No. 1426 Flight RAF

No. 1426 Flight RAF
A Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and a Junkers Ju 88 of 1426 Flight undergoing maintenance by RAF ground crew at RAF Collyweston (February 1945)
Active	21 Nov 1941 – 17 Jan 1945 1 Jan 1956 - 31 Dec 1956
Role	Enemy aircraft evaluation and demonstration
Garrison/HQ	RAF Duxford RAF Collyweston RAF Khormaksar
Equipment	Messerschmitt Bf 109E-3/F-4/G-2/G-6/G-14 Messerschmitt Bf 110C-5 Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-4 Heinkel He 111H-3 Junkers Ju 88A-5/A-6/G-1/R-1/S-1 Henschel Hs 129B-1 Avro Anson I Airspeed Oxford II General Aircraft Monospar ST-25 Avro Lincoln B.1

No. 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight RAF, nicknamed "the Rafwaffe", was a Royal Air Force flight formed during the Second World War to evaluate captured enemy aircraft and demonstrate their characteristics to other Allied units. Several aircraft on charge with the RAE Farnborough section were also used by this unit. The RAE facilities at Farnborough were utilised for the flight testing of German and Italian aircraft during the war.

Many crash-landed airframes were brought to Farnborough for examination, testing and cannibalisation of spare parts to keep other aircraft in serviceable condition. The main flight testing work was carried out by the Aerodynamics Flight of the Experimental Flying Department and the Wireless & Electrical Flight (W&EF), the latter responsible for evaluation and examination of radar-equipped aircraft later in the war.

The unit was established 21 November 1941 at RAF Duxford, made up of a small group of pilots who had previously been maintenance test pilots with No. 41 Group RAF. Attached at first to 12 Group, its mission was to demonstrate captured types to Allied personnel and expose them to "the appearance, performance, and even the sound" of hostile types. Initially, it operated a Heinkel He 111H (AW177) shot down in Scotland in February 1940, a Messerschmitt Bf 109 captured during the Battle of France (AE479) (turned over from the Air Fighting Development Unit), and a Junkers Ju 88A-5 (HM509). The Ju 88 was a more recent British acquisition after the pilot landed at night at RAF Chivenor in the belief it was an airfield in France-–the crew had made a navigational error after being deceived by a Meacon. A General Aircraft Monospar was also assigned to the unit for general communication tasks and collecting spare parts.