Javelin was being in the process of being retired, as it was only the previous year that the RAF converted its final Meteor night-fighter squadron to the Javelin..!!
That Javelin in the photo is from 23 Sqn, which continued to operate the Javelin for another 4 years until converting to the Lightning F.3.
The Javelin remained in front line RAF service until 1968, when 60 Sqn, the last one to operate them, disbanded at RAF Tengah (Singapore)