Aeroplane Magazine - Apr 2006

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Michael Oakey – EDITORPS — Booked your holidays yet? See the inside back cover of this issue for details of our Aeroplane reader trips this year, both of which I will be accompanying. Our South Africa tour is almost full, with just a few places remaining,but there is still plenty of space on the Paris long-weekend

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WE COULD NOT HAVE WISHED for a better

response from Aeroplane readers to our

Test Flying Memorial Project, launched in

last month’s issue — many thanks for your

enthusiastic input. It is now well under way, with the aim

of producing a Roll of Honour of British test pilots and

other flight-test aircrew in time for the centenary of

powered flight in the UK in 2008. See page 30 for an update,

and please keep your letters and donations coming.

In the meantime, this issue of Aeroplane continues our

Spitfi re 70th anniversary coverage, following on from last

month’s well-received Database section on the prototype

and Mk I. Turning from the technical to the personal, we

have some vivid recollections from the last surviving

member of Supermarine’s 1936 Spitfi re design team;

and then we turn (mildly) technical again with some

previously unpublished documentation.

In addition to these new angles on a familiar subject,

this issue features plenty that I hope will be just plain new

to most readers, and even surprising.

This month’s front cover photograph, by XAVIERMÉAL, depicts sole airworthy Kreutzer K-5 Air Coach

NC612A, owned by Greg Herrick. The Air Coach is just one of the less-well-known American inter-war trimotors featured in this issue’s Database section

RIGHT AEROPLANE, AUGUST 1997This issue’s cover featured the Confederate Air Force’s Boeing B-29; inside were articles on the TSR.2 and Service test-fl ying of the Supermarine Swift■ Launched as a monthly magazine in 1973 by Richard T. Riding(Editor for 25 years until 1998), Aeroplane traces its lineage back to the weekly The Aeroplane, founded by the legendary C.G. Grey in1911 and published until 1968

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2 AEROPLANE APRIL 2006

ContentsApril 2006 Vol 34 No 4 Issue No 396 (on sale March 1)

Features12 The Fighter that Came in From the ColdMark Sheppard looks at the story behind the recovery of a rare Soviet MiG-3 fi ghter

22 Birth of the Spitfi reThe last surviving member of the 1936 Spitfi re design department, Harry Griffi ths, talks to Ian Frimston PLUS we reveal previously unpublished Spitfi re documents

30 Test Flying MemorialAn update on Aeroplane’s project to create a Roll of Honour for British test pilots

32 Brooklands Concorde Comeback Tony Harmsworth reports on the dedicated effort to preserve a Concorde at Brooklands

36 Laughter & TearsNick Stroud unearths a unique record of cartoons by USAAF Republic P-47 pilot Capt George Rarey

66 The Salamander in France After World War Two, France tested fi ve Heinkel He 162 Salamanders. Philippe Cou-derchon recounts their story

72 The Offi ceA detailed look at the cockpit of one of the most successful jet fi ghters ever — the MiG-21

75 By Rapide to PalestineColin Dodds describes a somewhat frustrating United Nations D.H.89 expedition to the Middle East in 1948

81COMPETITIONYour chance to win a fl ight for two in a Rapide Aeroplane and Air Atlantique give you the opportunity to fl y in one of the latter’s Classic Flight D.H. Dragon Rapides

84 Flying the ZeroBruce Lockwood describeswhat the Mitsubishi A6M3Zero is like to fl y

Regulars4 NewsAll the latest preservation news, compiled by Tony Harmsworth

17 Contact!Paul Coggan comments on the preservation scene

18 SkywritersReaders’ letters on various topics

21 Flying VisitA potted interview with Hawker Hunter owner Jonathon Whaley

42 DatabaseAmerican Civil TrimotorsMichael O’Leary describes the histories of the lesser-known three-engined airliners that proliferated in the USA during the inter-war period, and how the Great Depression put paid to their success regardless of their innovations. Includes scale drawings by Tim Hall

64 Personal AlbumPhotographs taken at Brawdy’s Air Day in 1968, from the collection of Gerry Manning

74 Looking BackNick Stroud browses in TheAeroplane of 50 years ago

82 Picture of the MonthA reader offer from Aeroplane’sphotographic archive — the English Electric Canberra B(I).8

83 High SocietyUnder the spotlight this month is the 656 Sqn Association

93 NavigatorAeroplane’s monthly reviews and listings — see opposite

104 CrosswindJohn Fricker provides sideways comment on the aviation world

INSIDE BACK COVERReader Holiday OfferA Grand Aviation Tour of South Africa and a trip to Paris and the La Ferté-Alais show

EDITOR’SCHOICE

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COVERSTORY

AEROPLANE APRIL 2006 3

Navigator

Our Navigator section at the back of the magazine tells you all you need to know about what to buy and where to go:93 Book reviews95 Internet review 96 Information Exchange97 Reader offers 98 Airshows & Events100 Next month in Aeroplane101 Aeroplane services — how to order back-issues and subscriptions, plus a news-agent regular order form

FREE TEST FLYING DVDOur UK readers will have received their free DVD with this month’s issue. We have a limited number available for our overseas readers. If you would like one, please send your name and address to: Free DVD Offer, Aeroplane, Room 0515, Kings Reach Tower, Stamford Street,London, SE1 9LS

MAIN PICTURE Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero NX553TT was photographed by MICHAEL O’LEARY over the Mojave desert in June 2005, with Bruce Lockwood at the controls. Having fl own most of the fi ghter types the Zero would have come up against during the Pacifi c War, Bruce had always been curious to fi nd out exactly what the nimble Japanese machine was capable of. When a number of Zeroes were recovered from New Guinea in the early 1990s and restored to airworthy condition, he jumped at the chance to have his wish fulfi lled. His report on fl ying one of the world’s most famous fi ghters starts on page 84.

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THE FUSELAGE of the RAF Museum’s Fairey Battle, L5343, left Hendon on January 19, heading for the Medway Aircraft Preservation Society’s workshops at Rochester airport, where it will be restored by a team of 30 volunteers over the next 18 months. The wings and the propeller were due to follow on February 27.

The only survivor of the type in Britain, the Battle is suffering from corrosion in the tail and wheel-wells. The machine will be restored to the condition it was in while with 98 Sqn at

Gatwick in the midsummer of 1940, before the unit’s posting to Iceland. On September 13, 1940, only two days after its arrival in Iceland, the Battle

forced-landed. The remains were brought back to Britain in the 1970s and restored at Leeming and St Athan before going to Hendon in 1990.

BATTLE MOVES TO ROCHESTER

ABOVE Battle L5343 after arriving at Rochester Airport on January 19. It is expected to take 5,000–6,000 man- hours to restore it.

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ABOVE Bolingbroke IV RCAF 9048, which fl ew anti-submarine patrols during the war, in storage at David Tallichet’s yard at Chino.

THE BRISTOL AERO Collection at Filton looks set to secure the world’s second-oldest surviving Bristol Boling-broke. Currently at Chino, California, the aircraft is RCAF 9048. The plan to bring it back to the UK has support of Airbus UK, and it is hoped that once it is back in Britain sections will be restored at engineering colleges in the Bristol area.

Unlike most of the sur-viving Bolingbrokes, 9048was originally constructed as a bomber, not a trainer;

it was the 48th Bolingbroke IV built by Fairchild Aircraft at Longueuil. Delivered to No 8 Sqn at Sydney, Nova Scotia, on November 25, 1941, it fl ew long-range anti-submarine patrols over the Atlantic.

After the Japanese entered the war, in January 1942 No 8 Sqn was sent to the west coast and resumed patrols, now looking for Japanese submarines in the Pacifi c. In June 1942 the Japanese seized two remote islands in the Aleutian chain, and 8 Sqn was immediately

moved to Anchorage, where it operated as part of an RCAF wing under American command, again on anti-submarine patrols.

In the event, no Boling-broke of 8 Sqn ever engaged a Japanese submarine, and in February 1943 the unit arrived at Sea Island, British Columbia, where it re-equipped with Lockheed Venturas. Aircraft 9048 was then given a coat of yellow paint and used as a bombing and gunnery trainer.

Withdrawn on October 12,

1945, with 626hr on the clock, 9048 was sold to a farmer for parts. Collector David Tallichet acquired it in 1972, and it was stored at Chino for many years before going to Apple Valley, Cali-fornia, in 1999 for a fl ying restoration. This proved abortive, and 9048 returned to Chino in late 2004.

Bristol collection gets a “Bolly”

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NewsR E S T O R AT I O N • R E B U I L D S • R E P L I C A S •A I R C R A F T• M U S EU M S


THIS MONTH

MiG-3 rebuildPage 12

Chino’s Boeing P-26Page 9

Newark’s ViggenPage 8

TFC Hurricane sold

Farewell FreddiePage 6

KENNET AVIATION’S Supermarine Seafi re XVII SX336/G-KASX arrived at Turweston airfi eld on February 7 to be painted in its original Fleet Air Arm colours. A few days earlier the fi ghter had its Griffon engine run for the fi rst time at Kennet’s North Weald base. When it fl ies, (in the spring, it is hoped), SX336 will be the fi rst airworthy

Seafi re in Britain for half a century. The only fl ying Seafi re in the world is FR.47 VP441 owned by Jim Smith at Crystal Lakes, Montana (see Aeroplane, October2004), which fl ew again following a lengthy restoration in April 2004.

Kennet Seafi re goes into the paint shop

RIGHT Seafi re XVII SX336 arriving at Turweston for painting on February 7.

ABOVE Lockheed L 1049 Super Constellation CF-TGE being dismantled at the north end of Toronto’s International Airport in early February.

THE PROPOSED EXPORT of the last remaining post-war long-range piston-engined airliner in Canada, from Toronto to the Museum of Flight in Seattle, is being contested by several groups in Canada.

During January the dismantling of Lockheed Super Constellation CF-TGE/CF-RNR began at the Toronto International Airport, the intended fi rst destination being the short journey to the Air Canada spray booths,

where it was due to be re-painted in its original Trans Canada Airlines (TCA) livery before the move to Seattle. The Toronto Aerospace Museum and the Air Canada Pionairs retirees’ group are at the forefront of the cam-paign to keep the Connie in Canada, and the fate of the airliner is currently being considered by HeritageCanada’s Moveable Cultural Properties Program, a body set up to prevent historically signifi cant artefacts from

leaving the country. Super Connie CF-TGE fl ew

with Trans Canada during 1954–63, and saw its last commercial use as a rest-aurant between 1998 and 2002. In 2004 the Greater Toronto Airport Authority announced that it would seize the Connie for several years’ back rent on the site.

Paul Cabot, Curator of the Toronto Aerospace Museum, says, “We have been trying to acquire this aircraft for several years, so that it

CONNIE MOVE CONTROVERSY ■ Canadians oppose Seattle Museum’s purchase of last TCA “heavy”

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could be restored, displayed and celebrated in Toronto, from where it fl ew for many years”. The museum is currently restoring Avro Lancaster Mk X FM104, and building a full-scale metal replica of the Avro Canada Arrow, which is scheduled for rollout in October 2006.

■ SIR PETER MASEFIELD, aviation journalist turned businessman and one of the great fi gures of post-war British aviation, died on February 14, at the age of 91, just as this issue was going to press. A full obituary will appear next month.

■ ST VALENTINES DAY was a cruel one for the historic aviation world, for it also saw the death of James Gilbert, the brilliant former proprietor/editor of Pilot magazine. Gilbert also wrote several books, including TheGreat Planes, The Flier’s Worldand The World’s Worst Aircraft’.

■ ON JANUARY 13 Bud Wheeler’s Allison Competition Engines at Latrobe, Pennsyl-vania, had its powerplant licence suspended by the FAA. Wheeler had just begun build-ing a modifi ed Allison V-1710 for Flug Werk’s new-build Focke-Wulf FW 190D (see News, March).

News in Brief

News compiled by: Tony Harmsworth

Tel: 020 7261 5551 Fax: 020 7261 5269

E-mail: [email protected]

OR Write to our usual address

R E S T O R AT I O N • R E B U I L D S • R E P L I C A S •A I R C R A F T• M U S EU M S



NORTH AMERICAN VB-25N Mitchell 44-30861/N9089Z Bedsheet Bomber was fi nallypulled out of the undergrowth at the edge of North Wealdaerodrome in early February, and seems destined to be roaded to Booker for new owner Barry Parkhouse.

The B-25 has been at North Weald since 1987, having spent three years on show at Duxford

and the decade before that with the Historic Aircraft Museum at Southend. It was used as a camera platform for the fi lms The War Lover and 633 Squadron in the early 1960s, and may see service at the other end of the lens in an upcoming fi lm.

B-25 EMERGES FROM THE UNDERGROWTH

ABOVE B-25 N9089Z at NorthWeald on February 15.

News


Tel: 020 7261 5551 Fax: 020 7261 5269 E-mail: [email protected]

R E S T O R AT I O N S • R E B U I L D S • R E P L I C A S

AFTER A MONTH of intensive speculation, the Duxford-based Fighter Collection announced on February 17 that Hawker Hurricane IV KZ321/G-HURY and Bücker Jungmeister G-AYSJ would be departing for new owners in Canada and the USA respectively, with the poss-ibility that Bristol Beaufi ghter A8-324/“A19-144” would also leave later in the year.

Due to join TFC are rare Republic P-47G Thunderbolt N47DG, a Spitfi re XVIII and two-seat North American TF-51 Mustang. The addition of the rare “razorback” P-47 to TFC will probably also mean that P-47D G-THUN NoGuts No Glory will also move on later in the year.

THE GREAT PIONEER of cheap transatlantic air travel, Sir FreddieLaker, died on February 9 at his home in Florida. Born in Canter-bury on August 6, 1922, he was fi rst inspired by aviation when he saw the German airship Hindenburg and a Handley Page H.P.42fl ying over Canterbury Cathedral. At the age of 16, he became a teaboy and apprentice engineer at Short Brothers in Rochester, while studying economics at night school. During the war Laker joined the ATA, working as Jim Mollison’s engineer before qualifying for ferry duties himself. In 1947 he set up Air Charter, fl ying passenger and freight with a D.H. Dragon and Rapide, and Aviation Traders (ATL), which converted many surplus transport aircraft for civilian use, including 12 Handley Page Haltons for use in the Berlin Airlift. ATL also built the Accountant (see next month’s Aeroplane for a feature on it) and the Carvair.

In 1960 Laker became managing director of British United Air-lines; he made it the largest independent airline in Britain, but in 1965 quit to run his own operation again. Laker Airways capitalised on the burgeoning package holiday business, but created its biggest buzz in 1977 with the introduction of the “Skytrain” service across the Atlantic. Within three years one in seven transatlantic passen-gers was fl ying with Laker, but fare reductions by several major air-lines put him into receivership in 1982. In more recent years Laker ran various businesses, including another airline, in the Bahamas.

Obituary – Sir Freddie Laker

ABOVE A fl amboyantly-dressed Freddie Laker checking out the cabin of a Douglas DC-10 in April 1973.BELOW The famous Laker Airways DC-10 fi n.

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TFC sells Hurricane; Beau to follow?

ABOVE Hurricane IV KZ321/G-HURY being put through its paces at the 2005 Flying Legends showat Duxford. LEFT Bristol Beaufighter Mk 21 A8-324, seen during the rebuild in TFC’s hangar.

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The Beaufi ghter has been under restoration at Duxford for more than a decade, and the offi cial TFC statement said “. . . the spectacular and important restoration work on the Beaufi ghter could not be enjoyed in fl ight by Stephen Grey, due to European JAR regulations which inhibit the fl ight of heavyweight multi-engined aircraft by pilots of ‘free bus pass age’ who have been obliged to surrender their professional licences by virtue of their age and past medical treatment, regardless of its success. Stephen hopes for a home for the Beau which will be able to accelerate the pace of restoration, so that

fuel system and wiring. It is hoped that TFC’s Fiat CR.42, which is currently being rebuilt in Italy, will soon be fl ying, and will make a hitherto unimaginable “last generation” biplane fi ghter duo with the Gladiator.

In the meantime the rebuild of TFC’s Gloster Gladiator II N5903/G-GLAD reached a milestone at Duxford during the fi rst week of February, with the trial rigging of the top wing. Next up will be work on the

everyone can, as early as possible, see this amazing aircraft in action. Mean-while, TFC is continuing to fi nish the outstanding restoration work on this very important and histor-ical aeroplane”.


RESTORATION OF North American P-51D Mustang 44-74923 is coming along well with the Early Birds Foundation at Lelystad in Holland, and the fi ghter could fl y later this year. The Early Birds hangar, which now has 24 vintage aircraft in residence, is rather too full to accommodate the P-51, and it will be assembled in

Dutch P-51 progress

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ABOVE The former Reno racer Miss Ashley at Lelystad,Holland, in late January.

THE ULSTER AVIATION Heritage Centre’s Buccaneer S.2B XV361 and Shorts SD330 G-BDBS left Langford Lodge, on the west side of Lough Neagh, during the weekend of January 21–22, going into storage in a secret location 25 miles from Langford. The two aircraft are now reunited with the other ten airframes in the Centre’s collection, and negotiations which could see the temporary home become permanent are under way.

The fi nal movement away from Langford Lodge came a year and a half after the Herit-

age Centre had received news that the landlord was not going to renew the Ulster Aviation Society’s lease. The move was made more complex because neither airframe would fi t through any of the gates at the airfi eld, and had to be craned over a fence and lowered on to the low-loaders. Both aircraft had arrived at Langford by air, the Buccaneer under its own power, and the SD330 under a Chinook helicopter.

ULSTER BUCC MOVES

ABOVE Hawker SiddeleyBuccaneer S.2B XV361 islifted over the fence atLangford Lodge and on to a low-loader on January 21.

ERIC GRAY

ABOVE Junkers Ju 52/3mHB-HOP awaits another group of junketingjournalists at Goodwood on February 1.

ANYONE BRAVE ENOUGH to be out in the freezing temperatures prevailing along the central southern coast of England on February 1 may have been amazed to see a pair of Ju-Air’s Dübendorf-based Junkers Ju 52s trundling along, giving pleasure fl ights from Goodwood airfi eld to groups of journalists.

The two trimotor transports, HB-HOS and HB-HOP, were in Sussex on behalf of the International

Watch Company (IWC) for the press launch of a new range of pilots’ watches. One hundred journalists from Japan, China, Thailand, the USA, Canada, and every European country were fl own over to Britain for the event. The Ju 52s were accompanied by four British- based North American T-6 Harvards, which, despite a cloudbase of 600ft, made a total of 69 fl ights with journalists in the back. Two Spitfi res from Duxford,

Mk XVI TD248 and Mk XVIII SM845, were also on hand, with John Romain and Cliff Spink, although the weather conditions meant that only TD248 fl ew a short display.

The Spitfi res were there in recognition of one of IWC’s range of watches, which are named after R.J. Mitchell’s fi ghter. Roland Ott, the head of PR at Schaff-hausen, Switzerland-based IWC, said, “We looked at many venues for the event. The setting and ambience of

Ju 52 DUO VISITS GOODWOOD■ Swiss watch company IWC brings Ju-Air pair to Southern England for press launch

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Goodwood is so ideal for vintage aviation, and the additional pull of being at an airfi eld from where Spitfi res fl ew during the war made it our number one choice.”

The pilot of HB-HOP was Charles Bazhman, who had fi rst fl own the corrugated classic while with the Swiss Air Force back in 1969. “We usually just do pleasure fl ight from Dübendorf through the Swiss Alps, and occasionally take the Junkers to airshows in

Europe, so this is a pretty unusual, and fun, job for us”, he commented.

At a time when historic aviation seems to be under threat from many quarters, the preservation world should be grateful to companies like IWC for such a bold venture.


Write to: Aeroplane, Kings Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS Web: www.aeroplanemonthly.com

F I N D S • P R O J E C T S • A I R C R A F T• M U S E U M S • A U C T I O N S • P E O P L E

the adjacent Wings Over Holland hangar. The former Reno racer, which was campaigned as Miss Ashleyby Gary Levitz during the 1980s, arrived at Lelystad in 1999. It is likely to be fi nished in a USAAF scheme.

The star exhibit in the Centre’s collection is Grumman Wildcat JV482, which is currently under restoration. The former Royal Navy fi ghter ditched into Portmore Lough on Christmas Eve 1944, and was recovered 40 years later.


http://www.ju-air.com

ABOVE With one of Cranwell’s historic hangars as a backdrop, Saab Viggen AJSH 37 373/918 is seen soon after arrival on February 7.

ON FEBRUARY 7 a SAABViggen AJSH 37 arrived at RAF Cranwell at the end of its last fl ight, and is now due to bedismantled for the short road journey to its new home at the Newark Air Museum, Winthorpe. Serialled 373/918,it is on long-term loan to the museum from the Swedish Air Force, and will join another distinctive Saab fi ghter, ex-Danish Air Force Saab 35

Draken AR-107, which has been on display at Winthorpefor a number of years.

The Viggen was fl own to the Lincolnshire base by Captain Jonas Haraldsson from 221Sqn, F21 Norrbotten Wing at Luleå, just south of the Arctic Circle. The runways at Winthorpe were not thought to be in good enough shape to take the Viggen, so the museum greatly appreciated

the generous assistance of the personnel at RAF Cranwell and staff from Serco Systems, whoprovided technical assistance.

A team of technicians fromthe Swedish Air Force was dueto fly to Cranwell to de-fueland deactivate the Viggen, and after it is roaded to Winthorpea formal handover ceremonywill be held to welcome it into the care of the UK’s largest volunteer-run aviation museum.

Viggen arrives at Newark

THE KENT’S FLYING Start Project has submitted an initial lottery bid to restore the former Eastchurch air-fi eld on the Isle of Sheppey — where the fi rst Royal Navy pilots trained in 1911 — to create an educational and leisure venue.

Seen above with fi ngerscrossed are the project’s Alan Flint (left) and Air Cdre Bill Croydon. To offer help or support to the project, call Alan Flint on 01795 472291.

FlyingStart for Kent?

News




AT ALAMOGORDO, New Mexico, Neptune AviationServices (NAS), operators of Lockheed P2V Neptunes in the fi re-bomber role, are slowly bringing a P2V-5back to life as a warbird. Neptune BuNo 131463 has been fi tted with an Emerson nose turret and a tail turret,found in a surplus parts warehouse at Oakland, Cali-fornia; they both originallycarried twin 20mm cannon.

Sadly there are currently no examples of Lockheed’s maritime patrol bomber operating on the airshow circuit in the USA. The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum at Reading, Pennsylvania,maintains P2V-7 N45309 inairworthy condition, but it is not currently being operated

owing to the high costs of insurance and fuel.

The P2V-5 variant of the Neptune was the fi nal version of the type to retain the original nose and tail shape and fl at-sided cockpit

glazing, before the introduction of the bulgedcockpit canopy, glazed nose,and the “stinger” magneticanomaly detector extension(MAD) to the tail.

During February, Neptune

NEPTUNE GETS ITS TURRETS BACK

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Aviation acquired two P2V-7s from the liquidatorsof Hawkins and Powers Aviation at Greybull,Wyoming, taking the NASfi re-bombing fl eet up to seven Neptunes.

The AJSH 37 was an upgraded version of the SH 37reconnaissance Viggen, whichoperated in the strike and intercept role.

On December 9 last yearanother F21 Viggen, AJSF37954, arrived at the MuzeumLotnictwa Polskiego in Krakow,Poland; and on the 18th the Aviodrome at Lelystad in Holland received another example, 37901/51.

LOOK OUT FOR OLDWARDENGENERAL AVIATION pilots have been asked to avoid overflyingOld Warden (home of the Shut-tleworth Collection), especiallyon display days, in the wake ofincidents including one in whichthe pilot of the Collection’sSpitfi re Mk VC encountered an intruder while inverted half-wayround a loop at 2,000–2,500ft.

“For the 2006 season wehave had the support of the authorities who have taken the exceptional step of introducinga NOTAMed ATZ that will beshown on navigation charts”,says the Collection. “NOTAMswill be issued to promulgate the display area (3 n.m. and 3,000ft) and an active ATZ on the days the events take place.

“An AIC, 23/2006 (Yellow198) is due for publication in March which also explains that there may be other times whenOld Warden’s aircraft may beusing the airspace. If in doubtplease remain clear of the area or at least make contact on 130.700 MHz.”

ABOVE P2V-5 Neptune Bu 131463 following the fi tting of nose and tail turrets at Alamogordo.


Darryl Greenamyer’s Unlimited racer, with its North American F-86 tail in evidence.

IF THERE IS ONE THING the US National Air Races at Reno needs, it is more competitive Unlimited racing machines,writes Michael O’Leary. Withthe rising value of the Mustangand Bearcat, it would probablybe safe to say that we will see fewer of these fi ghters drastic-ally modifi ed into all-out racers, and top-end contenders such as Dago Red have been withdrawnfrom racing and put up for sale.

There have been several attempts at creating Unlimited racers from a variety of sources— everything from high-powered homebuilts to completely new designs.

Unfortunately, these aircrafthave achieved little in the wayof results and several have been involved in fatal crashes.

However, veteran racer and test pilot Darryl Greenamyerhas been working for several years on a new Unlimited racer, but needs sponsorship to complete the beast. Over recent years Darryl has causedquite a stir in the Sport Aviation class, achieving incrediblespeeds at Reno in his modifi ed Lancair. But success in the Unlimited category is still his ambition, and the design usescomponents from several other aircraft, such as an F-86 tail

group and outer wing panels from a Sea Fury. Power wouldcome from a Wright R-3350.

In a similar manner, Matt Jackson is also seeking spon-

sors to complete his Unlimited project, which uses parts fromthe T-2 Buckeye. The days whenan individual or a small groupof like-minded individuals

could create an Unlimited is essentially over, and it wouldbe a big boost if both these machines were to compete around the Reno pylons.

ABOVE Seversky AT-12 Guardsman N55539 being brought back up to fl ying condition at Chino in early February.

AT THE AIR MUSEUM, ChinoAirport, California, USA,several very rare aircraft not seen in the air for a couple of decades are beingrestored to fl y in this year’s Planes of Fame airshow. The theme of the show is “Fighter Command”, and Boeing P-26 “Peashooter”33-123/N3378G and Seversky/Republic AT-12Guardsman N55539 are now being prepared for the May21–22 event.

In February work began in earnest on the P-26, the Army Air Corps’ (AAC) fi rst all-metal monoplane. The prototype XP-936 fi rst fl ew in March 1932, and the 111 examples were delivered to the AAC in January—June1934. The type rapidly became obsolete, although

some saw combat when the Japanese invaded the Philippines. In 1937 the Guatemalan Air Force received seven Peashooters,and 19 years later, in 1956,

the two survivors returned to the USA, one going to the nascent Planes of Fame collection and the other to the USAF Museum. The P-26fl ew at Air Museum airshows

for many years, but was grounded in the mid-1980s.

The Seversky is one of 502-PA “coastal patrol” fi ghter-bombers, a development of the basic P-35 fi ghter ordered by the Swedish Flygvapnet,with a second seat behind the pilot under a lengthenedcanopy, and underwingbomb racks. Only two had been delivered before the US Government embargoedexports of military aircraft to Sweden, and they became AT-12 advanced trainers for the expanding USAAC. The Service did not really want them, but, named Guards-man, they served as hacks.

Chino P-26 and AT-12 to fl y




Amazingly, one survived. Sold post-war, it ended up in Nogales, Arizona, where it was discovered by Ed Maloney, founder of The AirMuseum. Steve Hinton says of the AT-12: “The Severskyis in pretty good condition,and we are just making sure that everything is up to our standards for fl yingoperations”. The rare aircraft will bridge the gapbetween the combat designsof the mid-1930s and the much more advanced Second World War machines which have been an ever- present feature at the Planes of Fame show.

GREENAMYER RENO RACER TAKES SHAPEABOVE The Planes of Fame Boeing P-26 Peashooter, being stripped down at Chino.

MICH

AEL O

’LEARY

MICH

AEL O

’LEARY PH

OTO

GRA

PHS


News




REGISTER REVIEWCompiled by Mike Hooks

ABOVE Beech F17D VH-AME, mentioned last month, is under restoration by Flying Fighters at Archerfi eld, Queensland, after lying untouched for some years. LEFT A cancellation for reasons not yet known is Jodel D.117 HB-SEZ, seen in July 1984 at the RSA Rally, Brienne, alongside D.120 HB-SPX.LEFT Another Brienne RSA visitor, this time in July1986, was Navion D-ENIB, currently resident atMuchamiel, Spain.

ABOVE LEFT Oldest airliner this month, the second prototypeFriendship PH-NVF is seen atthe 1957 Paris Air Show with Czech Il-12 OK-LCA. TheFriendship is now preservedat the Aviodrome, Lelystad.LEFT Another Friendship is the former Channel Express G-BNIZ, seen atBournemouth in May 1995. It is now with MMG Airlines, Istanbul as TC-MBF along with two other ex ChannelFriendships — see text.LEFT Tiger Moth G-ANMO, seen at the PFA Rally, Sywell,in July 1972, was substantiallydamaged on 2.10.05.M

IKE

HO

OKS

PH

OTO

GRA

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A PAIR OF WARBIRDS appear among the latest new UK registrations; 1939-built Messerschmitt Bf 109EG-CDTI has c/n 4034 andcode 8 for Rare Aero Ltd andSeafi re XVII G-CDTM for TimManna at North Weald. Thelatter is nearing completion ofa rebuild and was originallySX300 before receivingmaintenance serials A646and later A2054. It was derelict at Stretton in 4.55 forfi refi ghting practice beforegoing to Newark in 1978 to help the rebuild of SX336. Its fuselage was underrestoration in the Warwickarea by 1982, and was at Twyford by 6.95, again forspares for SX336 whichbecame G-KASX.

Two other ex-military are Westland Wasp G-KANZ exNZ3909/XT782, also with TimManna, and Bulldog G-AZHXreported last month as returning ex Swedenbecomes G-DOGE. A quite oldtype is a Huey, a Bell UH-1H

Iroquois appropriately G-UHIHex NX41574/72-21509.

Restorations include Tri-Pacer G-ARDV, back from EI-APA, Jodel D.112 G-APFDwhich has recovered from its accident, Jet ProvostG-BWDR/XM376 cancelled15.4.05 and ChipmunkG-TRIC, now in Spain (seeMarch issue). Withdrawn from use is Jet ProvostG-BXBI/XN510.

Tiger Moth G-ANMO was substantially damaged on 2.10.05. Sold abroad were CASA Jungmann G-BRSH(Norway), BAe 146s G-BVLJas A2-ABF, G-CFAF as HB-IYRand G-UKAG as D-AEWO,Wasp G-KAWW (South Africa)and Jetstream 31 G-CBCSas SP-KWE.

In France, additions includeNC.858S F-PPAN, probably a rebuild of F-BBRP if its revisedc/n 142 is correct — it was originally said to be 74 whichwas F-BFSU, see Decemberissue. Another rebuild is Stampe SV-JF4 F-PPLM

c/n 01 whose origins are unknown, and a new one is WAR Fw 190 replica F-PVGR.SV-4C1 F-GKGJ is cancelled(it has a German owner), while restorations are SV-4AF-BCGQ, rebuilt after a crash in 8.85, and NC.858S F-BFSY,another rebuild. In Germany, the comparatively rare Socata

ST-10 Diplomate D-EFIPhas gone to Lithuania as LY-ASH and an interesting ultralight is Weller DemoisellereplicaD-MWFD, due to fly shortly.

Scandinavian additions are KZ.III OY-DAA, Pitts S-1SSE-XYX ex N120CA and a rare Helio Courier, TF-VIKex C-GSAL/N118CB. In Switzerland, Pilatus PC-7HB-HDF, returned ex PH-JWF,but remained only a few daysbefore becoming N520WA.Other cancellations includeMooney M.20E HB-DEU,Jodel D.117 HB-SEZ andSkyship 600 HB-QIZ whichhas returned to N605SK.

Going further afi eld, Canadianadditions are Seabee C-GSVAex N6566K, Alpha Jet C-GQTAex N141XA/41+41, FougaMagister C-FHGD ex N805DMand Finnish Air Force FM-18,and Grumman MallardC-GGMZ with 11 previousidentities, the most recentbeing N7777Q.

American accidents includeMallard N2969 which brokeup in fl ight 19.12.05, CASAJungmann N131AK, crashedand caught fi re 25.12.05,Trislander N901VL andMustang N251BP, damagedon 7.12.05.

Airliner news: C-54s are C-FBAP ex N2742G/45-0636and C-GBAJ ex N62297/Bu90402/44-9102, DC-8sare -62F ZS-POL ex 3D-AJG/N8974U/HI-576CT and -63FZS-PRD ex 9Q-CAD/N964R/N904R/PH-DED. FriendshipPH-NVF c/n 10102 has gone to the Aviodrome, Lelystad, forpreservation, while three other former Channel Express Friendships have gone to MMG Airlines, Istanbul as TC-MBF ex G-BNIZ, TC-MBGex G-CEXG and TC-MBH exG-CEXB, all with long lists ofprevious registrations.

■ We are indebted to Air-Britain News for much of the above information

BOB

LIVI

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AT BULL CREEK, Perth, the Aviation Heritage Museum of Western Australia (AHMWA) is progressing well with the restoration of Commonwealth Wackett, VH-AIY, the work now being 60 per cent complete.

The all wood wing, the most complex part of the rebuild, has been fi nished and reattached to the fuselage. Aviation industry professionals from Jandakot Airport have played a valuable role in the

rebuild, and have saved the project budget several thousand dollars.

The Wackett primary trainer fi rst fl ew in 1939, 200 being delivered to the RAAF. The AHMWA aircraft was owned post-war by aviation pioneer Horrie Miller, the co-founder of MacRobertson Miller Airlines. In 1973 VH-AIY went on show near the council offi ces at Broome, Western Australia, moving to Bull Creek in 2002.

WACKETT WORK WELL FORWARD IN W.A.

ABOVE Wackett VH-AIY, under restoration at Bull Creek, W.A.

VIA

LEIT

H W

ARD

SCOTTISH AVIATION Twin Pioneers VH-AIS and VH-EVB are currently languishing at a bush strip near Brisbane. Formerly operated from Coolangatta by Pionair Airlines on sightseeing fl ights, the triple-tailed transports are the victims of increased airport and insurance charges. They are in good condition, and have substantial spares backup.

The Twin Pioneers are two of 15 examples delivered to the Royal Malayan Air Force in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The only other airworthy Twin Pin in the world is G-APRS, with Air Atlantique at Coventry.

Twin Pins put out to pasture in Oz

RIGHT Twin Pins VH-AIS and VH-EVB, sitting it out on a grass strip near Brisbane in January this year.


■ ART PRINTS OF Halifax III LW170 (News, March) areavailable in the UK from AirSupply, 97 High Street,Yeadon, Leeds, LS19 7TA.

■ THE SHUTTLEWORTH Collection has announced the retirement of Chris Morris as Chief Engineer after some 26 years’ service. His successor is Jean-Michel (John) Munn. Chris remains with the collection — “as Chief Engineer (retired)” says a spokesman — for a while longer, and his unrivalled know-ledge is sure to play a vital part in the continued operation of the Old Warden-based fl eet of historic aircraft. Thousands of enthusiasts who have enjoyed Shuttleworth displays over the years will want to join the Editor and crew of Aeroplane in wishing him all the very best.

News in Brief



Lost & Found

THE STORY OF Britain’s fi rst victory in the Schneider Trophy contests is well known. Sopwith’s sprightly little Tabloid seaplane, fl own by Howard Pixton in the 1914 event at Monaco, put the other competitors in the shade to such an extent that three of them did not even take off, and the twin-fl oat biplane, powered by a 100 h.p. Gnome Monosoupape rotary engine, averaged 85·5 m.p.h. over the 280km course and then set a new world speed record for seaplanes by averaging 92 m.p.h. over a 300km run.

Less well known is the

Untraced Tabloidfact that, in its original waterborne form, the Tabloid had a single main fl oat. It was in this form when Pixton had prepared to take it on its fi rst test at Hamble, Southampton, but when he opened up the engine the aircraft turned over in the water. It was rushed back to the company’s works at Kingston, Surrey, for a complete rebuild. Redesign of the undercarriage was needed, but there was insuf-fi cient time, so the single main fl oat was simply cut along its centreline and con-verted into a twin-fl oat gear.

Amid all the haste it seems that nobody photographed the Tabloid in its original

ABOVE Tommy Sopwith, on the extreme right, watches as his employees restrain the Tabloid seaplane during an engine test at Monaco in 1914. The twin-fl oat undercarriage was created by cutting the original single main fl oat in half.

single-fl oat confi guration. The late Pete Capon, a great Sopwith enthusiast and researcher, actually recalled photographing his fi ancée,Betty, standing by the aircraft while it was in this form, but much to his great chagrin he lost the print

many years ago and never found it again. So, unless something turns up in a forgotten album, it seems that this short-lived version of a famous Schneider Trophy winner will remain unseen.

PHILIP JARRETT

TON

Y WILLS

Hangar Stores is a free service for museums, vintage aircraft collectors and operators to advertise their wants and disposals. Items should be sent to Hangar Stores, Aeroplane,King’s Reach Tower, StamfordStreet, London SE1 9LS. Please include a name and contact telephone number for editorial use

Disposals■ Folding light-alloy ladder,marked G-ATAP, believedfrom Short Empire modifiedC-Class flying-boat Canopus.The “T” in the registrationis doubtful owing to loss ofpaint. Also Magnesyn remotecompass indicator. MikeDible, tel 01628 520608.

Hangar Stores


The remains were in a very desolate and swampy area, and it was only with the help of the Murmansk Regional Governor that they were eventually recovered. It was not until the summer of 2001 that a clearing was created and the MiG-3 lifted out by helicopter and transported to Kandalaksha.

Most of the MiG-3 blueprints had been stored by the Mikoyan-Gurevich company until the mid-1980s, when, owing to lack of space, they were destroyed. Consequently the rebuild had to rely on the reverse engineering of parts recovered from the crash sites, and this made possible the remanufacture of 40 per cent of the original structure. In addition, ten AM-35/AM-38 engines were recovered from these crash sites and others for possible reuse.

The rebuildAll of the MiG-3 components went to Aviarestoration at Novosibirsk in Siberia. The city has always been a centre of aviation excellence, so all the skilled personnel required for the rebuilds could be found there. The company was already experienced in such work, having restored six Polikarpov I-16 Ratas,three I-153 Chaikas, two I-15bis single-seat biplanes and one I-15dis two-seater

during the previous 12 years.With all of the components

to hand, the fi rst stage was to collect any remaining available blueprints and draw up new ones to replace those that were missing, based on items recovered from the crash sites.

The second stage was to manufacture the wooden jigfor the fabrication of the fuselage, which was con-structed as a laminated pine shell. The rear fuselage was constructed as two halves in high-quality Finnish veneer

News Feature


TOP Besides missing cowlings and panels, most of the metal-work remained. The wooden wings had rotted after 60 years.

This artwork by KJETIL AAKRA shows how MiG-3 c/n 4958 probably looked during the lateautumn of 1941, having been camoufl aged in A.I.I. black and A.I.I. green. The tactical number

is currently unknown, and will probably remain so, but one has been added to show the typeand style as applied to machines of the 147th IAP in 1941.

ABOVE MiG-3 c/n 4958 undergoing undercarriage retraction tri-als while being assembled at Novosibirsk in mid-2005.

manufactured from Siberian pine. Cross-layered and glued with an epoxy resin, the two halves were then plugged and glued to the fuselage frames. The fi nal stage was to cover the shell in fabric, which was then doped and painted.

Although nothing remained of the wooden wings, the remains of their metal spars had been recovered. Their survival was the reason why the creation of the spar drawings and remanufacture of the spars took only eight

© 2006 KJETIL AAKRA

weeks. The wings were built up on these, with wooden ribs and veneered pine covering, glued and layered.

The next stage was to begin rebuilding an engine. The Russian client fi nancing the restoration of the MiG-3s required that his be fi tted with an original AM-35, instead of the easier option of fi tting an American Allison.

The remains of a number of AM-35s had been recovered from the Arctic north, but unfortunately all had suffered internal damage and could not be reused. Instead, Aviarestoration undertook the restoration of an AM-38 from an Il-2, as this engine was of very similar size to the AM-35. The AM-38 was assembled and run on a testbed for 8hr, but then fi nance was with-drawn and Aviarestoration could not fi nish the job, leaving the task for the customer to complete.

In May 2005 the centre section of MiG-3 4958 was rolled out at Novosibirsk. The wings and control surfaces were then fi tted, although the airframe still awaited an airworthy engine. At this stage a static AM-38 was installed to allow completion of the close-fi tting cowlings.

The MiG-3 was then passed to the client to have its paint fi nish applied.

In August 2005 the MiG-3 was displayed at the MAKS Air Show in Moscow with a static engine, as the air-worthy AM-38 had still not been completed. The client had painted the aircraft in a scheme of A.I.I. green upper

surfaces and A.I.I. blue undersides, as applied to the early MiG-1/3s. As 4958 was a late example it would have been more accurate to have completed the restoration in A.I.I. black over A.I.I. breen, with A.I.I. blue undersides. It is thought the demarcation lines would have been similar to those on the artwork on

page 14. The “banded”scheme is based on paint found on the surviving wing fi llets, plus research by ErikPilawskii, who has extensively researched V-VS fi ghter colours. During the winter of 1941 it would probably have been given an all-over covering of MK-7 white.

Having completed the fi rst

MiG-3, 4958, Aviarestoration is now well advanced with the second, which has been bought by Jerry Yagen of the Fighter Factory, in the USA. This aircraft, which is due to be completed during the summer of 2006, will be fi tted with an Allison engine for ease of operation and maintenance.

It is planned that MiG-3 4958 will undergo engine runs in May, and it may fl y in the summer, about the same time as the second aircraft. A full report on the second MiG-3 will appear when it is completed — painted correctly, we hope!

■ The author would like to thank Boris Osetinsky, ErikPilawskii, Rune Rautio and Paul Coggan for their help in compiling this article



M i G - 3 R E C O V E R Y

RIGHT Painted in blue primer, 4958 has its wings added atNovosibirsk in the summerof 2005. Work on the cockpit area has also been under-taken, and the length of thenose is clearly visible.BELOW RIGHT The centre sec-tion on trestles is graduallydismantled at Novosibirsk. Note the port wing super-charger intake.BELOW FAR RIGHT The fuselageof 4958 in a more advancedstage of restoration, and with the non-airworthy Mikulin AM-38 engine fi tted. The deep scoop on the sideof the engine is one of theoil coolers fi tted each side of the nose.BOTTOM RIGHT The MiG-3 at the Moscow Air Show in August 2005, in the colour scheme applied to earlyproduction MiG-3s.



http://www.collectorsaircraft.com




Contact!Aircraft preservation comment and analysis, with PAUL COGGAN

■ PAUL COGGAN

joined the RAF in 1973 in the

trade of air traffi c control.

After various assignments,

including postings to RAF

Wittering, RAF Watton

(Eastern Radar) and then 12

Sqn Operations at RAF

Lossiemouth, he resigned

from the RAF in 1986 to

start his own publishing

company. He has been

researching and writing

about warbirds for almost

30 years

■ A RECENT FLURRY of e-mails, along with a few re-sponses to my piece on the Boeing 707 (February Aero-plane), reminded me that, unlike our “Little Friends”,valued historic airliners often require more than a few square feet of hangar roof to protect them from the ele-ments. Preserving an airliner often throws up a whole new set of problems, and not just of size. A friend pointed out to me that airliners sit outside for most days of their life, but there is a vast difference between a static museum piece and a living, pulsing jetliner with hydraulic fl uid, jet fuel, oil and a thousand other noxious substances fl owing through its veins, plus a load of those pesky revenue-earning things called passengers.

■ FANTASTIC AS IT is to see our airliner history preservedin an airworthy form, this is not always practical. So I was delighted to see two more Lockheed Constellations tabbedfor preservation in the USA, proving that, given the all-important resources and sheer determination, airliners can be properly preserved. I have always believed that securing the asset is the fi rst priority, the old fi rst-aid adage of removing the patient from the cause or the cause from the patient being the second. In this case the cause (of de-terioration) is the elements. It is also important that we think many years ahead, way beyond our own lifetimes.Imagine the possibility of a very wealthy benefactor emerg-ing in 50 years’ time and saying he or she was going to expend the resources to get a Connie that was rescued in 2006 airworthy again. Is that such a far-fetched dream?

It might be no more than a fairytale now, but look backjust 30 years, to what restorers then were writing off as impossible. Early this year the Seattle-based Museum of Flight secured clear title to Lockheed L-1049C c/n 4544,CF-RNR (latterly converted to a G model). It was rescuedfrom outside after four long years of negotiations and the clearing of various bureaucratic hurdles, allowing the fi rst steps to be taken to move the big silver bird from Toronto’sPearson International Airport to Seattle.

At about the same time, according to news received via

Ralph Pettersen, the Chino-based Yanks Air Museum an-nounced it had acquired another Connie, EC-121D Warning Star serial 53-548, that for years had been fl own regularly from its base at Camarillo in California. According to the museum the aircraft is already being made ready for its ferry fl ight to Chino (the museum itself is moving to pas-tures new in the next few years). Is this another potential fl yer for the distant future?

■ ONE THING THAT is plentiful in the USA is open space.This is one of the more obvious reasons that there is a sig-nifi cant forward-looking museum movement there, andmany functioning airworthy aircraft to boot. Despite some particularly draconian measures to restrict the operation of historic airworthy aircraft, there is a general “can-do”attitude in that country. Conversely, in the UK, the Govern-ment, and in particular the offi ce of Mr J. Prescott, the Rt Hon MP for Hull, is currently undertaking is a stealth exer-cise of which the SAS would be justifi ably proud. This is yet another a change in the legislation that will enable our green and pleasant airfi elds (or, more accurately, fl ying fi elds) to be deemed “fair game” for housing development.

There is much talk in government circles of brownfi eldand greenfi eld sites, and their suitability or otherwise for housing. We are all aware that people need houses, andthe UK has a massive housing shortage. We do, however, need green spaces, not least of all for airfi elds, and I do not necessarily mean concrete-jungle commercial airports.We continue to lose recreational airfi elds, and the Ministry of Defence is duty-bound to get the highest possible price for ex-RAF airfi elds, which means that large areas are going to the highest bidder to be buried under bricks andmortar. While it would be wonderful to see our huge his-toric airliners taking to the air for the fi rst time in 50 years in 2056, it will not be possible if we do not have the space to get them airborne. I wish I could believe that scheduling our current historic aviation sites will truly protect them from development, but who knows what pressures will be exerted on future governments to develop more sites?

This month Paul postulates on the possibility of large vintage airliners fl ying again in the

distant future — provided they are properly preserved now.— and expresses concern

about the pernicious policies of the present UK government with regard to airfi elds

RIGHT Lockheed L-1049C CF-TGE in its glory days with Trans Canada Airlines. Now preserved as G variant CF-RNR, it may move soon from Toronto to Seattle — see this month’s news section for details.

■ To contact Paul, e-mail

[email protected] or

write to him via AeroplaneEditorial, King’s Reach Tower,

Stamford St, London SE1 9LS

VIA LARRY

MILBERY



and subsequently conserved; the cost represented 10 per cent of that year’s conservation budget. It is indeed avail-able to researchers by appointment — our accession number is X003–4676.

We had hoped to include the document in a temporary display of newly-acquired material, but this was not possible as work to prepare text and other material for two major exhibitions — Milestones of Flight and our forth-coming Cold War exhibition at Cosford — has had to take a higher priority.

In retrospect the 60th anniversary of the exhibitions in Paris, Brussels and other cities was a missed opportunity to put Sir Nicholas’s album before a wider audience, but we would be very happy to provide Aeroplane with a selection of images for publication. [Watch this space for a forthcoming picture feature— Ed]

PETER ELLIOTTSenior Keeper, Department of Research & Information Services, Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, London NW9

Forgotten recce pilotsSIR — Concerning your articles about Adrian Warburton in the August and September 2005 issues of Aeroplane, I have been privy to Herr Laage’s research ever since I sought his help in the recovery of Wg Cdr Warburton’s P-38 to the UK and the Ridgeway Society at Welford for eventual display in a public museum — with no help offered except from the Mirror newspaper.

Warburton was libelled for a long time in connection with his last fl ight. Thanks to Roy Nesbit and Herr Laage all such myths can now be discounted. Photo-reconnaissance (PR) veterans were also querulous as to the remains found at Egling, as they had been told Warby had been “secretly buried in a local churchyard”.

Having striven to have the wreckage brought to the UK with such diffi culty, I was amazed to learn that the only display for the PRUs at the RAF Museum, Cosford, had been dismantled and dispersed in spite of the receipt of £12m of public grants. RAF Benson, headquarters of World War Two PR, did the same, in contrast to Germany where a propeller has been displayed in a local museum. A Maltese museum requested and was given a portion from Welford

Remembering Ray HannaSIR — I was saddened to hear of Ray Hanna’s passing on December 1 last year. I was fortunate to have been an engine “erk” on 79 Sqn in the 1950sand was regularly treated to Ray’s low-level beat-ups of our airfi elds in West Germany.

His exploits with our extreme low-level role with our Meteor FR.9s were legendary. Many photographs from the side-mounted cameras were simply unbelievable and I remember vividly examples of wide-eyed truck drivers actually looking down from their cabs upon seeing this aircraft streak by them.

One particular instance was when he returned to Bückeburg after such a sortie and we found strands of straw around the compressor intake grilles of the Derwent engines and the nose of the ventral tank fl attened, with straw poking out of the fi rst two rows of rivets!

An amazing fl yer, a very fair offi cer and a fi ne man. I was fortunate indeed to be in his company.

T.J. BASSETTFawley, Southampton

. . . and againSIR — When I opened the wrapper of February’s Aeroplane I was left in a state of shock over the sad loss of Ray Hanna. Having seen his displays (alongwith Mark’s) over many years, including last season, and having never ceased to be thrilled by them, it is diffi cult to comprehend.

A few years ago a former work colleague was leaning on Duxford’s barriers looking at and discussing the fi ne lines of MH434 with his father on a weekday visit. Ray was attending to the aircraft and heard them; he invited them airside and gave them a guided tour of the Spitfi re. A fi ne man. He will be sadly missed.

MARTYN DALE Stafford, Staffs

The RAF’s mobile exhibitionSIR — Further to previous letters concerning the American exhibition in Paris at the end of the Second World War, it is not widely known that the RAFhad its own exhibition which toured Europe at the same time, if not before, the Americans. It was a mobile exhibition, and was so close behind the

front line that the Battle of the Bulge held up its scheduled stop in Brussels by a number of days!

It was commanded by Flt Lt KennethWolstenholme of BBC broadcasting fame, and his second-in-command was Fg Off Nicky Winton (now Sir Nicholas Winton). Nicky kept a scrapbook of press cuttings and photographs taken at various European capitals as they were liberated. Some years ago he decided to donate this artefact to the RAF Museum, and I accompanied him to Hendon.

Part of the deal, as we understood it, was that the museum would have it transposed into a suitably bound book to be made available to researchers and from time to time to be put on public display. Unfortunately it did not quite work out like that. For two years nothing was done, as the museum had insuffi cient funds. Then when we wanted to have sight of the scrapbook

for some research we were told it had been lost. I gather it was subsequently found, but whether it has since been transferred into a bound volume is not known. In view of the interest shown in the American exhibition, it would be nice to know if Sir Nicholas’s record of the RAF’s own unique exhibition is available to researchers and occasionally put on public display as originally promised.

NICK CARTERMaidenhead, Berkshire

Peter Elliott of the RAF Museum,Hendon, replies:We are very grateful to Sir Nicholas Winton for the donation of his album. Unfortunately it was received at a time of year when our limited conservation budget was already committed to other documents. When funds became avail-able it was realised that the document had been misplaced, but it was found

SEWELL


Write to: Aeroplane,King’s Reach Tower,Stamford Street, London SE1 9LSor email us at [email protected]

LETTER OF THE MONTH Designing the Delta 2

Letter of the Month is sponsored by Shepherd Neame’s Spitfi re Ale

Each month, the sender of the letter selected as Letter of the Month wins a generousmonth’s supply — 36 x 500ml bottles — of Spitfire Premium Kentish Strong Ale,

originally produced in 1990 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle ofBritain and now one of the UK’s best-known beers

Letter of the Month is sponsored by Shepherd Neame’s Spitfi re Ale

Each month, the sender of the letter selected as Letter of the Month wins a generousmonth’s supply — 36 x 500ml bottles — of Spitfire Premium Kentish Strong Ale,

originally produced in 1990 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle ofBritain and now one of the UK’s best-known beers

Write to: Aeroplane, King’s Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS or e-mail us at [email protected]

SIR — Your coverage of the Fairey Delta story (Database, December 2005 Aeroplane) was a treat for all, I am sure, but didn’t fully cover the design side of the F.D.2, or the Fairey “Type V” as we knew it. With the aircraft’s subsequent success, the people involved richly deserve a mention.

The F.D.2 was schemed in the Fairey project offi ce at Hayes in the main building (most recently the headquarters of Safeway) under the direction of the Chief Designer, H.E. (“Charlie”) Chaplin. To improve the pilot’s view on the approach he devised the aircraft’s “droop snoot”. All the mechanical controls passed over this hinged joint just as in the wing folds of the company’s recent naval aircraft. The low-speed aerodynamics were fully explored in the Hayes windtunnel. High-speed tunnel tests were only undertaken at the RAE after the aircraft had gone supersonic.

Cyril Tidman was one of the designers who worked on it in the Project Offi ce, and long afterwards I asked him who got the high-speed aerodynamics of thisfi rst supersonic tailess aircraft so right fi rst time. He said that because it was a one-off research aircraft no-one took much interest in it except Les Appleton, who was Chief Technician at the time. So he felt that Les should get the credit.

Delayed by the Gannet Super Priority design work, the aircraft progressed slowly through the design offi ce under the direction of Mr Colliver and the stress offi ce section under Jim Service, responsible to Henry Davies. Jim always said that he got the supersonic wing load distribution from the Eagle comic because no-one would commit themselves. The Eagle had shown a uniform chordwise pressure distribution applicable to wings in supersonic fl ight, comparing it with the normal peaked distribution at low speed.

The main structure of the wing was in any case dictated by the stiffness requirements formulated by RAE and Dickie Richardson of Fairey to avoid fl utter. The undercarriage design by Frank Buckley, especially that of the main, was particularly neat. Although its retraction only involved a rotation about an inclined pivot, it was particularly diffi cult to see how it would work even from Frank’s very extensive stage-by-stage drawings. He therefore made a working model at about

1⁄5th scale which demonstrated it beyond doubt. When staff became available R.L.Lickley, the new Chief Engineer, put the pressure on and Dan Wakeford and JasYoung took over the responsibility of completing the design.

There were many hurdles to cross; perhaps the most signifi cant was when at a very late stage Rolls-Royce told the ministry that the aircraft’s engine air intakes would have to be doubled in size for it to go supersonic. Of course this was particularly diffi cult to rebut, owing to Rolls-Royce’s reputation, but Fairey were confi dent and the RAE supported them so the design was unaltered.

In the event the aircraft went supersonic without reheat, as you have related, and this I think was the reason for the picture you showed of Peter Twiss and Gordon Slade stuffi ng the RR rep up the Avon jetpipe — and if it wasn’t, it should have been. The modifi cation to take an ogee wing was to be undertaken by Fairey but when Westland took over they did not wish to proceed with it, so it ended up as the BAC 221, the only Fairey contribution to it being the nose undercarriage, which was that of the Gannet AEW.3. The F.D.2’s design development to meet the requirements of the F.155T Spec for a high-altitude interceptor is well covered in British Secret Projects: Jet Fighters (Tony Buttler, Midland Publishing Ltd, 2000). Fairey’s proposal to meet the spec fully involved an aircraft with two D.H. Gyrons side by side. I was asked at that time if I realised that the cross-sectional area of the fuselage was the same as that of a London double-decker bus! I am sure it was this thinking that led to Fairey’s second proposal that an aircraft with one Gyron would almost meet the Spec and could be available earlier.

Unfortunately the ministry could see no point in not quite meeting the Spec and chose the big aircraft. This was cancelled by Duncan Sandys when it seemed that surface-to-air missiles would make a high-altitude interceptor unnecessary. If they had chosen the smaller one, designed to a more general specifi cation, it could perhaps have had the worldwide sales of the Dassault Mirage; but missiles were then the thing and I suppose it would have been cancelled just the same.

JOHN WILSON Lincoln

ABOVE Fairey F.D.2 WG774, with complex undercarriage down and snoot drooped, at the 1957 Farnborough show.





MAIN HEADER NEWS MAINfor their recent commemoration. Howvery different from the great apathy inBritain to the vital contribution of PR by these public bodies; and how ill servedwe are, for it is this that perpetuates theirmemories, and not just stones ingraveyards.

ANNE WINTER WILLIAMSEwelme, Oxfordshire

The wrong manSIR — Having seen your article by BradHood on the FG-1D Corsair (Aeroplane,October 2005), I felt I must writeregarding an error in one of the photocaptions. Where you give a small piece on Ira Kepford’s navy service with a small picture of a man in front of a board of Japanese fl ags (page 57), thereader is led to believe that it is Kepfordhimself. It is not; this picture is of theskipper of VF-17, Tommy Blackburn.

During my research for the repaintingof Stephen Grey’s Corsair, which endedup in Fleet Air Arm markings, I contacted a number of Corsair pilots including Mr Blackburn, and have a number of letters and photos of him to confi rm this. I can also advise you that several photos taken around the same time as the one published appear inBlackburn’s book, The Jolly Rogers.They show Kepford and Blackburntogether, clearly proving that your caption is in error.

I think you publish an excellentmagazine, and minor errors could easily be overlooked. However, as the wholearticle concerns an aircraft painted in Ira Kepford’s markings, surely more researchcould have been carried out to confi rm that the picture was actually of him.

FRED MUSSARDvia e-mail[We hang our heads in shame — Ed]

Hurrah for the HurricaneSIR — I have never been clear about why so many people, including your correspondents, go misty-eyed about the Supermarine Spitfi re to theexclusion of the Hawker Hurricane. I fl ew them both, and while I acknowledge that the Spitfi re was a magnifi cent aircraft and a real thoroughbred, for an aircraft in which to go to war, I would take the Hurricane.

One must always consider the aircraftin the role in which it was used most,and in the role of fighter/ground-attack the Hurricane was outstanding, certainly in the South-east Asia campaign. Morethan 15,000 Hurricanes were built and,although I was not a Battle of Britainpilot, the figures show that more enemy aircraft were shot down by Hurricanesthan by Spitfi res; and enemy pilots,especially bomber pilots, feared the twofighters equally.

The two aircraft handled differently.The Spitfi re (especially the earlier marks) was rather heavier on theailerons and lighter on the elevators, but the Hurricane was easier to service andrepair, and you could do steep turnsround a tree and get home! The widerundercarriage made the Hurricanesomewhat easier to fl y, but both were“pilot’s aeroplanes”. In both cases you had to re-trim whenever you touchedthe throttle, but that was normal forfighters of that era. (As an aside, I fl ewLF363, now with the Battle of BritainMemorial Flight, when it was kept at Waterbeach post-war). Both cockpits were ergonomic nightmares, but that too was normal for the period!

So do not forget the Hurricane. It may not have the glamour of the Spitfi re, but it was a fi rst-class aircraft just the same.

Gp Capt D.A.P. SAUNDERS-DAVIES RAF (Retd)Ower, Romsey, Hants

Ancient aircraftSIR — Mr Casey wrote (Skywriters,January 2006 Aeroplane) that “60years after the end of World War Two,the proper place for ancient aircraft is in a purpose-built museum”.

So what does he make of theShuttleworth Trust at Old Warden, whofl y aeroplanes up to 85 years of age?To quote a date is misleading, as whenparts have to be replaced, then this is usually done using the materials andtechnology of the day. Thus many ofthe “ancient aircraft”, are in fact in

better condition than they were whenthey were built.

Mr Casey may be correct in hismentioning the bad prangs of the past,but virtually all of these appear to have been due to pilot error, not to faults inthe aircraft.

“Let them fl y replicas” is anothersuggestion. So where does Mr Casey draw the line? The vintage car worldhas specifi c requirements, so that rebuilds to qualify as an original must have a certain amount of original parts.The Ffestiniog Railway rebuilt thesingle Fairlie, Taliesin, with just twoparts in the cab which came from theoriginal engine of the 19th Century.They claim this as a rebuild, which to many it certainly is not, but it is anexcellent engine. As an example, if theHawker Hinds recently mentioned inAeroplane as being in Afghanistan are recovered and rebuilt, will these be originals, replicas or rebuilds? Dodgyground, Mr Casey.

I love to see old aircraft fl ying, but that is all I wish to see. The aerobatics,and aircraft being thrown around, are not what I wish to see; and I suspect that many would agree with this.

Simple fl ying is all that is required to enjoy historic aeroplanes.

PETER DONOVANCricklade, Wiltshire

Eight-engined clashSIR — On June 8, 1944, my father(also named Thomas P. Anderson), thena Lieutenant in the US Navy unitVP-103, was patrolling the approachesto the English Channel in a PB4YLiberator. His assignment at this time was to prevent U-Boats from disruptingthe D-Day invasion. In his words:

“It was pretty cloudy and we weregoing in and out of the clouds. Weexited one cloud and this German came out of the cloud about a 1,000ft to our right! We were fl ying side by side. They turned their guns at us and we startedfi ring at them. It lasted maybe 30sec.We hit them and then we both went intoanother cloud. We tried to find themagain, but couldn’t, and that was it.”

I later found his fl ight log, whichconfi rmed his story. In it heidentifi es the German as a Focke-Wulf200K. Evidently my dad’s crew weregood shots: the log says they silenced the dorsal turrets and thecockpit was on fi re. The history ofVP-103 states that he exchanged

shots with an Fw 200 Condor.I have not found any record of an

Fw 200 lost on June 8, 1944. It was a chance meeting of two patrol aircraftbroadside to broadside. I don’t really know if there are many other four-engined bomber vs four-enginedbomber actions during the war, but hereyou have one.

My father passed away a couple ofyears ago, and your Fw 200 article brought back a good memory.

THOMAS P. ANDERSONvia e-mail

Sketching a secretSIR — With reference to the excellentarticles on the Fairey Deltas (Database,December 2005 Aeroplane), you mightfind the following of interest.

In 1953 I began training as a juniordraughtsman with an architectural fi rm based at Burnham, near Slough. They obtained the contract to design andoversee the building of a completely new drawing offi ce for Fairey Aviation at Hayes, Middlesex.

In the late summer of 1955, the chiefarchitect asked me to accompany himon a progress visit to Fairey Aviation.He asked me to bring along a notebookand a long measuring tape. When wearrived, he informed me that he wouldhave to attend a working lunch withFairey Aviation personnel to discussthe project, and that he would meet up with me later. I therefore found myselfsitting on a wall opposite a largehangar, while I awaited his return.

As I sat there munching my sandwiches, the huge hangar doorssuddenly opened. Standing just insidewas a mauve-coloured delta-wingfighter with jet intakes at the wing roots,and, unbelievably, a long sharp pointednose that drooped downwards.

Being a keen aircraft enthusiast, andknowing the Observers Book of Aircraftinside out, I was completely taken aback at what I was seeing. I therefore quickly reached for my notebook and startedsketching away for all I was worth.

The next day I mentioned this episodeto the chief architect and proudly showed him my illustration. He immediately turned white, told me to tear up my drawing into little pieces,deposit them forthwith into the litter bin,and not to breathe a word to anyoneabout what I had seen!

BRYAN WARDChalfont St Peter, Bucks

ABOVE The real Ira Kepford. He retiredfrom military service in 1956 as alieutenant commander.

Cockpit confi rmationRESPONDING TO THE Bristol Buckmaster cockpit query (November 2005 Aeroplane) author and ex-test pilot Tim Mason of Salisbury, Wiltshire, writes: “Youare correct in suggesting that the object on the left control column is a stick-forcemeasuring device. It appears to be permanently attached to the control column;later designs were fi tted with pip-pins to allow rapid removal, as control of theaircraft could be somewhat hampered in fraught situations with the device inplace. The accelerometer (g-meter) on the coaming was also part of theinstrumentation for measuring manœuvring stability. With the force-measuringdevice and the g-meter the stick force per g could be determined. The photographhas the number AM15260 at top left, an Aeroplane and Armament ExperimentalEstablishment (A&AEE) reference. My book The Cold War Years (HikokiPublications 2002), about A&AEE 1945–1975, contains a photograph on page 30of a similar installation on an Avro Athena.”

Peter Cornelius in New Zealand forwarded the picture to his ex-Bristol chum inthe USA, Jim Newman of Kent City, Missouri, who provided the followingobservations: “Having spent many hours sitting in derelict Buckinghams,Buckmasters and Brigands at Filton, I will stick out my neck and say that it is a prototype Buckingham day bomber, because there is a slight difference betweenproduction and prototype direct-vision window on the port forward quarter. Therewas a very good reason for the PAIR of gun-fi ring buttons; two gun installations! I don’t know what it was with we Britons and our unbridled enthusiasm for theminiscule 0·303in peashooter of ancient times, but the Buckingham had two suchsets. There were four grouped in the nose, and a further four in a protruding belly pack under the nose. Thank heavens someone saw the light and screwed four“twenties” into the Brigand. As for that very agricultural-looking device on the“pole”, that is a stick-force-measuring device that measured stick force per g forwhatever angular wheel or stick displacement was applied.

“The one illustrated is a Stone Age version. When I was at Boscombe Down weused a very neat load-cell device that fed into pen recorders hidden in the bowelsof the aircraft. Neat to watch at work. I really could not see the point of theBuckingham. The bomb load was 4,000lb, but the performance was way belowthat of the Mossie: only 330 m.p.h. at 12,000ft. The only benefi t I could see wasthat, unlike the Mosquito, the tin Buckingham would not have come unglued, or been eaten by bugs, in tropical climes. PHILIP JARRETT


Flying Visit

Former Fleet Air Arm jet pilot, film pilot and owner of eyecatchingly-painted HawkerHunter G-PSST Miss Demeanour, JONATHON WHALEY talks to MELVYN HISCOCKabout his flying career

What is your fi rst aviation memory? Flying kites on the

beach near RNAS Ford and hoping that a Westland Wyvern would cut one of thecords. I was about fi ve or six.

When was your fi rst fl ight?When I was 11 years old, in an

Auster out of Denham. It was silver, but at that time they all were. Dad had beenan Aeronautical Engineering Offi cer inthe Fleet Air Arm; he was horrifi ed they left the fuel nozzle lying on the grass.

What prompted your career in aviation? My father was steeped

in aviation, the house was full of aircraftbits and we had a Horsa as a garage. It was inevitable that I fl ew and it wasalways going to be the Fleet Air Arm.

When was your fi rst solo? I couldn’t solo on my 10hr in Tiger

Moths when I was at Dartmouth inNovember 1965 owing to bad weather.I went to sea for six months on HMSHermes, so the fi rst solo was in a Hunting Jet Provost at Linton-on-Ousein August 1966.

Who or what has been the biggest infl uence on your

aviation career? It would be unfair to name one, as at each stage of my career there has been someone to look up to or to ask questions of. In recentyears it has been Tony Bianchi.

Do you have any unfulfi lled ambitions in aviation? Space

fl ight; I expect a few people say that.

What do you consider your best aviation achievement?

I don’t really have one but there are things that I have thought were good inretrospect. One I enjoyed was ferrying a Piper Nomad (an Aztec on straightfl oats) with the owner, Tom Lever, fromAlaska to Florida via the Canadian westcoast to Seattle, then across the USA to pick up the Missouri. We really did earnour Bush Pilots’ wings on that trip.

Do you hold any aviation records? I am the only person I

know that has done an inverted loop ina Hunter. It takes 12,600ft, if you ever want to try it! I also think I had thefewest number of bricks counted on thephoto taken from the nose camera of a Hunter when we did ground-attack

training. We used to use a big brick chimney as a target and you had to fi ll the frame with bricks. I am also theonly pilot to fl y at two 899 NASdisbandment fl ypasts.

Was there a time when you looked out of the cockpit and

thought, “This is what aviation is all about”? I have never had that onemoment but there are times when it doesn’t get any better and often there is no-one there to share that with. Onethat I get to share is in a Hunter beatingup cumulo-nimbus clouds.

What has been your worst aviation moment? The only time

I really scared myself was in retrospect.I once bought myself a non-standardwatch as the normal issue one waspretty bad. It had dials and knobs andwas very impressive. I was on a low-level nav trip around north Cornwall en-route to Wales in a Sea Vixen with Flt LtDave Trotter as my Observer. As wepassed over Hartland Point I rolledinverted to pull over the cliffs and thenwithout looking outside, rolled level whileI checked my watch to see if I’d startedthe stopwatch. When I did look out I found we were still heading towards thesea inverted, having rolled 360°, not180°. I pushed and then rolled. I have no idea how close we came to the water but I assure you ground-effect can be felt inverted! I only told Dave about it some 35 years later at the 899 NASdisbandment bash in March last year.

What is your favourite aircraft? I need two really, one

piston and one jet. The Spitfi re and theHunter. One of my best days was fl yingthe Mark IA from Booker to Kemble,climbing into my Hunter, aeros roundCBs and then climbing back into theSpitfi re for similar on the way home.Could only have been improved if therehad been another Hunter and Spitfi re around for some tailchasing.

And what is your least favourite? I don’t really have one.

There are a lot of boring ones but if they fl y, then they fl y.

Which aircraft from history would you most like to have

fl own? The D.H. Hornet, without a shadow of a doubt. It would have to be a Sea Hornet, of course.

Letter of the Month is sponsored by Shepherd Neame’s Spitfi re Ale Letter of the Month is sponsored by Shepherd Neame’s Spitfi re Ale

Lost & Found — Your Replies

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ABOVE The mystery cockpit picture from our November 2005 issue.



W OULD YOU LIKE to meet the last sur-viving member of the Spitfi re design department? Harry is 90, but you’ll fi nd him more like a 70-year-old.”

The invitation came from David Lloyd, for many years editor of the Spitfi re Society’s magazine.

A blacksmith’s son, Harry Griffi ths had a pas-sion for chemistry during his schooldays. In 1928, knowing this, his scoutmaster tipped him off that there was a vacancy for a laboratory assist-ant at the Supermarine works in Southampton. Supermarine was possibly the fi rst aircraft com-pany in the country to have a metallurgical de-partment, though it consisted of just one person, Arthur Black, recruited by Reginald J. Mitchell.

Following a successful interview, Harry duly left home for his fi rst day at his new job.

“I set off bright and early to report for work. I was waiting outside the laboratory door when along came a lad who turned out to be the offi ce boy from R.J.’s offi ce, which was on the fl oor above. ‘Hello,’ he said, ‘are you the new lab boy?’ When I confi rmed this he took me part-way up the stairs, to where we could see into the lab. ‘You see all the dirty glass down there? You’ve got to wash it’, he said. If I had not been certain that my dad would have given me a hiding, I would have gone home there and then!”

SPITFIRE 70th ANNIVERSARY

Seventy years on from the fi rst fl ight of the Spitfi re prototype, Harry Griffi ths is the last surviving member of

the 1936 Supermarine design department. In an exclusive feature for Aeroplane, Harry talks to IAN FRIMSTON

about his time with Supermarine and his memories of R.J. Mitchell, from his joining as an apprentice in 1928.

On pages 28–29, we also reveal some early Spitfi re test records and maker’s drawings for the fi rst time

OPPOSITE Harry Griffi ths, photographed by the author at his Hampshire home on January 12 this year with a painting of the prototype Spitfi re on the wall behind him. TOP Harry’s Super -marine works identity card, valid from January 25, 1943.

Dennis, the lad from upstairs, became a good friend of Harry’s, and it was Dennis who was delegated to give Harry a tour of the various de-partments. In the offi ces it was all right to knock on the door and go in, but the workshop foremen were gods in their own departments, and you had to knock and wait until you were summoned.

Harry soon learned how to analyse the con-tents of the plating baths, and to check the ac-curacy of the furnace temperature controllers.

“Every week a motorboat would arrive from the Saunders-Roe works at Cowes with a sample of electrolyte from their anodising bath, which I analysed. I think we charged ten shillings per sample; a seemingly modest sum but more than my weekly wages! In between these activities I fi lled my time cleaning the bottles, distilling water, polishing benches and running errands round the works, and also going into town if the boss wan-ted theatre tickets collected, radio parts bought or if he had run out of Gold Flake cigarettes.

“At that time there were many exciting things going on. While walking through the main assem-bly shop I saw the S.5 racing seaplane, which had won the Schneider Trophy contest in Venice [in 1927], and the S.6 was being built ready for the next race, in the Solent in 1929. The ‘big’ Southampton fl ying-boats were being built and launched and fl own away from just outside the laboratory window. The fi rm received an order from the Turkish government for a number of these aircraft, but it was specifi ed that they were to be fi tted with Hispano-Suiza engines instead of the Napier Lions which were standard.

“In fact the installation looked much neater, but on test fl ights the pilots reported heavy vibration on the control column during take-off and the climb to cruising height. Arthur obtained a vibro-graph that produced traces on a celluloid strip; a cumbersome device. Being rather small, I could get into the rear of the hull, so I was deputed to use it during ground engine runs and subsequently on a test fl ight. I had to kneel on the cockpit fl oor holding it against the control column during take-off, then crawl down to the rear and get a number of readings on the way to the back. After that the

RIGHT Supermarine S.5 N220, which won the 1927 Schneider Trophy race at Calshot, fl own by Flt Lt S.N. Webster. A delighted R.J. Mitchell is standing in the middle of this group of Supermarine employees, with victorious pilot Webster standing on the fl oat.

“

Birth of the Spitfire


SIGNPOST


theory was that I could go back to the rear gun-ner’s position and enjoy the rest of the fl ight.

“I got the readings and was then horribly air-sick down the side of the hull; fortunately the spray on landing cleaned it. What’s more, not having a fl ying helmet, I was deaf for several hours after-wards from the engine and propeller noise. We projected the trace on to a screen and measured frequencies and amplitudes, but they really told us nothing except that the aircraft was shaking like mad under certain conditions.

“So there had to be another approach. Oscar, our structural test expert, came up with the idea that if he sat in the cockpit and held the control column while I thumped on various parts of the tailplane we might be able to fi nd out where the trouble came from. I was at the top of a trestle, thumping away, when I heard a voice below. It was Trevor Westbrook, the works superintend-ent, who called up: ‘Griffi ths, if you are trying to smash the bloody aeroplane, go to the stores and get a sledgehammer. Don’t use your fi st, you might hurt yourself!’

“Well, you didn’t shout back to the works super-intendent, so I was climbing down to explain, when, to steady myself, I caught hold of a strut that ran from the hull to the main span of the tail. Oscar stood up in the cockpit all excited and shouted: ‘That’s it! What did you do?’ So I stayed halfway down and gave the strut a series of hard thumps, just by way of confi rmation, before going to the ground and explaining.

“The drawing offi ce stiffened up the strut and everyone was happy, including Mr Westbrook,

who had inadvertently helped solve the problem!“Nowadays there are computers, simulators,

windtunnels and a vast array of other aids to de-sign, development and problem-solving. In those far-off times the only tools we had were ingenu-ity and enthusiasm. Oscar was a past master at improvisation. To measure defl ections on loading tests he made Vernier scales out of cardboard and rubber bands, and sometimes used micrometers connected to a battery and headphones to get accurate measurements of movement.

“We had a full-scale fl ying-boat mainframe on load tests, and had gone round the works borrow-ing all the micrometers we could. These were fi xed in insulating clamps at various places on the supporting structure, so that when they were operated until they touched a metal tab on the test frame a click would be heard in the head-phones to indicate that contact had been made. A series of defl ection readings was thus obtained.

“It was working nicely until we went to lunch and came back to fi nd one of the micrometers had been removed and replaced by a note from the owner (the head of a department) to the ef-fect that he objected to his instrument being used as a clamp. It took a lot of persuading to convince him that it was being used solely for measuring, and the whole series of tests then had to be repeated.

“The fi rm continually had letters from all sorts of people claiming to have world-shattering ideas. Most of these were addressed to Mitchell, and he always redirected them to us. Once we had a box delivered with a very elegant piece of apparatus consisting of two eggshells attached to a rotating arm in such a way as to rotate if one blew down a tube. Unfortunately the post had not dealt kindly with the eggshells, and since Mitchell had agreed to see the sender I was des-patched to the canteen to get two eggs ‘each to the same size and shape as possible’. We drilled a hole in each end and blew out the contents, drilled a hole in the side of each and glued them in place on the rotating arm. I did not see the in-ventor, but I gathered that he was proposing that a jet of gas pointing to the rear could be used as a substitute for a propeller. Eat your heart out, Frank Whittle!

“While we made fl ying-boats, there was a cer-tain titled lady who wanted a fl ying yacht. Mit-chell was not involved much, leaving this project


BELOW An early photograph of the Supermarine works at Woolston, Southampton, taken in 1920. The company had been in existence for only a couple of years, and the coalyard, where coastal ships used to offl oad fuel, is clearly visible.

RIGHT R .J. Mitchell (centre) examining the rather crude fuel test rig for the Supermarine S.6B racer during 1931. To Mitchell’s right is Mr Robinson, the RAF liaison man, and to his left Arthur Black, Supermarine’s metallurgist.


very much in the hands of his assistant. It was a three-engined, high-wing monoplane, and in-stead of the more usual wingtip fl oats it had sponsons that also served as platforms for pas-sengers embarking and disembarking.

“I never saw the supposed luxury interior, but I was aware that it was to be fi tted, among other things, with a fl ushing toilet, because we had to carry out tests on it. Flushing was with seawater by means of a hand pump; presumably it was just too bad if you were desperate during fl ight.

“We rigged it up over the laboratory sink, which we fi lled with water, and I stood on a stool to op-erate the pump. Test material? We had a plenti-ful supply of water and toilet paper, and the other component was made to the right shape and density with a mixture of ground cork and plas-ticine (brown, of course). I understand that there was also a bar, but we were not asked to test that.

“The aircraft made several test fl ights from Hythe. It had a very long take-off run, and there were always doubts as to whether it would leave the water with a full load of passengers, stores and fuel. Refuelling in those days was done with hand pumps from barrels taken out on a barge. There is a story (unconfi rmed, but, knowing the man, possibly true) that Henri Biard, the test pilot, re-fused to attempt a full-load take-off and ‘went through the motions’ of fi lling with fuel by pump-ing from a number of barrels, some of which were empty. Finally, although it was fl own out to the Mediterranean, it failed to meet the specifi cation, and after crashing on landing it was scrapped.

“Henri Biard was what would now be described as a ‘character’. Frequently on my trips down water to the Hythe factory he would be on board, and always carried a shotgun with which he took pot-shots at cormorants. He reckoned that they were a menace to fl ying-boat pilots. He was a good shot, but how he expected to kill off the entire population I never knew.

“One design staff dinner he arrived having been to Harrods and bought a snake, which he kept concealed in a box before releasing it after most people had had plenty to drink. One of the other guests on that occasion was the local head of the AID [Aeronautical Inspection Directorate], who had a peg leg. And in the resulting melée the snake bit Biard and the AID man had his peg leg cracked. They were put in a taxi and sent to hospital, where Biard told a very fi erce-looking

sister, who asked them why they were there: ‘I’ve been bitten by a snake, but don’t worry about me, see to my friend fi rst. He’s got a broken leg.’ History does not record the sister’s reaction.”

I asked Harry what his recollections were of the fi rst time he saw “The Fighter”.

“One day an area at the top of the wing shop was curtained off and, of course, we lads were curious. One lunchtime Dennis and I went and took a quick peep and saw the mock-up of a new fi ghter to replace the F.7/30 inverted-gull-winged aircraft which had been built shortly before to Air Ministry requirements.

“Mitchell was never happy with the F.7/30 con-cept, and had embarked on a design to his own ideas. In the normal course of drawing-offi ce procedure this new design was designated Type 300, and was known in the works simply as “The Fighter”. At the time there were many aircraft that were still covered in fabric. Supermarine fi rst used the stressed-skin type of construction on the S.6 and S.6B, and the continuation of this concept for the Spitfi re gave it a structure in which strength and lightness were combined.

“On the prototype and early production ver-sions of the Spitfi re, fabric covering continued to be used on the control surfaces — ailerons, ele-vators and rudder — but particularly on the ailerons. This gave problems of control at an early stage in the development of performance, and was replaced with metal covering. In the laboratory we looked into ways of attaching the new metal skin to the control surfaces, and Arthur devised a system of using wooden corner


LEFT Reginald Mitchell (right) with Henri Biard in October 1925, seen during that year’s Schneider Trophy contest at Bay Shore, Baltimore. The competition had continued only owing to Biard’s victory in the 1922 Schneider Trophy race in a Supermarine Sea Lion II, after two successive years of Italian wins. A third win that year would have given the Italians the Trophy in perpetuity. Biard miraculously survived a crash into Chesapeake Bay after suffering structural problems in the Supermarine S.4 during the 1925 event.

BELOW The Supermarine Air Yacht made its fi rst fl ight during February 1930, with Henri Biard at the controls. Ordered by the Hon A.E. Guinness for cruises around the Medterranean, he rejected the machine in favour of a Saro Cloud. Bought by the wealthy American Mrs June Jewell James in October 1932, it was damaged near Capri, Italy, with test pilot Tommy Rose at the helm on January 25, 1933; after being beached, it was scrapped.


blocks which enabled it to be introduced with minimal changes to the existing rib design.

“Accounts are confl icting as to the fi nancing of the Spitfi re project, but I was told at the time that Vickers had authorised £100,000 to be spent as a private venture, with the proviso that all work had to be completed within 12 months. It seems that at some stage during this period the Air Ministrystepped in and offi cially placed an order for the prototype. Ultimately it was ready for its fi rst en-gine run, and was lashed down on the quay out-side my lab window, so I went outside to watch. There were a small collection of people includ-ing the works manager, the AID inspector and the chief draughtsman. Mitchell was not there.

“The Rolls-Royce mechanic climbed into the cockpit and pressed the starter, the prop turned, the engine coughed, and spurts of fl ame came from the exhaust stubs. Then there was silence, during which I heard one of the assembled brass mention the word SPITFIRE, the fi rst time that I heard the name.

“Considerable extensions to the works were put in hand, including the erection of an additional large building on land at Itchen, about half-a-mile up river. Part of the extension entailed moving all the offi ces into a new fi ve-storey building on the north boundary of the site, and in the latter part of 1938 the drawing offi ce, technical offi ce and accounts departments were moved. The lab-

oratory, with the mechanical and structures test house and photographic department, were also accommodated in the new quarters. Curiously, the planning placed all the stores on the south boundary of the site and all the toilets in the new building on the north. Although this left the whole of the centre available for production, it was an arrangement which I never thought very clever.

“Shortly afterwards, we heard that the Nuffi eld organisation had been given an order to produce 300 Spitfi res, and a team of their engineers ar-rived to ‘productionise’ the machine. Inevitably there were a lot of arguments, since they initially appeared to hold the view that aeroplanes were no different from motor cars.

“There were enormous problems at the newly-built castle Bromwich factory and, in fact, not one machine left that plant until after control was transferred directly to Supermarine. I re-member Wilf Elliot, our works manager, coming back from his fi rst visit after the ‘take-over’ and saying that their stores were stacked out with machined parts which we were short of, and at the same time we had surplus wing and fuselage panels that they badly needed. A shuttle service of lorries started operating between the two works, and things rapidly started humming.”

The one question I wanted to ask Harry was what Mitchell was like as a person.

“I think that ‘R.J.’ was human like the rest of us. He could be moody, but in general he had a pleasant personality, and I always had the im-pression that he was somewhat retiring, yet he was decisive and when necessary could be very fi rm. Although Mitchell was born in the mid-lands, he had no accent.

“He had a small personal staff consisting of a clerk, two typists and an offi ce boy. They were loyal to him and understood his moods. As I mentioned earlier, his offi ce was immediately over the laboratory, and occasionally he would come downstairs to see Arthur and would al-


ABOVE Jeffrey Quill taxies out in K5054 for a test at Eastleigh on June 18, 1936, 15 weeks after the fi rst fl ight on March 5.

RIGHT A 1936 view of the Supermarine works. Just to the right of centre is the famous Southampton fl oating bridge, which carried road and foot passengers from Southamp-ton City to Woolston.


ways stop and ask how I was getting on. Some-times these visits would be to ask the boss if he fancied a game of golf, and off they would go for the afternoon. On another occasion he came and played merry hell because the offi ce was untidy, although in fact it was no worse than usual.

“Mitchell was not an aerodynamicist, he was an engineer, but in those days a chief designer needed to be involved in every aspect of the de-sign procedure, and Mitchell had this ability which enabled him to lead the strong team of talented designers which he had built up.

“He had one strong fetish, namely that for max-imum performance, and the frontal area of an aircraft had to be as small as possible, hence the use of double-skin cooling surfaces on the S.6, to avoid the need for radiators, and for his insist-ence on the thin wing on the Spitfi re, against the advice of experts at Farnborough. This was a point on which he was later to be proved correct, and which almost certainly, together with his gen-eral insistence on clean lines, gave the aircraft the edge in performance over the Hurricane.

“When a problem was being discussed in the drawing offi ce, he would stand by the drawing board, listening to all the arguments as to what should be done. On these occasions he had a habit of rolling a pencil back and forth on his hand (it was always a very black pencil!), and when he had heard enough he would push everyone aside, draw a few lines on top of the existing drawing, say: “This is what you will do”, throw the pencil down and march back to his offi ce. The success of the Spitfi re is proof enough of the soundness of his judgment.

“The glamorised story in the fi lm First of the Few that he found his inspiration for the Spitfi re while lying on the beach looking up at a seagull is pure nonsense. He it was who insisted on the overall layout, but, of course, the detail design was done by the team under his guidance. The elliptical wing shape was dictated by the neces-

sity to accommodate the undercarriage and the armament in the slender wing section. It is also a fact that he never visited Germany, though he did have two holidays in Austria. While he is best known for his high-speed aircraft, it should be recorded that his last design was for a bomber. Using the same engineering design principles as on the Spitfi re, this machine could have been equally successful in its fi eld. Two prototypes were under construction at Woolston when war broke out, but damage by enemy action caused the project to be abandoned.

“He was ill for a long time, and knew the seri-ousness of his situation, but kept on working. The Christmas before his untimely death he ar-rived late for the annual design staff dinner, and, in spite of a place having been kept for him at the head of the table, insisted on sitting at the end with us lads and sharing a joke and some wine.

“On the day he died, Arthur and I were stand-ing at the bench discussing a problem when Vera Cross, R.J.’s faithful secretary for many years, came in and just said: ‘It’s all over’. Arthur looked at me, shook his head, turned away and was silent for a long time. As we left the funeral service at Highfi eld Church in Southampton, the prototype Spitfi re fl ew over and dipped a wing in salute.

“At the annual dinner that year we stood in silence and then all drank a toast: “To a very gallant gentleman”.


ABOVE Mutt Summers fl ying K5054 on May 11, 1936. Jeffrey Quill was at the controls of the camera aeroplane, a Miles Hawk, from which Flight photo-grapher John Yoxall took a series of pictures.

LEFT The prototype Spitfi re, wearing a camoufl age fi nish which was applied in early September 1937, banks over the Supermarine factory.

■ See overleaf for previously unpublished Spitfi re drawings and reports, preserved at Solent Sky (formerly the Southampton Hall of Aviation). The museum is located at Albert Road South, Southampton SO14 3FR (tel 02380 635830), and is open daily 1000–1700hr (1200–1700hr Sundays). Adult admission costs £5. For more details log on to www.spitfi reonline.co.uk

http://www.spitfireonline.co.uk



The documents on this page form part of the test record of the prototype Spitfi re, K5054, written by Supermarine test pilot Mutt Summers (left). The header sheet (bottom left) gives the times and dates of the fi rst four fl ights, and is date-stamped March 18, 1936. Of particular interest on page one (above left) are Mutt Summers’s comments regarding the rudder, of which he says, “This is also very effective, but owing to the design requirements for stressing on the fuselage, full rudder at 1·2 times stalling speed, it is considered that the rudder is on the light side, as it would be possible to apply full rudder at top speed. It is perfectly satisfactory to complete tests, but it may be necessary to reduce the balance of this control.” The drawing below is a lubrication chart for the fl ying controls in the tail of K5054, which clearly shows the large rudder horn balance. Following Summers’s comments, the rudder was reshaped, bringing it into harmony with the other controls. Spitfi re historian Dr Alfred Price says, “Such a lot of documentation from that period is missing, so this paperwork is telling and historically valuable”.

Unseen Spitfire Doc



BACK IN 1958 computer company IBM bought Hursley Park, a country house in Winchester which had be-come the design and administrative centre for Vickers-Supermarine following the air raids on the Woolston

factory in September 1940. As IBM moved in, all the old Super-marine records and paperwork were dumped out on the lawn for disposal. Arthur Falcon, who had been one of the team

requisitioning buildings after the bombing, went back to Hursley to survey the debris, and spotted a sheaf of docu-ments, bearing the Spitfi re type number, 300, sticking out of a dumped fi ling cabinet. Falcon kept them in his attic until 2003, when he wandered into the Southampton Hall of Aviation (now Solent Sky; see page 27 for info) to see if anyone was interested. They are published here for the fi rst time.

These previously unpublished drawings show (clockwise from top) the lubrication system for the fl ying controls in the cockpit; the undercarriage retraction system — the retraction handle (centre) is the same as that fi tted to the Super-marine Walrus; a fi n spar drawing, dated January 11, 1935, again showing the original rudder balance; and a lubrication chart for the wheelbrake control, traced by “AH” on March 10, 1936, fi ve days after the prototype’s fi rst fl ight. Some of the documents are marked “Mr Faddy’s copy”; sadly, no-one has yet been able to trace who he was. Pictures by IAN FRIMSTON/SIGMA

uments Revealed


TEST FLYING MEMORIAL PROJECT

SIR — Congratulations to John Maynard and your good self for your thoughts on a memorial to those who lost their lives in the vitally important work of test fl ying. I feel sure that, now the matter has been raised, it will receive unanimous support.

Farnborough is indeed the obvious site for such a memorial and 2008 would be appropriate for its dedication, the centenary of the fi rst successful powered fl ights in the UK by Cody.

It is fortunate indeed that the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust has offered its full co-operation. So, best wishes for this deserving project.

WG CDR K.H. WALLIS MBE DEng(hc) CEng FRAeS FSETP PhD (hc) RAF (Retd)Norfolk

SIR — As an ex-fl ight test observer who, on a couple of occasions, came too close for comfort to appearing on your proposed roll of honour, I think that you and John have come up with a won-derful idea. I would like to register an interest and, when things have gelled a bit more, will certainly make a contribution.

Without thinking too hard I can name eight colleagues who were killed during my time in the business who should appear on the Roll of Honour.

JOHN JOHNSTONWelwyn, Hertfordshire

SIR — I applaud the idea of a Roll of Honour and memorial in memory of test pilots and fl ight crews who have lost their lives in the cause of aeronautical research. The early pioneers contributed so much, but are sometimes forgotten — they were certainly dealing with the unknown.

Percy Pilcher and Samuel Cody, to name just two, were no less important than the many who have come after them. Farnborough seems to me to be an ideal location for such a fi tting tribute.

T. McDERMOTTIpswich, Suffolk

SIR — With reference to the Test Flying Memorial I would like to make the following comment.

It is long overdue that test pilots and test crew should be honoured for their

contribution to our aviation industry and its contribution to the wealth of this country. In particular, the crews who gave their lives should be remembered in some fi tting memorial. I have sent a donation to the address given in the Aeroplane, and this is particularly dedicated to Squadron Leader Jack Wales who was killed, along with his crew, while testing an Avro Shackleton III from Avro’s airfi eld at Woodford, Cheshire in December 1956. Squadron Leader Wales was my CO of No 613Squadron — City of ManchesterAuxiliary Squadron — and I was with him the night before he died.

I would like to be certain his name will be included on the memorial.

PETER HOLDENLangley, Macclesfi eld, Cheshire

SIR — Re Test Flying Memorial Project, may I suggest that the deep stall accident, to the prototype BAC One-Eleven, be included?

Apart from the fl ight crew and test observers, one of our senior design managers was on board. His name was Cliff Webb, and the design offi ce at BAC Luton Operating Division was in mourning for all involved.

The irony is that I was at Wisley the day before the event, and saw the anti-stall tail parachute on a later aircraft. Had the test been done on this

aircraft, a different outcome may have been obtained (this, last, from memory, of that time). The next major blow to our offi ce was cancellation of the TSR.2.

R.B. PALMEREaton Bray, Bedfordshire

SIR — I believe the Test Flying Memorial project to be an excellent idea and I have sent a £10 donation to FAST. A course-mate of mine who went on to serve in Korea and subsequently became a test pilot at Farnborough — one Lt Oswald Brown — was killed while carrying out centre-of-gravity tests on Buccaneers many years ago.

However, the real reason for this letter is to draw your attention to aircrew and similar who lost their lives in test-fl ying airships. Certainly Commander N.F. Usbourne and Lt-Cdr de Courcy W.P. Ireland who lost their lives testing the AP-1 on February 21,1916, should be included. The AP-1was a proposed anti-Zeppelin weapon which at the time was sorely needed. Likewise the R38 tragedy over the River Humber on August 24, 1921,deserves inclusion. (Loss of life, 44souls including 16 Americans. Five survivors.) The R101’s sad end in the early hours of October 5, 1930, is arguably a valid “test fl ight”, but that is really what it was!

CES MOWTHORPEHunmanby, nr Filey, N.Yorks

SIR — I was very pleased to read in Aeroplane that the memorial to test pilots and experimental fl ight crews is moving ahead at last.

I recall John Maynard telling us of the idea when he interviewed my mother for his feature on my father (PilotBiography: Kenneth Seth-Smith, May &June 2002 Aeroplane). Sadly, she died last year, but would have been pleased to know that it is going ahead.

I feel that the erection of a memorial is an essential component of the plan;while the Roll of Honour is a must so that all those lost can be recorded, a memorial will serve as a physical focus for visitors.

R.G. SETH-SMITHLondon NW7

FOLLOWING THE UNANIMOUSLY positive response from Aeroplane readers, the Test Flying Memorial Project (TFMP) is now offi cially under way — many thanks to all of you who have written in so far with comments, suggestions and general support. At a meeting at the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) Museum on February 7 it was agreed that former Crosswind columnist John Maynard, whose idea the TFMP was, will mastermind the compilation of information for the Roll of Honour (never volunteer!). We hope to have the fi rst batch of names and brief details available for scrutiny on the internet during the summer of this year.

To help raise awareness of test fl ying achievements and of the TFMP, UK readers of this month’s issue of Aeroplane receive a free covermounted DVDcontaining some fascinating archive footage from FAST’s fi lm archive. Meanwhile we are investigating the costs of producing the Roll of Honour bound volume itself, for permanent exhibition at the FAST Museum, and donations are already coming in. We are also planning wider publicity and some specifi c fundraising activities — so watch this space! MICHAEL OAKEY

■ To make a donation towards the TFMP, send a cheque to: Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, Trenchard House, 85 Farnborough Road, Farnborough, Hants GU14 6TF. Please make the cheque payable to Farnborough Air Sciences Trust, but mark it (and the envelope and any covering letter) “Test Flying Memorial Project”. FAST is Registered Charity No 1040199

TFMP Progress report by The Editor

Launched last month in conjunction with the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST), Aeroplane’s project to

create a Roll of Honour (and, it is hoped, a monument) in memory of British test pilots and other fl ight-test

aircrew who died in the line of duty has got off to a flying start. Here are some of the fi rst letters of support

Test Flying Memorial UPDATE

http://www.arrowfile.com


UK PRESERVATION

Brooklands Concorde Comeback Of the six Concordes to survive in the UK, the fi rst British

production aircraft has faced the most diffi cult journey to

becoming a display aeroplane. But at the Brooklands Museum at

Weybridge, a skilled cadre of former Concorde engineers and a

group of dedicated volunteers are working hard to get the Mach

2 airliner back into shape, as TONY HARMSWORTH reports

RIGHT Concorde c/n 202/ G-BBDG at Brooklands on January 24, 2006. It now sits on a genuine Concorde undercarriage again, having been fi tted with slave units at Filton during many of its years as a spares source. Owing to health and safety concerns, the hydraulic system will not be operable, so the droop nose will remain in the “up” position.

DURING THE AUTUMN of 2003 British Air-ways’ Concorde fl eet gradually departed from Heathrow for retirement at destina-tions as far apart as Barbados, Seattle,

New York and Manchester. These farewell fl ights culminated in the last landing of Concorde G-BOAF at Filton airfi eld, Bristol, on November 26, bringing the fi rst era of supersonic passenger air travel to a close. But only yards away from the fanfare surrounding that last, emotional land-ing, hidden away in Filton’s huge Brabazon han-gar, sat the fi rst British production Concorde, c/n 202, on a slave undercarriage, shorn of its droop nose and elegant fi n, quietly awaiting its fate.

Concorde c/n 202/G-BBDG had made its last fl ight as long ago as Christmas Eve 1981, only 12 years after construction had begun at Brook-lands. Its nose and forward fuselage left Wey-bridge in October 1971, bound for Filton, where

assembly continued until it was rolled out in December 1973. In February 1974 ’BBDG made its fi rst fl ight, during which it attained Mach 1 for 15min. Over the next few years it was used on test work and certifi cation fl ights, but was never destined to carry paying passengers on the glam-orous Atlantic route. In April 1982, four months after it had last fl own, ’BBDG went into the Bra-bazon hangar at Filton and was kept at semi-readiness, able to be made airworthy in two weeks if required. In April 1984 BA fi nally acquired title to ’BBDG, but thoughts of putting it into service came to nothing, its fuselage skin being slightly thinner than that on the Concordes in airline service. It then gradually began shedding parts to keep in-service Concordes fl ying, the ultimate ignominy being the loss of its droop nose in 1995, which was fi tted to G-BOAF. Late in life, ’BBDG came into its own for test work once again, al-beit on the ground, being used for trial fi ttings for the prototype of a new, strengthened cockpit door, made necessary by the 9/11 atrocities.

After British Airways announced the retirement of its Concordes in April 2003, many museums requested an example for display, and on Octo-ber 30 that year it was confi rmed that ’BBDG had been allocated to the Brooklands Museum. The move from Filton to Brooklands was a real chal-lenge, the narrow roads at either end of the route requiring the wings to be cut off inboard of the undercarriage, something never previously done. The fuselage also had to be severed in two places,

BELOW The same location, 35 years earlier; the forward fuselage of c/n 202, seen on the Brooklands production line during 1971.


ABOVE The starboard engine nacelle awaiting fi tting. LEFT Gordon Roxburgh, who runs the Concorde SST website, and is a regular volunteer on G-BBDG. Gordon fi rst saw Concorde making training circuits at Prestwick, near his childhood home at Kilmarnock. RIGHT The port nacelle, lifted into place by a forklift lent by Linde Materials Handling for the day.

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UK PRESERVATION

a high-tech diamond-tipped cutter being used for a very precise cut just a few millimetres wide.

On May 5, 2004, the nose of ’BBDG arrived back at Brooklands on a low-loader, 33 years after it had made the journey in the opposite direction. The wings arrived late on May 27, with the 100ft-long, 17ft-wide centre fuselage arriving at Brook-lands on June 5–6. Air Salvage International (ASI), a Lasham-based company of former Dan-Air engineers, began to put the aircraft back to-gether on March 1, 2005, by which time a force of 40 volunteers had been mustered to work on the airliner. On August 8 the structural elements of the forward fuselage rejoin were completed, us-ing aluminium repair plates designed by the ASI team. The fi tting of the starboard wing took six weeks, 200 aluminium channel sections being bolted into place using custom-built jigs.

During October 2005 the nosecone was refi t-ted just in time for a visit from Chancellor of the University of Surrey, HRH the Duke of Kent. The

university has become closely involved with the restoration of this icon of local technology, as part of a degree course in which students from as far apart as Iran and Germany embrace the chance to work on such a legendary machine. Ross Kelway, the university’s Student Initiatives Offi cer, says, “It feels strange that Concorde, prob-ably the most glamourous, exotic airliner ever, is now our pet project; a project that, on the sur-face, may appear to be slightly agricultural and hand-to-mouth. We are doing the best we can with basic tooling, but, with time and effort, the end product will look just as it did 30 years ago. We have been using parts from other members of the Concorde fl eet supplied to us by British Airways, and it is fun to get something out of a box and fi nd it was a part that crossed the Atlan-tic at Mach 2 attached to a different Concorde.”

The latest major rebuild landmark was on Jan-uary 24, when several BA Concorde engineers braved freezing conditions to supervise the re-

“On January 21, 2006, 30 years to the day after the fi rst commercial Concorde

RIGHT Looking aft down the cabin of G-BBDG as the internal fi tting-out begins. ABOVE FAR RIGHT The elegant nose of ’BBDG. The coaches in the background brought two of the increasing number of school parties visiting Brook-lands since Concorde was opened. BELOW FAR RIGHT The museum’s Curator of Aviation, Julian Temple, explaining to the author (taking notes) his plans for the cabin. In place of the temporary display boards seen here will be a £40,000–£50,000 audio- visual system explaining the history and technology of Concorde. Visitors will enter through the rear cargo door, and there will be Perspex panels in the fl oor revealing some of the structure and portions of the 90 miles of wiring which winds its way through the aeroplane.

ABOVE Some of the former British Airways Concorde staff who work on G-BBDG, in the cockpit on January 24. From left to right: Miles Jordan, a BA engineer who worked on Concorde as a BAC engineering apprentice in 1970–73; Derek Potton, a BA Concorde avionics techni-cian; and Keith Barton, a former Concorde captain, who fl ew the Mach 2 airliner over a ten-year period. ABOVE RIGHT The port nacelle being secured to the wing.

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UK PRESERVATION

fi tting of the two steel-honeycomb engine na-celles. With a hand shivering from the cold, Ross Kelway pointed to a group of men in refl ective jackets: “We are very lucky to have a team of six BA engineers who help on their days off with tasks such as fi tting the intakes and droop nose, as well as being on call to provided answers to our many questions.” Julian Temple, Curator of Aviation at Brooklands, adds, “The Olympus en-gines will not be fi tted, as an extra safety margin following the wing repair. Visitors wouldn’t be able see the engines anyway, as they are enclosed in the nacelles, but two engines will eventually be displayed underneath the aircraft. The com-plex series of intake baffl es and ramps, used to regulate airfl ow during Concorde’s wildly differ-ent fl ight regimes, will soon be fi tted inside the nacelles, as will the thrust-reverse buckets at the rear. Missing items include the No 3 elevon, many access hatches, and 15ft-high airstairs.”

Ross Kelway continues, “We are starting to

build up a list of companies that can help con-struct missing items, including a sheet-metal company to make up our fi ve missing leading edge sections. Some of the missing brackets, fi xings and panels can be fabricated by students in the university workshops.”

On January 21, 2006, 30 years to the day after the fi rst commercial Concorde fl ight, G-BBDG was opened to the public. Internal fi tting-out is now under way, with seats from G-BOAB, which is still at Heathrow, due to arrive in July.

As the late afternoon temperatures at Brook-lands dropped below zero, Ross Kelway refl ec-ted, “On October 26, 2003, I was one of many that travelled to Filton to see G-BOAF make his-tory with the last-ever Concorde landing. I knew nothing about ’BBDG, gathering dust just across the airfi eld, so couldn’t imagine that I would be involved in bringing back to life the history that was just waiting to be unlocked on that historic day”.

fl ight, ’BBDG was opened to the public; internal fi tting-out is now under way.”

FAR LEFT The two fuselage cuts, now fi lled and rubbed down, are just visible in this view of the port fuselage of ’BBDG, taken from the cabin door, as are the replacement leading edge sections. LEFT Holding the fuselage together at the cut points are these riveted aluminium repair plates. They were designed and installed by the team from Air Salvage International, the company which has been responsible for the dismantling and structural reassembly of the Brooklands Concorde.

ABOVE Ross Kelway, the Student Initiative Offi cer at the University of Surrey, who has brought several students from the University on to the Brooklands Concorde project.

LEFT Concorde G-BBDG making its last landing at a snowy Filton on Christmas Eve 1981. Although it was wearing British Aircraft Corporation titles at this time, it was subsequently painted in the original British Airways colour scheme, and will become the only preserved example wearing those colours. A

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■ Brooklands Museum is open daily, 1000–1600hr (1700hr in summer). Adult admission costs £7. For more details see www.-brooklandsmuseum.com or call 01932 857381; for more Concorde information see Gordon Roxburgh’s website at www.concordesst.com

http://www.brooklandsmuseum.com

http://www.concordesst.com

http://www.concordesst.com



Laughter & TearsThe sketchbooks of World War Two combat pilot Captain George Rarey

CAREFULLY WRAPPED IN waterproof material and lovingly stored in a number of sturdy brown boxes in a small storage area at the EAA Air-

Venture Museum at Oshkosh, are the collected artworks of an artist who would certainly have gone on to become one of the most infl uential illustrators of his era had he not been killed fl ying a Republic P-47 Thunderbolt in support of the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. The gathered letters, envelopes and paper scraps that Captain George Rarey, USAAF, used to record his journey from earthbound cadet to experienced combat fi ghter pilot, make up a uniquely fascinating comic-book-style narrative full of humour, action and ultimately poignancy.

In January 1942 Rarey, a young cartoonist and commercial artist enjoying the bohemian life in New York, received his draft notifi cation in the wake of the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor a few weeks before. Reporting to the Greenwich Village induction centre at 0600hr, Rarey, who didn’t care for his fi rst name and was known to all simply by his surname, carried nothing but a toothbrush, a sketchbook and assorted pipes, tobacco, pencils and brushes.

AVIATION ART

Safely stored at the EAA Museum at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, is a huge collection of cartoons and illustrations on

sketchbooks, scraps of paper and envelopes, all drawn by Captain George Rarey, a USAAF Republic P-47 pilot.

The drawings make up a unique record of one man’s journey from green cadet to frontline combat pilot

during World War Two. NICK STROUD describes the all-too-brief life of this remarkable airman and gifted artist

ABOVE One of cadet Rarey’s early drawings, showing a not-so-happy landing. As Rarey explained in one of his frequent letters to Betty Lou: “My instructor closed the throttle on me at 500ft over some fi elds and woods and told me to set it down for a forced—landing. I fi nally landed but there were some mighty worried pine trees around there!”RIGHT George Rarey in his usual pose, with paintbrush in hand and pipe in mouth. From that day Rarey decided to provide daily

reports in the form of sketches for his fi ancée Betty Lou, who would receive hastily drawn, but technically superb, missives on his progress on an astonishingly regular basis. Even the enve-lopes containing the letters and drawings were alive with renderings of aircraft, vignettes and his trademark caricature of a stylised bird, which came to be known as the “Rarey Bird”.

Having been selected for fl ight training and sent to Maxwell Field, Alabama, and then on to


AVIATION ART

ABOVE One of Rarey’s trademark larger illustra-tions from January 1944, depicting as much as possible of what he was experiencing after his arrival in the UK, including an RAF Short Stirling and Hawker Typhoon, as well as the USAAF’s B-17s and Mustangs. Note also the appearance of the ubiquitous “Rarey Bird”.LEFT A typically modest self-portrait of Rarey during fl ight training, struggling to retain the mountains of information each cadet was expected to remember before taking to the skies.

Primary Flying School at Ocala, Florida, Rarey was prolifi c with his artwork, chronicling the high times and hardships of those fi rst few months of getting to grips with the basics of fl ying and engine construction and operation. In a letter to Betty Lou he explained his diffi culties with the latter in characteristically modest style: “The instructor prattles on happily about volumetric effi ciency and turbosuperchargers, pointing to weird diagrams with a yardstick. This stuff is either very diffi cult or just beyond my feeble scope . . .”

Rarey and Betty Lou were married in Ocala on June 13, 1942, before moving on to Basic Flying School at Greenville Mississippi, where Rarey was commissioned to paint an aviation-themed mural on the walls of the cadets’ recreation hall, a task he took to with relish. After completing Advanced Flying School at Selma, Alabama, Rarey was awarded his wings in early 1943, and was posted to the 379th Fighter Squadron (FS), 362nd Fighter Group (FG) — “Mogin’s Maulers” — at Westover Field, Massachusetts, to convert on to the mighty P-47 “Jug”.

Despite now having Betty Lou on station with him, Rarey continued to keep his remarkable


AVIATION ART

pictorial diary, and his friend and fellow pilot George Palmer, captivated by Rarey’s ability to capture the essence of each day in a matter of minutes, encouraged him to keep a log of daily events. Tragically, Palmer was killed not long after on a routine training fl ight. Rarey was so affected by his friend’s death that he stopped adding to the diary for some fi ve months.

On November 12, 1943, Rarey’s unit moved to Camp Shanks on Long Island, near New York City, in preparation for embarkation aboard the Queen Elizabeth for the “Big Push” to the Euro-pean theatre of operations. Arriving in the Firth of Clyde on November 29, the 362nd FG travelled by train down to the group’s new home at Worm-ingford, near Colchester in Essex.

Once again illustrating the group’s exploits while they waited for their aircraft to arrive, Rar-ey had the nickname “Dad” bestowed upon him, being a little older than most of his colleagues — a ripe old 27 — as well as a much-respected listener and confi dant. The name became even more relevant when Betty Lou announced soon after Rarey’s departure that she was pregnant.

The last months of 1943 saw the 362nd FG still awaiting their P-47s, which fi nally began to arrive at the very end of December. January 1944 was taken up with training in the art of dive-bombing, the plan being to deploy the unit eventually as part of the USAAF Ninth Air Force’s fi ghter-bomber cadre. Only training missions were permitted, although occasional “dogfi ghts”with locally-based North American P-51 Mus-tangs became a popular pastime until the brass put a stop to it.

On February 8 came the unit’s fi rst combat mission, to escort a force of Consolidated B-24 Liberators to St Omer and back. The 379th FSput up 13 aircraft, including Rarey as Red Flight No 2. Two days later Rarey was again escorting heavy bombers, this time into Germany, where the 379th FS CO, Major Laughlin, claimed a prob-able Messerschmitt Bf 109. Missions continued to gather pace throughout February, the 379th often being called on for escort duties several times a day. On returning from a mission over France on March 2, Rarey and a colleague found Wormingford fogged in, and so landed at a B-17base nearby. After an uproarious night in the

“On February 8, 1944, came the unit’s fi rst combat mission, to escort a force of Consolidated B-24 Liberators to St Omer and back. The 379th FS

put up 13 aircraft, including Rarey as Red Flight No 2”

RIGHT Most of the escort missions undertaken by the 379th FS were above the overcast, the sudden appearance of fl ak often shattering the otherwise peaceful wheeling patterns of the fi ghters, as captured by Rarey in this drawing of a B-24 escort mission.

BELOW A drawing made on March 23, 1944, accompa-nied by the following note: “Thursday — through France and Belgium, to Germany with the Forts — beat up airdromes on way out — 379th claimed eight aircraft damaged on the ground”.


TOP Rarey’s drawing from March 22, when he participated in an escort

mission from Hanover, and the day his son Damon was born. LEFT “They have issued us English bicycles — they are fi ne vehicles and we have a lot of fun riding in formation etc — they will

never, however, take the place of the airplane — they are much too

dangerous . . .” RIGHT A glimpse into the off-duty thoughts of a fi ghter pilot

far from home, and desperate to see his newborn son.

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40

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“During the two weeks following D-Day in June,

some ten pilots of the 362nd FG were lost. The

Information Offi cer recalled Rarey describing

a feeling of impending doom, and his drawings were increasingly of his

wife and of his son, whom he had yet to meet. . .”

RIGHT Another of the more refl ective drawings Rarey made, this one being an illustration from the last page of his sketchbook journal. Rarey was clearly anxious to complete his tour and get back home.

41

Mess, Rarey was impressed enough to write to Betty Lou: “They are fi ne fellows. One, a war-weary veteran of 30-odd missions, left saying ‘May the Lord watch over us when we are absent one from another’ — not sentimentally or sar-castically — just a bomber pilot’s appreciation of a fi ghter escort”.

On March 22, Betty Lou gave birth to a son, Damon, and when Rarey was given the news he drew a Rarey Bird bearing a baby boy, with an escort of P-47s fl itting alongside. Rarey ex-pressed his thoughtful nature in another of his letters to Betty Lou: “I hope our child has a chance to contribute his two cents’ worth of light and colour to this battered old world with-out being swept up in one of these mechanised free-for-alls”.

On a very rainy April 15, the 379th moved to Headcorn in Kent, a move that the majority of the pilots found depressing, the fi eld being under 2ft of water. Rarey kept spirits up, however, with his drawings making light of the unit’s position,

most of them characteristically portraying him-self as the hapless victim. A series of drawings from early May indicate how much the war was heating up for the unit, with an illustration of an angel-winged Capt Hugh Houghton “bunk fl y-ing” with St Peter after Houghton was lost on a strafi ng mission on the 10th.

During the two weeks following D-Day in June, some ten pilots of the 362nd FG were lost, the group making frequent hazardous low-level missions in support of ground troops. Indeed, the 362nd FG Information Offi cer recalled Rarey describing a feeling of impending doom, and his drawings were increasingly of his wife, son (whom he had yet to meet) and close friends.

On June 27, 1944, Rarey was leading a mission against enemy targets in France in his usual P-47, Damon’s Demon, with regular wingman Bob McKee and two newly-assigned replace-ment pilots. After hitting a few ground targets, McKee spotted a German fl atbed truck crammed with Wehrmacht soldiers. Rarey had just given the order to hit the deck and prepare to attack the truck when 20mm fl ak burst in thick malevo-lent clouds around the aircraft. McKee saw an explosion to his right, and it became evident that Rarey’s P-47 had taken a direct hit. The squad-ron was devastated to learn of the loss of this supremely talented but always humble pilot and artist, and Andy Anderson, who also served with the 379th FS, wrote in his book Blood, Sweat andFears: “The entire group accepted his fate in stunned silence. One never gets over the loss of a guy like this one”.

The majority of George Rarey’s last drawings were of Betty Lou and Damon, the son he never got to meet, lending those fi nal illustrations an aching poignancy.

Fortunately Betty Lou steadfastly archived each and every one of Rarey’s letters and art-works, many of which are presented in LaughterAnd Tears — The Art of Captain George Rarey, a collection published privately by Damon Rarey, and available only at the EAA AirVenture Museum shop at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA.

■ The author would like to thank Adam Smith for his invalu-able help with this feature. For more information on the EAA and the AirVenture Museum, visit the website at www.air-venturemuseum.org or telephone 001 920 426 4818

AVIATION ART

ABOVE Rarey often drew caricatures of his colleagues and people he met during the course of his travels, and he also drew this charming self-portrait.

BELOW George Rarey’s offi cial USAAF portrait. On seeing Rarey’s work, Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip (Charlie Brown et al),commented: “There is no doubt in my mind that he would have contributed much to our profession if he had lived.”BOTTOM The devastating news. The telegram to Betty Lou incorrectly states that Rarey was a 1st Lt, when he was in fact a captain when he was killed in action near Villers-Bocage, Normandy.

Typical of the missions undertaken by the 379th FS in the early summer of 1944, this illustration shows the second half of Rarey’s day, when the unit was tasked

with strafi ng trains carrying tanks and armoured cars, having escorted B-24s to Steinhuder, near Hannover,

in the morning. Lieutenant Kenneth Kitts was the fi rst wartime casualty of the 379th FS.

http://www.airventuremuseum.org


THIS MONTHIN OUR SPECIAL IN-DEPTH SECTION


EXAMINES American Civil Trimotors

43 Setting the Scene America, the 1920s — why so many trimotors?

44 Madman or Pioneer? Mr Lawson’s primitive but pioneering Midnight Liner 45 The Elegant Eagle Curtiss takes up the challenge with the shapely Eagle 46 The Ambitious Albatross The Zenith company’s one-off lightweight trimotor

48 The Littlest Trimotor Small is beautiful — Larry Brown’s tiny Mercury 49 Prudden’s Metal Misfits Following in Ford’s footsteps; the all-metal Pruddens

50 The Keystones of Success?The Keystone Pathfinder and the huge Patrician56 Boeing’s Flying Pullman Before they were famous — the Model 80

60 Bach’s Contender A California dreamer’s attempt to corner the market61 Kreutzer’s Coaches Perhaps the most elegant of the inter-war trimotors62 A Different Trimotor Henry Ogden’s in-line-engined Osprey

63 One Very Last Tri! The end of the line — the rugged Bushmaster

http://www.camdenmin.co.uk

AVIATION REFERENCE

DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – SETTING THE SCENE


DURING the 1920s and 1930s, the American aeronautical industry con-structed a wide variety of

aircraft powered by three engines, each referred to by the generic title of “trimotor”. Designs ranged across the aerodynamic spectrum, from wood-and-fabric aircraft to all-metal designs. Some were quite successful; many were not.

Operators and designers rea-soned that a third engine provided added reliability and safety. In some

ABOVE A contemporary general arrangement drawing of Boeing’s Model 80, one of the more successful three-engined airliners of the inter-war period.OPPOSITE TOP One of the first of the American trimotors, Alfred Lawson’s Midnight Liner has its Liberty engines run up before its attempted first flight in May 1921.OPPOSITE BOTTOM Positively the last — Bushmaster N7501V at Long Beach, California, on December 20, 1967. This machine is still flying.

American Civil TrimotorsFollowing his exhaustive Database on the Ford, Fokker and Stinson trimotors in the April 2005issue of Aeroplane, MICHAEL O’LEARY rounds up the less well-known three-engined airlinersof the inter-war period. Designed and built by visionaries with an eye on the lucrative burgeoning civil aviation market, most were later wiped out by the onset of the Depression

ways, they were right. Many of the engines of the period had question-able reliability, low horsepower, and short times between overhauls.

There was, however, rapid devel-opment in the field of aviation engines, especially from Wright and Pratt & Whitney. Some of the tri-motors, such as the Zenith Albatross (see page 46), relied on low horse-power combined with low airframe weight and extremely low wing load-ings to achieve the desired perform-ance parameters. However, this

posed problems if the Zenith lost an engine — it would be a real handful (especially considering the fact that most of these engines were fitted with fixed-pitch propellers), while the low wing-loading would most assuredly give passengers an extremely uncomfortable ride when crossing turbulent territory such as the American southwest.

The trimotors of Ford, Fokker and Stinson (see Database, April 2005Aeroplane ) seemed to have achieved a certain harmony between engines


AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – LAWSON MIDNIGHT LINER

A LFRED W. Lawson (1869–1954), self-proclaimed messiah of aeronautics, was completely untutored in

any aspect of aviation, but in November 1905 printed the first issue of Fly, a magazine covering the emerging developments of aviation. Lawson quickly proclaimed the mag-azine (followed by Aircraft ) to be the world’s first aviation publication.

With his magazines, Lawson met many of the aviation pioneers, and, following the USA’s entry into World War One, badgered the government with plans to build thousands of combat aircraft and a series of anchored landing fields across the Atlantic, on which the aircraft could alight on their way to the front.

Although this plan never bore fruit, Lawson built a few combat aircraft before setting his sights on commer-cial aviation, soliciting funds for an “airliner”, a term which he also claimed to have created.

The twin-engined Lawson Airliner was duly built, thus becoming the world’s first specifically-built commercial airliner. The machine was flown across the eastern USAto demonstrate the feasibility of commercial air travel.

Carrying more than 400 passen-gers over the course of its promo-tional flights, the Lawson Airliner was forced on one occasion to make an emergency landing in a farmer’s field owing to engine problems. Lawson mollified the furious farmer by givinghim stock in the aircraft company, ultimately talking the farmer out of $10,000 in cash as an investment in the airline!

Lawson continued to gather inves-tors, eventually setting up shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, proclaiminghimself the “Columbus of the Air”.He knew his machine needed more power, so he created a trimotor that became known as the Midnight Liner, along with a plan to place “lighthouses” across the nation to guide his fleet of airliners. In April 1920, Lawson announced to the press that the Lawson Airplane Company had taken orders for ten of the massive new trimotors. This was music to the ears of investors who did not realise that the purchaser was the Lawson Airline Transport-ation Company and that, in fact, no money had changed hands.

Work continued on the Midnight Liner and Lawson received the first airmail contract awarded to a private firm. If Lawson could have his air-craft flying a complex midwest and east coast route by March 15, 1921, the Post Office would give the company $685,000. However, the Midnight Liner had yet to fly.

The trimotor had a span of 120ft and was capable of carrying 34 pas-sengers (power appears to have come from three Liberty engines). Lawson insisted on such features as a shower, although the 20 US gal water capac-ity would have allowed just one passenger to enjoy the luxury.

The Midnight Liner was not ready to fly until December 1920, by which time he was having trouble meetingthe payroll. Eventually, most of the factory workers were laid off, and, lacking the money to move the Midnight Liner to a large flying field, Lawson had a paltry 300ft strip

created next to the factory as a runway. He set the date for the first flight as May 8, 1921.

Lawson, who was to be “captain”for the flight, obtained the services of pilot Charles Wilson, who was to be the “steersman”, receiving orders from Lawson on flying the machine.

On May 8, Lawson, Wilson, and two mechanics boarded the Midnight Liner, despite decidedly unfavourable winds. The lightly-loaded trimotor rumbled down the grass field, evi-dently unable to take off in the given space. The area was bordered by a freshly-ploughed farmer’s field with the rows running at right angles to the aircraft’s direction. Wilson responded with a sharp pull on the yoke and the Midnight Liner rose into the air. Onthe edge of a stall, the aircraft ploughed through a telephone pole, the right wing dropping and strikingthe ground, causing the Midnight Liner to cartwheel. Lawson and the crew staggered from the wreckage. Shortly after, Lawson was overheard trying to solicit $10,000 from a bystander to repair the aircraft.

The next day Lawson was out of a job and run out of town — but his career was far from over. The ever-ebullient entrepreneur went on to devise a quasi-religion he named Lawsonomy, attracting tens of thou-sands of followers. Even today, fol-lowers keep Lawsonomy alive and well in the USA’s midwest.

Former baseball player and supreme chancer Alfred W. Lawson was the first to realise the potentially rich pickings of a fleet of trimotors criss-crossing the USA — so he built his own, as MICHAEL O’LEARY explains

Pioneer or Madman?

ABOVE Passengers prepare to board the Lawson Midnight Liner. This was strictly for publicity since, for its only flight, the aircraft — fortunately — carried only four.

and airframes, resulting in fairly reli-able commercial transports that did a great deal to establish a modern and efficient system of air travel.

However, losing an engine on any of these aircraft was a problem. Asone veteran Ford pilot recalled:“When you lost an engine on a tri-motor you just had a bit more option on where you were going to crash!”.

Some companies, such as Bach (see pages 59–60), kept addingengines of increasing horsepower to their designs. Usually, this did little except raise the top speed slightly while also improving take-off perform-ance. No matter what horsepower was added to these unstreamlined aircraft, the design would soon enter a drag rise that would limit perform-ance. Also, the primitive fields of the time imposed great stress on the air-frames and quickly revealed certain structural inadequacies.

Fads are well-known in aviation design. During the 1970s and 1980s, there was a fascination with canards — whether these structures actually added much to overall oper-ating performance is still open to speculation. Much the same was true with trimotors. The third engine gave passengers a somewhat false sense of security, despite the fact that numerous trimotors were later converted and operated with two, or sometimes just one, engine.

During this brief period, there was a wonderful outpouring of popular trimotors (Fords, Stinsons, Fokkers and Boeings), as well as a second line of less successful, but still well-used, aircraft (the Bachs). There was also a plethora of one-off machines such as the Hise trimotor (built in Detroit), the Crawford trimotor (fitted with three tiny 40 h.p. Szekely SR3radials), and well-intentioned but rather primitive beasts such as the Hodkinson sesquiplane with three 170 h.p. Curtiss Challenger radials.

Presented here are the trimotor “also-rans” of the first golden age of commercial aviation.


DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – CURTISS EAGLE

DURING the First World War the Curtiss Aeroplane Company enjoyed great success building a variety

of aircraft and engines for the American and British military air arms. Reasoning that aviation was here to stay, the Curtiss manage-ment started to plan for a hugeupsurge in private and commercial aviation after the war’s end.

In anticipation of military pilots returning home and taking up private flying, Curtiss produced its Model 17Oriole, which was the first Curtiss aircraft to have a bird’s name rather than just a model number, the start of a long tradition. A biplane that could carry two passengers and a pilot in a relatively sleek laminated wood veneer fuselage supported by two-bay wings having a thin aerofoil section, the aircraft was designed by William Gilmore and was originally powered by surplus Curtiss OX-5 engines, but this was soon changed to the more powerful Curtiss K-6.

Using the structural design princi-ples of the Oriole, Gilmore then designed the Model 19 Eagle for the commercial market. Rather unusual in appearance, the Eagle could carry six or eight passengers in relative comfort inside a cabin built from

laminated wood veneer with largewindows and good ventilation. The undercarriage was also unusual, comprising two sets of tandem wheels encased in streamlined fair-ings. It would absorb some of the bumps of the primitive landing fields of the time, and the Eagle was a bigimprovement over converted military aircraft being used for the same task. Power came from a trio of 150 h.p. Curtiss K-6 engines, later upgraded to three 160 h.p. C-6s.

Curtiss found that the Oriole, even though it offered very good perform-ance, could not compete with surplus

military craft like the company’s own JN “Jenny” series. The original price of $9,850 was quickly cut to $3,000 for Orioles with OX-5 engines and $4,800 with the C-6. Since licences were not required until 1927, it is unclear how many Orioles were built.

However, one Eagle did find a buyer, being operated briefly by the California Aerial Transport Company formed by Ross Gardner and Charles Pond, operating out of the airport at Stockton, California. The pair used the Eagle to inagurate a scheduled, pioneering airline service between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Fitted with ten seats, the Eagle was purchased from the Syd Chaplin (brother of actor Charlie) Aircraft Company. The inaugural flight was made from San Francisco to Los Angeles and back during April 1920, a truly pioneering event, with Pond and Gardner as pilots and four Bakersfield, California, businessmen as passengers. The first scheduled flight was made on May 20, 1920, from Chaplin Field, Los Angeles. The Eagle rumbled north to Concord, near San Francisco.

A few months later the Eagle was heavily damaged at Bakersfield in an accident about which there is scant information. The airframe was then trucked to the Waterman Aircraft Company in Venice, California, where Waldo Waterman had set up shop. Waterman, a pilot and designer, was, like most aviators of the time, some-thing of a scam artist. He had obtained a supply of supremely heavy Liberty V-12 engines from First World War surplus, and modified the Eagle with two engines instead of the original three Curtiss units.

Waterman intended to start an airline service to San Diego, but this did not happen, and the fate of the Eagle appears to be lost in the mists of time.

Curtiss Model 19 Eagle I dataPowerplant 3 x 150 h.p. Curtiss K-6 or 160 h.p.

C-6 watercooled inline engines

Dimensions

Wingspan 61ft 4inLength 6ft 9inHeight 12ft 4inWing area 900ft²

Weights

Empty 5,130lbGross 7,450lb

Performance

Maximum speed 107 m.p.h.Climb 4,075ft in 10minRange 475 miles

The Elegant EagleHaving earned a great deal of success with aircraft and aero-engines during the First World War, the Curtiss company decided to expand into the budding commercial market. MICHAEL O’LEARY describes the innovative Eagle trimotor

The first Curtiss Model 19 Eagle was rather elegant in configuration and the bird name carried through to painting talons on the innovative wheel fairings and a feather motif on the tail.


CHARLES Focheville and Albin Peterson had a plan; they were going to build a huge lightweight trimotor

aircraft. Both men were in the US Navy when they started work on the design of the aircraft. Rocheville had been chief mechanic on the Byrd-MacMillan expedition to the Arctic in 1925 and on the Ben Wyatt Alaskan survey expedition the following year, and Peterson was official photogra-pher on the latter. Taking leave, they formed the Zenith Aircraft Corporation in August 1927 with Sterling Price as president. A closed corporation, the company was capi-talised with $200,000.

Gathering a group of workmen, the designers constructed a hangar at Midway City Airport, near Santa Ana, California. This 60-acre tract of land was owned by Price and the flying field measured approximately 2,000ft x 1,200ft.

The Albatross, as the new aircraft was named, was completed in less than 90 days and the designers stated that their “factory” was capable of building one Albatross per month and that additional equipment, buildings and personnel would increase plant capacity to one tri-motor per week. These were just some of the somewhat larger-than-life claims that surrounded the aircraft and company.

Zenith also announced plans to

build three models of aircraft with characteristics similar to the Albatross, these being three-, six-, and twelve-seat machines, all to be powered by Ryan/Siemens-Halske radial engines.

The first Albatross made its maiden flight some time in the autumn of 1927. It was a curious machine with an externally braced wing spanning 90ft and a fuselage designed to carry 14 passengers and baggage at a maximum speed of 100 m.p.h. However, the three radials produced just 375 h.p. in total. Peterson and Rocheville

stated that the aircraft could take off in still air conditions in 150ft, which must have been a wild exaggeration. They also claimed that the aircraft would have a ceiling of 20,000ft — something of a challenge for passen-gers without the benefit of oxygen!

The designers claimed that this performance was achieved by having an airframe with extremely low weight and high structural integrity. The fuselage was of welded steel tube in a Warren truss structure. Fuselage tubing was 1½in 18-gauge to 1in 20-gauge, all tubing lacquered outside with varnish and oil inside to

prevent corrosion. The fuselage, complete with fittings, weighed 700lb. Fuselage streamlining was accomplished with spruce fairings and light steel tubes.

The wing spar was of the box type, 14in x 3in with 1⁄8in plywood plates on the outside. In addition there was a built-up Warren truss inside of 1¾in x 2¾in spruce members. Each spar weighed 140lb, the total spar weight being 560lb. The wing chord was 12ft at root and tip while the aerofoil was a modified Goettingen 398. The wing ribs were spaced 10in apart with a maximum depth of 19in and weighed 1¾lb each. Each rib would support a load of 510lb.

The ailerons were spruce with cable-and-internal-horn operation and were carried on a false spar by piano hinges; they were of the shielded type with an area of 24ft² each. Compression members between the wing spars were steel tube and heavy ribs. Drag bracing was single wire. The total weight of the wing was 1,300lb with an area of 1,032ft². The designers claimed a full wing loading, when carrying a maximum load of 13,000lb, of 13lb/ft². The wing was attached to the fuselage at the cabin with four fit-tings while two struts on each side extended down parallel to each other from wing to lower longeron fittings.

Each complete engine nacelle weighed 575lb and was covered with

AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – ZENITH ALBATROSS

The Ambitious AlbatrossIn 1926–27 Ford and Fokker trimotors were successfully introduced into commercial service. In their wake came a number of three-engined airliners from companies intent on replicating that success, including the large, but very light, Zenith Albatross, as MICHAEL O’LEARY relates

ABOVE The big Albatross always drew a crowd when it visited an airport. Here, a Timm Collegiate is parked alongside the Zenith for comparison.

ABOVE The Albatross at Glendale, California. The “Schofield” written under the wing refers to an oil company which sponsored the big trimotor.

duralumin on the forward section and fabric over the rear. Each was supported from wing spars by two struts to the forward spar and one strut to the rear spar.

Additional struts ran to each main support below the nacelle and a strut that carried the controls extended horizontally from the fuselage to the engine structure. The three 125 h.p. radials were installed so that super-chargers could be installed without any change in fittings, room being allowed in the nacelles and nose mounts. Oil tanks were carried for each engine directly behind the space reserved for superchargers in case they were installed.

Given the experimental registration of X3622, the Albatross was extremely efficient when compared to any previous machine of the same size — or so the designers claimed. They also made the very doubtful statement that the Albatross would fly successfully on just the centre engine and that it performed “nicely” on any two engines.

Plans were made to install a 900 US gal fuselage tank combined with 400 US gal wing tanks to create an endurance of “well over” 60hr. A possible non-stop flight to Japan was mooted, but came to nothing. In January 1928, the aircraft was flown to North Island, San Diego, and after four attempts managed to stagger into the air at a weight of 9,898lb, nearly 2½ times its empty weight.

At 0655hr on February 17, 1928, with Rocheville, Peterson and Jack Reid aboard, the Albatross took off for an attempted landplane endur-ance record. However, the aircraft came down at 1009hr on the 18th with an overheated engine, having stayed airborne for 27hr 14min. On February 23 the crew tried it again, but remained aloft for only 9hr 45min before one of the engines suffered a rocker arm failure.

On May 25, the Albatross made another attempt, this time flying from Santa Ana with a crew consisting of Rod Sullivan, L.C. Sullivan and Sol Spiegel. At 0545hr, carrying 1,370 US gal of fuel, a take-off was attempted, but the machine refused to leave the ground. The crew tried again on the 30th, with similar results.

The bright future for the Albatross failed to materialise and the company closed its doors, to be purchased by the Emsco Aircraft Corporation. Emsco began building a large new factory in Downey, California, but, in the meantime designed the Emsco B-2 trimotor, based on the Albatross and re-engineered by Rocheville, who was inherited with the Albatross deal. The first B-2 was powered by three Curtiss Challenger engines and went to the Emsco Derrick and Equipment Company, a subsidiary of the E.M. Smith Company.

The aircraft embarked on a four-month sales tour but orders were not forthcoming. The company went on to build a twin-engined version and the design was also constructed in a single-engined variant as the B-3-A, four of which were built. This enter-prise also folded, but the facilities and airfield were purchased by a young aircraft designer by the name of Gerard Vultee.

What of the Albatross? With no market, the aircraft gravitated to a source that was willing to purchase one-off discarded flying machines if they were cheap enough — Hollywood. The Albatross was taken by road to the Warner Bros studios in Burbank, reassembled, and placed on a sound stage to stand in for a “crashed” Fokker trimotor in a 1928 polar epic starring Monte Blue enti-tled Conquest. It was later sold to become the central fixture of the Royal Albatross Texaco petrol station in North Hollywood, where it quietly mouldered away.

DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – ZENITH ALBATROSS

Zenith Albatross dataDimensions

Span 90ftLength 50ftHeight 12ft 6inWing Area 1,032ft²

Fuel Capacity 1,300 galOil Capacity 120 US gal

Performance

The following figures are based on a loading of two pilots, 175 gal of fuel, 30 US gal of oil and should be observed with some scepticismMaximum speed 95 m.p.h.Landing speed 25 m.p.h.Climb 2,000ft in 4min

The following figures were estimated with a full commercial load, which the aircraft probably never undertookTake-off 600ftMax speed 100 m.p.h.Landing speed 35 m.p.h.Cruise speed 85–90 m.p.h.Ceiling 20,000ft+

BELOW The final resting place of the sole Zenith trimotor — the Texaco Royal Albatross petrol station in North Hollywood, California. The Albatross was not the only large commercial aircraft to be adapted as a filling station attraction during the inter-war period —a Ford Tri-Motor was used at Studio City and a massive four-engined Fokker F.32 in Hollywood.

“The Zenith Albatross was later sold to become the central fixture of the Royal Albatross Texaco petrol station in North Hollywood, California, where it quietly mouldered away. . . ”

BELOW The Albatross masquerading as a crashed Fokker in the 1928 film Conquest, directed by veteran filmmaker Roy Del Ruth, who went on to make The Aviator the following year, as well as the first film adaptation of Dashiell Hammett’s classic noir thriller The Maltese Falcon in 1931.


WHEN IT WAS built in 1927, the Brown Mercury trimotor was hailed as the only three-

engined light aircraft in the world. Be that as it may, the Mercury was a rather clever little aircraft aimed at the burgeoning feeder airline market along with associated roles in business and sport aviation.

Designed by Larry Brown (who would go on to achieve fame in the 1930s with his racing aircraft) and built by the Brown Mercury Aircraft Company of Los Angeles, the aircraft was of conventional construction with a wire-braced welded-steel-tube fuselage, welded-steel-tube tail surfaces and a wooden wing, all of which were covered in fabric. The undercarriage was built in the Fokker style with the compression strut car-rying a wound-rubber cord shock-absorbing unit extending from each wheel to a lower fitting of the rigid engine-mount located above.

The two cockpits were open and the front held two passengers and their luggage. Promotional literature stated: “Both cockpits are luxuriously upholstered and completely protected from the airstream by ample wind shields”. Looking at photographs, the pilots may not have agreed!

The Mercury was powered by three 60 h.p. Anzani radial engines, and the builders claimed a top speed of 120 m.p.h., cruise of 100 m.p.h., and a landing speed of 40 m.p.h. The wing was built in three sections, the centre being carried on N-struts to the upper longeron and the two outer sections being supported by two streamlined struts to the lower longeron fittings.

The wing aerofoil was the “Brown No 5” which Brown had developed to give a wing of high performance and

stability. All control surfaces were horn-and-cable operated and Brown claimed, perhaps optimistically, that the aircraft could not be spun. The centre section carried three 26 US gal fuel tanks directly above the two unsuspecting passengers!

Like many of the designer/pilots of the era, Brown was an interesting character. He started in aviation in 1913 when he began flying instruc-tion with Glenn L. Martin in Los Angeles. He went on to become chief of the Mexican Air Service under Gen Calles, who became president of Mexico in the 1920s. Brown then became a test pilot for the Standard Aircraft Corp in Plainfield, New Jersey, and was later a civilian test pilot for the US Air Service in Detroit.

In 1921, Brown was supervisor of the Mexican Government Aircraft plant and later went on to pioneer cotton-dusting by air in El Salvador. He returned to Los Angeles in 1925 and built two aircraft which drew the interest of Leonards & Co, a Los Angeles investment firm, which raised the financial backing to create the Brown Mercury company.

Although reports indicate that it was a good flying machine, there was no market for this type of air-craft and it simply disappeared during the Great Depression, then little more than a year away.

Interestingly, Brown was a friend of Henry Ogden; when the latter was involved with the Kreutzer tri-motor (see page 61), Brown pitched in, and some of the design concepts of the Mercury were incorporated into the bigger aircraft.

AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – BROWN MERCURY

THE LITTLEST TRI-MOTOR

Like so many designs of the period, the Brown Mercury was built to a requirement that simply did not exist

Brown C-3 Mercury dataDimensions

Span 41ft 6inLength 25ftHeight 9ftChord 6ft 7inWing area 260ft²Wing loading 11·3lb/ft²Power loading 16·2lb/h.p.

Fuel 78 US galOil 12 US gal

Weights

Empty 1,450lbPayload 600lb

Performance

Ceiling 14,000ftRange 650 miles (cruise)

The Littlest Trimotor

In stark contrast to the behemoth Zenith Albatross, designer Larry Brown’s compact Mercury trimotor was a tiny but tough three-engined feeder airliner. MICHAEL O’LEARYexplains why Brown decided to keep things small and simple

ABOVE Larry Brown with the Mercury. The small size of the Anzani radials is readily apparent, as is the wide track of the undercarriage, useful for landing on rough ground. The aircraft received the name City of Angels.

ABOVE Brown prepares for a test flight while a mechanic hand-swings the No 1 Anzani. In the background is the Brown-Mercury Aircraft Corp hangar in Los Angeles. The aircraft, designated C-3, carried the registration 1276.


DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – PRUDDEN TRIMOTORS

G EORGE H. Prudden was chief engineer of the Stout Metal Plane Company, and when Bill Stout decided to

turn the company’s 1-AS into a much larger aircraft, Prudden found himself in at the birth of the metal trimotors.

In 1927, along with investors, Prudden established the Prudden-San Diego Airplane Company in southern California, and set about designing a rugged trimotor of all-metal construction. This first flew towards the end of 1927 and was built entirely of duralumin and steel which the company claimed “was fire- and weather-proof and virtually crash-proof. Absolute protection from fire is afforded by the non-inflammable construction and an automatic Pyrene system”. Of course, a fuel-fed fire would quickly do away with any duralumin aircraft.

The first aircraft was followed by the TM-1, which was test flown in early June 1928. It had dual controls for two pilots and accommodation for six passengers (later stated to be seven, perhaps converting the co-pilot’s position). Compared to the earlier model, the wing engines were moved to a lower position, according to Prudden, to avoid having a blanketing effect on the wing.

It appears that an order for 16 air-craft was placed by F.W. Hemingway, who ran Beacon Airways of California and Beacon Airways of America in Kansas. Hemingway also acquired distribution rights for the Prudden in three States. During June 1928,

Hemingway stated: “As the first tri-motor all-metal transport constructed on the Pacific coast, the Prudden should find a distinct place for such uses. It should prove an ideal ’plane for transport runs, scenic airways and other commercial purposes. It

is not prohibitive in price ($25,000) and carries a profit-paying load easily. We plan to introduce it to California, Oregon, and Washington during the next few months.”

Flight testing was undertaken at Camp Kearny, 15 miles north of San

Diego. Prudden described the aircraft as “riding, rather than fighting” bumps. Speed and altitude tests were conducted in the presence of Department of Commerce represent-atives along the coast near Del Mar and San Diego.

The flight testing was undertaken by Jack Reed, one of the crew who attempted to break the endurance record in the Zenith Albatross (the TM-1 featured the same engines). Several problems were encountered during the test programme, and company directors announced in July 1928 that considerable money was to be invested in further refinements and improvements for the TM-1.

The TM-1 was flown to Los Angeles and other locations for pub-licity work, but nothing came of the venture. Financial and technical diffi-culties resulted in the closing of the company, and the TM-1 was converted to a single-engined config-uration and sold to the Mexican government for use against rebels.

Prudden went to Atlanta, Georgia, at the request of former World War One pilot Edward Whitehead, and formed the Atlanta Aircraft Corp, where he designed and built the Prudden-Whitehead all-metal tri-motor. A low-wing design, the aircraft was apparently flown, but there were no orders. Prudden, however, left his mark on American aviation history by designing Lindbergh Field in San Diego as well as Atlanta’s airport. He returned to southern California and went to work for Lockheed.

Prudden TM-1 dataPowerplant 3 x 125 h.p. Ryan/Siemens-Halske

radial engines

Dimensions

Span 57ftLength 38ftUndercarriage track 12ft

Fuel 110 US gal

Performance

Cruising speed 95 m.p.h.Landing speed 52 m.p.h.Take-off roll 11sec (full load)Climb 600ft/min (initial)Ceiling 15,000ft 11,000ft (full load)

Prudden’s Metal Misfits Having gained valuable experience with pioneer Bill Stout’s Metal Plane Company, engineer and designer George Prudden struck out on his own and created a pair of medium-sized all-metal trimotors. MICHAEL O’LEARY describes how even Prudden’s expertise lost out to pure economics

ABOVE The first Prudden trimotor, illustrating the aircraft’s shorter fuselage and engines mounted closer to the undersurface of the wing.

ABOVE The Prudden TM-1 lifts off from Kearney Mesa, near San Diego, on its first flight in June 1928, powered by three Ryan/Siemens-Halske engines.


S LAY THE DAMNED Yanquiand boil him in the fat of asick pig!” Hearing that andother epithets hurled at him,

pioneering aviator and barnstormerBasil Rowe rapidly increased hispace as he raced to his waitingWaco biplane. Rowe, reasoning thatthe spark had gone out of barn-storming back in the USA, haddecided to head to greener pasturesin Puerto Rico to avoid the many newrules governing aviation back home(obviously not realizing that PuertoRico was an American possession!).

Transiting through the West Indieswith his two Wacos, Rowe came tothe conclusion that the Hispanics ofthe Dominican Republic would likenothing better than a bullfighting ring— a subject he knew nothing about.This did not stop him from building abullring and stealing some cows(apparently not realising he neededbulls). Training a couple of locals towave capes, he filled up the“stadium” for the first bullfight. Themilling cows infuriated the crowdwho had paid the entrance fee andwanted to see blood — either fromthe bulls or Basil.

After a swift getaway, Rowe cameup with a new plan — the WestIndies needed an airline to haul pas-sengers, cargo, and mail. Gettingtogether a small group of investors,he formed the West Indian AerialExpress on June 20, 1927. His sub-sequent search for an efficient air-liner led him in an unusual direction.

Rowe found his aircraft in Bristol,Pennsylvania, at the KeystoneAircraft Corp. During 1927, the crazeto fly the Atlantic was at fever pitchand Keystone, who had inherited theHuff-Daland Airplane Co, was build-ing a series of bombers for the AirService which would not have lookedout of place in World War One.

Derived from the Huff-DalandLB-5, the Keystone K-47 Pathfinderwas a large biplane of conventionalconstruction originally powered bythree war-surplus 420 h.p. Liberty12 engines.

For the New York—Paris OrteigPrize, the aircraft was re-enginedwith three 220 h.p. Wright J5s,

registered NX179 and namedAmerican Legion. Crewed by USNavy pilots Noel Davis and StantonWooster, the machine took off on itsattempt to cross the Atlantic, butwas so heavily loaded with fuel thatit crashed in a bog near Langley,Virginia. The cockpit was crushedand the pilots were trapped.Although there was no fire, fuelfumes suffocated the pilots.

The damaged airframe went backto Keystone to be rebuilt. Able tohaul ten passengers and cargo, theaircraft became the flagship of WestIndian Aerial Express. Rowe said: “Itwas a sturdy ’plane both in the airand on the ground, with high-liftwings that gave slow landing speedand quick take-offs. We neededships that could get out of, and landin, a field the size of a dollar bill, withchange left over. It was as honest anairplane as I ever flew. I christenedher the Santa Maria.”

The trimotor plied between Cuba,Haiti, and the Dominican Republichauling whatever it could. Before heleft the USA in the Keystone, Rowewas informed that he had to belicensed by the Department ofCommerce if he wanted to fly atransport aircraft:

“I must have been the very last ofthe mavericks to be lassoed and cor-ralled by the bureaucracy for brand-ing,” he recorded. He passed theexaminations and was awardedTransport Pilot License No 415.

AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – KEYSTONE PATHFINDER & PATRICIAN Database

The Keystones of Success?A huge monoplane trimotor of truly majestic proportions, the stately Keystone Patrician was the largest and fastest of the inter-war three-engined airliners. MICHAEL O’LEARY traces the type’sdevelopment from the same company’s Pathfinder, and how the Great Depression put paid to it

TOP The prototype Patrician shortly after roll-out from the Keystone factory in Bristol, Pennsylvania.ABOVE The rugged Pathfinder served West Indian Aerial Express well. Oddly, the bottom wing had a longer span than the top wing. One other Pathfinder was built, the K-47C Sign Carrier. The lower wing was lengthened to 90ft 9in and fitted with neon lights for nightly advertising over New York City to promote Silver Dust laundry soap.LEFT The Patrician on the June 1, 1929, issue of Aviation magazine .

“

Text continues on page 55

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XAVIER MÉAL photographed Greg Herrick’s immaculate Kreutzer K-5 Air Coach, NC612A, while up from its home at the Golden Wings Mmodel. It is painted in the colours of Navajo Airways Inc of Winslow, Arizona, with which it served as a K-5 between May 1931 and Jan

Museum, Blaine, Minnesota. Originally built as the first K-2 in the Air Coach series, this machine was progressively modified to become the prototype for each successive uary 1933. It later went to Mexico, but was found derelict in 1981 and later lovingly restored by Herrick, winning the Champion Transport Trophy at Oshkosh in 1999.

http://www.chums.co.uk/offers



DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – KEYSTONE PATHFINDER & PATRICIAN

Keystone Pathfinder/Patrician dataK-47 Pathfinder K-78D Patrician

Powerplant 3 x 220 h.p. 3 x 525 h.p. WrightWright J-5 R-1750 Cycloneradial engines radial engines

Dimensions

Span 66ft 6in (upper) 86ft 6in 75ft (lower)

Length 46ft 61ft 7inHeight — 13ftWing chord — 12ftWing area — 930ft²Aerofoil — Goettingen 398

Weights

Empty — 10,224lbGross — 16,600lbPayload 4,485lb 6,376lb

360 or 420 US gal fuel

Performance

Max speed 113 m.p.h. 144 m.p.h.Cruise speed 95 m.p.h. 120 m.p.h.Landing speed 46 m.p.h. 60 m.p.h.Climb — 1,080ft/min (initial)Ceiling — 14,500ftRange 500 miles 480–550 miles

At the same time, ever-voracious Pan American Airways (PAA) head honcho Juan Trippe was actively expanding into the West Indies. Rowe knew Trippe and even loaned him the Keystone for PAA to make its first contracted airmail flight from Key West to Havana. A political animal, Trippe gained the vital air mail contracts to various locations. Thus, West Indian Aerial Express was taken over by PAA, Rowe making some money in the deal and going on to become PAA’s chief pilot.

The Santa Maria continued on less glamorous routes carrying the PAA logo, usually hauling freight. After a few years, parts became impossible to find, and the Pathfinder was hauled out into the dirt at Browns-ville, Texas, splashed with petrol and burned.

Bigger — but not betterSpanning nearly 90ft, the new Keystone K-78 Patrician was aimed at becoming the biggest and fastest trimotor airliner in the USA. Of con-ventional construction, the aircraft owed a great deal to the bombers being built by the company. Rolled out of the Bristol factory in 1928, the prototype was registered NX7962and was quickly launched into a flight test programme, which included a flight across the USA and back — something that gained the aircraft a great deal of publicity. The prototype was put into use with Colonial Air Transport on a charter operation from New York to Boston. However, it soon became apparent that extensive modifications would be necessary before the aircraft could be put into regular service.

Accordingly, the design was reworked, the spacious main cabin being 20ft x 6ft x 6ft and fitted with 18 passenger chairs. There was a lavatory in the rear cabin along with a baggage area that could carry

600lb of cargo. The fuselage was built up from chromoly tubing with aluminium bulkheads and longerons for shape. The semi-cantilever wing was constructed in four sections. The inner wing panels from the fuse-lage to the engine attachment points were constructed of welded steel trusses to form the spar, and the ribs were metal. The outer wing panels were constructed of spruce with plywood box spars and wooden ribs.

The leading edges were covered in duralumin and the whole aircraft was fabric-covered.

The reworked Patrician was desig-nated K-78D, and powered by three 525 h.p. Wright Cyclones. The company planned a production run of ten Patricians. The Wright Aeronau-tical Corp purchased the first K-78D(by this time, Keystone was a subsid-iary of Curtiss-Wright) and planned to use the machine as an engine

testbed as well as an executive transport with the registration NC98N (the K-78D was assigned Approved Type Certificate No 260 on October 30, 1929). The interior was fitted with a private office, sleeping berths and other deluxe fittings.

The second K-78D went to Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) to be used on proving the company’s cross-country route (the Patrician was either lent or leased). A TAT technical committee, led by Charles Lindbergh, was formed to have wide powers of recommendation for the TAT board. The choice of flying equipment was not taken lightly and Lindbergh’s committee considered the merits of six aircraft: the Curtiss Condor, Keystone Patrician, Boeing Model 80A, Sikorsky biplane, Ford Tri-Motor and Fokker F.10. In order to do some route-proving and garner further publicity, Lindbergh flew the Patrician at different stops where TAT would host dignitaries and other officials. Registered NC10N, the big Patrician would play a part in chang-ing San Francisco’s aviation history.

In 1929, Lindbergh flew the tri-motor into Mills Field, San Francisco, converted in 1927 from a 150-acre cow pasture. Wealthy citizens had been invited for an aerial tour of the city and the press was on hand. The airport was in less than ideal condi-tion, however, and the Patrician became bogged down in the mud. The wealthy patrons were unloaded while the Patrician was dug out. This caused something of a scandal and funds were rapidly appropriated to improve and expand Mills Field —today’s San Francisco International.

With the advent of the Great Depression, the fortunes of the Patrician quickly sank. The planned production line was shut down even though the price for the machine was dropped to $65,000. The prototype and two production Patricians quickly faded into history.

LEFT The interior of the Patrician provided an aristocratic air, with lush fittings and infinitely more space than its trimotor rivals.BELOW The Patrician was often photographed with smaller aircraft for comparison, and is seen here with a Curtiss pusher and a primary glider at Glendale, California.

Text continued from page 50


IN THE EARLY days of aviation, all aeronautical concerns were more than eager to get business where they could. This was no

different for William E. Boeing. In 1926, his test pilot friend Edward Hubbard heard that the Post Office was willing to let a private contractor secure the San Francisco—Chicago mail route. Since 1920, Hubbard had been operating a minuscule interna-tional mail route between Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia — a distance of just 87 miles. Hubbard thought that the San Francisco—Chicago route would be financially lucrative for Boeing, so he appro-ached chief engineer Claire Egtvedt about creating a specialised aircraft for this market. The result was the efficient single-engined biplane Model 40. The company established Boeing Air Transport (BAT) and put in a bid for the route, winning the contract on January 29, 1927.

The route (CAM-18) immediately started making the company money, but the Model 40 could carry only two passengers (eventually expand-

ing to four) in addition to the mail, and demand for passenger service between the two major cities was rising. Rather than buy existing designs from other companies, Boeing decided to build an airliner for BAT. Boeing had yet to design a multi-engined aircraft, but had built many from designs supplied by the military. Able to start with a clean

sheet of paper (the aircraft was to be built only for BAT’s San Francisco—Chicago route), the company did not have to cater to any outside dictum.

Even though biplanes were starting to be phased out in favour of mono-planes, Boeing stuck with the biplane concept. Speed was not important on the route and the lift of the extra wing would be a definite advantage

when operating out of stops on high ground. Three engines were in vogue at the time and the new aircraft, given the company designation Model 80, would be a trimotor.

Design on the Model 80 started in 1927 and by August 1928 the first of four was operating on the line. Power came from three 410 h.p. P&W Wasp radials driving two-bladed ground-adjustable Hamilton propel-lers. The Model 80 was capable of hauling 12 passengers, along with a load of mail. The first took to the air on July 27, 1928. Oddly, the aircraft did not receive a full Approved Type Certificate (ATC), but a Category 2 Certificate permitting commercial operations, and the type was already in operation when Certificate 2-4 was issued on October 22, 1928.

The four Model 80s were quickly eclipsed by the Model 80A which, although it kept the general overall appearance of the earlier aircraft, was very different. The Model 80A was fitted with three P&W Hornet radials of 525 h.p. each and could carry 18 passengers.

AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – BOEING MODEL 80

Boeing’s Flying PullmanOriginally designed to compete with long-distance trains, Boeing’s Model 80 was built with only one customer in mind — the company’s own airline. MICHAEL O’LEARY relates the story of one of the more successful American trimotors, and one of the few with an example still in existence

ABOVE Model 80A-1 NC224M over Chicago displaying the BAT/United scheme it wore during 1931–34. It is currently on display in a Seattle museum.

ABOVE The first Boeing 80A, NC793K, was delivered to BAT on October 1, 1929. It was later used by United Air Lines and famed bush pilot Bob Reeve.


DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – BOEING MODEL 80

24ft0

Tim Hall 2006

Boeing Model 80 Trimotor

Boeing Model 80 (Revised) Trimotor (side-view)

Lower wing outline

Boeing Model 80A Trimotor (three-view)


AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – BOEING MODEL 80

Boeing Model 80A dataPowerplant 3 x 525 h.p. Pratt & Whitney

Hornet radial engines

Dimensions

Span 80ftLength 56ft 6inHeight 15ft 3inWing area 1,220ft²

Weights

Empty 10,582lbGross 17,500lb

Accommodation 2–3 crew, 18 passengers

Performance

Maximum speed 138 m.p.h.Cruising speed 125 m.p.h.Climb 900ft/min (initial)Ceiling 14,400ftRange 460 miles

A revised wing structure substi-tuted bolted square aluminium tubing for welded-steel-tube spars and the rear spar of the upper wing was moved forward to match the spar spacing of the lower wing. The inter-plane struts were now parallel instead of splayed out toward the top as on the 80. The upper surface of the lower centre section was covered with corrugated sheet aluminum.

Following the concept of a flying Pullman carriage, the passenger cabin of the Model 80 was finished in highly polished dark mahogany with black walnut-and-brown seat upholstery. The passenger cabin was divided into two sections, the larger of which accommodated 15 passen-gers and the other, between the pilots’ compartment and the main cabin section, seated three passen-gers. When there were 15 or less passengers and the mail loads were heavy, the seats in the smaller com-partment could be removed to permit loading of additional mailbags.

Passengers were afforded a good view from the large windows made of safety plate glass. At each window frame there was an individual pas-senger vent, a manufactured item known as the “Aerovent”, which could be adjusted to suit individual needs. There were also two larger ventilators at the rear of the cabin.

The walls and ceiling of the cabin were made of a three-ply plywood. The inside layer was mahogany with a dark finish. The centre ply was wood which, while saving weight, also served as sound insulation. The outer ply was also mahogany, selec-ted for strength and stiffness. The floor of the cabin was made of corru-gated duralumin, covered with a sheet of rubberised fabric which was removable for cleaning. Electric lighting for the cabin was important, as a considerable portion of the proposed journey was to be flown from dusk to dawn. Dome lighting fixtures were augmented by small, shaded individual electric lamps at each seat. At the front of the cabin and fixed into the bulkhead were large altimeters, airspeed indicators and clocks for the benefit of passengers.

Above the passengers was a hat/parcel rack constructed of polished duralumin tubing with fabric netting. At the rear bulkhead was an alum-inium drinking fountain supplied from a cold water tank between the ceiling of the cabin and the outer covering of the transport. The passenger cabin was 20ft long and 5ft wide. A passenger could walk the length of the aisle without stooping since inte-rior height was 6ft 7in. In the rear of

accommodate 400 US gal of fuel. Oil capacity for the three radial engines was 36 US gal.

Although 12 Model 80As were laid down, ten were finished as 80As while the eleventh became the Model 226, and the final machine became the Model 80B. The ten aircraft were finished in the new standard Boeing colour scheme of grey with green trim and international orange on the top wing. After a period of service operation, the 80As were modified to Model 80A-1s which added two aux-iliary fins. Because overall weight increased to 10,735lb, fuel was decreased to 392 gal.

The Model 80B was a curious machine since the enclosed cabin was deleted in favour of an open cockpit mounted higher on the fuse-lage to improve visibility. Identical to the 80A except for this modification, the aircraft was soon converted to an 80A-1 by Boeing Air Transport.

The Model 226, NC233M, was given a new design number since it featured a number of modifications. The sole example was built for the Standard Oil Company of California as an executive transport. Since pas-senger capacity was reduced because of the executive interior, fuel capacity was increased to 658 gal.

Many structural and aerodynamic refinements were added to the Model 226 along with huge wheel fairings and cowlings around the engines (which were removed in service).

The cabin featured six adjustable overstuffed chairs, two side tables, two folding tables, petrol-fuelled heater, enlarged windows, two con-vertible day beds, special upholstery and panelling. Delivered on December 20, 1930, the trimotor was based at San Francisco Bay Airdrome, Alameda, California. On October 2, 1937, it was sold to Mr Francisco Sarabia, known as the “Mexican Lindbergh”. His use of the aircraft is not known but the aircraft later went to Central America and was used by a lumber company pur-portedly hauling logs slung under the fuselage, dropping them like bombs into a lake from which they would be recovered by boat and placed in a nearby sawmill.

The Model 80s did not last in service long and by 1934 all were gone from first-line operations. The fleet scattered across the USA and a couple went to Alaska. One of these aircraft, NC224M, was recovered from a dump in Anchorage in 1960 and was eventually restored to static display condition. The aircraft is now on display at the Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington, as the only known survivor of the type.

LEFT A construction photograph giving a vivid impression of the large size of the Boeing Model 80A. Note the equal numbers of men and women working on the machine.BELOW A pre-delivery photograph of the sole Boeing Model 226, finished in overall red with blue-and-silver trim. The cowlings and wheel fairings, although adding a degree of elegance to the big trimotor, were deleted after it went into service with Standard Oil.

the cabin was a toilet with hot and cold running water.

A radio communication system was located in the rear of the pas-senger cabin. With the radio, the pilot, flying at 12,000ft, could flick a switch and speak with an operator at a ground transmitting and receiving station at distances as far as 200

miles away. Twelve such stations were located along Boeing’s trans-continental route. Coupled with the radiophone equipment was the direc-tive radio beacon service which was maintained along the route by the US Department of Commerce.

The centre section of the upper wing held fuel tanks which could

ABOVE The Model 80B, NX234M, with its raised, open cockpit. Taken on by BAT on July 19, 1930, it was soon converted to an enclosed Model 80A-1. It was sold in Mexico in 1935 and was last reported operating in Guatemala.


IN THE MID-1920s, Morton Bach was running a fairly successful aircraft repair and parts busi-ness from Clover Field in Santa

Monica, California. Bach had built a couple of his own designs and in 1926 began roughing out sketches for a new type — a three-engined passenger aircraft. Although the avi-ation industry was turning to all-metal construction, Bach would design his aircraft to be made from wood, and during 1927 the Bach Aircraft Company was incorporated to manufacture the trimotor.

Unlike most rival trimotors, Bach wanted plenty of power for his air-craft, and his plans showed a large nose-mounted engine with a “little helper” hung under each wing. The Bach 3-CT-2 was fitted with a Wright J-5 engine in the nose and two Ryan/Siemens-Halske radial engines under the wing, while the 3-CT-4 had a P&W Wasp in the nose along with the two Ryans.

The first “Air Yacht” to receive an ATC was the 3-CT-6, fitted with a P&W Hornet in the nose and two Comet radials for a total of 785 h.p., which made the aircraft a real tiger.

Capable of carrying ten in comfort, the Air Yacht series faced a bright future. The new Metropolitan Airport

was opening in Van Nuys, California, and Bach moved his business to a large hangar on the field which was managed by pioneering aviator Waldo Waterman, who soon became test pilot for the Bachs.

The Air Yachts followed the same basic construction pattern, with the fuselage being built up from six wooden longerons bolted together with steel plates and fittings. Once the framework was finished, it was covered with plywood which then received a layer of fabric, resulting in a smooth and extremely strong structure. The cabin was fitted with six comfortable seats while the pilot and copilot were in their own com-partment. There was a 50ft³ baggage compartment in the rear.

The wing was constructed of spruce and plywood box spars with plywood ribs reinforced with spruce diagonals and capstrips. The leading edge was sheeted in plywood and the whole structure was then covered with fabric. Fuel tanks were mounted in the root ends of the wing. The wing was braced with steel tubing that had been faired to an Eiffel 376 aerofoil which added more than 40ft² of lifting area. A truss framework built on to the struts mounted the engine nacelles.

DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – THE BACH AIR YACHTS

Bach’s ContenderIn terms of design and engineering quality, Morton Bach’s series of sturdy butstylish “Air Yachts” came close to rivalling the success of the more well-known trimotors. MICHAEL O’LEARY reveals how the Depression, however, again reared its ugly head

ABOVE Morton Bach and company officers with the prototype 3-CT-6, 388, in front of the company’s new factory at Van Nuys.LEFT World War One ace Eddie Rickenbacker with Bach beside an Air Yacht. The former was vice-president of American Airways and was probably checking out the Air Yacht.

ABOVE The inauguration of Pickwick Airways at Grand Central Air Terminal. Note the rather art deco bus, and Slate Airship hangars in the background.


AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – THE BACH AIR YACHTS

The tail unit was also built up from wood and was plywood- and fabric-covered. Bach reasoned that a wooden structure would reduce the noise and vibration then prevalent in the all-metal transports. The 3-CT-6 was awarded ATC 114 during February 1929.

The Pickwick Motor Stages Co had been founded in 1911 to provide an efficient bus service, and later founded Pickwick Airways, based at Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California. After a thorough evaluation, they picked the Air Yacht.

Although the company did not have any lucrative airmail routes, they did have an affiliation with United Parcel, which guaranteed at least 200lb of cargo for each scheduled run. The line offered daily services to San Francisco and San Diego.

However, on March 31, 1929, the company’s third day of service, pilot Bob Kennedy lost a mainwheel when landing at San Diego. The machine groundlooped and went over on to its nose. Clambering out of the cockpit, Kennedy found his seven passengers in a pile — all their seats had broken loose. Fortunately, injuries were minimal and there was no fire. The runways the Bachs were operating from were in poor condition and the wooden structures suffered — Pickwick averaged one accident every four weeks for its first six months of operation. Although there were no fatalities the accidents did nothing for the bottom line, and by 1930 the company was bust.

Next came the 3-CT-8, fitted with a 525 h.p. P&W Hornet in the nose and two 165 h.p. Wright J-6s for a total of 855 h.p. At Van Nuys, the company was expanding, and equip-ment was purchased to increase capacity to at least five aircraft per month. The 3-CT-8 was awarded ATC 172 during July 1929.

Waterman recalled the Air Yacht thus: “It was a magnificent machine and we were all very enthusiastic about its prospects. It sold for $30,000; its closest competition was Cord’s Stinson trimotor at $25,000. Both of these were far cheaper than the Ford-Stout’s $40,000. To demonstrate the Air Yacht’s outstanding performance, I flew one over Mount Whitney, at 14,495ft the tallest peak in 48 States, and then down below sea level into the torrid heat of Death Valley — all in 30min. It was good for a lot of newspaper copy”.

Air Yacht 3-CT-9 (ATC 271, November 8, 1929) had a 450 h.p. P&W Wasp in the nose which, along with two wing-mounted Wright J-6s, offered a total of 900 h.p.

In September 1929, Bach took two trimotors to Cleveland, Ohio, to compete in the National Air Races. Waterman recalls: “I first flew the Bach as the official parachute jumpers’ ship, and then entered the multi-engined transport race. With myself flying one Bach and Billy Brock another, our only real competi-tion was the Fokker. Bach had upgraded our engines to a Hornet in the nose and two J-6s — a total of 1,100 h.p.! Leaving the Fokkers and Fords way behind, it was really a race between Billy and myself. My average speed was 136·4 m.p.h., Brock 134·5 m.p.h., and the Fokker F-10 123 m.p.h. I was lucky to come in first and pocket the pilot’s half of the purse”.

Charles Gilpin, a former Pickwick pilot, formed Gilpin Airlines to service various southern California locations along with weekend trips to Caliente and Ensenada in Mexico. Employing glossy white Air Yachts of different models, the little airline did well, flying from its main base at Glendale and carrying more than 25,000 passengers in its first year of opera-tions. Gilpin was killed in a crash in Mexico and the line was taken over by Elliott Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt’s 22-year-old son. As with most of these early lines, Gilpin Airlines soon disappeared.

Even though the Air Yachts offered good performance, they did not sell particularly well and the Depression finished off the company. Waterman recalled: “Bach went down the long road to oblivion, and I was appointed liquidator of its assets. It was a task that was taking place time and again nationwide. This melancholy job first necessitated taking an inventory of everything, and then the gradual liquidation of what I could sell. Times being what they were, things didn’t sell easily, and it appeared that it would be quite a while before most of the stuff was disposed of.

“When I started getting to the bitter end, there were several tri-motors in various stages of comple-tion which could be purchased very cheaply. So, with some associates, principally a few MGM employees who were all still making good money, we purchased Bach Air Yacht No 22. It was nearly completed and we figured to finish the job and then use it for charter work or resell it for a profit”. They did just that and Waterman entered the machine in the 1931 air races. Most of the surviving Bachs gravitated to Latin America, where the performance was useful in operating from primitive areas. Today, not one example of the Air Yacht survives.

Bach 3-CT-8 Air Yacht dataPowerplant 1 x nose-mounted 525 h.p. Pratt &Whitney

Hornet radial engine, 2 x wing-mounted 165 h.p. Wright J-6 radial engines

Dimensions

Span 58ft 5inLength 36ft 10inHeight 9ft 9inWing area 512ft²Aerofoil Clark Y

Weights

Empty 4,785lbUseful load 3,195lb

(with 200 US gal fuel, payload was 1,685lb)Gross 7,980lb

Performance

Maximum speed 157 m.p.h.Cruising speed 133 m.p.h.Landing speed 60 m.p.h.Climb 1,180ft/min (initial)Ceiling 18,500ft

ABOVE Pre-dating the Short Mayo, this combination employed an Air Yacht as a launch vehicle for a homebuilt design intended to set an altitude record.LEFT Waldo Waterman (on the right, holding oxygen equipment) supervises the loading of sandbags in Air Yacht NC245K in July 1929.

The tail surfaces of an Air Yacht are examined at Van Nuys after a test flight.

The tower in the background survived until the 1970s, when it was bulldozed.


IN 1928 CAR DEALER Joseph Kreutzer became enchanted by aviation. The Aircraft Division of the Joseph Kreutzer Corporation

was set up the same year and the Kreutzer Air Coach was built and flown a mere 34 days after Albin K. Peterson, chief engineer, began to draw the design (Peterson was also involved with the Zenith Albatross).

Conventional in construction, the aircraft showed few faults in testing, but more power was added and the design modified to carry six people. The new Air Coach K-2 replaced the prototype’s three 60 h.p. Velie M-5 radials with a 90 h.p. LeBlond engine in the nose and two LeBlond 60s under the wing. Kreutzer’s chief pilot Henry H. Ogden continued as techni-cal advisor until he decided to create his own trimotor (see page 62).

The K-2 had a comfortable cabin with two large entrance doors at the rear of the cabin section. The first Air Coach had been built in a temporary location at a Kreutzer automotive building in downtown Los Angeles, but with the K-2 a factory had been set up in Venice, California.

At least four K-2s were built, the type receiving ATC 171 in July 1929. Although the K-2 had increased horsepower over the prototype, it was insufficient, and the K-3, devel-oped in parallel, saw the power increased to three 90 h.p. LeBlonds.

Oddly, the K-3 received its ATC one month earlier, in June 1929. Apache Air Lines of Globe, Arizona, operated at least one K-3 success-fully over often hostile terrain.

Records indicate that three or four K-3s were built, one of these being a modification of a K-2.

The next Kreutzer was the K-5, fitted with three 100 h.p. Kinner K5 radials. The fuselage was built from welded-steel-tubing in a truss form faired to an oval cross-section with duralumin formers and stringers. The semi-cantilever wing was constructed in two panels and included spruce and plywood box spars with truss ribs built out of the same materials. Most of the airframe was covered in fabric. The K-5 was issued ATC 223 on September 6, 1929, and eight examples were built before the company folded.

But the Air Coach was not yet dead. Film director E.L. Hollywood and film executive W.W. Hodkinson funded the construction of the Hodkinson HT-1 trimotor. Only one was built and it became the flagship of Guatemala’s first airline, Compania Naçional de Aviación. The airline operated the HT-1 and a few Kreutzers. Hollywood picked up the rights to the Kreutzer design and set up Air Transport Manufacturing at Grand Central Air Terminal, Glendale. Production started in 1930.

The aircraft was designated T-6, and several K-5s were converted. The exact number of new-build T-6s is not known. Peterson went to the new firm and streamlined the T-6, increasing performance. The aircraft faded away, but fortunately one Kreutzer was returned from Mexico and restored to flying condition by Greg Herrick.

DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – KREUTZER AIR COACH

Kreutzer K-5 Air Coach data

Powerplant 3 x 100 h.p. Kinner K5 radial engines

Dimensions

Span 48ft 10inLength 33ft 6inHeight 9ft 6inWing chord 84inWing area 315ft²Aerofoil Goettingen 398

Fuel 85 US gal Oil 9 US gal

Weights

Empty 2,745lbUseful load 1,698lbGross 4,443lb

Performance

Maximum speed 130 m.p.h.Cruising speed 110 m.p.h.Landing speed 45 m.p.h.Climb 950ft/min (initial)Ceiling 17,000ft

Kreutzer’s CoachesLos Angeles-based Buick car dealer Joseph Kreutzer thought he could makea name for himself as an aviation mogul. He was wrong. MICHAEL O’LEARY describes the evolution of his handsome Air Coach series of trimotors, one example of which is still flying today

ABOVE The trim Kreutzer K-5 Air Coach, powered by three Kinner radials. The Kinner Engine Co bought and operated a K-5 as a demonstration machine.

ABOVE A Kreutzer K-2 Air Coach on display in downtown Los Angeles. Despite offering luxury and dependability, the Kreutzers fell foul of the Depression.


IN EARLY 1929, Henry Ogden decided to part with Kreutzer Aircraft and develop his own tri-motor, forming the Ogden

Aeronautical Corp in Inglewood, California and leasing a small 5,000ft² building. With veteran designer Frederick G. Thearle, Ogden sketched out some ideas and design work rapidly progressed until the new machine was ready for a test flight in late 1929.

Designed to carry six, the Ogden Osprey Model C (also listed as PC) was a straightforward design. The fuselage was welded chromoly, built in a Warren truss and of rectangular section. The interior of the cabin — 154in x 45in x 55in — was lined with Insulite for temperature control and blankets of Dry-Zero for noise reduc-tion. Each seat had its own lighting and ventilation. The seats were simple welded tubing upholstered in wicker and leather. The windows were of shatterproof glass and there was a large entry door on the port rear of the fuselage. The tail was constructed from chromoly tubing.

The wing was built with a centre section and two outer wing panels. All were made from spruce with plywood box-type spars and spruce truss ribs reinforced with mahogany plywood gussets. For extra strength, the leading edge was covered with spruce plywood sheeting going back to the front spar. The entire airframe was fabric-covered.

The centre section of the wing held two 48 US gal fuel tanks built of terne plate and duralumin metal sheet, one on each side of the fuse-lage. Two parallel struts braced the wing and fuselage while the engine and undercarriage mounts were fastened to the struts to build a strong truss. The undercarriage had a wide track of 168in and the struts were fitted with oil-draulic shock absorbers, while a steerable tail

wheel was mounted in the rear fuse-lage for better ground handling.

Early literature states that the pro-totype Osprey was fitted with three Kinner K5 five-cylinder radial engines. If so, these Kinners were quickly replaced by three American Cirrus 90 h.p. four-cylinder air-cooled engines — thus becoming the first American trimotor to be powered by inline engines.

Ogden did his own test flying and, after a three-month test pro-gramme, pronounced the Osprey an excellent flying design capable of maintaining altitude on two engines and being able to fly in a lightly-loaded condition on one engine — claims which must be viewed with scepticism.

Type certificate ATC 332 was issued on June 25, 1930. Ogden worked out a deal with Menasco and fitted other Ospreys with either 95 h.p. or 125 h.p. Menasco inline engines which provided a modicum more power (Model PB). Its ex-factory price was $18,900, a figure soon lowered to $16,000.

Once again, the Depression put an end to the Osprey and it appears that, including the prototype, only six were built. At the beginning of 1933, four Ospreys were offered for sale by Henry Ogden at clearance prices. The newest was offered at $5,000, or $10,000 for all four. It did not make much difference — the market simply did not exist.

AMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – OGDEN OSPREY

Ogden Model C (PC) OspreyPowerplant 3 x 90 h.p. ACE Cirrus engines

Dimensions

Span 50ftLength 34ft 6inHeight 9ft 3inWing area 312ft²Aerofoil Goettingen 398

Fuel 90 US galOil 6 US gal

Weights

Empty 2,898lbUseful load 1,650lbGross 4,548lb

Performance

Maximum speed 128 m.p.h.Cruising speed 102 m.p.h.Stalling speed 65 m.p.h.Climb 650ft/min (initial)

10min to 5,000ft

In 1929, Kreutzer designer Henry Ogden decided it was time to go into business for himself, and created an airliner with a difference — an in-line-engined trimotor. MICHAEL O’LEARYrelates the history of the Ogden Osprey

A Different TrimotorABOVE A group of rather well-to-do young ladies exit Osprey NC150W at Palm Springs, California, for transfer to an older type of transportation. This Osprey was operated by the little-known Los Angeles Air Line.

ABOVE A front view of the same aircraft showing the rather angular lines of the design while also illustrating the wide-track undercarriage, which would have been particularly useful for the primitive landing fields of the time.

A FTER THE END of World War Two, Robert Hayden formed the idea that an updated Ford Tri-Motor

would be an ideal aircraft for the more remote portions of the world. (To clarify, Ford used Tri-Motor as a tradename, not to be confused with the generic term “trimotor”).

“Oh, we had great ideas”, Hayden recalls. “We wanted to modernise the ’plane. We were going to widen the fuselage by 18in to take the new cargo containers, add new engines, all sort of good things while keeping the tradition of the original design.”

A little-known fact is that the US Government tried to revoke the air-worthiness certificate for the Tri-Motor on several occasions (doing the same thing with the Douglas DC-3), but Hayden’s testing revealed that the metal used on the Fords had actually toughened over time.

“We started with one tough old bird, and it became a really tough old bird”, chuckles Hayden as he recalls the failed efforts of the bureaucrats.

The Hayden Aircraft Corporation was incorporated in California on January 15, 1955. Trimotor pioneer William B. Stout was the director of engineering, as well as serving on a three-man advisory board that included Commander George Noville, who made the Atlantic crossing with Admiral Joseph Byrd 29 days after Lindbergh’s epic transatlantic flight. He also accompanied Byrd as execu-tive officer on both polar expeditions and was a former vice-president of Flying Tiger Lines. The third member was Gene May, former chief test pilot for Douglas, who had flight-tested many of the company’s aircraft, including the Skystreak and Skyrocket experimental aircraft.

Owing to financial constraints, the majority of the modifications referred to by Hayden never happened, but the company kept conducting

In perhaps the longest gestation in aviation history, the company took 11½ years to build and fly the first Bushmaster, with the second making its maiden flight 30 years after the company was incorporated! The company predicted that 1,000Bushmasters would be built.

The first completed Bushmaster had a large cargo door on the star-board side of the fuselage, and changes in shape and size to the tail unit were undertaken. First flying in 1966 as the Stout Bushmaster, the aircraft became the Hayden Bushmaster 15-AT in an attempt to continue the Ford designation system. It went on to become the Aircraft Hydroforming Bushmaster and was issued Type Certificate No A19WE on October 8, 1988. The air-craft was fitted with dependable P&W R-985s and authorised for a maximum weight of 12,500lb. It is now owned and cared for by Greg Herrick’s Golden Wings Museum in Minnesota as N7501V.

The second machine, N750RW, did not fly until 1985 and went through numerous ownerships. On September 25, 2004, during an attempt to take off from Fullerton, California, on a maintenance flight before the airport’s annual airshow, the aircraft went out of control, became airborne in a left roll, and crashed on to a nearby street. Both crew were severely injured and the Bushmaster was removed to a loca-tion in the desert for study by the National Transportation Safety Board. A third airframe was never comple-ted and its remains are currently in an Arizona trailer park.

DatabaseAMERICAN CIVIL TRIMOTORS – BUSHMASTER

Bushmaster dataPowerplant 3 x 450 h.p. Pratt &Whitney

R-985 radial engines

Dimensions

Span 77ft 10inWing area 900ft²Length 49ft 6inHeight 13ft 9inUndercarriage track 21ftCabin length 20ftCabin volume 720ft²

Weights

Empty 7,500lbPayload 4,000lbGross 12,500lb

Performance

Maximum speed 130 m.p.h.Stalling speed 60 m.p.h.Range 460 miles

MICHAEL O’LEARYexplains the develop-ment of one final American three-engined civil aircraft — the Bushmaster. Based on the Fords, the type continues to fly the flag for trimotors long after the genre’s golden age

One Very Last Tri!

ABOVE The ill-fated second Bushmaster N750RW over the California coast in August 2004. The following month it was lost in a take-off accident.LEFT The cockpit of N750RW, showing the relatively simple layout of the instruments and wooden control wheels.

product surveys, and in 1956 issued results from a survey carried out in Alaska, Canada and Australia, which stated: “Based on 100 aircraft, a thorough budget analysis was under-taken to determine the total facilities, labour, material and parts needed to design and produce a prototype air-craft and a subsequent 99 additional

aircraft. Learning curves were applied and break-even points estab-lished. The results were checked and double-checked against independent industry norms and estimates, and adjusted Ford figures for 1932 [for 1956 labour and material cost], and all agreed within plus or minus five per cent.”


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READERS’ PHOTOGRAPHS

The 1960s was a golden era for Service airshows, before the bright colour schemes seen on many military

types gave way to the increasingly drab fi nishes seen during the succeeding decades. Photographer GERRY

MANNING took the following pictures at the air day held at Royal Naval Air Station Brawdy on August 3, 1968

ABOVE Whirlwind HAR.9 XN306 of 829Sqn, with a ”Russian manned rocket” dangling underneath for the benefi t of the crowd. BELOW Supermarine Scimitar XD419 was serving with the Station Flight at Brawdy at the time of the 1968 display, having arrived from Lossiemouth the previous September. It left Brawdy four months after the show, moving to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Bedford for braking and aquaplaning trials on December 16. It was written off on January 9, 1973, the fuselage and engines going to the ranges at Shoeburyness, where they were scrapped in 1991.

ABOVE Fairey Gannet XG786 was built at Hayes, Middlesex, in the summer of 1954, and was serving with D Flight, 849 Sqn, at Brawdy during 1968. The previous March, an engine panel had come off in fl ight, damaging the aeroplane. After the cockpit fi lled with fuel vapour, pilot Lt J.M. Sillett brought the portly machine in for a fl apless, one-engined landing at RAF Gaydon.


READERS’ PHOTOGRAPHS

ABOVE Westland Wasp HAS.1 XT426, visiting from 706 Sqn, which at the time was an advanced training unit at Culdrose. Delivered to the Royal Navy in May 1965, it later fl ew from both HMS Ajax and HMS Ariadne. Sold to the Malaysian Navy in 1992, it was retired in 2002 and is now on display outside the Maritime Museum in Malacca.

ABOVE An exotic Luftwaffe visitor was a VFW-built Nord Noratlas, 53+14. On the right is Royal Navy Hunter GA 11 XE716, part of the Naval Aircraft Support Unit at Brawdy at the time. Later operated by the Fleet Requirements and Air Direction Unit (FRADU) from Yeovilton, it crashed into the sea off Portland on May 16, 1983, the pilot ejecting.

ABOVE In contrast to the colourful aircraft present at the show, Gloster Meteor T.7 VZ647 was not looking its best while stored with Brawdy’s Naval Aircraft Support Unit. It was scrapped by Texel Reclamation at Ascot in November 1969.

ABOVE German Navy Lockheed F-104G Starfi ghter VB+229 was built by Messer-schmitt and operated by the MFG-2 at Eggebeck. The Navy began replacing its Hawker Sea Hawks with F-104s during 1964, and operated a total of 146 Starfi ghters.

RIGHT Closing the show was this 14-aeroplane, anchor- shaped Fairey Gannet formation. Leading it is a Gannet AS.4, a rare beast by 1968, followed by six AEW.3s, fi ve T.5s and, bringing up the rear, a solitary COD.4, used for deliveries to aircraft carriers.

ABOVE Among the foreign visitors was Grumman S2F Tracker 151 from the Dutch Navy, one of 45 received from the USA and Canada. Delivered in 1960, it served on the aircraft carrier Karel Doorman,and in 1972 was one of four Dutch Trackers to be modifi ed to US-2N utility confi guration, after which it operated from Valkenburg.

ABOVE Another Brawdy resident was Hawker Hunter T. 8C XF991, which served with 738 Sqn at the West Country base 1964–68. On May 24, 1978, the trainer suffered engine failure after take-off from Yeovilton, and crashed into the River Yeo near Martoch, Somerset. The two crew ejected.


WW2 AIRCRAFT EVALUATION

THE FIRST FRENCH document on the Hein-kel He 162 Salamander, dated April 25, 1945, is report No 219, written by Capt Mirles, head of the Mission d’Information

Scientifi que et Technique (MIST), and his assist-ant, Capt Gentil. It states: “A member of the Luft-waffen Beute, captured near Gotha, carried documents giving detailed information on the construction of the Volksjäger [“people’s fighter”]162. Another PoW, who worked under command of the Chef Technische Luft Rüstung from August 1944 to February 1945, had documents dated March 12, 1945, on the waterproofi ng and pack-ing of the 162’s wooden components”.

Although no He 162s were found in the French occupation zone, the British occupation force in Germany gathered 31 of these aircraft at Leck airfi eld in Schleswig-Holstein. According to the British Air Forces of Occupation report, ten were destroyed in situ, 12 were kept, two given to the Americans and seven handed over to the French. Eventually, four He 162s were sent to the USA and five to France. Unfortunately, no record has been found of the date when the other two French examples were handed over to the Americans.

The five remaining Salamanders were loaded on wagons at Leck railway station by men of No 83 Group, attached to Air Disarmament Wing8302 of the RAF, which organised a group of fiveoffi cers, Cmdts Bouvarre and Hirshauer, Capts Petit and Boitelet and mechanical offi cer Sous-Lt Schall. Forty pilots of the Armée de l’Air were also part of the group.

ABOVE A side elevation depicting He 162A-2 WNr 120223 “Yellow 1” of 3/JG1 after it became French No 01 in May 1947.

This group had the diffi cult task of choosingand transferring to France, by rail or air, a largenumber of miscellaneous German aircraft, in-cluding the He 162s. It was impossible to cross the Rhine by train before February 1946 because the bridges had been destroyed, so the five He 162s were stored in the Armée de l’Air Depot in Neuwied railway station, near Koblenz. OnMarch 2, 1946, they fi nally arrived at Andernach railway station, on the French bank of the Rhine, and then left for the Établissement Central du Matériel Aéronautique de Nanterre (formerly Beute Park 5 of the Luftwaffe), which special-ised in the recovery of airframes.

Overhaul by SNCACAt the end of March 1946 the He 162s were trans-ferred for study to the Société Nationale de Con-struction Aéronautique du Centre (SNCAC), in the former Farman factory at Boulogne-Billancourt.Three He 162A-2 airframes were initially selec-ted for restoration to fl ying condition, the other two He 162A-1s being kept for technical study.

It was decided to “dissect” the wings of the two He 162A-1s, fi tted with 30mm MK 108 cannon, to analyse their wooden structure. The two Hein-kel ejection-seats were sent to Société Nationalede Constructions Aéronautiques du Sud-Ouest (SNCASO) for installation in the fi rst French jet aircraft, the SO.6000-03 and -05 Triton, and a French-modifi ed version of the seat was in-stalled in the SO.6020-01 and -02 Espadons.

René Leduc, who was seeking instruments for his Leduc 010-01 ramjet aircraft (see Database,July 2004 Aeroplane), which fl ew on September 19, 1946, used the same type of altimeter as the one fi tted to the He 162. The four 30mm MK 108cannon were passed on to the Direction des Études et Fabrications d’Armement (DEFA) for examination, and what remained of the A-1 airframes was held to provide spares for the fl ight-test aircraft.

The three He 162A-2s, armed with 20mm MG151/20 cannon, were transferred by lorry to Toussus-le-Noble airfi eld. (Pierre Gaillard, an SNCAC draughtsman, remembers seeing these Heinkels in early 1946, still in German markings, in latticework crates in a hangar at Toussus-le-Noble. Jacques Leperre, too, saw the three Hein-kels in the “Farman hangar”, beside the NC.3021

The Salamander

BELOW Heinkel He 162 “White 21”, WNr 120015 of Stab I./JG1, the future French No 2, at Ludwigslust in April 1945. Note the black/white/red nose. The MG 151/20 guns are clearly visible on both sides, just under the red arrows. The fuselage is painted overall light-grey RLM 76, typical camoufl age for the fi rst 30 He 162s built at Marienehe.

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Thanks to the help of its allies, and with the asssistance of French troops in the zone of occupation, France

recovered a number of German jets at the end of the Second World War, including fi ve Heinkel He 162

Salamanders. PHILIPPE COUDERCHON tells the story of the French He 162s, compiled with the help of the offi cial

archives, but mainly from information supplied by Armée de l’Air pilots and mechanics

Belphégor stratospheric research monoplane.)The He 162A-1s were WNr 310005 “Red 7” and

WNr 310003 “Yellow 5”, built by the Junkers plant in Bernburg. They were fl ight-tested between the end of March and mid-April 1945 by factory test pilot Heinrich Osterwald, then transferred from Bernburg to Ludwigslust on April 11 by the pilots of I./JG1, and found in Leck by the British troops.

The He 162A-2s, built by the Heinkel plant in Marienehe, were WNr 1200015 “White 21” or “Yellow 21”, WNr 120093 “White 2” (ferried from Parchim to Ludwigslust by Oblt Hans Berger on April 6, 1945), and WNr 120223 “Yellow 1” (fer-ried on April 15 and 16, 1945, from Ludwigslust to Leck via Husum by Oblt Gerhart Stiemer).Oberleutnant Wolfgang Wollenwebner fl ew WNr 120223 at Leck on April 22, 1945.

Owing to the lack of maintenance and fl ight manuals, and also because the technicians and workers of SNCAC had to learn the new tech-niques peculiar to jet aircraft, restoration of the three He 162s to fl ying condition took a year.The Compagnie Electro Mécanique (CEM) in Paris was charged with overhauling six BMW003 jet engines.

The Centre d’Expériences Aériennes Militaires(CEAM), based in Mont-de-Marsan, was created in August 1945, with Col Kostia Rozanoff (for-merly in command of GC 2/5 “Lafayette” from 1942 to 1944) as its director. At that time the Ministère de l’Air and the État-Major Général Air (EMGA) thought that the French aeronautical in-dustry should be prepared to re-equip the Arméede l’Air with modern aircraft within the next fiveyears. Rozanoff’s role was to prepare the equip-ment for the operational units and tell them how to use it. Pending the arrival of French and Brit-ish jets, Rozanoff wanted his pilots to familiar-ise themselves with the German jets that France had just received from its allies.

Following the arrival of jet engines in the Nan-terre depot, a few Jumo 004s were sent to the school of mechanics in Rochefort to enable the mechanics posted to the CEAM to be trained in emergency procedures. From August 1946 the Bureau “Études et Plans” (BEP) of the EMGAwanted the CEAM to have two jet aircraft at its disposal as soon as possible, like the two Me 262s restored to fl ying condition by SNCASO.

In September 1946, at the request of CEAM, director Lt-Col Badré, head of the BEP, decided to send four mechanics and a pilot to attend a two/three-day training course on the BMW003E engine at the CEM in Paris, because only the He 162s were available to CEAM. Likewise, in October 1946, two aircraft mechanics and two engine mechanics of the CEAM were sent to Bretigny for a fortnight to witness the reassem-bly of two Me 262s by SNCASO, to familiarise themselves with German techniques before the Heinkels arrived.

First flights at Orléans-BricyThe fi rst fl ights of the Heinkels took place in April and May 1947, and were performed by factory pilots Abel Nicolle and Louis Bertrand at Or-léans-Bricy airfi eld, which had a long 7,050ft concrete runway. During these “factory” fl ights the three He 162s received their French identifi -cations, as follows:■ No 01: formerly WNr 120223 “Yellow 1” of 3./JG1;■ No 2: formerly WNr 120015 “White 21” or “Yellow 21” of 1./JG1;■ No 3: formerly WNr 120093 “White 2” of 1./JG1.

Numbers 01 and 2 were given a layer of grey paint closely matching RLM 02, while No 3 was painted khaki green, with tricolour French insignia. The SNCAC logo was painted on the outer faces of the twin fi ns, as well as the mark-ing “He 162 N° 01” etc on the insignia stripes.

At the STAé’s request, following his fi rst trials on 01, Abel Nicolle wrote a memo for the CEAM on the procedure and handling of the He 162:

in France

BELOW The real “Yellow 1”, WNr 120223 of 3./JG1, future French No 01, at Ludwigslust at the end of April 1945. Note that the red arrow is just near the pitot tube. The air intake is in grey RLM02, like a lot of He 162s. The yellow or red air intake is a myth from the 1960s. There are only three possibilities: green RLM81/82, grey RLM02 or natural metal.

ERIC MO

MBEEK

ABOVE The insignia of the SNCAC company.



“A — Before start:Having had the correct functioning of the engine checked by the qualifi ed groundcrew (check for leaks on the fuel lines etc), sit in the cockpit and check that:1) The fl aps are set to take-off position (30°, seven/eight actions on the pump), then lock them;2) Elevator trim is set at about 1·5°; then 3) Start the engine:

a — start the Riedel [starter motor] and let it rev up to 800 r.p.m;

b — open the fuel cock;c — press the ignition button on the throttle;d — When 1,200 r.p.m. is reached, push the

throttle to “ground idle” stop;e — Check the tachometer; if the revs grow

steadily, stop the ignition on the throttle and check the temperature (max 750°C).

When 2,200 r.p.m. is reached, stop the Riedel, then the engine must settle on its ground-idling setting, i.e. 3,800 r.p.m. Then take off after a short trial ground-run.

The take-off run is rather long, about 2,000m [6,560ft], for an indicated airspeed (IAS) of 190–200km/hr [118–125 m.p.h.]; the aircraft has no tendency to swing. Retract the undercarriage as soon as possible, keeping the lever in the low position until the three wheels are locked (apply brakes to avoid vibrations). Do not retract the fl aps before the safety altitude is reached; the aircraft has a strong tendency to sink during this operation. Do not exceed 350km/hr [217 m.p.h.] with fl aps and undercarriage down.

“B — Before landingReduce the speed to about 300km/hr [186

m.p.h.], then set the fl aps to the down position (start position -30°), and then lower the under-carriage. The engine speed being at about 6,000 r.p.m., the descent is rather slow. As soon as the pilot judges he is in the best situation for landing he should reduce the power below 6,000 r.p.m., slow the aircraft down to about 250km/hr [155 m.p.h.], and set the fl aps to their maximum “down” setting (again this must be done at a safe altitude, as the aircraft sinks rapidly in these conditions). If necessary, add some power care-fully to avoid any rough running. If the aircraft is kept straight and level the approach is made be-tween 200–210km/hr [125–130 m.p.h.]. Landing is easy; keep the aircraft as long as possible on its main wheels and brake gently. If the landing run is too long, shut the fuel feed and set the throttle to ‘idle’.

“C — Important remarks regarding safetyDo not fl y longer than 30min (including take-off and landing). In case of engine failure, the pilot should land with the undercarriage up if he is not absolutely sure he can reach the runway. If the engine stops it is impossible to retract the undercarriage. Therefore the pilot should not lower the undercarriage unless he is absolutely certain to touch down on the runway.

“D — PerformanceSNCAC, as requested, did not undertake per-formance measurements. It seems, however, that at an altitude of 4,000m [13,120ft] and at an engine speed of 9,000 r.p.m., the airspeed should have been around 550km/hr [340 m.p.h.]. At the same altitude it should be around 610km/hr

ABOVE Two He 162s on a French railway carriage at Leck in February 1946, en route for Nanterre. The bigger ejection case of the A-1 is clearly visible. “Yellow 5” is WNr 310003 and “Red 7” is WNr 310005. Note the three emblems of I./JG1 on the aircraft’s nose.ABOVE RIGHT A close-up of the grey fuselage of He 162 WNr 120093 in the Farman factory at Boulogne-Billancourt. Only three Heinkels at Leck in May 1945 had grey fuselages : “White 21”, the famous “White 1” and “White 3”, but only “White 21” had the red arrow, not just the pitot tube.

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BELOW Heinkel He 162A-2 WNr 120015, “White 21” of 1./JG1 as it appeared before being transformed into French No 2 in May 1947.



[380 m.p.h.] at 6,300 r.p.m. Time to climb to 4,000m at 9,500 r.p.m. and 320km/hr [200 m.p.h.] IAS was 7min.

“E — Fuel consumptionClimb to 4,000m at 9,500 r.p.m. and descent at 6,000 r.p.m.: 285lit; in level fl ight at 4,000m and 9,000 r.p.m.: 950lit/hr; Usable fuel capacity: 640lit in aircraft No 01 (470 + 170 for reserve)”.

On May 8 chief engineer Pierret of the STAéwrote to EMGA:

“Aircraft loaded as follows: take-off weight 2,713kg [5,980lb], c.g. at 22·6 per cent.

“A — To begin with, I draw your attention to the undercarriage-up selection manœuvre: after the port undercarriage is locked, the lever returns to its initial position, the left leg staying in the down position. It is therefore necessary to reactivate the undercarriage lever to retract the undercarriage fully.

“B — Otherwise, the performance charts at-tached to the German manual seem to be very optimistic, especially for the take-off run, which in reality needs 1,200m [3,937ft] with no wind; the landing takes 1,400m [4,593ft] with fl aps set at 25°. The take-off speed is 200km/hr [125 m.p.h.] IAS with the engine running at 9,500 r.p.m.

“The aircraft does not seem very steady on its course. Especially when landing with under-carriage and fl aps down, the aircraft is diffi cult because of its lack of stability in the yaw and pitch axes.

“C — Considering the shape of the fuel tanks, it is advisable to keep a safety margin of 200lit of fuel for descent and landing.

“Under these conditions it is compulsory to limit the duration of a level fl ight at 4,000m [13,120ft] (i.e. between 250 and 350km [155–215 miles] of fl ying range with no wind) to 15min. It would therefore be wise to avoid intermediate stops when ferrying the aircraft to Mont-de-Marsan.”

Official evaluationFollowing the fi rst factory fl ights performed by SNCAC, a team from the Direction Technique et Industrielle (DTI) was tasked with testing this aircraft at the request of the EMGA. This team comprised chief engineer du Merle, Capt Des-

caves commanding the “Reception” group in the Centre Aérien Technique de Réception et d’Entraînement (CATRE), Capt Le Martelot and Lt Lombaert. Guy du Merle recalls:

“Arriving from Villacoublay in Nord 1002 N°249 with Lombaert at the controls, after about 40min fl ying time, I was unpleasantly surprised to see, from overhead, ‘my’ aircraft taxying. I ran into the offi ce of the base commander, who calmly explained that the factory test pilot, Louis Bertrand, wanted to make a short fl ight in the aircraft, and that I could make the next fl ight immediately afterwards. Very disappointed, I rushed in a car to the threshold of the long run-way where our aircraft was parked, having just been refuelled. I watched the take-off in com-pany with the mechanic. Having been warned that the take-off would be long, I stared into the distance, watching the other end of the runway, but could not see anything coming.

“After a period of time that seemed endless, I asked the mechanic if the aircraft might have broken down. ‘Surely not,’ he replied, laughing, ‘Wait a little!’ Then I caught a glimpse of a small dot on the horizon, which fi nally decided to leave the ground. The fl ight was relatively short, the landing perfect, and when it was my turn I was impatient to see what would happen.

BELOW A rear view of WNr 120093 at Boulogne-Billancourt. This aircraft had the rocket-assisted take-off system under the fuselage. Many He 162 parts and a BMW 003E engine are visible behind.

LEFT The fuselage of “Red 7” at Boulogne-Billancourt in March 1946, with the emblem of 2./JG1 on its nose. Immediately behind it is the fuselage of “White 2”, WNr 120093, the future French No 3. On the left, just under the tail of 120093, may be seen a fuselage in grey RLM76 with a black/white cross; the future French No 2.

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“In fact, the run did absorb 2,000m of the 2,150m available. The take-off was sluggish, but I have to admit that the BMW 003 turbojet I had on the back, ‘between the shoulders’, was not very powerful. Once in fl ight, with undercarriage retracted, the aircraft became pleasant, the vis-ibility to the front was excellent, and manœu-vrability perfect. Of course the landing was shorter than this painful take-off, and easy be-cause of the tricycle layout of the undercarriage, but the aircraft landed at a speed of more than 200km/hr [125 m.p.h.], which was new to me.”

Similarly, Lt Raphaël Lombaert, a Spitfi re pilot with 329 Sqn on D-Day, and used to German in-struments owing to his delivery fl ights of the NC.900 (Focke-Wulf Fw 190) for SNCAC at Aux-erre-Moneteau airfi eld on November 18 and 19, 1945, found himself in a familiar cockpit. Here is his report:

“On May 27, 1947, after the display fl ight by Louis Bertrand of SNCAC, it was my turn to fl y Heinkel He 162 No 2. Regarding the airframe, the total absence of documentation and technical data, apart from Abel Nicolle’s report, did not make ground training easier.

“I was used to the instruments, except some novelties such as the thrust-nozzle temperature gauge, known as T4. As for the levers, besides the usual throttle there was a lever for opening the fuel circuit for the engine, and, very close, the undercarriage retraction lever; only retrac-tion, as lowering was made thanks to a cork-screw-type handle linked to a cable. The action

on this handle unlocked the locking mecha-nisms for the legs, which, upon retraction, had tightened big springs, the purpose of which was to pull the three wheels back to the down posi-tion. In a way it was an emergency lowering sys-tem without hydraulic pressure. Lastly, near the left-hand side of the windscreen, was the hand pump which allowed the fl aps to be lowered hydraulically for take-off and landing. Turning this handle in one direction allowed them to be locked into position and, in the other direction, to be unlocked for retraction.

“Lastly, for these fl ights we did not have any oxygen or radio. A very competent Austrian motor engineer briefed us very precisely on the handling of the BMW 003 turbojet, its starting with the help of the Riedel motor, its reference settings, its temperature limits and, above all, issued the utmost precautions to use the throttle towards the maximum thrust without pumping or fl aming out. It took about 20–25sec to go from idle to maximum power. In fact, three character-istic settings were used: Ground idling at 3,000 r.p.m. when declutching the Riedel; fl ight idling at 6,000 r.p.m. (T4 of 450°C); and maximum power at 9,800 r.p.m. (T4 of 600°C, which should not exceed 700°C). Of course, any intermediate setting was possible between 9,800 and 6,000 r.p.m. The BMW 003 was very sensitive to nega-tive g and fl amed-out easily.

“I shall not dwell on the take-off, fl aps on the proper setting thanks to seven actions on the pump, but I stress the sluggish acceleration, which requires a run of 900–1,000m [2,950–3,280ft] before the aircraft leaves the ground at a speed of 190km/hr [120 m.p.h.]. The available power was the equivalent of 650 h.p. maximum for a take-off weight of 2,800kg [6,170lb] and a wing loading of 230kg/m². Climb at 350km/hr [215 m.p.h.] was very pleasant, with no vibration and a very soft noise; levelling off the aircraft at the cruise setting of 9,000 r.p.m. and 480km/hr [300 m.p.h.] IAS did not alter the pleasure of the climb. Unfortunately this apparent docility vanished as soon as one started to feel for the control reactions, especially its incredible sensi-tivity to the slightest amount of slip, which made one think, because of the sinking in pitch or roll, that a spin was imminent.


“This aircraft was very pleasant in ‘recreational’ use, but could become

BELOW Personnel of SNCAC working on the French No 2. Note the MG.151/20 gun still in place. All of the mainte-nance markings are in French and red.

RIGHT The nose of “Red 7” with the nosecone removed, showing the nosewheel leg mechanism. Note the emblem of 2./JG1 and the gun aperture, painted black. Just behind it is the unpainted nose of WNr 120093. FAR RIGHT The wings of “Red 7” were cut into sections to enable their wooden structure with integrated fuel tanks to be studied.

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“In addition, a slightly tight turn caused a wor-rying buffeting. A speed run ‘all in the middle’ at 9,600 r.p.m. brought the IAS in the vicinity of 750 km/hr [460 m.p.h.] at 1,500m [4,920ft].

“In all, this aircraft was very pleasant in ‘rec-reational’ use, but could become terribly vicious in manœuvres relatively common for a classic fi ghter.

“The limited 15min of fl ight imposed as a pre-cautionary measure, not taking account of the real fuel consumption, had almost elapsed, and it was about time to play Act 5, the landing. Be-cause of the engine characteristics this was one of the most diffi cult phases of the fl ight and, in my opinion, must have been the cause of several accidents.

“1st manœuvre: Slightly reduce the normal fl ight setting to fl ight idling, the speed decreas-ing to 260km/hr [160 m.p.h.].

“2nd manœuvre: Lower the undercarriage and pump on the fl aps; pump 21 times, the speed settling at 240km/hr [150 m.p.h.] at 6,000 r.p.m. (fl ight idling).

“3rd manœuvre: make the last turn and esti-mate (in view of the runway) the right moment to set the throttle to ground idling. From then on it is not possible to add more power to lengthen the landing or make a go-around, because in the following 20sec (necessary to regain full power from the ground-idling setting), the aircraft would have travelled, at decreasing speed, be-tween 1,300 [4,270ft] and 1,100m [3,600ft].

“If everything went right, fl ying past the ap-proach lights at the runway threshold at approx-imately 200km/hr [125 m.p.h.] led to touchdown within the following 200m [660ft]. The aircraft had to be maintained ‘nose-up’ on its main un-dercarriage and, bearing in mind the roughness of the brakes, the nosewheel had to be put down at 100–110km/hr [62–68 m.p.h.] before applying the brakes. Then, with the help of the residual thrust, I returned to the end of the runway, where a van was waiting to refuel the aircraft using the ancestral method of the Japy hand-pump plunged in a 200lit barrel, pouring the amount of precious fl uid necessary for the following fl ights into a funnel capped with a chamois leather.”

Lombaert, thinking as a fi ghter pilot, found the visibility from the cockpit very poor. “The pilot

can’t see in the crucial area, i.e. to the rear and to the top. Moreover, the very short range and the scanty equipment makes fl ights in bad weather or fl ying through the clouds somewhat problematic. One has to admit that the Heinkels restored to fl ying condition by SNCAC had nei-ther the FuG 24 radio set (which was rare in Leck in May 1945) nor the oxygen system, and had never been fi tted with a modern Patin compass like the Bf 109 or Fw 190, but only with the sim-ple FK 38 magnetic compass.”

Two incidents disrupted the following fl ights, by Le Martelot and Descaves of CATRE. During the take-off run the aircraft, having reached the normal take-off point, kept on rolling, leaving the ground just short of the end of the runway and frightening the spectators. The pilot, notic-ing that the aircraft refused to take off, mentally re-read his checklist and realised that the fl aps had not remained in the take-off position be-cause he had forgotten to lock their handle by a quarter of a turn before applying the take-off power. The extra half-runway run did corre-spond to the setting of the fl aps back to normal, which led to a higher-speed take-off more spec-tacular than the others.

The next incident led to subsequent fl ights being cancelled, as, during the sixth go-around on landing, an undercarriage door was found half torn away. On debriefi ng, the pilots came to the conclusion that the aircraft was potentially dangerous because of its unexpected reactions, and tricky on landing.


BELOW With a Junkers Ju 52 and Heinkel He 274 as a backdrop, French No 2 displays the hinged cowlings that allowed easy access to the He 162’s BMW 003E engine.

LEFT French No 2 on the tarmac at Orléans-Bricy in May 1947, in between fl ights. The man in the white overalls is probably M Siriex of SNCAC.

terribly vicious in manœuvres relatively common for a classic fi ghter”

CEV

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NEXT MONTHThe author concludes his account of the French fl ight-testing of the He 162 with an account of the trials at the Centre d’Expériences Aériennes Militaires at Mont-de-Marsan in 1947–48


AVIATION REFERENCE A DETAILED LOOK IN THE COCKPIT

The Office...A DETAILED LOOK IN THE COCKPIT

The Office...Aviation Reference

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21F

THE EPITOME of the advanced jet fi ghter from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War era, the unmistakable MiG-21

appeared astonishingly futuristic, and somewhat menacing, when it was fi rst encountered by its Western adversaries in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Following on from the successful but fl awed MiG-15, -17 and -19 designs of the fi ghters-only Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau, the MiG-21 was conceived as a lightweight fair-weather air superiority aircraft of outstanding manœuvrability and blistering performance. It fi rst fl ew in a delta-winged confi guration, as the Ye-4, in June 1956. The 40 subsequent pre-production MiG-21Fs were allocated the NATO codename Fishbed-B, and the full production aircraft became Fishbed-Cs.

Entering service with the Soviet Air Force in 1959, the MiG-21F was equipped with minimal armament, carrying two 30mm cannon (later reduced to just one) and a pair of AA-2 Atoll air-to-air missiles, the latter unsatisfactory on anything but the most docile targets.

Despite the MiG-21’s considerable shortcomings — lack of useful armament, poor avionics, and perhaps most signifi cantly, severely limited range — the type went on to become one of the most ubiquitous combat aircraft in aviation history. It has been built in greater numbers, and in more variants, than any other jet fi ghter ever built. It has also equipped more air forces throughout the world than any other similarly-tasked aircraft.

North Vietnamese pilots who fl ew the type against contemporary American fi ghters during the Vietnam confl ict preferred to fl y the MiG-17 in combat, the MiG-21’s high wing-loading making it considerably less agile than the older Soviet fi ghter.

Former Polish Navy MiG-21 pilot SqnLdr Slawek Olczyk explains what the type was like to fl y:

“The workload in the cockpit could be very heavy. While fl ying the aircraft you had to operate the radar, activate your weapons and manage your fuel.”

Although Olczyk was fl ying the type well into the 1990s, the MiG-21 was still essentially a product of a previous generation of fi ghters:

“The environmental controls in the cockpit had to be set before fl ight. You could not change them once you were airborne. The visibility was also very limited. The seat was set very deep in

the cockpit, and you could not raise it to a suitable level. Comparing it to the F-16, there was no contest.”

Having been continually developed throught its lifetime, including being licence-built in China as the Chengdu F-7, the MiG-21 is still in operation with a number of air forces around the world, most notably India and several

African nations, some 50 years after the prototype’s fi rst fl ight.

Indeed, several companies have made a tidy business of upgrading the long-whiskered — if short-legged —delta into a machine capable of offering sterling service to smaller nations which require an effective, but relatively inexpensive, fi ghter force.


In his tenth pilot’s perspective study, American aviation photographer DAN PATTERSON showsthe cockpit of the most successful Soviet-designedjet fi ghter ever built — the sleek MiG-21 — still in service today, an amazing 50 years after the distinctive delta’s fi rst fl ight.Graphic by IAN BOTT

The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21F

■ Thanks to Donald Nijboer for the key information, which came from his book Cockpits of the Cold War (Boston

Mills Press, 2003; ISBN 1-55046-405-1)

1 Oxygen install switch2 Rocket/cannon arming switch3 Flap switches4 Seat control switch5 Navigation lights switch6 Throttle7 Air start switch8 Anti-surge valves switch9 Emergency nozzle control10 Hydraulic pump switches11 K-18 oxygen gauge12 Landing gear lever13 Landing gear position indicator14 UD-1 range indicator15 Break and overload warning lights16 V-1 voltmeter17 Accelerometer18 Landing light switch19 External tank drop switch20 ARU-37 automatic control21 Airspeed indicator22 Compass23 Radio switch

24 Trim control25 Gun/radar sight26 Attitude indicator27 Altimeter28 Clock29 Cannon indicator lights30 Rate-of-climb indicator31 Landing gear warning light32 Trim/stabiliser warning lights33 Emergency pitot tube switches34 Cockpit pressure gauge35 Turn-and-bank indicator36 Oil pressure indicator37 Missile control panel38 Mach meter39 Tachometer40 Exhaust temp gauge41 Fuel tank pump switches42 Fuel fl owmeter43 Control stick44 M-2000 pressure gauge45 Wheels pressure gauge46 Fuses

MAIN PICTURE The cockpit of the MiG-21F at the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. This machine was probably built in Czecho-slovakia, and fl ew with the air force of that nation. It is in the markings of a MiG-21PF of the North Vietnamese Air Force during the Vietnam War.

http://www.transmac.net



Compiled by Nick Stroud

Looking Back 50 Years — April 1956

The Tu-104 ReturnsCOLONEL-GENERAL SEROV left London Airport for Moscow in the Tupolev Tu-104 on March 27, taking less than 3¼hr for the journey, at an average speed of 484 m.p.h. According to Moscow Radio, the visit-ing Tu-104 was the fi rst prototype, since a second machine of its type was claimed as tested and in “normal service”. The prototype jet transport is due back in this country on April 15, carrying a group of Russian ballet dancers.

A Collision Narrowly AvoidedNEAR-DISASTER to a BEA Elizabethan fl ying from Belfast to London with 23 passengers and a crew of six made headline news last week. While fl ying in VFR [Visual Flight Rules] conditions at 9,500ft in the region of Daventry, the Elizabethan narrowly avoided collision with an RAF Vampire trainer up from Little Rissington. Both pilots took evasive action and, as a result of the somewhat violent manœuvre on the part of the Elizabethan, fi ve of its occupants sustained injuries which necessitated their detention in hospital.

Firefly FarewellPRODUCTION OF THE Fairey Firefl y has now ended after 1,702 examples of the type have been built. The last Firefl y, a U.8 target drone (WP354), was handed over on April 20 by Mr Richard Fairey to Mr H.M. Kemp, who accepted it on behalf of the Ministry of Supply. It will remain in store at Ringway until re-quired for guided weapons training.

News From the ClubsAERIAL RUMMY is an idea proposed by Elstree Flying Club as an inter-club game. Each crew would be provided with a number of cards, each represent-ing part of an aeroplane — an Auster wing, a Tiger Moth fuselage, a Magister undercarriage leg — and would then visit another club and demand any part required in order to complete a particular type.

Thus, if one crew are collecting Auster parts and

have, say, a Tiger Moth undercarriage to dispose of, they can ask for whatever part they require in ex-change for the Tiger part. To prevent an immediate return match, a card cannot be demanded back within 24hr, so this gives a crew suffi cient time to collect a complete aeroplane and put forward a claim. Exchanges between two crews in the same club are not allowed, of course.

To be tried out experimentally between the Denham, Surrey and Elstree clubs, the scheme will, it is hoped, eventually be extended to about eight fl ying clubs. Originated by Derek Wright at Denham, the details were sorted out between him, C.A. Nepean Bishop and David Ogilvy.

Turbulent TourA DRUINE TURBULENT single-seat monoplane arrived at Elstree on April 8 for a three-week tour under the auspices of the Popular Flying Association, which hopes to encourage home construction for this and several other ultra-light aircraft.

More than 300 have already been built by amateurs in France, and half a dozen Turbulent and Turbis (the two-seater variant) have been started in this country. The total cost is estimated at about £350–£400, and the powerplant is a 28 b.h.p. Volkswagen car engine.

America’s Mach 2 FighterWITH THE RELEASE last week of preliminary infor-mation on Lockheed’s F-104A Starfi ghter came some brief details concerning its background and design features. As a fi ghter in the 1,300 m.p.h. class — and straight-winged at that — the Starfi ghter is one of the most technically interesting aeroplanes that has been seen for a long time.

Production versions of the Starfi ghter are powered by a General Electric J79 with afterburner, and the most outstanding feature of the aircraft is its small, low-aspect-ratio, unswept wing.

The Triple CrownWHEN LT-CDR Twiss achieved, subject to confi rma-tion, a World Speed Record by fl ying the Fairey F.D.2 at 1,132 m.p.h. on March 10, near Chichester, he not only captured for this country the proud and unex-pungeable record of being the fi rst to set a record at more than 1,000 m.p.h., but he also ensured that his country became the possessor of the triple crown with the fastest speeds on land, 403·14 m.p.h. (Mr John Cobb); on water, 216·25 m.p.h. (Mr Donald Campbell), and in the air. This is indeed some-thing to be proud of.

ABOVE Crosswind columnist John Fricker at the controls of Druine Turbulent F-PHFR dur-ing a fl ight test from Elstree for a report in the April 27, 1956, issue of The Aeroplane.BELOW Another regular con-tributor to The Aeroplane was Chris Wren, who drew this “Wrendering” of the F.D.2and a Starfi ghter jousting for the World Speed Record.

ABOVE Tupolev Tu-104 CCCP-L5400 arrived at Heathrow on March 22, 1956, carrying the fi erce cabinet-ranking boss of the Soviet secret service, Colonel-General Ivan Serov,and departed for Moscow fivedays later.


In 1948, Britain called on the United Nations for help in policing the politically volatile situation arising from

the formation of Israel in the former British mandate of Palestine. COLIN DODDS describes how a group of Dutch

pilots were tasked with fl ying a handful of Dragon Rapides to the Middle East, and why it all went so wrong

ABOVE The fi ve de Havilland Dragon Rapides of the United Nations cadre at an airfi eld while on their way to the Middle East in 1948. See page 78 for details of an exclusive Aeroplane special offer for the author’s defi nitive Air-Britain book on the elegant de Havilland Dragon family of airliners.

UNITED NATIONS OPERATIONS

IN EARLY1948 the United Nations Organisa-tion (UNO) was asked by Britain to help control the dissidents in the ideological bat-tle for the occupation of Palestine. On one

side was the newly emerging Jewish nation of Israel aiming to occupy as much territory as it could, and on the other were the Arab nations wishing to reclaim the area known as Palestine.

The UNO responded by sending an observer force to monitor the activities of both factions in Palestine, and asking the Netherlands to provide a team to manage the UN’s air activities in the region. The crews were not to be British, Jewish or Muslim, owing to the sensitivities of the sides in the dispute. The British government was tasked with providing the aircraft.

A contract was arranged between the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and the Dutch national airline, KLM, to supply UNO with seven aircraft and suffi cient pilots, radio opera-tors and engineers for immediate service. BOAC would charter aircraft in the UK and ask the Netherlands to provide all the personnel.

Two Croydon-based British companies had apparently suitable aircraft, de Havilland D.H.89 Dragon Rapides, available for charter, so were asked to supply fi ve between them: G-AGWR/UN-1 (c/n 6917) and G-AGWP/UN-2 (c/n 6918) from Morton Air Services; G-AFMJ/UN-3 (c/n 6436), G-AKOB/UN-4 c/n 6492) and G-AKNX/UN-5 (c/n 6629) from Air Enterprises Ltd. The Dutch government offered to lend four more Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) Dominies if they were required. In the event only V-2/

PH-VNB and V-4/PH-VND were required by the UNO. The Dutch aircraft would join the expedi-tion after delivery of the fi rst fi ve British ma-chines. BOAC was informed by the UN that the aircraft should be in normal passenger-carrying fi t but painted in United Nations (UN) all-over white, with light-blue UN titles on the wings and fuselage, and UN fl eet numbers 1–5 on the fi ns.

KLM arranged for their crews to collect the Rapides from Croydon, fl y them out to Haifa, operate them under UN orders and return them to Croydon on completion of the contract. For the Dutch crews, it all sounded like a pleasant way of spending a few months in the sun.

By 1948, most Rapides had been modifi ed to suit specifi c roles, a disparity highlighted when two sheets of Operating Notes were handed to the KLM leader by Morton and Air Enterprises

By Rapide to Palestine

BELOW Seen at Croydon in 1947, Rapide G-AFMJ becameUN-4 for the United Nations operation the following year.

HERMAN BOLTE

76 AEROPLANE MAY 2005

staff. The notes showed that each of the fi ve air-craft was signifi cantly different.

Only ’GWP and ’KOB had auxiliary fuel tanks and could be considered “long range” Rapides; the others all had standard tanks. The notes were also misleading, as they claimed that the endurance of the three standard aircraft was 4hr, and that of the longer-range machines was 5½hr. The actual endurance fi gures would work out at around 4hr 50min for the long rang air-craft and only 3hr 25min for the standard machines. Four of the aircraft had Marconi 1154/55 HF radios, which could only be used by a radio operator, yet only two radio operators were to be carried between the fi ve aircraft, and G-AFMJ had no radio at all. None of the radios permitted communications between the aircraft. Only G-AGWR had a VHF radio for com-munications with airports.

KLM found two pilots who had fl own the D.H.89s that had been in use on the rebirth of the airline in 1945. Herman Bolte, a 28-year-old pilot who had fl own the type from Schiphol, then moved onto Douglas Dakotas in 1947, was ap-pointed leader. He was joined by Henk Nijdam, the only other Rapide pilot KLM could make available. The other three pilots, Bob van Hoek, Dick Ranke and Frits van Vianen, were young senior-course students from the Dutch Civil Pilot’s Training School, who needed a few more

hours before gaining their commercial licences, but had no airline, foreign or Rapide experience. In order to operate British aircraft, these pilots required commercial licences, so KLM sent them to Croydon where each fl ew the requisite 10hr on the UN-designated aircraft.

Two of the newly resprayed Rapides, Morton’s ’GWP and ’GWR, gleaming now in overall UN white, were fl own by Bolte and Nijdam across to Schiphol in late August, where the team made the fi nal preparations for departure for Haifa on August 27, 1948. Bolte took ’GWR as his aircraft, it being the only one fi tted with a full radio suite, so he could obtain navigational bearings for the formation. Although this machine was fi tted with long-range tanks, it made little difference, as he could only plan for the aircraft with the shortest range, as they were to fl y together. Bolte decided on the following route: Amsterdam—Par is — Lyon— Marsei l les — P isa—Rome —Brindisi—Araxos—Athens—Rhodes—Nicosia—Beirut—Haifa. The journey was to take six days.

Unfortunately, three of the aircraft were still not ready by August 26, so Bolte decided to leave on time with the fi rst two aircraft, and instructed the other three to meet him at Marseilles on the 28th. Two KLM radio operators and four engi-neers joined Bolte and Nijdam for the fl ight from Amsterdam to Marseilles on the 27th, but diffi -culties with international paperwork left them

RIGHT In an earlier incarna-tion, Rapide UN-4 (G-AFMJ) had been converted into an RAF air ambulance Z7261. As Women of Britain it was shown to the press at Hendon in May 1941, where it is seen here during a fl ypast with its sister aircraft Z7258 Women of the Empire.

ABOVE Arthur Hagg, the ever-dapper designer of the Rapide, photographed in 1948 while working for Airspeed Ltd. Hagg was one of the founding staff members of the de Havilland company, joining as Assistant Designer in 1920.

AEROPLANE MAY 2005 77


insuffi cient time to reach Marseilles, so they night-stopped at Paris. Both Rapides fl ew on to Marseilles the next day, where they waited for the three others to join them from England.

After frantic work by Air Enterprises engi-neers, the three Rapides left Croydon early on the 28th for Paris and Marseilles. However, two of the aircraft had no outward clearance from Paris, and the other three were using invalid ship’s papers! After much argument, the French authorities imposed a 600 Franc fi ne on the group, who then discovered that their fuel car-nets were invalid. Bolte signed all the carnets himself, which satisfi ed the customs authorities, and the whole team set off at last, late and frus-trated, for Pisa.

The pilots settled into a pleasant Sunday morn-ing fl ight at 1,000ft down the Riviera to their fi rst Italian stopover. The fl ight took them to what they believed was the civil airport at Pisa, where they landed together. When an armed guard arrived at the aircraft, it became clear some-thing was amiss. The Italian Air Force offi cer in charge of the guard eventually indicated that they had no permission to land at this military airfi eld, and neither would they be permitted to take off. He also said there was no fuel. Bolte now settled into what was becoming a routine of frustrating telephone calls; after two hours and many calls to Rome, the base Commander

was roused, and fi nally agreed to waive the nor-mal landing permits. Then, after hearing that the local Shell agent was unavailable, it being Sunday, he unexpectedly began to arrange for military fuel to be delivered. Even more unex-pectedly, the Italians accepted Capt Bolte’s sig-nature for the fuel, in lieu of payment, “on behalf of KLM, Rome”, and the relieved team gladly taxied out and took off, a few hours behind schedule, for the 180-mile leg to Rome. Having no night-fl ying equipment on board the aircraft, Bolte was becoming anxious, as night landings at Rome would be outside the rules for his new pilots. In the event, all went well, and the fi ve landed at Fiumicino in the gathering dusk.

After a good night-stop, they attempted an early departure from Rome for the 30min fl ight across Italy to Brindisi. Bolte’s aircraft, ’GWP, produced an engine snag before take-off, so he handed over the lead to Nijdam, who took the rest of the team on to the next refuelling stop at Brindisi. A change of plugs fi xed the engine problem, so ’GWP was soon airborne and fol-lowing the others to the coastal airfi eld at Brindisi. By the time he arrived, how-ever, Nijdam had discovered that no permission had been received for the aircraft to land at the Greek military fi eld at Araxos. To make matters worse, Brindisi

FAR LEFT Capt Herman Bolte beside Rapide G-AGWR before departure from Schiphol in August 1948.LEFT Middle East Rapide fl ying from the pilot’s viewpoint — Capt John Holmwood at the controls of his Rapide near Abadan, Iran, after the war, with windows open and suitable headgear!

“The Riviera fl ight took them to what they believed was the civil airport at Pisa, where they landed together. When an armed guard arrived at the aircraft, it became clear something was amiss”

BELOW The two lead United Nations aircraft, G-AGWR/UN-1 and G-AGWP/UN-2 at Marseilles before departure to Pisa, Italy, in August 1948.

HERM

AN

BOLTE

JOH

N H

OLM

WO

OD


airport was then closed by strong crosswinds, preventing further take-offs. There was nothing to do other than fi nd overnight accommodation and start the familiar telephoning routine. Only unintelligible responses were obtained from Athens, so Bolte opted to send Nijdam directly there, to try to clarify the position. Nijdam was allowed to take off “at his own risk” despite the strong winds, reaching Athens some 3½hr later.

By next morning, the wind had died down, so Bolte, having received clearance late the previ-ous night, led his three colleagues out of Brindisi for a sunny 2½hr journey to Araxos. They were given a friendly reception by the Greek soldiers, and the aircraft were soon refuelled. By early afternoon they were on their way again, this time for a relatively short fl ight to arrive at Ath-ens airport, 1hr 20min later, where they met Nijdam. He had managed to arrange accommo-dation in the capital for another night-stop.

The fi ve white machines took off early from Athens on September 1, without delays, for the 280-mile trip to Rhodes for another night-stop. Once again there was no fuel. After another long wait, some fuel arrived, but not enough for the next leg, the longest of the journey, which would require all tanks to be fi lled to the brim. It took nearly six hours before the last aircraft was re-fuelled and the crews could make their way to the hotel in Rhodes, where they discovered the UN Middle East headquarters staff. Discussions with the latter revealed that they had no infor-mation on the likely operations, so could give no practical assistance, but they recommended not

to proceed beyond Beirut with conspicuous Brit-ish registrations on their aircraft. Bolte then spent the evening in the Rhodes hotel planning the next day’s tricky longest leg.

Bolte was concerned about the standard Rap-ides, as the next leg to Nicosia in Cyprus was around 330 miles, with no airfi elds in between for diversion. Even relying on the forecast west-erly winds, this distance was close to the limit for his shorter-range aircraft. He was to lead fi ve aircraft at the limit of their safe endurance, more than 140 miles from land at the worst point. He was unhappy with the situation, but had little option but to attempt the fl ight, hoping that all fi ve aircraft performed safely.

The plan was to take advantage of the cool morning temperatures for better performance, and, on September 2, Bolte led his four col-leagues off the Rhodes runway up into the light-ening dawn sky. The fi ve white biplanes climbed steadily out to the west towards Cyprus, a lonely 2hr 45min away. It was an anxious fl ight for both the leader and the new pilots.

After more than 3hr fl ying, all fi ve aircraft com-pleted the leg, and landed at Nicosia well before lunchtime. Refuelling of men and machines was completed quickly by Cyprus Airways staff on the baking tarmac at Nicosia, and the Rapides were soon happily into the climb towards cooler air again on the comparatively short 150-mile leg across Eastern Cyprus and the Mediter-ranean to Beirut. Here, they would surely be able to fi nd out what lay in store for them.

On arrival at Beirut, however, the diffi culties continued. At passport control, offi cials would not let the tired crews enter Lebanon without visas, which they did not possess. After several hours of calls to UN Headquarters in Rhodes, the crews found their way to the local UN offi ces. No help was available here regarding repainting of the aircraft, the movement down to Haifa or the tasking for the aircraft. The Dutchmen decided to paint out the British registrations themselves while waiting to fi nd their tasking. Borrowing a spray gun from local Air France engineers, they sprayed on 4ft-high blue “UN” letters in place of

“Bolte was to lead fi ve aircraft at the limit of their safe endurance, more than 140

miles from land at the worst point. He was unhappy with the situation, but had little

option but to attempt the fl ight”

RIGHT A typical post-war Rapide cockpit, with taped-on radio transmit switch on the control column, oil temperature gauges and Morse transmit key on the starboard side.FAR RIGHT The interior of a standard post-war commercial fi t Rapide, with rather worn aluminium-framed leather seats and stowed entry steps.

RIGHT One of the young KLM pilots supervising the refuelling of a United Nations Rapide at Dreux, France, on the last leg of the cadre’s return journey in October 1948.


AEROPLANE MAY 2005 79

the national markings. They then felt they could safely move down to their fi nal destination, but they were refused clearance to enter Haifa by the UN Chief of Staff. They would have to wait.

By the third day in Beirut, the team became very short of cash, and could gain no help from KLM, the Dutch government, or UN headquar-ters. Bolte was by now feeling desperate with the lack of support, money and instructions.

Finally, on September 6, after fi ve frustrating days in Beirut, the Head of UN Flight Operations, a USAF captain named De Angelis, called to see the Dutch team at their hotel. The good captain had in mind a completely different plan from that anticipated by the Dutchmen and BOAC.

De Angelis expected the Rapides to be used on regular passenger fl ights from Beirut to Cairo (375 miles) and Alexandria, then back to Beirut (400 miles), with additional routes to Cyprus and Rhodes. A fl eet of Dakotas was currently being used for similar “milk-runs” and the Dutchmen were expected to complete the same tasks, with the possibility of 375-mile diversions in the likely event of “hostile action”. They were also expec-ted to fl y UN observers over Palestine and take full loads of observers, over the 8,000ft-plus Jebel mountains, from Beirut to Baalbek and Damascus and down to Jerusalem. They were to use Morse and voice radios on HF frequencies, with a radio operator on board all fl ights. Bolte explained that he could not carry out most of these tasks because their Rapides had neither the performance nor equipment to do so. De Angelis realised that they had the wrong aircraft for the job, and set about trying to resolve the problem through UN headquarters.

On the sixth day at Beirut, the UN deputy Chief of Staff, Mr Seward, came with De Angelis to discuss the problems with the Dutch team, and agreed to explain to UNO in Paris that they had requested the wrong type of aircraft. To com-pound the complications, a second batch of two Dutch Dominies, wearing the registrations PH-VNB/UN-8 and PH-VND/UN-9, arrived at Beirut that day, having been sent by the well-meaning Dutch government. But yet again there were no visas for the new arrivals, so another two hours were spent trying to persuade the immigration offi cers that these were bona fi de UN pilots.

Over the next four days, the pilots waited in Beirut for the UN to resolve the problems, and for KLM to fi nd money to pay for their hotel charges. By now they felt like tramps, having been unable to obtain anything but food, and that on extended credit, so that when a potential new KLM agent, Mr Aboujaoude, came on to the

scene with the offer of a loan of 300 Lebanese pounds to cover their expenses, he was warmly welcomed. By the 13th day of frustration in Bei-rut, Bolte at last received clearance for the two long range Rapides, UN-2 and UN-4, to carry out UN tasks while they awaited further news.

By September 17 the Palestinian situation was deteriorating to the point where the senior UN representative, Count Folke Bernadotte, was murdered in Jerusalem by Jewish extremists, and his place taken by his deputy, Dr Ralph Bunge. Occasional fl ights took place between Beirut and Haifa, and fi ve days after his prede-cessor’s death, Dr Bunge was fl own by Bolte from Beirut to Jerusalem.

Another Rapide fl ight was made into the war zone to bring back to Haifa, in some haste, an Englishman who had been sentenced to death by both Jews and Arabs. Later in the month, Nijdam fl ew a full load of passengers in UN–4over the Jebel mountains to Damascus, east of Beirut. The mountain range rises to a high point of more than 8,600ft, and in the high summer temperatures the Rapide just managed to skim over the top on the way through. The Rapides were not permitted to use this route again.

At the end of September, De Angelis confi rmed that the Rapide contract was to be terminated, so Bolte set about planning the return journey for October 1. This was less traumatic, with only the leg from Cyprus to Rhodes giving Bolte major concern, as the prevailing westerly wind made the long leg marginal for the standard-range Rapides. After safely landing all seven at Rhodes airport, two of the machines had only four gallons left in their tanks.

Eventually, the seven aircraft all recovered to Schiphol on October 6, 1948, so ending a fasci-nating — but very frustrating — expedition to Palestine.


BELOW Formerly UN-3, and re-registered with the Kenyan registration VP-KNS, Rapide G-AFMJ is seen here operating with Seychelles Kilimanjaro Air Transport (SKAT), alongside a later de Havilland airliner design at Nairobi in 1961.

Now buy the book!COLIN DODDS’S DEFINITIVE account of the history of de Havilland’s Dragon series of 1930s airliners — the D.H.84 Dragon, D.H.86 Express, D.H.89 Dragon Rapide, D.H.90 Dragonfl y and D.H.92 Dolphin — tells the full story of this quintessentially British family of elegant inter-war civil aircraft. Published by Air-Britain, this well-deserved Book of the Month (February 2006 Aeroplane) is available from the Aviation Bookshop for £37.50, with FREE p&p. For details, contact The Aviation Bookshop, 31–33 Vale Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 1BS; tel 01892 539284; websitewww.aviation-bookshop.com.

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Aeroplane has joined forces with Air Atlantique to offer you the chance to fl y in one of the company’s beautifully main-

tained de Havilland D.H.89 Dragon Rapides. You could be one of three lucky readers to win a pair of seats for a fl ight in one

of the two immaculate examples of this quintessentially British inter-war airliner operated by Air Atlantique’s Classic Flight.

Departing from Air Atlantique’s headquarters at Coventry Airport during May (weather permitting), the winners will

enjoy a 25min fl ight over the Midlands, and will be accompanied by a member of the Aeroplane editorial team

Aeroplane, published by IPC Media Ltd (IPC), will collect your personal information to process your entry. If you would like to receive e-mails from Aeroplane and IPC containing news, special offers and product and service information and take part in our magazine research, please write your e-mail address on the postcard. Aeroplane and IPC would like to contact you by post or telephone to promote and ask your opinion on our magazines and services. Please write “No Aeroplane” if you prefer not to hear from us. IPC may occasionally pass your details to carefully selected organisations so they may contact you by telephone or post with regard to promoting and researching their products and services. PLease write “No other companies” if you prefer not to be contacted.

Your chance to win flights for two in a Rapide!

The three lucky readers will:

■ Win a pair of seats on a de Havilland Dragon Rapide fl ight;

■ Meet Colin Dodds, author of the defi nitive Air-Britain book on the D.H. Dragon family, who

will briefl y describe the origin and career of the elegant Rapide

■ Be accompanied by a member of the Aeroplane editorial team

For a chance to win this superb prize, simply answer the following question:

In what year did the prototype D.H.89 Dragon Rapide (Dragon Six) make its maiden fl ight?

Answer : ■ 1934? ■ 1936? ■ 1937?

Think you know it? Then send a postcard with your answer, name and contact details to:

Aeroplane (Rapide Competition), King’s Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS.

The closing date for the competition is April 30, 2006. The winners will be the senders of the

fi rst three correct entries drawn from the editorial fl ying helmet after the closing date.

■ For more information about Air Atlantique's Classic Flight, visit www.classicfl ight.com

WIN!A fl ight in a

de Havilland

Dragon Rapide

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NICK STROUD selects this month’s picture for readers to acquire from Aeroplane’s 70,000-strong archive of original glass-plate photographic negatives

IN 1956, FOLLOWING fi ve years of operations as the Royal Air Force’s most advanced bomber, the highly successful English Electric Canberra was adapted into a low-level strike aircraft, armed with a variety of bombs and rock-

ets — and for the fi rst time on the type, cannon armament.Accordingly the nose section was redesigned and fi tted

with a fi ghter-style blown canopy, distinctively offset to port in order to accommodate the navigator/bomb-aimer, relo-cated within the fuselage ahead of and below the pilot. A ventral gun pack was also fi tted into the rear of the bomb-bay, arming the Canberra with four 20mm Hispano cannon.The new variant was given the designation B(I).8, and en-tered RAF service with 88 Sqn at Wildenrath, Germany, in January 1956.

This month’s photograph shows Preston-built Canberra B(I).8 XK951 up from Farnborough in September 1956. For your own copy of this handsome portrait of an iconic British aircraft, fi ll in and return the adjacent coupon.

AEROPLANE APRIL 2005

The

Photographic ArchiveP I C T U R E O F T H E M O N T H

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HIGH SOCIETY

No 656 Sqn Association

TOP RIGHT The Auster AOP.9 which took part in the England to Australia Air Race in 1969, now owned by Richard Webber. CENTRE RIGHT Members of the 656 Sqn Association and their families at the group’s reunion at Dishforth, North Yorkshire, on July 2–3, 2005.RIGHT Taylorcraft Auster IV MT237 takes off in true AOP style. Photographed by the legendary Charles E. Brown, this particular aircraft served with 656 Sqn until it was struck off charge in August 1945.

To promote a lasting bond of comradeship between all who served, or are still serving, with the Squadron

Society aims

FORMED IN DECEMBER 1942 at Westley, Suffolk, No 656 AOP Sqn RAF was equipped with Auster Mk IIs, initially using a farmer’s fi eld, while the personnel were billeted in

the farmhouse and nearby premises. Growing to full strength, the unit moved to Stapleford Taw-ney in Essex, from where it took part in large-scale manœuvres throughout the UK. On August 12, 1943, the unit was sent to Liverpool to embark in the Monarch of Bermuda bound for Bombay, In-dia, where it arrived at midday on September 14. Shortly afterwards, training commenced in prep-aration for the Burma campaign.

The squadron supported the 14th Army throughout the Burma campaign until the Japa-nese defeat in August 1945, and was the only Airborne Observation Post (AOP) unit taking part. Members of the unit can collectively ac-count for two Military Crosses, 22 DFCs and seven DFMs during the squadron’s history.

The 656 Squadron Association was re-formed in April 1989 with a nucleus of some 40 ex-unit members, mainly from the 1943–46 era. (The as-sociation previously existed during 1947–55, with annual reunion dinners being held at the Lotus restaurant in London). Since then membership has continued to increase and currently stands at more than 400, with members now residing in Australia, New Zealand, India, the USA and Canada as well as Europe, and representing the squadron’s history right up to the present day.

The aim of the association is to promote a lasting bond of comradeship between all who served, or are still serving, with 656 Sqn, which currently operates Westland Apache AH.1s from Dishforth. Newsletters and address lists main-tain contact between members, and extensive searches continue for all who have served in the unit. Annual reunions are held alternately at Dishforth and in the Middle Wallop area, near the home of the Museum of Army Flying.

Membership is open to all ranks of the Army, Navy and RAF who have served with 656 Sqn or any of its associated fl ight and Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers workshops since its formation in 1942. Associate membership is offered to close relatives of living and deceased members. On joining, each person receives a membership card bearing the squadron crest, an enamel tie-pin squadron badge, a statement of the association’s aims, updated membership address lists, full details of service with the squadron or fl ights and relevant dates or locations to help members locate old comrades.

The association was the brainchild of the late H.C. “Nobby” Clark, who served with the unit through the campaigns in Burma and Malaya, and who worked tirelessly toward the founda-tion of the association. The unit’s motto is Volens et videns — “Flying is seeing”.

Contact:John Heyes, Ty Ni,Corwen Road, Pontybodkin, MoldCH7 4TGTel: 01352 770100E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.656squadron.org

Subscription rate:£5 per annum

Membership:Currently 480

What you get:Membership card; an enamel tie-pin badge;statement of aims; mem-bership address lists.Every year members receive two newsletters and invitations to various 656 Sqn reunions


656 Squadron Association


http://www.656squadron.org

84 AEROPLANE MONTH 2006

SIGNPOST

Flying the

Zero


WW2 JAPANESE AIRCRAFT

When experienced warbird pilot BRUCE LOCKWOOD was offered the chance to fi nd out what the Imperial

Japanese Navy’s famous Mitsubishi Zero fighter was like to fly, he jumped at the chance. Having fl own most

of the Allied types still airworthy, he was keen to see how the nimble Zero compared, and here he takes us

through a typical fl ight in a beautifully restored genuine A6M3 Zero. Photography by MICHAEL O’LEARY

LEFT Mitsubishi A6M3 (Model22) Zero NX553TT peels awayfrom the camera aircraft on aphotographic sortie over theMojave desert on June 23,2005. The aircraft is one ofthree salvaged from NewGuinea in 1991, where it hadbeen abandoned at BaboAirfield sometime during thePacific War.

I ALWAYS WANTED TO know what Japan’s fi nest World War Two naval fi ghter, the Mit-subishi A6M Zero, would be like to fl y. Having previously fl own the Vought F4U Corsair,

Grumman F6F Hellcat, Curtiss P-40 and North American P-51, I was truly curious to see how this nimble little fi ghter compared.

Approaching from the front, the fi rst things I noticed about the Zero were how long and spin-dly its main undercarriage legs appeared, how tightly the NACA-type cowling enclosed the engine, and the close proximity of the spinner and cowling intake. Continuing to walk around to the right and sighting down the wing, I noticed the long, slender aileron attached to a fl ush-riveted wing of fairly thin aerofoil section, spanning some 39ft 6in. As I looked back down the fuselage, the Zero appeared sleek and well-proportioned from the wing trailing edge aft.

The aeroplane is easily entered via an assort-ment of retractable footsteps and handholds, indicating designer Jiro Horikoshi’s desire for clean aerodynamics, regardless of the labour in-volved. Once on the wing trailing edge one has to step carefully. Putting a foot down on the up-per wing skin anywhere outside the designated areas and pushing gently reveals how lightly this aircraft was built, as any load at all seems to defl ect the skin at least half an inch.

Moving the parachute straps out of the way and easing into the seat, I place my feet on the rudder pedals and my hands on the throttle and control stick so as to assume the fl ight position. During the restoration of this aircraft we had moved the seat 4in aft, otherwise I would not have been able to fi t in the cockpit (the aircraft was originally designed for someone in the 5ft 2in–5ft 6in height range). Although not as

cramped as those of the Yakovlev Yak-3 or Messerschmitt Bf 109E, the Zero’s cockpit was defi nitely not designed for sumo-size pilots.

Once I am strapped in and ready to go, the start-up procedure is fairly simple. Fuel selector to left tank, master switch on, fuel booster pump on, check that I have fuel pressure of approxi-mately 15lb/in², check that the mixture is in idle cut-off, set the throttle to ¾in open. If the throt-tle is opened much more you risk the chance of a backfi re. Engage the starter and, as the engine rotates, count 9–10 propeller blades, which en-sures the engine has had ample time to exhaust excess oil out of the cylinders. Select the magnetos to “Both”.

Now comes the tricky part. How much prime to give the engine? When it is cold, about 4sec seems to do the trick. As the engine continues to turn over it takes another four or fi ve blades before the prime hits the cylinders. Then they start fi ring and the engine starts to catch. Once it does, I move the mixture lever to full rich so that the engine can start picking up fuel from the carburettor. If the engine seems to be struggling to gain r.p.m. and blowing black smoke, I will immediately move the mixture back to idle cut-off to help clean out the engine, as this is generally due to overpriming. This has to be done carefully, as leaving the mixture in idle cut-off too long will instantly lean the en-gine out, which is invariably followed by a thun-derous backfi re loud enough to scare a deaf mule. At this point the engine quits.

Having gained the attention of everyone with-in a mile radius, you can go about the whole process of restarting the engine again. This time you had better do it right.

With the engine now running smoothly, the

OPPOSITE PAGE The authorgets up close and personal inthe Zero, one of several usedfor flying sequences in the2000 film Pearl Harbor. It iscurrently in a representativecolour scheme of theImperial Japanese Navyduring 1943–45.



fi rst instrument I check is the oil-pressure gauge. I make sure it has in the range between 5–7kg/cm² (60–90lb/in²). Most of the instruments reg-ister in metrics, so you need a cheat sheet or to be able to convert quickly in your head. With everything OK in the cockpit I start to taxy out, keeping aware that the brakes are marginal at best, owing to the clumsy cable system connect-ing the brake pedal to the hydraulic brake mas-ter cylinder, which causes excess friction and a loss of motion. The saving grace is the reason-able visibility around the nose if the cowling fl aps are not opened fully, which reduces the amount of S-turning needed while taxying out.

The aircraft has a tailwheel lock, giving you the option of locking or allowing the tailwheel to swivel. For long straight taxying I usually select the locked position to keep the aeroplane straight. The hard rubber tailwheel tyre trans-mits a pronounced drumming sound to the fuselage while taxying, especially if the taxiway is rough; a bit like the Hellcat and Skyraider.

The engine run-up is straightforward, but is done at reduced power because of the poor brakes. At 25in of manifold pressure I check the tachometer, which should indicate around 2,250 r.p.m. I then cycle the propeller and check the magnetos, temperatures and pressures. Reduc-ing power to idle, I check fuel selector, trim, friction locks and seat-belt harness. Obtaining

tower clearance, I taxy into position, lock the tailwheel, review emergency procedures, then relax a second to focus on the job at hand.

Holding the brakes hard, I advance the throttle to 20in and then release the brakes as I continue advancing the throttle to 45in. The acceleration is excellent, with a slight tendency for the air-craft’s nose to veer left, which is easily coun-tered by light application of right rudder. I am careful to place my right foot low on the rudder pedal so as not to activate the brake as I apply pedal pressure. Directional control is easily managed, as rudder inputs are light and effec-tive, but not overly sensitive. I start applying for-ward stick pressure to raise the tail about a foot, and notice a slight amount of precession as the tail is raised. This is easily checked with a small amount of right rudder. The Zero is in the air, instantly exhibiting take-off qualities reminis-cent of the Grumman F8F Bearcat; “Gee, now I’m adding throttle and now I’m instantly fl ying”. The Zero is off the ground at least 6sec sooner than the P-51 and is climbing through 400ft before the Mustang can even get airborne.

I gently apply brake pressure and stop rotation of the wheels before selecting undercarriage up. Reaching for the handle, which requires some dexterity as its location is in the lower right rear quadrant of the cockpit, I grasp it and move it fi rmly inboard approximately 2in, relieve it from

“The Zero is in the air, instantly exhibiting take-off qualities reminiscent of the

Grumman Bearcat . . . it is off the ground at least 6sec sooner than the P-51 and is

climbing through 400ft before the Mustang can even get airborne”

RIGHT Pilots prepare their A6M5s for a mission in 1944. When the Zero entered service with the Imperial Japanese Navy in July 1940, it was one of the most advanced fi ghters in the world; but the decision to upgrade it continually, rather than develop new aircraft to replace it, rendered it increasingly obsolete as the war went on.

ABOVE One of the most distinctive features of the Zero is the long spindly undercarriage, necessary to provide suffi cient clearance for the 10ft-diameter propeller.ABOVE RIGHT The tidy wheelbay arrangement. The Zero was prepared for restoration at Santa Monica (where the Prime Minister of Japan at the time, Tomiichi Murayama, visited to see the machine) before being sent to Flight Magic in Russia for completion.FAR RIGHT The cockpit contains mostly original Japanese instruments. Note also the dummy machine-guns above the main instrument panel.



its locking detent, then swing it up and almost push it aft. Through all this, the lever rotates through approximately 80°. The lever movement is fairly stiff, and with the amount of travel it almost feels as if you have pulled up the under-carriage by hand. The wheels come up fairly rapidly, and on hearing a resounding and satis-fying “clunk” I know they are up and in the well, so I place the handle back in its neutral position to reduce the load on the hydraulic system.

Once I am sure that everything is working OK, I bring the power back to 35in at 2,300 r.p.m. and continue a left climbing turn. During the climb is a good time to check for directional stability. As the Zero does not have an adjustable trim tab, moderate pressure needs to be applied to the right rudder pedal to keep the ball centred. On levelling off I note that the Zero is positively stable in yaw, and the pedal pressures are light and seemingly well balanced.

Loafi ng along at 29in and 1,900 r.p.m., I reach forward with my right hand and crank both the cowling and oil cooler closed, giving an indi-cated speed of 190kt. Interestingly, this is close to the same speed the Hellcat indicates when running at comparable power settings. I do a few clearing turns, then reduce power and slow to 135kt. I lower the undercarriage and, as the aircraft reaches the fl ap speed of 125kt, reach over to the same location as the undercarriage handle and move an equally large lever to select fl aps down. As the fl aps come down I feel the ailerons start to stiffen, as the simple intercon-nected linkage between the fl ap and aileron servo-tabs changes the tabs from servoed to non-servoed. This novel feature was apparently employed to help stabilise the aircraft during an approach for a carrier landing.

I continue reducing my speed, waiting for the telltale sign of an approaching stall. During this whole time I have been checking the lateral control movements of the ailerons, which are excellent right down to 58kt, at which point the nose drops gently as the Zero stalls. Power-on,

the stall is closer to 50kt, but in clean confi gura-tion the stalling speed is 65kt and just as gentle. Even when pulling the aeroplane around tightly at low speeds and holding full aft stick, the nose just drops on its own as if you have run out of up-elevator authority, with no tendency to snap or drop a wing. Cleaning the aircraft up and set-ting cruise power, I notice how manœuvrable the Zero is, even with minor control inputs. Starting downhill, I notice that the ailerons start stiffening up. From 65–150kt the ailerons have great roll authority; from 150–205kt they have roll request; above 210kt the ailerons are just along for the ride, as they are practically frozen and a fast roll cannot be performed. The ailer-ons exhibit no buffet or snatching during full left and right defl ection, which, by the way, could only be achieved up to 175kt. I estimate the roll rate at about 60°/sec at one-half aileron defl ec-tion, which was all I could reasonably get out of the control stick at 205kt.

Levelling the aeroplane out, it becomes imme-diately apparent how stable the Zero is in pitch. The elevator control is fairly light and very effec-tive and balanced at speeds between 80–160kt. From 150kt upwards I need to start bringing in nose-down trim to keep the aircraft neutrally stable. Accelerating to 210kt and above, the pitch forces grow very heavy, much like those on the ailerons. Pulling hard on the control stick leaves

START-UP

Wingtips: lockedUndercarriage: downFlaps: upTrim set: 3° downFuel select: left tankMixture: idle cutoffCowling fl aps: openOil cooler fl aps: openMaster switch: onFuel booster pump: onThrottle: ¾in openEngage starter: 9 bladesMags: on bothPrime: 2–4secMixture auto: richCheck pressure/ temperature

ENGINE RUN-UP

Throttle: 25inPropeller cycle:

400 r.p.m. dropMagneto check: 50 r.p.m. drop left and right Check oil, fuel, hydraulic pressure

TAKE-OFF

Cowl fl aps: openCanopy: closedFriction/throttle: tightTailwheel: locked Emergency procedures reviewTake-off power: 40–45in at 2,700 r.p.m.Undercarriage: brakes, then UP

CLIMB

Power: 33–35in at 2,300 r.p.m.Speed: 120ktGauges: check

Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero checklist

LEFT Zero NX553TT, one of only fi ve airworthy examples in the world, is currently owned by a Los Angeles-based businessman. It made its fi rst post-restoration fl ight in April 2000.

LEFT The author beside the Zero. Bruce spent his early years in Alaska, and learned to fl y at the age of 12. He subsequently gained experience in many areas of aviation, including twice being the winning pilot of highly-modifi ed P-51 Dago Red at the USA’s National Championship Air Races at Reno, Nevada.



“Having sampled the Zero’s turning prowess, I am sure a P-40 pilot would be

RIGHT The Zero above the arid Mojave desert. To fi nd out what the type was like to fl y in combat, see the reminis-cences of World War Two Japanese Navy pilot Sadamu Komachi (From Sunrise to Sunset) in the January 2004issue of Aeroplane.

you with an odd feeling that the cables are stretching and, in essence, this is exactly what is happening. A design feature built into the eleva-tor system, it essentially kept over-zealous pilots from pulling too hard on the stick and causing a structural failure.

I continue to dive, and let the Zero accelerate to its listed vne (never exceed) speed of 300kt. Once there, the aircraft exhibits little or no air-frame vibration, but is very stiff on the fl ight controls, leaving me with the uneasy feeling that I am going way too fast. Arresting my dive, I pull back into a climb and immediately notice how well the Zero carries its speed in the climb. I try another climb, this time running take-off power, and it feels like I have gained 4,000ft vertically in a zoom climb before I run out of energy.

What soon becomes blatantly obvious during all this playing around is the Zero’s manœuvra-bility. I marvel at how tightly the Zero can be pulled around. It was purported that the Zero in its original confi guration could reverse direction in 1,180ft at 230 m.p.h., and complete the turn in 5·6sec while losing only 40 m.p.h. I did not quite pull it around that hard, but it sure felt like it could turn.

Generally speaking, the A6M3 Zero is very much the high-performance fi ghter that history tells us it is. It is a powerful aeroplane and must be handled with respect, but, on the other hand, is simple and very easy to fl y. Performing aerial manœuvres such as loops, rolls, Cuban eights and wingovers is a delight, and a lot of that can be attributed to the smooth power provided by the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engine, one of the best mass-produced radials ever built. The latter is totally reliable, and simple to operate and maintain — a perfect choice for the Zero.

As I head back for landing I have ample time to refl ect on how I would have attacked a Zero or defended myself against one if I had been fl ying a P-40 or Hellcat during the war. For the attack I would have at least 250kt of airspeed, and would

make one pass and then climb up and away. After I was a mile or so out I would return and do the same again. Having sampled the Zero’s turn-ing prowess, I am sure a pilot would be instantly trapped and downed by a skilled Japanese pilot if he elected to engage a Zero in a turning fi ght. On the other hand, if I was attacked by one, knowing the Zero’s inability to roll or pitch at speed I would instantly go to combat power and push the nose of my P-40 over to the vertical. As soon as I had over 220kt I would roll left or right and pull as I let the aeroplane accelerate, and hope that I was out of gun range before the Zero was able to duplicate the manœuvre.

With the airfi eld fast approaching I obtain clearance from the tower and enter the overhead break at 1,000ft above ground level and 210kt indicated. I break left at mid-fi eld and reduce power to 1,600 r.p.m. and 18in, slowing to the undercarriage-down speed of 135kt. I reach back with my right hand, select “down” and wait for the reassuring thump. On the left console I clearly see three green lights, indicating that the undercarriage is safely down and locked.

Visibility is fairly poor directly ahead and down, so when I am abeam the “piano keys” I reach back, select fl aps fully down, and start a continuous descending turn to keep the runway in sight until I am on very short fi nal. As the fl aps deploy there is a distinct nose-down pitching moment, so to compensate I roll in 5° or 6° of nose-up trim to relieve the stick pressure. I let the Zero slow down, and hold steady at 100kt until I have rolled out on fi nal and can reach the runway in the event of engine failure. Easing the throttle off, I then recheck undercarriage lights, tailwheel lock, fuel selector temperatures and pressures, and quickly go over my mental emergency checklist.

On short fi nal I am looking for 80–85kt as I cross the runway numbers, at which point I pull the throttle off to let the aeroplane settle into the three-point position for landing. When slow and

THE FULL STORY of the restoration of Mitsubishi Zero NX553TT, written by Bruce Lockwood, will be published in Aeroplanesoon — watch this space!

Coming soon



instantly trapped by a Japanese pilot if he engaged one in a turning fi ght”

LEFT The author brings the Zero alongside in landing confi guration, but without fl aps down. The designer of the type, Jiro Horikoshi, said of the type in his memoir Eagles of Mitsubishi: The Story of the Zero Fighter: “The Zero was of Japanese blood, and its design refl ects our philosophy of independent thinking. We were trying to surpass the rest of the world’s technology, not just catch up to it. That was the goal of the Zero I designed”.

in the landing confi guration, I notice that there is not a lot of elevator authority, as I have applied almost full up elevator just before touching down. I mentally note that it would be hard to arrest a high rate of descent when slow with little or no power on. This could make it a little tough to judge landing and fl are speed when performing a forced landing owing to a cata-strophic engine failure.

Once down, the aircraft rolls straight ahead and is easily controlled with the effective rudder. I push forward on the brake pedals and apply a slight amount of brake to slow the Zero. I would do better just to put my arms out of the cockpit and cup my hands into the slipstream —the braking action would be just as effective. The Zero’s saving grace is its docile behaviour on roll-out. In a Corsair or Hawker Sea Fury with brakes this ineffective you would be in the dirt more times than on the runway.

Taxying up to the hangar and stopping, I run the engine up to 1,100 r.p.m. for 30sec or so to let it sump the oil out. I pull the mixture to idle cut-off, and the R-1830 stops running with a “Grumph” and spools down. “Clackidy, clackidy, clack” is the distinct sound that comes from the valve train of the R-1830 during the last few revolutions before it stops completely. Turning off all the switches silences the fuel booster pump and leaves me in the quiet solitude of the cockpit, broken only by the ticking of the en-gine’s hot cylinders as they cool.

Some 10,938 Zeros were produced, more than any other Japanese aircraft during the war. For a brief two-year period the Zero shone brightest of all as it dominated the air war over the Pacifi c. In June 1942 the initiative passed to the Allied forces in the wake of the fi ercely fought Battle of Midway. Little did the Japanese know of the advances that would be made in the arena of aerial combat as the next generation of Ameri-can heavyweight fi ghters was made ready to join the war. Just as the last of the samurai warriors

Original production A6M3s were powered by a Nakajima Sakae 21 engine. The example in this article is fi tted with a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engine.

Powerplant 1 x Nakajima Sakae 21 14-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, rated at 1,130 h.p. for take-off

Dimensions

Span 11m (36ft 1in)Length 9·06m (29ft 8½in)Height 3·5m (11ft 6in)Wing area 21·5m² (232ft²)

Weights

Empty 1,807kg (3,984lb)Loaded 2,545kg (5,609lb)Wing loading 118kg/m² (24lb/ft²)Power loading 2·3kg/h.p. (5lb/h.p.)

Performance

Maximum speed 295kt at 6,000m (335 m.p.h. at 19,700ft)

Cruising speed 200kt (230 m.p.h.)Climb 7min to 6,000m (19,700ft)Service ceiling 11,050m (36,250ft)Maximum range 1,280 miles

Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero data

had succumbed to the technical advances of war, so would the Zero. The fi erce warrior that had dominated in the war in the Pacifi c, now old and tired, was no longer able to match the supe-rior performance of Allied aircraft continually benefi ting from advances in materials, design, engines, fi repower and pilot training.

The ravages of war and time have all but erased the once-supreme Zero fi ghter from the face of the earth. At the time of writing there are only a handful of airworthy Zeros, with one or two more on the way in the next year or two. If you ever see one of these graceful little fi ghters at an airshow it will be the real thing, so take the time to look at it closely.

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Navigat rBOOK S•VIDEOS•INTERNET•OFFERS•EVENTS•INFORMATION

Navigat rBOOK S•VIDEOS•INTERNET•OFFERS•EVENTS•INFORMATION


CONTENTS

GIFTS OF WAR: SPITFIRES AND OTHER PRESENTATION AIRCRAFT IN TWO WORLD WARS (by Henry Boot and Ray Sturtivant; ISBN 0-85130-248-3; Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd, 41 Penshurst Road, Leigh, Tonbridge, Kent TN11 8HL; 12in x 81⁄2in hardback; 464 pages, illustrated; £37.50 to Air-Britain members, £55 to non-members.

IF YOU EVER NEEDED an incentive to join Air-Britain, the £17.50 members’ saving on this book ought to provide it. This truly impressive compilation comprises a complete listing of all the British aircraft bought for the nation by public subscription to boost the strength of the RAF at a crucial time in the country’s history. In the 1940s a fi ghter cost a nominal £5,000 (actually closer to £8,500), equal to £200,000 today, and by the war’s end individuals, groups, companies, cities and towns, not only in the British Isles but also in the Dominions and colonies and in other countries worldwide, had contributed £14 million to Spitfi re Funds and similar appeals.

Although it was mostly Spitfi res that carried donors’ names on their fuselage sides, more than 1,000 aircraft of other types were also donated. While this weighty tome concentrates on the Spitfi res, giving detailed histories of some 1,500 of the individual aircraft concerned, it also lists these other aircraft and, in addition, gives the most complete listing yet assembled of aircraft presented under a similar scheme during the First World War.

More than 430 black-and-white photographs support the text, and there is also a 16-page colour section (curiously numbered separately). This comprises eight pages of well-rendered full-colour artwork side elevations, one depicting modern postage stamps featuring presentation aircraft, one of presentation plaques, four of assorted ephemera relating to various funds, and two of (mostly recent) colour photographs of aircraft.

The authors begin by explaining the scheme’s origins and the manner in which names were selected and applied. They then provide some enlightenment regarding gift squadrons and naval presentation aircraft, warn against “red herrings” (aircraft bearing inscriptions that might appear to denote donors, but do not do so), and fi nally describe the categories of donors. In the ensuing main text the Spitfi res are listed in alphabetical order of presenters, as inscribed on the aircraft, but a listing by serial numbers and alphabetical lists of donors of Spitfi res and of other aircraft are also provided. Other useful appendices list relevant fi les in the National Archives and named squadrons, and provide extracts from Ministry of Aircraft Production bulletins concerning presentation aircraft. The book concludes with a brief bibliography and an index of pilots’ names.

This handsome volume is destined to become the bible on this hitherto neglected subject. It should prove of value to regional and local historians as well as to aviation historians in general, and is excellent value for the mass of useful information it contains. PHILIP JARRETT

BOOKSPAGES 93–95

SERVICESPAGE 101

INTERNETPAGE 95

READER OFFERSPAGE 97

CLASSIFIED PAGE 103

INFORMATION EXCHANGEPAGES 96–97

CROSSWORDANSWERSPAGE 98

NEXT MONTHPAGE 100

AUCTION UPDATEPAGE 99

Landing Grounds to large airfi elds like Lyneham and Boscombe Down. The great majority, of course, are no longer with us but their details are fascinating, particularly since they come from personal recollections. Many photographs also come from private sources and will not have been published previously. Aviation memorials are included and illustrated, while the many accidents in the county, plus Wiltshire-based aircraft which crashed elsewhere, are detailed.

Boscombe Down, as the A&AEE, had a considerable number of accidents, many of them fatal, but one well-known incident was the arrival of a Convair B-36 which overran the perimeter fence and had to be towed back for repairs. There were no casualties

but some red faces!Layout plans of many

airfi elds are included, plus some aerial photographs, and there are also some current views. A considerable amount of information has gone into this book, and the author must be excused for one or two typographical errors such as “Victory Cross Recipiants” (page 376), while the photograph on page 364 of “Captain Vivsen’s Blériot Type XI” is certainly not that, but probably a D.H.6 although I could fi nd no mention of the accident in the text. These are small points in a well-researched and very detailed book and will it is hoped, be corrected in a proposed reprint, although some of the illustrations could be larger in cases where space is available.

MIKE HOOKS

WARTIME CRASHES

FALLEN FLYERS (bySteven H. Jones; ISBN 0-9547859-2-4; Bryngold Books Ltd, Golden Oaks, 98 Brynau Wood, Cimla, Neath, South Wales SA11 3YQ; 10in x 7in softback;80 pages, illustrated; £12.99).This softback covers wartime crashes in the Gower Peninsula, where more than 50 aircrew lost their lives. The Gower is 15 miles by fi ve miles

BOOK OF THE MONTH

LOCAL HISTORY

WINGS OVER WILTSHIRE(by Rod Priddle; ISBN 1-901-587-34-7; ALD Design & Print, The Print &Design Shop, 279 SharrowVale, Sheffi eld S11 8ZF;113⁄4in x 81⁄2in hardback; 396 pages, illustrated; £44.95 plus £2.50 p&p).There has been a spate of books recently on airfi elds and this latest one, subtitled An Aeronautical History of Wiltshire, covers 60 within the county, ranging from Relief


Navigat r Web: www.aeroplanemonthly.com

B O O K S•V I D E O S • O FFE R S

variant of the 748 and the AEW Nimrod.

After his compulsory retirement, aged 55, in 1987,“Robby” joined Air Bridge at East Midlands Airport and spent four-and-a-half years making night fl ights around Europe in a Merchantman (Vickers Vanguard freighter).He subsequently became an H.S.146 and ATP simulator instructor, and also joined the RAFVR to give Air Training Corps cadets air experience fl ights in Chipmunks and, later, Bulldogs (which he did not like). Finally, he became director of fl ight test and then, also, chief test pilot at the International Test Pilot School, instructing budding test pilots from a variety of countries.

All in all this is a most informative and well-illustrated glimpse into a civilian test pilot’s career, at a reasonable price. PHILIP JARRETT

JET FIGHTER

MIG-19P (by Michal Ovcácík and Karel Susa;ISBN 80-900708-9-2;Mark 1 Ltd, PO Box 10,CZ-100 31 Prague 10Strašnice, Czech Republic;113⁄4in x 81⁄4 in softback; 40pages, illustrated; £11.50).This is the publisher’s second volume on the MiG-19 series and covers the radar-equippedvariants. The Soviet Union only supplied these to “reliable”satellite countries including Czechoslovakia, largest user of the MiG-19P and ’PM which

and to the west of Swansea, and an outline map shows the crash sites. The fi rst was Blenheim L1219, which ditched in the sea on October 10, 1939; it was followed by a variety of types: Ansons, Defi ants, a Gladiator, a Magister, Martinets, a Hurricane, a Liberator, a Halifax, a Tomahawk, a Whitley, Mosquitoes, Spitfi res, Typhoons and nine Beaufi ghters. The most unusual was Queen BeeP4781, which escaped from its radio controller and was lost. One German aircraft was Dornier Do 217 WNr 5428,which crashed in the sea. Serials and other details are given for each crash, plus some interesting photographs.

In 1998 Piper Aztec EI-BYKlanded safely on a beach. The illustration on page 63 makesit look very sleek, and has obviously suffered a stretch during reproduction. Other

much worse distortion is apparent on the cover painting of Beaufi ghters, but this is a useful booklet. MIKE HOOKS

AUTOBIOGRAPHY

AVRO ONE:AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A CHIEF TEST PILOT (by WgCdr J.A. “Robby”Robinson; ISBN 0-9544507-8-7; Old ForgePublishing, 39 Backgate,Cowbit, Lincolnshire PE126AP; 91⁄4in x 63⁄4insoftback; 138 pages,illustrated; £12.95).After ending his RAF career with spells as a test pilot at

Boscombe Down and with the Empire Test Pilots School, the author donned civvies and joined British Aerospace at Woodford in 1978. Four years later he became the company’schief test pilot, and was heavily involved with the H.S.748,Nimrod and ATP. He was also involved with the special fl ight-refuelling modifi cations made to Nimrods and Vulcans for the Falklands confl ict, and the conversion of the Nimrod into “the world’s biggest fi ghter” by equipping it with Sidewinder air-to-air missiles.

In this entertaining personal memoir the author recounts his experiences demonstrating the 748 around the world. He was effectively a salesman, promoting the aeroplane in exotic locations that also posed operational problems often requiring innovative makeshiftsolutions. On the military side, he tested the Coastguarder

The complete original BBC television series is now available as a 3 disc DVD set. Filmed in 1976, BBC camera crews were invitedon board the aircraft carrier Ark Royal with her complement of F-4Phantoms, Buccaneers, Sea Kings and Gannets to record what wasintended to be the great fighting ship's last voyage.

This special, digitally-restored DVD set also includes two bonusfeatures - Sailor: 8 Years On (visiting the now decrepit Ark Royal indock) and Med Patrol (a rare 1970's COI film with the Ark Royalflying Phantoms and Buccaneers).5 hrs 42 minsDD.21482

Available at selected stores and at www.hmv.co.uk


http://www.hmv.co.uk


INTERNET Compiled by Jim Winchester

AT SMALL AIRPORTS all over the world, one may experience fl ight for a modest fee. Here and there something more interesting and historic is available, from a Tiger Moth to a MiG or a Lightning.

A global list of operators of vintage aircraft available for rides may be found on the Fleet Air Arm Archive site at http://www.fl eetairarmarchive.net/Museums/RideinHistoricAircraftOperatorsA-Z.html though a few of the links given are out of date.

Starting Down Under, Air Combat Australia at Camden, NSWand on the web at http://www.aircombat.com.au/ offer the Victa Airtourer, the Yak-52 and the MiG-15 fi ghter trainer. Further north at Caboolture Airfi eld, near Brisbane, Queensland, you can fl y in a Korean veteran CAC 21 Mk 21 Mustang or a Wirraway or Winjeel with Warplanes Down Under — see http://www.warplanesdownunder.com/services/index.html.

At Mandeville airfi eld in New Zealand, Croydon Air Services provide fl ights and fl ight training in almost the full range of de Havilland biplanes, including Tiger Moths, the Fox Moth, Dominie or Dragonfl y. http://www.croydonaircraft.com/CAS.html.

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Mt Hope, Ontario, has a Museum Rides Program, details at http://www.warplane.com/pages/services_rideprogram.html. Flights in the heavy iron, the B-25, PBY Catalina and Lancaster are available with membership only. Details of the different membership classes are at http://www.warplane.com/pages/membership.html.

The Moscow Aircraft Group (http://www.moscowaircraft.com/) offers fl ights in Russian combat aircraft at Zhukovsky near Moscow, from the L-39 trainer to the MiG-25 and Su-27. Prices range from around US$2,500 to $10,000. They also offer packages to the biennial Moscow Air Show.

Thunder City has been operating in Cape Town, South Africa for over a decade: their website http://www.thundercity.com/includes news updates and personal experiences of fl ying in the collection’s Lightnings, Buccaneers and Hunters.

Switzerland is one of the few places you can fl y in the classic Junkers Ju 52/3m. Dübendorf is the base of no fewer than four Ju 52s, three of which entered service with the Swiss Air Force in 1939 and have been fl ying paying passengers since 1982. The website http://www.ju-air.com sells fl ight vouchers and is full of info on the aircraft and the Swiss Air Force Museum.

Tiger Moth fl ights are available in many places in the UK, see Classic Wings http://tinyurl.com/a2yxq at Duxford and DeltaAviation http://www.deltaaviation.co.uk at various locations.

The Jet Provost Club http://www.jetprovostclub.com/offers something a little out of the ordinary, fl ights in a colourfully-marked Mk 4 Jet Provost at Sandtoft in Yorkshire.

DC-3 and C-47 rides are available in many places, but only in Burleson, Texas, can you fl y in one confi gured as an AC-47gunship. This unique aircraft belongs to the Aeroheritage Museum, whose website www.aeroheritage.com I had some trouble accessing.

The Dixie Wing of the Commemorative Air Force is one of several CAF units with fl ight experience programmes, but is the only one with a chance to fl y in the SBD Dauntless. Beech 45 and P-51 rides are also available, with all the pertinent info at http://www.dixiewing.org/

The Collings Foundation run Wings of Freedom tours with their B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator and B-25 Mitchell visiting small airports across the USA. Itinerary details are at http://www.collingsfoundation.org/cf_fl ightexperiences.htm.

For monthly reviews of the best on the web. . . subscribe to Aeroplane quickly & easily at www.aeroplanemonthly.com

Write to: Aeroplane, Kings Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS

I N T E R N E T• S E R V I C E S • I N F O R M AT I O N • C O M P E T I T I O N S • E V E N T S

ABOVE The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum offers a Rides Program at www.warplane.com.

ABOVE Details of fl ights in a Tiger Moth or Dragon Rapide may be found at http://tinyurl.com/a2yxq.

ABOVE Try a few aerobatics or fl y fast with an airshow display pilot at www.-jetprovostclub.com.

ABOVE Log on to the site www.dixiewing.org for fl ight experiences over Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

received 71, while Romania operated 60, Poland 38,Bulgaria 12 (plus others bought from Poland), EastGermany 12 second-handSoviet, Hungary, Albania and Cuba 12 each. China bought fi ve dismantled aircraft, then began to build both versions. Monochrome and colour illustrations are supplemented by colour profi les and excellent 1⁄72nd-scale plans, making this an indispensable reference for modellers and historians.

MIKE HOOKS

LOCAL HISTORY

IT STARTED WITH A MAP… (by SylviaEndacott; ISBN 1-933570-99-7; available from the author, 30 Hillsboro Road,Bognor Regis, WestSussex PO21 2DX; 113⁄4in x81⁄4in softback; 100 pages,illustrated; £15.99 plus £3.50 p&p).I was delighted to see this new book on the World War Two Advanced Landing Ground at Bognor, since I remember looking over a fence at some Typhoons in 1944, but another book on Sussex airfi elds and some other sources have confused it with the private post-war airfi eld at Bognoroperated by the Lec company. Now at last I can see the total area occupied and read about the squadrons operating there and personal reminiscences of the local inhabitants. The title refers to display of a map showing an airfi eld in a local history lesson, with a requestfor more information, and the results were astonishing, with links forged from the UK to Norway and Canada.

Offi cial notes of the ALG construction, costs (£49,448!),based squadrons diary entries, serials of aircraft used and many other details bring the airfi eld to life and the author is

to be congratulated on her depth of research. Personally I didn’t care for the cream paper used or the rather sepia-tonedillustrations, but don’t let this put you off; it is very much worth having. The price includes a DVD about the planning of the book, interviews etc, but unfortunately it was incompatible with my offi ce equipment. MIKE HOOKS

AEROGUIDE SPECIAL

TSR2 (by AnthonyThornborough; ISBN0-9469584-6-7; Ad Hoc Publications, Cedars,Wattisham Road,Ringshall, Suffolk IP142HX; 113⁄4in x 81⁄4insoftback; 56 pages,illustrated; £11.95 plus £1.95 p&p if ordered direct from the publisher).One of the publisher’s“Aeroguide Specials”, this nicely produced monograph is essentially aimed at modellers, as evidenced by the many close-up illustrations of intimate details of this ill-fated and ever-controversial strikereconnaissance aircraft. These are accompanied by four pages of fi ne-line 1⁄72nd-scalegeneral-arrangement drawings with colour notes, and a wealth of colour and black-and-whitephotographs and diagrams tracing the TSR.2’s rise and demise, from specifi cation to scrapheap. The relatively brief but informative supporting text is divided into sections dealing with evolution, design and structure, power, avionics, weapons and counter-measures, fl ight testing, and reconnaissance equipment.

The high standard of reproduction, coupled with the use of large, clear pictures, will enable modellers to glean much useful information from this reasonably-priced book.

PHILIP JARRETT

http://www.aircombat.com.au/

http://www.warplanesdownunder.com/services/index.html

http://www.warplanesdownunder.com/services/index.html

http://www.croydonaircraft.com/CAS.html

http://www.warplane.com/pages/services_rideprogram.html

http://www.warplane.com/pages/services_rideprogram.html

http://www.warplane.com/pages/membership.html

http://www.moscowaircraft.com/

http://www.moscowaircraft.com/

http://www.thundercity.com/

http://www.ju-air.com

http://www.deltaaviation.co.uk

http://www.jetprovostclub.com/

http://www.aeroheritage.com

http://www.dixiewing.org/

http://www.dixiewing.org/

http://www.collingsfoundation.org/cf_flightexperiences.htm

http://www.collingsfoundation.org/cf_flightexperiences.htm


http://www.warplane.com

http://www.jetprovostclub.com

http://www.dixiewing.org

http://www.jetprovostclub.com

http://tinyurl.com/a2yxq

http://tinyurl.com/a2yxq

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/Museums/RideinHistoricAircraftOperatorsA-Z.html






which beached several of its aircraft for servicing. RAF groundcrew were told they were out of bounds because of secret equipment, while the RNZAF lads told them that they carried equipment which could smell out submarines! Nose art on the port side of one had the adjacent Pluto sniffer cartoon — what is the truth behind this, and can anyone quote the aircraft’s serial?

■ Michael Powell, 4 River View Close, Colyton, Devon EX24 6PX, seeks information on his mother’s fi rst husband, Capt Reginald Sheridan Carroll AFC who served in No 1 Communications Squadron, Kenley, around 1919. Somedetails have been gleaned from the Internet on his work as a test pilot in documents entitled Letters from the Front. He was awarded the AFC in 1919 and on demobilisation on 1.6.19went to work as Foreign Manager of an aircraft manufacturer at Cricklewood — possibly Handley Page, although Airco and SmithsAviation Instruments had works in the area at that time.

■ The question on RAF Washingtons at Aldergrove (February) brought a reply from Derek Allen who has sent an illustration of WZ966 of 192Squadron which gives an idea of the red markings. He served with the squadron in 1952–54when the aircraft were in standard aluminium fi nish. Thelast four Washingtons in RAF service were three ELINTaircraft, WZ966 to ’968 and a support aircraft, WW346. They were A Flight of 192 Squadronat Watton and fl ew past at a

special farewell parade on 2.6.58, fl ying to 23 MUAldergrove where they were broken up in April and parts sent to PEE Shoeburyness on 16.9.58. Since the squadron’s work was highly sensitive, it seems unlikely they would have operated with coloured markings — maybe it was a special fi nish for their departure from service?

■ Peter Lloyd, Shandon, Dyffryn Road, Port TalbotSA13 2UF, is researching Fairwood Common airfi eld 1940–1947 and would be pleased to hear from anyone who has photographs or log-books for copying of Wg Cdr W.J. Alington AFC DFC, COof 264 Squadron August-November 1943, Wg Cdr W.S.L. Adams,who became CO at Fairwood Common in June 1941, Gp Capts & twin brothers Dick and DavidAtcherley, and Wg Cdr C.D. Griffi ths DFC.

■ WO1 (RSM) Darren SheerinMBE, 8 Inf Bde HQ & Sig Sqn, Shackleton Barracks, BFPO802, seeks personal memories, photographs or information on 78 Squadron, 4 Group, Bomber Command during World War Two, in particular the crash of Halifax III LV916on 23.4.44.

■ Norman Davidson, 55Beresford Road, Cullercoats, North Shields NE30 3JB, asks why York MW232 of 242 and 511 Squadrons, later G-ANTKof Dan-Air, has an entrance door on the starboard side as well as the usual port side door. Were any other Yorksso fi tted?

■ A.L. Homersham, 5 Ferriers Way, Epsom Downs, Surrey KT18 5TJ, recalls an incident in 1940. A very small workshop, big enough for one car, was in a side road in the North Croydon area and had a policeman apparently guarding the entrance. Glimpsed inside was a complete Spitfi re wingwith a man apparently about to gas weld in the area of the wheel well, assisted by his mate on the chain table. Can anyone explain this? I recall in the same area (ThorntonHeath) what I believed to be Hotspur fuselages being built, but memory is now hazy.

■ John Rutter, 83 HuttonAvenue, Hartlepool, Teesside, worked in the early 1970s at the Ball Hill gun range, RAE Farnborough, and in the corner of the hangar was the nose section of a Lightning with four gun ports, the usual top-mounted pair and a lower pair. According to an armourer it was not adopted, as there was not enough room for the ammunition and it only gave two seconds’ fi ring. He has never seen this weapons fi t mentioned elsewhere and asks if anyone has further details?

■ Peter Marson and Peter Kirkreply to the Super Viscountquestion (January), pointing out that Australians at one time dubbed their Viscount 810sSuper Viscounts and Mandala bought several of these.

■ Peter Marson points out that one of the Dakotas on the Jeddah dump (January) must have been Cambrian, not Grampian, since the Cambrian aircraft were sold to a Cyprus-registered company and several fi nished up on the Jeddah dump.

■ Stuart Shaw, 3 Moorhen Drive, Lower Earley, Reading, Berks RG6 4DF, researching family history, asks for help with a relative, Jack WilliamShaw, who served in the RFC and RAF with Nos 22 and 40Squadrons during World WarOne, and is said to have destroyed fi ve German aircraft. He is also reported to have used a small landing strip called Cockmarsh between Cookham and Bourne End in Berkshire; the strip seems to have been active between 1916 and the 1930s. Can anyone help with further information?

Are you trying to fi nd the answer to a thorny aviation question? Or trace an old aviation

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InformationExchange

■ I am grateful for a stream of correspondence regarding the tripods etc on Sunderlands(January issue). The tripod, known offi cially as the mooring light mast, was detachable before fl ight and was stowed in the bow compartment, a cumbersome contraption with connecting lead and plug dangling from the centre tube in transit. The funnel-shaped object, a radio mast, also used as mounting for the pitot head, was standard fi tting for RAF Sunderlands and initially for the RNZAF, but when the latter’s 16 were refurbished in 1952 they were updated with new Marconi equipment which included two HF sets and two ADFs, making them distinguishable from other Mk Vs by twin housings for the ADF scanners behind the astrodome and twin aerial masts behind.

■ Mick Blakey, 88 Norfolk Street, Boston, Lincs PE219HQ, having replied to the RNZAF Sunderland query, says that during the 1956 Air Defence Exercise RAF Sunderlands at Seletar were joined by a RNZAF detachment

ABOVE The RNZAF Sunderland cartoon; see above.

ABOVE Derek Allen has supplied this illustration of a 192 Sqn Washington with red markings — see adjacent details.


http://www.corgiclassics.com


friend? Then this page may help

Write to: Mike Hooks, Information Exchange, Aeroplane, Kings Reach Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS


■ Retired British Midland pilot Barney Concannon, 41Highfi elds Close, Ashby de la Zouch, Leics LE65 2FP, is compiling a book of humorous aviation-related anecdotesand asks any reader with a true story to contact him — anonymity will be respected if required. His e-mail address for initial contact is [email protected].

■ Ian Simpson, 71 Hill Avenue, Grantham, Lincs NG31 9BJ,submits two images without details but in the background is Gladiator K8045 which served with 61 OTU, Rednal. Also there was “Q” Flight formed to make a fi lm about the Greek campaign, so does the mix of Service and civilians indicate a connection with the fi lm production?

■ For more questions and answers, see the “YouWrote” section of Aeroplane’s website:www.aeroplanemonthly.com

■ Internet users — Please include a postal address with your e-mail query as we often have to include hard copy (e.g.photocopies)with a reply

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Compiled by Mike Hooks■ After National Service in the RAF in 1946–48, Mike Hooks maintained a strong interest in aviation and became Editor of AirportsInternational during 1967–75. He then joined the SBAC, where his duties included managing the PressCentre at the Farnborough Air Shows; he retired in 1993. Mike is an Honorary LifeMember of Air-Britain and a member of the Croydon Airport Society

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Q Richard Crossley has sent a photostat of a photograph taken by his late father of crashed Tiger Moth G-ANYN in a

north London park, probably in the Enfi eld area, and asks which fl ying club used these colours and the date and location of the incident.

A I can answer part of this; G-ANYN was with the Surrey Flying Club at Croydon in an attractive metallic light blue

scheme with silver letters. This was later changed to an ordinary light blue with yellow letters, as seen in the January Register Review. Can anyone date this minor accident, which must have been before 30.7.60 when it crashed at Le Touquetand was written off?

ABOVE Can anyone give the date and location of this Tiger Moth incident — and, BELOW, G-ANYN at Croydon, in Surrey Flying Club colours, before moving to Biggin Hill.

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MARCHUntil April 23 Witness:Highlights of First World War Art Special Exhibitions Gallery, Imperial War Museum North, Trafford Park, Manchester; tel 0161 836 4000, www.iwm.org.uk1 The FEAF Bomber Command Campaign in World War Two AChristchurch Aviation Society event with Sqn Ldr L.J. Otley. Druitt Hall, Christchurch, Dorset; tel 01202 7659815 Boulton Paul Aircraft Heritage Project Open Day Smiths Aerospace, Wolver-hampton, Staffs; www.boultonpaul.com8 Torchlight Tour & Supper Brooklands Museum, Surrey; tel 01932 857381 x253, website www.-brooklandsmuseum.com8 SOE Operations from RAF Tempsford A London Society of Air-Britain presentation on the Special Operations Executive’s most secret base. The Victory Services Club, London W2; website www.air-britain.com11 The F.D.2 Air Speed Record 50th Anniversary Talks and presentations to mark 50 years since Peter Twiss’s record-breaking fl ight in the Fairey F.D.2. Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton, Somerset; tel 01935 840565, www.-fl eetairarmmuseum.com12 Open Cockpit Day TheHelicopter Museum, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset; tel 01934 635227, www.-helicoptermuseum.co.uk14 MKAS Photographic Competition A Milton Keynes Aviation Society event. Kents Hill Community Centre, Bucks; tel 01908 60734919 Aircraft Restoration Day Lectures on all aspects

of restoring aircraft, by Naylan Moore, curator of the South Yorkshire Air Museum. Aeroventure, Doncaster, Yorks; tel 01302 76161622 Torchlight Tour & Supper Brooklands Museum, Surrey; tel 01932 857381 x253, website www.-brooklandsmuseum.com23–June 25 Art and War Paintings and sculptures from the collections of the Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial and Canadian War Museum. IWM, London SE1; tel 020 7416 5320, www.iwm.org.24 The Ultimate RideA talk by Gp Capt Geoff Brindle RAF (Retd) on fl ying the Phantom and Lightning. Yorkshire Aeroplane Club, Lees-Bradford Airport. Air Supply, tel 0113 250 958125 Shoreham Aeromart Shoreham Airport, West Sussex; tel 01424 734030, www.aerocollector.com

APRIL1–2 Air Atlantique Classic Flight Experience A chance to fl y in a vintage airliner. Coventry Airport, Warwicks; tel 0870 330 4747, www.air-atlantique.co.uk4–6 Aerospace 2006 TheRoyal Aeronautical Society’s annual three-day conference. RAeS, 4 Hamilton Place, London W1; tel 020 7670 4345, e-mail [email protected], www.raes.org.uk6 Bristol Air Enthusiasts Fair BAWA Leisure Centre, Filton, Bristol; tel 01278 7604489 History with Wings ALocal Aviation History Fair. Merryfi eld Park, Bransgore, Hants; tel 01425 673028, www.winkton.net/fonfa.htm9 Jodel Club Fly-in Popham airfi eld. Hants; tel 01256 397733, www.-

popham-airfi eld.co.uk11 James Nicolson VCA Milton Keynes Aviation Society lecture by the Victoria Cross holder’s nephew, Jim Nicolson. Kents Hill Community Centre, Bucks; tel 01908 60734912 Merlins over Malta — From Idea to RealityHoward Cook and Clive Denney tell the full story of their remarkable achievement for the London Society of Air-Britain. The Victory Services Club, London W2; tel 01444 811317 (1000hr–1800hr)16 PFA Wessex Strut Fly-in Henstridge, Somerset; tel 01963 364231, www.-wessexstrut.fl yer.co.uk21–23 London Air Show Earls Court, London SW5; tel 0870 405 0445, website www.london-airshow.co.uk22–23 Bury Model Flying Club Model Aircraft Spectacular Rougham,West Suffolk; tel 01359 270238, www.roughamairfi eld.org22–23 Spring Flying Meeting North Coates Flying Club, Grimsby, Lincs; tel 01472 388850, www.-northcoatesfl yingclub.co.uk23 Gatwick Air Enthusiasts Fair NewLeisure Centre, Crawley, Sussex; tel 01403 25262823 RAF Linton-on-Ouse Memorial Room Open DayPre-booking required. RAF Linton-on-Ouse, Yorks; tel 01347 848261 x7660 29–30 InternationalMicrolight Exhibition & Trade Fair Popham airfi eld, Hants; tel 01256 397733, www.popham-airfi eld.co.uk29–30 NationalChampionship Air Race ARoyal Aero Club Records Racing and Rally Association event. Swansea Airport, West Glamorgan; tel 01476 860606, www.airraceuk.com

AIRSHOWS & EVENTSUNITED KINGDOM

PRIZE CROSSWORD Solution

Exhibition of the MonthThe Aviation Art of Michael TurnerMarch 31–April 2, RAF Halton Offi cers Mess, Halton House, Wendover, Bucks; tel 01296 338504 RENOWNED aviation artist Michael Turner’s new painting of the prototype Spitfi re above Eastleigh in March 1936, above, will be among a selection of his aviation originals on show at Halton House. Prints of the new work, signed by Alex Henshaw, will be available, and the full range of prints produced by Michael and son Graham will also be on display. Further details available at www.studio88.co.uk

ABOVE IS THE solution to the prize crossword which appeared in our January issue, which was kindly compiled for us by John Cannell and which could be solved using either cryptic or quick clues. Many congratulations to the winner — Dave Read of Kings Heath, Birmingham. He wins a Corgi Aviation Archive 1⁄72nd-scale Avro Lancaster Mk III collectors’ model.


http://www.iwm.org.uk

http://www.boultonpaul.com

http://www.boultonpaul.com


http://www.air-britain.com

http://fleetairarmmuseum.com

http://helicoptermuseum.co.uk


http://www.iwm.org

http://www.aerocollector.com

http://www.airatlantique.co.uk

http://www.raes.org.uk

http://www.winkton.net/fonfa.htm

http://www.london-airshow.co.uk

http://www.roughamair.eld.org

http://www.northcoatesflyingclub.co.uk

http://www.popham-airfield.co.uk

http://www.airraceuk.com

http://www.studio88.co.uk

http://www.wessexstrut.flyer.co.uk

http://www.wessexstrut.flyer.co.uk





http://www.airatlantique.co.uk


http://fleetairarmmuseum.com

http://helicoptermuseum.co.uk

http://www.northcoatesflyingclub.co.uk


AUCTIONS Compiled by Phil Ellis

THE BIGGEST STORY of the last few months has undoubtedly been the sale of Neville Duke’s medals and memorabilia. The sale, at Dix Noonan Webb in Mayfair on December 7, attracted publicity not only because of the importance of the medals but also because of the circumstances of the sale. The legendary fi ghter ace and test pilot was selling partly because of security fears, but also to pay for his wife’s hip operation. The collection, which included his DSO, DFC and OBE, sold for £138,000 to a private collector. It is understood that they will remain in Britain.

A milestone of early aviation was recalled by Postings of Oxted, Surrey, in their postal auction closing on December 20. It included a programme for “the fi rst fl ying meeting in England” at Doncaster on October 15–23, 1909. The event overlapped with a rival event at Blackpool and although Blackpool had the support of the Royal Aero Club, Doncaster attracted many prominent early aviators. The eight-page programme, printed in red and blue, sold for £170. Also included was an offi cial programme for the fi rst ever international aviation meeting, held on August 22–29 at Reims, where the participants included Louis Blériot, Glenn Curtiss, Hubert Latham and Louis Breguet. It realised £150; while a menu for the May 4, 1909, banquet for members of the Aero Club managed £110.

Vectis Auctions of Stockton-on-Tees offered a fi ne array of tinplate aircraft in a special sale on December 9. Tinplate did not always lend itself well to accurate renditions of aircraft, hence the number of generic aircraft churned out by the makers. Yet tinplate is now a booming market with collectors, and some models are reasonable representations of real aircraft. A pre-war model of the Dewoitine D27 from the 1930s, complete with clockwork motor to drive the front wheels and propeller, was among the highlights of the sale, reaching £480 — the scarcity of this model certainly helped. It was made in France by the Jep company (Jouets et Paris), as was a Dewoitine F260 fl oatplane in red and silver, which soared to £1,400. Again, this was a scarce model, but it was also in outstanding condition.

Away from the tinplates, a model of a Britannia airliner, professionally made from a Frog kit, sold for £420. Resplendent in BOAC livery, it may have been factory-produced for that airline. A Vectis sale on December 15 saw a pre-war Dinky Ensign airliner double its estimate to reach £300. It showed no signs of the metal fatigue that often plagues models of this era.

Vectis’s recent sales also included a stunning example of the aviation art of Robert Taylor, when a quality print, circa 1970, showing two Spitfi res (Mk I and Mk V) over southern England reached £80 on November 16. Interest was almost guaranteed by the fact that the print was signed by Battle of Britain aces Douglas Bader and Johnnie Johnson.

Uniforms were among the attractions at Bosley’s of Marlow in Buckinghamshire on December 14; the sale included a uniform of Battle of Britain pilot Air Commodore “Mickey” Mount CBE DSO DFC which realised £600, while a uniform of Air Chief Marshal Sir William Macdonald GCB CBE DFC reached £210.

Finally, another reminder of World War Two surfaced at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on November 5, when a group of Ministry of Information and other offi cial press photographs of Allied aircraft, including Spitfi res, Typhoons, Kittyhawks and Thunderbolts over England and North Africa, went for £60. The photographs included two of destroyed German aircraft, a Ju 88 downed by Coastal Command, and Bf 109s and a ’110 at Tobruk.

For monthly reviews of the best on the web. . . subscribe to Aeroplane quickly & easily at www.aeroplanemonthly.com



ABOVE A stunning print of two Spitfi res (Mks I and V) by artist Robert Taylor realised £80 at Vectis.

ABOVE This Dinky Ensign airliner reached double its estimate at Vectis on December 15.

ABOVE This superb Dewoitine F260 fl oatplane model, in excellent condition, reached £1,400 at the same sale.

MARCH4 Aviation in the Movies Includes display by a Curtiss P-40. The Air Museum “Planes of Fame”, Chino, California, USA; tel 001 909 597 3722, website www.-planesoffame.org4–5 Open Cockpit Day & Weeks Hangar Open House A rare chance to get a behind-the-scenes tour of EAA’s aircraft maintenance and restoration centre. EAA AirVenture Museum, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA; tel 001 920 426 4818, www.-airventuremuseum.org4–5 Temora Aviation Museum Flying DaysTemora, New South Wales, Australia; tel 00 61 2 6977 1088, website www.-aviationmuseum.com.au5 Fundación Infante De Orleans Flying Day Cuatro Vientos, Madrid, Spain; tel 00 34 91 508 0842, www.fi o.es7–10 AVEX 2006 Sharm El Sheikh International Airport, Egypt; tel 00 202 632 4499, www.avex-2006.com8–10 AERO ’06 Mexico’s largest general aviation show, with emphasis on rotary-wing aviation. Toluca, Mexico; tel 00 52 333 827 1817, www.aero06.com10–12 Tico Warbird Airshow Valiant Air Command, Titusville, Florida, USA; tel 001 321 268 1941, www.vacwarbirds.org11–12 CAF Air Fiesta 2006 A Commemorative Air Force Rio Grande Valley Wing event, Brownsville, Texas, USA; tel 001 956 541 8585, website www.rgvwingcaf.com11–12 Tiger Moth Club of New Zealand Fly-inWhitianga, New Zealand; tel 00 649 268 858 70618–19 Thunder in the Valley Columbus, Georgia, USA; website www.thunder-

OVERSEAS EVENTS

inthevalleyairshow.com25–26 3rd Annual Wings & Wheels Air, Military & Vehicle Show Fort Pierce, Florida, USA; tel 001 772 879 7181, website www.-slcwingsandwheels.com27–April 2 FIDAE 2006Santiago, Chile; tel 00 562 530 5750, www.fi dae.cl

APRIL1 Air Power over Vietnam The Air Museum “Planes of Fame”, Chino, California, USA; tel 001 909 597 3722, www.planesoffame.org2 Fundación Infante De Orleans Flying Day Cuatro Vientos, Madrid, Spain; tel 00 34 91 508 0842, www.fi o.es4–10 EAA Sun ’n’ Fun Fly-in Lakeland, Florida, USA; tel 001 863 644 2431, website www.sun-n-fun.org8 CAF Bluebonnet Air Show Burnet, Texas, USA; tel 001 512 756 2226, www.-highlandlakessquadron.com14–16 Warbirds over Wanaka 2006 One of the best vintage shows in the Southern Hemisphere. Wanaka, New Zealand; tel 00 643 360 3220, www.-warbirdsoverwanaka.com15 CAF Open Cockpit Day Midland, Texas, USA; tel 001 432 563 1000, www.-commemorativeairforce.org15–16 Temora Aviation Museum Flying DaysTemora, New South Wales, Australia; tel 00 612 6977 1088, website www.-aviationmuseum.com.au20–22 IMAS 2006 Publicday April 22. Friedrichshafen, Germany; tel 00 49 7541 708 362, www.imas-friedrichshafen.com29–30 Spirit of Flight Airshow Lone Star Flight Museum, Galveston, Texas, USA; tel 001 409 740 7722, website www.lsfm.org

NOTICE TO SHOW ORGANISERS: Is your event listed here? If not, contact Nick Stroud on 020 7261 6401 or fax

020 7261 5269 for free inclusion

ABOVE A pre-war model of the Dewoitine D27 reached £480 on December 9 — also at Vectis.


http://www.planesoffame.org


http://www.avex-2006.com

http://www.aero06.com

http://www.vacwarbirds.org

http://www.rgvwingcaf.com

http://www.thunderinthevalleyairshow.com

http://www.slcwingsandwheels.com


http://www.sun-n-fun.org

http://www.highlandlakessquadron.com

http://warbirdsoverwanaka.com

http://commemorativeairforce.org

http://www.imas-friedrichshafen.com

http://www.lsfm.org

http://www.fidae.cl


http://www.highlandlakessquadron.com


http://www.aviationmuseum.com.au


http://www.fio.es

http://warbirdsoverwanaka.com

http://commemorativeairforce.org

http://www.imas-friedrichshafen.com



http://www.thunderinthevalleyairshow.com

http://www.slcwingsandwheels.com

http://www.fio.es




ALSO IN THE MAY ISSUE:

IN NEXT MONTH

Westland’s Whirlwind fi ghter in detail

PLUS NEWS, reviews and more:May issue on sale April 1 (contents may be subject to change)

■ Win a trip for two to the Jersey International Air Display ■ Freddie Laker’s home-grown airliner Why the Aviation Traders Accountant was his biggest achievement but his biggest commercial failure


http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/spitfire




COV_AER_JUL04.pgs 13.05.2004 09:05 Preflighted by twist

COV AE

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

Order Aeroplane back-issuesfor £3.95 each inc p&p in UK(overseas please add £1.50)We have hundreds of back-issues in stock —and although we cannot offer every issue, some copies go all the way back to 1973. So if you have gaps in your collection that need fi lling, send an enquiry to: Sundry Sales,Aeroplane Editorial, King’s Reach Tower,Stamford St, London SE1 9LS; [email protected] cheques payable to IPC Media Ltd.

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CrosswindAsides — and broadsides — from the wings, with JOHN FRICKER

■ JOHN FRICKER FRAeS has

been writing on aviation for

more than 60 years, during

which he has fl own in some

470 military and civil fi xed-

and rotary-winged aircraft

types, including 312 as pilot.

He still fl ies and contributes

regularly on mostly military

aviation subjects to several

leading publications, and in

2003 received Boeing’s global

Aeronautical Journalist of the

Decade award


■ I WAS DELIGHTED to see Humphrey Wynn’s story in the March Aeroplane on his 1950s adventures with Flight mag-azine’s Miles Gemini. When I was similarly covering mili-tary activities for the original Aeroplane weekly, we were nominally rivals. Both staffs associated affably, however,while remaining highly competitive. In fact, since The Aero-plane’s editor, Thurstan James, had just sold our Auster,G-AERO, and only later allowed me to hire aircraft, I re-ceived several lifts in Flight’s lower-powered Gemini pre-decessor G-AFLT from 1950, when on common business.

In 1958 both magazines were invited to Pakistan for a nine-day air force tour, as guests of its fi rst non-RAFC-in-C, Air Marshal Asghar Khan. He provided us with a VIP-furnished Pakistan Air Force Bristol 170-31M to trundle around the bases, and Humphrey will doubtless recall a memorable fl ight from Peshawar, in the North-West Frontier province, along the narrow Indus valley through the Hindu Kush mountains to Gilgit airstrip, in Pakistani Kashmir. We fl ew at about 10,000ft, with pine-clad snow-covered slopes apparently nudging each wingtip,backed by the towering 26,000ft-high Nanga Parbat.

Equally memorable was a road visit to the isolatedJamrud Fort, built by the British to guard the Khyber Pass,previously and exhilaratingly seen from the back seat ofHawker Fury T.61s from Kohat. At Jamrud we were intro-duced to another visiting guest, the young Prince Karim,then recently-appointed Ismaili leader, as the Aga Khan.

■ FARNBOROUGH AIRFIELD, now operated for business aircraft by TAG Aviation, will lose more links with its his-toric past with the sale and planned redevelopment of the Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) site, by the Queen’s Gate entrance, and the adjacent Pyestock gas-turbine engine test-cell site. The IAM has already moved to Henlow,leaving the 60ft man-carrying centrifuge under QinetiQadministration as probably the last of the remaining RAE and earlier Farnborough relics left for disposal.

Thanks particularly to the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST), established in 1994 to help preserve and

stimulate interest in the airfi eld’s many historic buildingsand artefacts, several key structures are listed for preser-vation. They include the 4ft x 3ft low-turbulence, 8ft x 6fttransonic and 24ft low-speed windtunnels; the famous Black Sheds; and the 1912 70ft x 250ft airship shed, which is to be reconstructed, having been bisected in 1916. FAST is housed in the 1907 Royal Engineers G-1 Balloon Schoolbuilding, now an aeronautical museum.

Too little attention has been paid to preserving our avia-tion heritage. Revisiting White Waltham for the fi rst time in many years, I was appalled to fi nd that Fairey Aviation’s classic bay-windowed admin block, incorporating fl ying-control and fi re-engine housing on the northern boundary,where Second World War Air Transport Auxiliary pilots gathered to pick up their morning ferry chits, had disap-peared. In its place is a modern monstrosity of indetermi-nate function.

■ QINETIQ TOOK OVER management of many Farnbor-ough departments from the Defence Evaluation andResearch Agency’s support services in mid-2001. In De-cember 2002 part-privatisation was achieved by the gov-ernment selling off 31 per cent of QinetiQ equity to the USA’s Carlyle Group for £42·4 million, while retaining 56per cent, the remaining 13 per cent being held by manage-ment and staff. Extraordinarily, at the same time, Carlylereceived 51 per cent majority voting rights, because the MoD “wanted to hand over operational day-to-day-control”.Carlyle’s recent QinetiQ shares valuation of £340 million represents a cool 800 per cent increase in only three years.

Still further profi ts were being forecast from QinetiQ’s £1·3 billion initial public offer, due in February. After fl ota-tion the MoD will retain only a 25 per cent shareholding in QinetiQ, which, among many other UK military installa-tions, operates development and test facilities at RAF Bos-combe Down. These include 30 widely-varied types of the Aircraft Test & Evaluation Sector, 20 nearly all-different aircraft of the Empire Test Pilots School and the RAFCollege of Aviation Medicine fl ight’s two BAE Hawks.

This month John reminisces on his journalisitic links with the Flight Gemini, looks at the

changes taking place at Farnborough and the plans to preserve some of the site’s historic

structures, and views the Ministry of Defence’s reduction of its involvement in QinetiQ

RIGHT Your columnist (seated centre) and Humphrey Wynn of Flight magazine (seated left) taking tea with their Pakistan Air Force escort at Jamrud Fort on February 4, 1958,during a press tour of the country conducted mainly in a Bristol Freighter.

Spitfires – Malta Bound by Philip E. West

On the 11th August 1942, Flt. Lt. Geoffrey Wellum DFC,having just taken off from the deck of HMS Furious, leadshis section of Spitfires on the long journey to Malta.

Primary Edition 400: £125 (US$220) Signed by Flt. Lt.

Wellum. Artist Proofs 75: £175 (US$306) Signed by Flt. Lt.

Wellum, Dame Vera Lynn and other veterans of the Malta

campaign. Remarques 75: £300 (US$525) with the same

signatures as above.

Each print signed by Flt. Lt. Geoffrey Wellum DFC Primary Edition 150 : £95 (US$166)

plus 25 Artist Proofs: £120 (US$210) plus 25 Remarques: £220 (US$385)

Heavy snow during the winter of 1941 kept Spitfire pilots and their aircraft grounded at Biggin Hill.

SWA Fine Art Publishers PO Box 3915, Bath BA1 0BD (England) Tel/Fax: 01225 444929 From Overseas: + 44 + 1225 + 444929 E-mail: [email protected] www.swafineart.com

Immediate Delivery. Order With Total Confidence. We Give a 100% No-Quibble GuaranteeUS$ prices are a guide only and based on $1.75 to £1. Please include £7 for p&p UK, Rest of Europe £10. Rest of World £12.

�

Limited Edition Prints of Exceptional Quality - signed by WW2 Spitfire Pilots.

Close Encounter by Philip E. West

Flight Lieutenant Bryan Colston, “A” Flight Commander – 225Squadron in Spitfire Mk. VB, ER 660 attacks a German TransportConvoy on a mountain road near Sjedenane in Tunisia.

Primary Edition 275: £125 (US$220) signed by Flt. Lt. Colston,

“A” Flight Commander – 225 Squadron (the pilot in the main

Spitfire) and Wg. Cdr. Costain MBE, 154 Squadron Spitfire

pilot. Following also signed by Squadron Leader Geoffrey

Wellum DFC 25 Artist Proofs: £150 (US$262) and

25 Remarques: £275 (US$482) Original oil painting for sale.

�

Winter of ‘41 by Philip E. West

NEW

NEW

App

rox.

Ove

rall

size

18”

x 2

8” /

46cm

s x

71cm

sO

vera

ll si

ze: 2

0” x

28”

/ 51

cms

x 71

cms

Ove

rall

prin

t si

ze. 2

0” x

28”

/ 51

cms

x 71

cms


http://www.swafineart.com

Aeroplane Magazine - Apr 2006

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Transcript of Aeroplane Magazine - Apr 2006