Shelled an engine on my F-111F in 1982 and declared an emergency and landed at RAF Lossiemouth. Three days later, I hitched a ride in a Shackleton to RAF Mildenhall ( 3 miles from my home base at RAF Lakenheath) which was headed there for the annual Air Fete. It was great. I sat in the nose gunner's seat up front and drank coffee and ate roast beef sandwiches as I watched the Scottish and English countryside glide by much slower than I was used to in my Aardvark. I'll never forget it...classic!

Remember when the BBC still made documentaries like this? No crappy dramatizations, no irritating celebrity presenters. Just lots of original footage and matter of fact interviews with people who really know what they're talking about.

"We're flying Rolls Royce engines in leather seats, what more can we ask for?" Says it all. Thanks RAF

I took my Grandson onto a Shackleton recently at Newark Air Museum, we really struck lucky because onboard was a retired RAF pilot that actually flew the aircraft. He was extremely interesting to listen to and I would really recommend it for a visit.

Loved the anecdote about avoiding the "baked bean" on the navigator's map - and truly surprised he wasn't reprimanded for it! Much respect to him.

Can't help feeling sad when seeing such a masterpiece of engineering being chopped up. Some may say that machines are inanimate, but with so many highly skilled craftsmen putting so much dedication in an aircraft, I just don't think that's completely right.

Some people, especially here in the States may call the Shackleton ugly. Personally I like her, a beautiful piece of engineering, rugged and capable. Her long service life is evidence of it. Well done Avro.

An exceptional footage that took me back to 1985 when a RAF Avro 696 Shackleton landed at Sigonella (LICZ) while I was working in the control tower as air traffic controller. A great emotion to see this plane again after 36 years ! Thank you ! Thank you and thank you again !

What a wonderful documentary. I remember watching it as a teenager but whilst the romance is amazing, there is also the sense of the engineering purity , fitness for purpose and capability that the Shackleton and things like the Bear, B52 etc embody that means that 50 years later there has been no need to replace them.

I joined 204 Sqdn at Ballykelly in 1957 as an Air Signaller and served for 8 years and some 3500 hours. The best thing about that time was the bond between members of a good crew. Rank didn't matter so long as you were a commited member. 86 years old now but the memories are still with me. Happy days.

Wow! I remember mixing sound for this. A labour of love as I once flew in a Chipmonk, landing on the grass alongside a Shackleton landing on the runway at Lossiemouth.

It's too bad that all five couldn't be saved, but at least four of them escaped the breakers and at least one still flies. Marvelous lineage and service record, well done!!

I lost a mate when his Shackleton flew into the Western Isles while on a patrol out of Lossiemouth but seeing them flying again also brings back lots a good memories of living in the North of Scotland in the 1970s and 80s. Seeing Shaks fly over as I went about my business never failed to thrill.

I serviced this wonderful Aircraft on 8 Squadron at RAF Lossiemouth for 8 Years. I designed and installed my first Modification on the Aircraft and wrote my first User Manual (for "Autocat"). All of which motivated me for my ex-Service Job as a Technical Author working for "Airbus". This Video brought back some wonderful Memories of my Time with the Shackleton. Thank you.

9:30 "Ten thousand rivets flying in close formation...", I love humour like this.

I had the privilege to be a crew member of the mark 1 Shackleton as a Radar Gunnerduring my National Service and took part in the fly past over Buckingham Palace in June of 1952. I was initially on 120 Sqn. and then onto 240 Sqn. I would imagine all those who made up our crew are gone now but I have fond memories of the time we flew together.

I can well remember lying in bed late at night at my grandparents house in Elgin listening to the comforting sound of the Shack rumbling it's way back from patrol into RAF Lossiemouth.

Old documentaries like these are gold-dust.

I love it! "10,000 rivets flying in close formation"! Classic aircraft, used to look and sound great, and did a damned good job too!

Mustang: "I have a Merlin!" Spitfire XVIII: "Oh, yeah? I have a GRIFFON." Shackleton: "Hold my beer....."

Great Britain, you can be proud of your aviation legacy. Cheers from France , and god save the queen.

Loved this! Such a great documentary, its like we hopped In the plane ourselves..

The Tu-95 is a 500+mph turborop powered bomber. It's disingenuous to boil it down to "another propeller-driven" airplane. What distinguishes the Shackleton is not that it was propeller-driven, but that those props were driven by piston engines. Those piston engines are what made it truly antiquated.

The US had a similar platform, the triple tailed Constellation with a massive radome under belly. Fantastic, I never knew about this airplane and its long mission. Cheers!

My dad flew in these as a navigator.Went all over the world.An iconic aircraft if ever there was one.Glad some were preserved.My favourite was the later MR3 with the tip tanks and tricycle undercarriage.

OMG my heart sank when I saw that claw tearing into that once beautiful bird!

Got to see one at Duxford... it was in pieces awaiting some restoration, but it was a real airplane nerdgasm to see it! (My wife just shook her head...)

When the Shackleton arrived at Newark air museum I paid my money and sat in every seat in the aircraft. Yay..

This aircraft is so much a background to my childhood in Forres, near RAF Kinloss. As an air cadet I had one flight in a Shackleton out on patrol over the North Sea. I remember laying in the tail looking out at the fishing boats, also sitting in the nose eating a hot chicken pie. It is sad that there are so few left.

I was so proud to have served in the RAF as an aircraft fitter, when we had these old ladies! Unfortunately i never got posted on them but we used to regularly have them in on exercise at Brize Norton! I used to love the smell inside them so ancient, leather seats and AVGAS! The magic part was when they took off one after another they did MAG DROPS at the end of the runway before each took off the sound was truly.......SUPERB. TRULY SADDENED that we have lost the Shacks and the Lightnings who used to fly intercepts at the request of the radar ops, 😢😢 brings tears to my eyes that the RAF has lost some of the best aircraft it ever had, replaced by the rubbish, unreliable over expensive F35 ‘Lightning’ ( what an insult to give THAT name to such a true WASTE OF METAL as the F35]👿 There was and is only one true Lightning. Thank you crews and thank you Shackletons.

Very enjoyable video, it was good to see the occasional flashback to wartime Lancs. British engineering at its finest.👍

I loved watching Shakletons at air displays when I was a kid. They were like a flying museum, but properly cool with it.

Great little documentary. I remember the Shackleton well. Would often see them in the 80s. Such a well built airframe with those epic Rolls Royce Griffon engines. When you think that in 1991 the US were flying F-117 fighters and the RAF still had the Shackleton in operation it's mind blowing. A beautiful aircraft and absolutely solid engineering, the Shackleton story is amazing really.

I had the pleasure of seeing one these beautiful machines while I was stationed in Iceland 89/90 with 960th AWACS. We shared a hanger with Icelandic Air. The Shackleton was parked in in-between the AWACS and Icelandic Air bay. I only wished I'd taken more pictures.

This grainy video, on a quirky British aircraft, has a comment section filled with more history than some museums. It's nice reading all these memories because it reminds us that the guys that flew these and the Lancasters and all the others where blokes just like I am now. I hope I have just as good stories when I'm their age.

A real classic aircraft. 40 years in service says it all.

three cheers - from the USA !

There was a Grampian TV programme "The Old Grey Ladies of Lossiemouth " with a tale of a lady recalling being shipwrecked and the loveliest sound in the world was 4 Griffons coming out of the dawn towards their life-raft

After being entranced right to the end, may I say 'thank you' to somebody, not least the Manchester, Lancaster, Shackleton crews..war and peace, plus the film maker and of course the 'uploader', Delticbob. Never even SAW a Manchester nor a "Shack" but as a 17 yr old ATC cadet, Eccles 292 Sqdn,, I was allowed inside a Lanc. although only on the tarmac, not airborne! As a radio enthusiast, ( ATC Part C and C Advanced...Signals) & with a G3 Amateur Radio Op. licence only 12 months away, you can bet to where I gravitated when these late 1950s school-boy air-cadets swarmed like a bunch of bees, aboard the Lanc. at RAF Shawbury in '57. ......Radio Ops section! Mind you, Lancs were so cramped inside that even our 17 year old legs didn't exactly 'swarm'! Perhaps we 'clambered'! Wish I could clamber these days.... I already had an R1155N / T1154 up and running in my bedroom, much to the bewilderment of my mother who would have gone utterly bananas if she'd known of the high voltages which were behind my bed room door! (1800 vdc with lots of current available..enuff to kill next door's cat! (and me!) It led to a life-time career, in electronics and in particular radio comms. G3NBY QTHR in QRZ.com God knows how today, even post quad heart by-pass, I would get a T1154 up those stairs! regards and 73. NBY

Thaks!... my science teacher flew these planes.. thanks from NZ👍🇳🇿

outstanding video on the Lancaster......

After all that history and all that time my elder Brother flew the last Air certified Shack on its very last flight ever whilst in RAF service! You can now see this aircraft in the Manchester Air museum! He invited me to fly with him in 1982 on an 8 Sqdn Shack and spent two weeks in the air following my return from the Falklands War. Sadly Pete died in 2006 and has a memorium plaque along with our Dad, who himself was a WWII Spitfire pilot, at the national arboretum! As a note - Pete was the Pilot heavily featured in the BBC documentary, Eye in the Sky, detailing the role of the Shackleton and 8 Sqdn.

first 5 second of this movie is my Oscar candiate; seriously!

The Shackleton was actually developed from the Lincoln which was developed from the Lancaster, so Manchester-Lancaster-Lincoln-Shackleton.

Remember seeing these regularly flying over school in Scotland from RAF Lossiemouth and or RAF Kinloss

That brings back memories. I got to Lossie late 80s and my first ever det with the RAF was 6 weeks at Akrotiri on 8 Sqn Shacks. Those were the days, what a time to be young and invincible :-)

I remember seeing these amazing aircraft every working day when I was at Kinloss 71-72, the guys on 8 squadron were out on sorties for hours on end.

I remember the 8sqn Shackletons at Kinloss 71/72, quite a sight watching them take off in darkness with those 4 Rolls Royce Griffons exhaust ports belching blue flame at full throttle.

Back in the late 50's I recall seeing these awesome classics at RAF Kinloss; they had a very distinctive sound.They also had Neptunes based there

I remember watching them taking off from RAF St Mawgan, starting their Atlantic patrols, replaced by the Nimrod before the airbase became a civil airport... childhood days seem much better than nowadays

Seeing this brought back a few happy memories as a kid when we lived very close to RCAF Langar in Nottinghamshire which was A.V. Roe's fitting shops and technical support station. On a Sunday afternoons my dad used to take us up there to watch the Shackletons take off.

I attended a private school in the early 70's and I would listen to these wonderful aircraft doing their pre-flight run-ups at 3am in the morning beside RAF Lossimouth Scotland. WOW what a memory.

I remember these, we had a squadron of Shackleton's on Christmas Island Operation Grapple in 1954

My late dad flew in Shackletons as an engineer. As his dementia progressed, he was able to remember more details about flights.

Rolls Royce engines, the smell of old leather, and a galley just large enough to make afternoon tea. If that's not a British product - what is?

Such a Beautiful plane I remember seeing 2 at RAF St. Mawgan back in the mid 90's one as Gate Guardian and the other used for the Dummy Deck and she was a wreck. I just stood and stared at her knowing what she was like in service.

Ex 206 squadron Mk 3 Shack's. 1960 - 63. I knew then, nothing could replace the versatility of this useful aircraft. God, I flew some hours in one of these. 24 hours on one trip. Yes, I can still smell it. (No mention of the nosewheel version? And 18 hours? 24 hours in Mk 3.)

As a child I used to look forward to seeing the Shackletons flying overhead along the Cornish coast. That sound will stay with me forever as will the Cornish coast where I now live after also falling in love with that also.

I had an empire of the sun moment with a Shackleton in the 80s 😔

I remember being on Widemouth Bay beach in Cornwall when I was a kid when a Shackleton came sweeping along the waters edge the length of the beach...he was very low...and I mean very low !.It was just a black silhouette against the evening sky, but the sight and the roar of the engines as it skimmed the beach is something I will never forget....even if I did think it was a Lancaster at the time !

I remember being posted to RAF Changi, Singapore(now Changi International Airport), they had a squadron of Shackletons. This was in the early 70s. Sometimes when at the model aircraft club which was beside the runway on the grass, we had to stop flying so a Shackleton could take off. Amazing aircraft in the days of the jet age.

Just remember chaps, Built in Blighty, twice as strong so it will get you home should any thing go wrong, British Engineering, built to last, proven in war and in peace, now sadly gone forever. "We're flying Rolls Royce engines in leather seats, what more can we ask for?" well said.

Lossiemouth - Shackletons and Jaguars (before the Tornados arrived) used to watch the Shackleton fly over Elgin in the '70's every day.

Went to lossiemouth with the air cadets and had the privelidge to get a look round one of these fantastic old ladies,love them

Thank you. Another good military aviation history. Excellent.

When I was in England back in the 70's, I saw one of these taking off from Heathrow airport!.

In 1969 or 70 i was permitted to walk/crawl through a piece of history.

My Dad flew on Sunderlands and Shacks during his National Service in the 50s as a radar operator and maintenance technician. 963 at Baginton near Coventry is about three years away from taking to the skies again :-)

Quality Documentary

To anyone in the RAF, whatever role is that you did or do. Your are and forever will be my heroes! Bottoms up old chaps!

Took my final board at RAF Cosford passing out as would now be called an Avionics Technician, on a Shackleton. The most memorable thing was the leather seats and watch your head when moving around.

One funny story I once heard about the Shackleton MR was the time one was crossing the Indian Ocean and everyone was heartily bored. The navigator noticed he had dropped a baked bean on his chart and plotted a course round the baked bean, relaying the course changes to the pilot!

My Dad flew MR3's back in the late 1960s, his hearing has never recovered...

Great documentary. I would have loved to hear those engines power up.

amazing video, one of the best parts is the britsh sense of humor of the crew.

So proud when i think all this was done in Manchester.

I remember Shackeltons flying over Loch Ness in the direction of Fort William. Also back in the direction of Lossiemouth. This was as a teenager.

The Shackletons were used by SAAF for long range patroling off the South African coastline

John Noakes on Blue Peter (UK children's TV show) seemed to be in one of these every other week, though my memory may deceive me.

I remember a quote from a book on the worst aircraft - I forget the title - in which a Shackleton air crew member said the best sound in the world was when you were standing watching a Shackleton taking off because it meant that you weren't in it. 16:40 The Griffon engine was not developed from the Merlin, but from the larger "R" motor that powered the 1931 Supermarine S6B Schneider Trophy sea plane.

Thanks for posting, great vid.

In the dark , raining, engine out, reminds me of my H1 500

Spent more time talking about the Lancaster than the Shackleton !!!

Good stuff! Thank you for sharing.

"...flying Rolls-Royce engines in leather seats..." What more could you want indeed? Blessings on the Isles and the British people.

It's sad to see an aircraft go off into the sunset, but time presses on , and stops for no one. At 68 years of age and still working in aviation, I've said good bye to a few of them myself.

Great video of a great plane!

I used to deliver spares up to RAF Lossiemouth for these aircraft. Used to stay overnight in the town.

In the mid 60's I was stationed at Tidworth, and we used to see Shakletons land and take of at Boscombe Down.

I was there on the last flypast over London. It was a merkey day but what a sight.

This is first 'guppy tummy' I've seen on military a/c since assigned to US Navy squadron (1966), then flying the Lockheed P2-V Neptunes -- another 'snooper' dooper, albeit for ASW hunting, c. 1950s -'60s. The land based P2's had replaced the seaplane P-5 Martins, before themselves being replaced by the venerable P-3 Orion (Electra), a twin engine turboprop, but without that distinctive radome.

I flew to Iceland in one in 91 from Lossiemouth. I trained evacuation in a Nimrod, but I went in one of these. Really horrible journey yet interesting all the same and easy to take photographs in flight. I came back in a Nimrod, which was only slightly better.

The joke used to be "What do you cali 13.000 rivets flying in formation?" Answer: a Shackelton.

used to watch them every day from my home in faughanvale .sometimes in formation of nines . iwas about ten years old.the then vulcan took over.memories mmmmmm

In November 1955 our platoon flew in a Shackleton from ,I think Bank Top Aerodrome some where in county Durham, and eight hours later we landed in Luqa Malta. I believe it was an airport ability test something to do with Aden. Exciting times for a nineteen year old.

My Grandad was a rear gunner in one of these and survived :)

I used to watch these machines flying in at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus in the 1980's whilst serving on 34 Sqn RAF Regt!

enjoyable informative . nostalgic

I would have loved to experience one go out on patrol with those big RR powered counter-rotating props at full power. Thanks for the post.

I've got goose bump when they released the brakes... (first time in youtube) :-)