No. 226 Operational Conversion Unit RAF
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No. 226 Operational Conversion Unit was a Royal Air Force Operational Conversion Unit. It was first formed in 1946 at RAF Molesworth under No. 11 Group of Fighter Command by redesignation of No. 1335 Conversion Unit with the mission of training fighter pilots. The unit operated with a variety of types, as befitted its general fighting pilot training mission. Those types included the Gloster Meteor, Hawker Tempest, De Havilland Hornet and De Havilland Vampire. Just over three years later the unit disbanded for the first time at RAF Driffield by being redesignated as No. 203 Advanced Flying School.
Next month in September 1949 the unit was resurrected at RAF Stradishall and No. 226 OCU's service began a new chapter. In No. 12 Group, again in Fighter Command, the unit had the more specific mission of training Meteor pilots. This lasted until 1955 when the unit was disbanded for a second time. Continuing the tradition of training fighter pilots the OCU reformed in 1963 at RAF Middleton St George, flying the English Electric Lightning with the redesignation of the Lightning Conversion Squadron. At little over eleven years later, at RAF Coltishall, the OCU's association with fighters came to an end as it was disbanded.
The next area where the OCU saw service was Scotland. Shifting emphasis to strike aircraft the OCU reformed at RAF Lossiemouth the day after its disbandment and took over the mission of training pilots of the Sepecat Jaguar. With the post-Cold War drawdown of the RAF the OCU fell victim to defence cuts in 1991 and was disbanded for the last time by redesignation to No. 16 Squadron.
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From late 1948 into the '50s No 226 OCU was based at RAF Bentwaters, Suffolk, training pilots to convert from Spitfires to Meteors Mk IV, using Mk VIII trainers. The unit also had several Harvard, Hornet and Vampire aircraft. At that time it was directed from Fighter Command Headquarters, Bentley Priory, via 11 Fighter Group at Hillingdon.
