No. 47 Squadron RAF Army support role. The Squadron moved to RAF Disforth in September 1948, where it became the first RAF Squadron to receive the Handley Page Hastings four-engined transport. The conversion process was rushed as the aircraft were needed to support the Berlin Airlift, with the Squadron moving to Schleswigland, near Kiel in West Germany on 1 November 1948. The aircraft was mainly used to carry coal, carrying out 3,000 trips to Berlin and carrying 22,000 tons of supplies. When the blockade ended the Squadron returned to the United Kingdom, moving to RAF Topcliffe on 22 August 1949, operating in support of
History of coal mining higher rations of food. Output doubled and the share of the region in the total national coal production rose from 8% to 22%. In 1989-91 militant coal miners in Russia and Ukraine were the mainstay of the revolutionary forced which finally overthrew the Communist system in 1991. Today the Donets Basin is the major coal-mining district in eastern Ukraine and adjacent portions of Russia. Production during 2009 was 68.7 million tons in the Ukrainian and 4.9million tons in the Russian part of the basin, but coal gas is a major hazard. The coal industry in China goes back many centuries.