Aeroplane Monthly 2017-11

SPECIAL ISSUE MESSERSCHMITT Bff 109 November 2017 Issue No 535, Vol 45, No 11

HISTORY IN THE AIR SINCE 1911

MESSERSCHMITT

EXCLUSIVE

made for two

E IN THS NEW t rne DH Ho y to fl

• Captured RAF Bf 109s • ‘Black 6’ from the cockpit £4.50

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BAE HERITAGE l HENDON’S LAST FLIGHTS

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Hawker Hurricane 2B S/N: CCF/R20023 Registration: G-HHII Price: GBP1,595,000 + VAT if applicable

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Contents November 2017

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See pages 22-23 for a g reat subscription offer

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24 NEWS AND COMMENT 4 6

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FROM THE EDITOR NEWS • DH Sea Hornet to fly again • Two-seat Buchón ready …and the month’s other top aircraft preservation news HANGAR TALK Steve Slater’s comment on the historic aircraft world FLIGHT LINE Reflections with Denis J. Calvert

FEATURES 24

MESSERSCHMITT Bf 109 SPECIAL 32 40

REGULARS Q&A Your questions asked and answered 20 SKYWRITERS 88 BRIEFING FILE Aviation technology and tactics in the spotlight. This month, how the DH Queen Bee pilotless drone worked 105 REVIEWS 106 EVENTS Duxford’s superb Battle of Britain Air Show, and other displays reviewed 114 NEXT MONTH

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CHILTON DW1 An 80th anniversary celebration of a delightful “real aeroplane in miniature”

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CAPTURED RAF Bf 109s Sizing up the enemy, from early ‘Emil’ to late ‘Gustav’ ‘BLACK 6’ SALUTE In two exclusive features, Graeme Snadden — son of restoration project leader Russ — and test and display pilot Dave Southwood recall their association with the revered airworthy Bf 109G-2 Bf 109G-12 RECREATED Air-to-air with a Messerschmitt made for two RAF FAR EAST FLIGHT In October 1927, four Supermarine Southamptons made the RAF’s most ambitious long-distance flight yet BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE The aerospace industry giant’s delightful flying collection

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AEROPLANE MEETS… RICHARD LAKE The world’s only Austin Maxi-driving warbird owner and airline boss? Very possibly! ROTHMANS AEROBATIC TEAM Stampes, Pitts Specials, and some of the most famous names in airshow history DATABASE: AVRO TUDOR The story of Avro’s postwar airliner failure is told by Bruce HalesDutton

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IN-DEPTH PAGES

111 AEROPLANE ARCHIVE: RAF HENDON The famous London RAF station’s closure to flying, 60 years on COVER IMAGE: The Messerschmitt Bf 109G-12 and Supermarine Spitfire FRXVIIIe of the Hangar-10 collection in Germany. RICHARD PAVER

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02/10/2017 16:37

Editor From the

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o, as I write, the main UK airshow season has just come to an end. Alas the Shuttleworth Collection’s Race Day on 1 October proved a somewhat weather-affected affair, in which manner it was hardly unique during 2017. Nonetheless, all at Old Warden did their absolute best to put on a show — another aspect common to much of the industry in what remain trying circumstances. How to sum up 2017’s British air displays? In general, I think it was a good year. A run of forced landings resulting from technical problems was most unfortunate, as was the mid-air Mustang collision that occurred near the season’s end, but very thankfully no loss of life resulted and relevant lessons will be learned in the fullness of time. On a far more positive note, we saw some of the most memorable flying of recent years. At the modern end, I was especially impressed by the French military’s solo and two-ship jet contributions — air force Alpha Jet, Rafale and Mirage 2000Ds, and navy Rafales — that were flown with a degree of charisma and passion seldom seen in such routines these days. And among the historics there was an embarrassment of riches. The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s 60th anniversary ‘Thompson formation’ at RIAT stands out, as does Jean Munn giving what turned out to be the last display on these shores by the Sopwith Snipe during Shuttleworth’s Edwardian Pageant. But in many ways this was a Hurricane summer. The trio at the Old Warden evening show in June, including MkI P3717 giving its first post-restoration public display, was the high point of what was the most magical evening at this cherished venue. Then came Flying Legends with a five-ship, adding newly restored P2902 to the mix — and finally September’s Duxford Battle of Britain show with seven, of which six flew together. There would have been one more, had R4118 not suffered a cracked block — repairs are under way, and we look forward

to its return in 2018, when even larger Hurricane formations will be possible. What an unbelievable, marvellous, situation to find ourselves in. An RAF centenary Hurricane diamond nine, anyone? We cannot end, though, without mention of how the Civil Aviation Authority’s revised airshow regulations and heightened scrutiny regime continue to receive criticism. The most prominent manifestation occurred in September, when the entire flying element of this year’s Victory Show at Cosby, Leicestershire, had to be cancelled after the CAA — on the Thursday beforehand — issued a flying display permission that participating pilots rightly felt made it impossible for them to perform safely at the site, such was the nature of the local avoids. The CAA worked with the organiser and display director to find a solution, but time ran out. While the pressures the authority has found itself under post-Shoreham and its need to act accordingly are easy to understand and appreciate, one now hears too many tales of permissions being issued very late, with added new restrictions, and potential flight safety implications resulting from them. For the sake of both regulator and regulated, this has to change going into 2018.

Even larger formations of Hurricanes will be possible in 2018. What an unbelievable, marvellous situation to find ourselves in

ESTABLISHED 1911

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As for this month’s issue, we hope you forgive what might seem like our indulgence in devoting so many pages to Bf 109 ‘Black 6’ to mark the 20th anniversary of its last flight and salute the passing earlier this year of the leading light in its restoration, Russ Snadden. However, when the features from both Dave Southwood and Russ’s son Graeme came in, we simply had to make the necessary room. The ‘Gustav’ was, without doubt, one of the greatest aeroplanes ever to grace the UK’s airworthy warbird ranks, and is recalled with much fondness to this day.

Aeroplane traces its lineage back to the weekly The Aeroplane, founded by C. G. Grey in 1911 and published until 1968. It was relaunched as a monthly in 1973 by Richard T. Riding, editor for 25 years until 1998.

Ben Dunnell

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CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH JEANNE FRAZER It is thanks to the existence of the Rothmans Aerobatic Team that Jeanne became involved in flying, initially organising Tiger Club airshows at Redhill and Croydon, and managing numerous civilian display participants. She went on to become one of the UK’s most experienced flying display directors, performing the role for the Shepway Airshow at Folkestone seafront, the Spitfire Salute and Sea Wings 2000 at Southampton Water, and latterly IWM Duxford.

RICHARD RIDING Born in 1942, Richard was employed as an aerial photographer from 195862. He was then a freelance photographer, specialising in aerial imagery and photographing pop singers for Polydor Records — Jimi Hendrix, The Bee Gees, Otis Redding and others. Richard joined the editorial staff of Flight International in 1971-73 and founded Aeroplane Monthly in 1973, being editor until 1998. He has written several books, including Ultralights: The Early British Classics, Elstree Aerodrome: An Illustrated History and Leavesden Aerodrome: From Halifaxes to Hogwarts, both co-written with Grant Peerless.

GRAEME SNADDEN “A chartered mechanical engineer living in rural Herefordshire with my wife and two children”, says Graeme, “my interest in aviation stemmed from formative years spent around various RAF bases and of course my involvement with ‘Black 6’. With the passing of my father earlier this year, I will now be overseeing the return to flight of dad’s beloved Bücker Bü 181C Bestmann, or ‘Bessie’ as she was affectionately known… oh, and reinvigorating my PPL training!”

DAVE SOUTHWOOD Having flown the Buccaneer in the RAF, Dave embarked on a career as a test pilot, graduating from the Empire Test Pilots’ School in 1985 and serving thereafter at both Boscombe Down and Farnborough. Today he is still at Boscombe Down as a civilian flying tutor on ETPS. Since 1988 he has been displaying civilian warbirds; he says his favourite mount ever is Bf 109G-2 ‘Black 6’.

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27/09/2017 10:38

News

NEWS EDITOR: TONY HARMSWORTH

E-MAIL TO: [email protected] TELEPHONE: +44 (0)7791 808044 WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK

Farm find Hornet to fly T

he once seemingly impossible dream of seeing a de Havilland DH103 Hornet in the air has now become a very real likelihood, following the announcement during mid-September by Pioneer Aero at Ardmore, New Zealand of its intention to rebuild Sea Hornet F20 TT193 to flying condition. There are currently no examples of the 383 Hornets built in existence, the last complete airframe, that of NF21 VW949, having been scrapped at a civil defence yard located at Westerton near Goodwood, West Sussex, circa 1961-62.

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The substantial remains of TT193 were viewed by the author on a farm north of Calgary in the spring of 1997, and comprised the centre section, engine nacelles, inner wings, propellers and spinners, and a host of metal parts including the wing folding gear. Pioneer has also acquired a complete set of drawings for the Hornet. A statement from this much respected restoration company says: “This exciting project has recently been purchased by Pioneer Aero and it is our intention to restore it to flying condition. To this point we have focused on the acquisition of parts and

knowledge and it is envisaged this will continue before any physical work is undertaken. It is now located at our hangar at Ardmore.” Sea Hornet TT193 first flew at Hatfield on 24 April 1947, and two days later was at No 47 Maintenance Unit, RAF Sealand, being prepared for winterisation trials in Canada under the joint Winter Experimental Establishment programme. Crated for the sea crossing in July 1947, TT193 began cold weather testing on 13 December 1948 at Watson Lake in the Yukon, and over the next four months was tested in temperatures as low as -50°C.

In December 1950 the Hornet was acquired from the British Ministry of Supply by Bill Ferderber, a pilot with aerial survey company Spartan Air Services, and registered CF-GUO. After ferrying it to Ottawa Ferderber sold ’GUO on to Spartan on 1 June 1951, and it went on to be operated by the firm until April 1952 when it was traded to Kenting Aviation of Toronto for a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Kenting deployed the Hornet to northern British Columbia for five weeks in June-July 1952, operating between the Alberta border and the Queen Charlotte Islands at altitudes of up to

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Sea Hornet F20 TT193/CF-GUO at Uplands Airport, Ottawa, shortly before it was traded to Kenting in April 1952. CF-GUO was the sole civilian-operated Hornet, and the only example to be flown by a non-British operator. ALAN MACNUTT VIA ROBERT M. STITT

TT193 taxies out at Watson Lake in the Yukon while being operated by the Winter Experimental Establishment during 1949. LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA

The Sea Hornet remains as seen by the author on a farm north of Calgary in early 1997. TONY HARMSWORTH

FIRST FOR NEWS, THEN AS NOW…

The original story, published in the June 1997 news section of Aeroplane Monthly, revealing the existence of the substantial remains of TT193.

36,000ft. The makeshift rear camera operator’s position was extremely cramped, the occupant having to crouch forward while holding on to an aluminium bar immediately behind the pilot’s head during take-off and landing in case he ever needed to use the emergency exit. During a photo sortie on 11 July 1952, camera operator John McDuffin was alarmed to find his feet awash with glycol, and saw white vapour streaming from the port engine. Fortunately, they were over Terrace Airport. The pilot, Tommy Bach, quickly shut down the overheating Merlin

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and made a spiral descent for a successful emergency landing at Terrace. An inspection revealed gaping holes in the crankcase and an oil pan full of mangled engine parts. With no replacement Merlin 134 available, the camera equipment was stripped out of the aeroplane, the starboard engine was donated to the local high school, and the aircraft was abandoned, becoming a popular plaything for local children. In the mid-1950s the airport manager decreed that the derelict machine had to go, and it was cut up, transported

to the town rubbish dump and buried. The remains were recovered from the dump in the early 1990s by the late George Le May and roaded to his farm near Acme, Alberta, 50-odd miles north of Calgary. The late, great test pilot Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown said of the type: “For aerobatics the Sea Hornet was absolute bliss. The excess of power was such that manoeuvres in the vertical plane can only be described as rocket-like. Even with one propeller feathered the Hornet

could loop with the best single-engine fighter, and its aerodynamic cleanliness was such that I delighted in its demonstration by diving with both engines at full bore and feathering both propellers before pulling up into a loop!” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Robert M. Stitt for his help in preparing this piece. Robert is currently working on a book that will tell the definitive story of Spartan Air Services.

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News November 2017

Two-seat Buchón ready to fly

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he world’s only two-seat Hispano HA-1112-M4L Buchón, C4K-112/G-AWHC, was awaiting good weather for its maiden flight at Sywell, Northamptonshire at the end of September, following a two-year restoration with Air Leasing. The ex-Spanish Air Force conversion trainer has been repainted in the markings it wore during production of the Battle of Britain film during 1968, when a camera in the rear cockpit was used to film the ‘Messerschmitt’ formation sequences. During a break from filming, Luftwaffe ace Adolf Galland flew the aeroplane, with RAF ace Bob Stanford Tuck in the rear cockpit.

After filming, the Rolls-Royce Merlin 500-powered, licencebuilt Bf 109 went to Wilson ‘Connie’ Edwards along with five other examples of the type as payment for his flying work on the film, and remained stored in a barn at his ranch in Big Spring, Texas until the much sought-after Hispanos were sold off during 2014. The original clear, ‘blown’ M4L-variant sliding canopy has been replaced during the restoration with two framed throw-over canopies, similar to those seen on the wartime Bf 109G-12 two-seaters delivered to the Luftwaffe Jagdgeschwaderschulen (Fighter Training Schools) from early 1944 — see also pages 52-56. The two-seat Buchón at Sywell in mid-September, displaying the larger fin and rudder used on the M4L variant. It retains the cutdown, Bf 109E-style wingtips fitted before shooting began on the Battle of Britain film in 1968. HUW HOPKINS

MAFM gets Pearl Harbor vet Duck Three new additions to the Mid-America Flight Museum (MAFM) fleet arrived at Mount Pleasant Regional Airport in north-eastern Texas during September, the most significant acquisition being Pearl Harbor veteran Grumman J2F-4 Duck BuNo 1649. The historic amphibian — the only flying example of a Grumman-built Duck still in existence — was flown to Mount Pleasant from Kenosha, Wisconsin, where it had been operated by previous owner Chuck Greenhill. The amphibian first flew following a seven-year restoration with Wichita Air Services in Kansas in May 2005, and two years later won the Grand Champion WW2 award at the Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture show at

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J2F-4 Duck BuNo 1649, pictured at Oshkosh in 2007. MIKE SHREEVE

Oshkosh (see also Aeroplane March 2015). This Duck was delivered to the US Navy in December 1939, and is painted in the markings it wore while based at Pearl Harbor in December

1941. Following the “day that will live in infamy” attack on 7 December, BuNo 1649 flew search and rescue missions. During 1955 it sank following a crash-landing on Lake Killarney, Nassau, and was

salvaged during 1991 and shipped to Miami. In August 1997 the aircraft was acquired by Flying A Services but it never came to the UK, being sold to Greenhill during October 1998. The other two airworthy Ducks are Columbia Aircraftbuilt J2F-6 models: BuNo 33559 is with the Erickson Aircraft Collection at Madras, Oregon, and BuNo 33614 with Kermit Weeks/Fantasy of Flight at Polk City, Florida. The two further MAFM newcomers are the world’s only Piper PA-23 Apache floatplane, N34DA, a 1958-vintage machine acquired from an owner in Maine, and Cessna T-50 N66671, previously operated by Terry Sullivan from Shreveport, Louisiana.

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November 2017 News

STREGA VICTORIOUS AT RENO

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fter winning seven Unlimited National Championship Air Racing titles in the past eight years — an engine problem put him out of contention in 2015 — Steve Hinton Jr’s neardominance of the series was thwarted this year when ex-US Navy fighter pilot James Consalvi took advantage of lapped traffic to slip past him on the last lap of the 2017 Reno National Championship Unlimited Gold Race on 17 September. Consalvi, who claimed pole position for this year’s event at 481.340mph, took victory in Bill ‘Tiger’ Destefani’s P-51D Mustang Strega with an average speed of 481.349mph. Hinton finished second in P-51D Voodoo at a 480.744mph average. Hinton won his first four championships in Strega before being invited to fly Voodoo when Destefani temporarily retired his Mustang in 2013.

James Consalvi taking Strega to victory in the closely fought Unlimited Gold Race at Reno on 17 September. FRANK B. MORMILLO

BBMF Chipmunk back to UAS scheme The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s Chipmunk T10 WG486 is undergoing major servicing with the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford. The 1952-built trainer — one of two used by the flight for conversion and continuation training of BBMF fighter pilots on tailwheel aircraft — will have the current standard RAF training scheme of black with white stripes replaced with a more attractive livery that it wore 35 years ago when it was in service with the Bristol University Air Squadron at Filton. The BBMF’s two Chipmunks (the other being WK518) are the last examples to fly on RAF charge. WG486 was built at Broughton, Chester and delivered to the RAF on 3 January 1952. It was flown by three different flying schools before being transferred to the Army Air Corps during

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ABOVE: Chipmunk WG486 is being refurbished at Duxford, and will lose its black scheme. ANDREW MARCH INSET: WG486 leads a formation take-off at Filton in January 1972. PETER R. MARCH

1957. In December 1958, it went to Cyprus with No 114 Squadron and was used for a short time for operations against EOKA terrorists. Back with RAF Training Command it was based at Cranwell, South

Cerney, Church Fenton and Linton-on-Ouse prior to being allocated to Liverpool UAS, and in 1968 to Bristol UAS and No 3 Air Experience Flight. WG486 returned to the ‘front line’ in 1987 when it joined the

Gatow Station Flight in Berlin, being employed on secret photographic reconnaissance flights over the Berlin Control Zone during the Cold War. It joined the BBMF in 1995. Peter R. March

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02/10/2017 10:06

News November 2017

With the vertical tail removed, Sunderland V NZ4115 about to be moved into the main aviation display hall at MOTAT on 12 September. MOTAT

Sunderland inside at MOTAT

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ecently repainted Short Sunderland V NZ4115 was moved into the new aircraft display hangar at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland, New Zealand on 12 September, the first time the former Royal New Zealand Air Force flying boat had been under cover since being donated in 1967. Restoration of the Antipodes’ only surviving Sunderland will continue, the next steps being to repair the internal lighting, refurbish the gun turrets — which are

currently painted overall white — and restore the interior. Repairs to the keel were completed before the move. This has also seen MOTAT’s other big boat, Short Solent IV ZK-AMO, moving out of the hangar to provide space for the ongoing Sunderland restoration, which needs another NZ$120,000 to be

brought to completion. Eventually, both aircraft will be displayed in the main hall, which will become the only place in the world where two of Short Brothers’ majestic boats can be seen together. The machine is one of 16 Sunderland Vs ordered by the RNZAF in 1952, the air arm having operated four MkIIIs

This is the first time the former Royal New Zealand Air Force flying boat has been under cover since being donated to MOTAT in 1967

since 1944. It served with No 5 Squadron at Lauthala Bay, Fiji, the type finally being withdrawn from service in 1967. One other Sunderland survived in New Zealand: after being stripped for spares during 1966, NZ4112 went to the Hobsonville Yacht Club for use as a clubhouse. Unfortunately, the increasingly weather-beaten machine was scrapped during 1973, although the flight deck and nose section were donated to the Ferrymead Aeronautical Society at Christchurch, where restoration is under way.

LAMBACH REPLICA RESURRECTION At Lelystad airport in the central Netherlands, the Stichting Vroege Vogels (Early Birds Foundation) has recently taken possession of a reproduction Lambach HL-II pre-war aerobatic biplane, PH-APZ, and hopes to have it flying soon. The machine was built by students from the University of Delft during the 1990s, using original surviving drawings, and flew at a small number of airshows. It was grounded in 1997 following the discovery of fatigue cracks in the wing roots and later placed on display in the Aviodrome’s T2 hangar at Lelystad. The original HL-II was designed by young Dutch engineer Hugo Lambach, a mechanical engineering graduate from the Delft University of Technology, who was taken on by the Koolhoven Aircraft Factory at Waalhaven in May 1932. The North Dutch Flying Club’s first international aerobatic competition was held in Eelde during the spring of 1936, but no Dutch-built aeroplanes were available to participate. A group of Dutch aviation enthusiasts approached Hugo Lambach, commissioning the HL-II for the 1937 event. To speed up design and construction, Lambach Aircraft was established at Voorburg, south-western Holland in January 1937. The 130hp de Havilland Gipsy-powered machine, registered PH-DSA, made its first flight on 2 May 1937, but with little time to prepare for the 1937 aerobatic event the HL-II pilot, Hein Schmidt Crans — who had finished second in 1936 in a Tiger Moth — was placed third, in

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The pretty little Lambach reproduction, PH-APZ, in the Stichting Vroege Vogels hangar at Lelystad. STEFAN SCHMOLL

the face of competition from superior German designs. The following year, the HL-II was comprehensively beaten by the German entries, coming last. There was no competition in 1939, and PH-DSA was destroyed during a Luftwaffe bomber raid at Ypenburg airfield in The Hague on 10 May 1940. During July 1937 Hugo Lambach had been taken on by Fokker. Post-war he worked as an aviation consultant until his death, at the age of 63, in July 1972.

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November 2017 News

Blenheim wins at Goodwood

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he 10th Freddie March Spirit of Aviation concours d’elegance for pre-1966 aircraft was staged at the Goodwood Revival historic race meeting at the former RAF Westhampnett near Chichester over the weekend of 8-10 September. This year, aircraft that had filled the top three positions in previous competitions were invited back, providing an eclectic mix of civil and military types. The judges — including architectural critic and writer Jonathan Glancey and fashion model turned TV presenter Jodie Kidd — voted the Aircraft Restoration Companyoperated Bristol Blenheim IF ‘L6739’/G-BPIV to the top spot, the Duxford-based aircraft having also won on its

previous appearance in 2015. In second place was the Old Flying Machine Company’s Spitfire IX MH434, which made a memorable low-level pass down Goodwood’s finishing straight in the hands of the late Ray Hanna during the press day for the first Revival back in 1998. Third was yet another Cambridgeshire-based aircraft, in the shape of Nigel Pickard’s Spartan Executive NC17633, which shares a hangar at Little Gransden with Nigel’s second Spartan, NC17615 (see January 2010 Aeroplane). Making its first non-Duxford UK appearance at Goodwood was the Salzburg-based Flying Bulls’ Lockheed P-38L Lightning, N25Y, which stole the show in the flying display in the hands of Raimund Riedmann.

Colin Swann and John ‘Smudge’ Smith from the Aircraft Restoration Company, with the winners’ laurels draped around the propeller of Blenheim IF ‘L6739’/G-BPIV at Goodwood on 10 September.

One of the original WW1 accommodation blocks at Stow Maries, which will be renovated with National Lottery funds. STOW MARIES GREAT WAR AERODROME

£4.3 MILLION FOR STOW MARIES Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome near Maldon, Essex, was awarded a £4.3-million grant from the National Lottery on 12 September. The money will be used to restore and bring back into use five World War One buildings, four of which are on the heritage at risk register: an officers’ accommodation block will house a major new permanent exhibition, exploring what life was like as a Royal Flying Corps officer, and two more accommodation buildings will host temporary exhibitions. An upgrade will be undertaken on the historic toilet block and infrastructure works, including paths, power supplies and drainage, and a purpose-built welcome centre with visitor orientation facilities, café and shop will be created. The funds will also be used to train volunteers, apprentices and interns and create two full-time posts, and enable a community archaeology project, wildlife trail and oral history project to be developed. Heritage Lottery Fund chief executive Ros Kerslake said: “The fact that the aerodrome was largely forgotten for so many decades only adds to its mystique and appeal, but also means that surviving structures are in such wellpreserved, original condition. This support from the National Lottery will help Stow Maries become the major visitor attraction it deserves to be.” The aerodrome was established by the RFC in 1916 and played a pivotal role in defending London and the British mainland from German Zeppelins and Gotha bombers. Following the end of the First World War, the site reverted to agricultural use, leaving behind a unique collection of historic buildings still in their original form.

GOODWOOD MEDIA CENTRE

HUNTER TO ANGLESEY MUSEUM

After 20 years displayed on a pole at RAF Valley, Hawker Hunter T8 WV396 will be refurbished over the winter at its new home, the Anglesey Museum of Transport, located at Tyddyn Pwrpas near Newborough. Although the trainer wears the markings of a Valleybased No 4 Flying Training School Hunter T7, it flew as a T8C with the Royal Navy at Brawdy training Buccaneer pilots, and latterly was with FRADU (the Fleet Requirements and Air Direction Unit) at Yeovilton. It last flew in 1995.

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02/10/2017 10:07

News November 2017

Swedish Avro Avian IV moves

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fter 25 years hanging from the ceiling of the Eurostop conference centre north of Stockholm, Avro Avian SE-ADT was lowered on 17 August and dismantled for transportation to the nearby Arlanda Civil Aviation Collection at StockholmArlanda Airport. Work is now under way to refurbish the rare Avian prior to going on display. Built in early 1929, the Avian IV was registered G-AAHD on 17 May of that year to A. V. Roe and Co at Woodford. Sold in Sweden during August 1933, the Avian was ferried to Tärna in the far north of the country via London, Paris, Strasbourg, Kassel, Hannover, Hamburg and Malmö by its new owner Sven Svensson. In 1936, SE-ADT was acquired by Hans Peterson of Orsa, who subsequently learned to fly through receiving written instructions from the Swedish CAA. Although owned by Peterson, the Avian was also used by the Orsa Aero Club for flight training. The original Cirrus III engine was replaced

The Gipsy III-powered Avro Avian, SE-ADT, following its arrival in the Arlanda Civil Aviation Collection storage building in mid-August. JAN FORSGREN

with a Gipsy III in 1938. The Avian was modified by the F:a Flygservice company during 1943 with an enclosed cabin and raised rear fuselage decking. A new engine cowling from a Klemm Kl 35 was also fitted.

On 20 April 1947, the Avian was seriously damaged in a crash in Härjedalen province while under the ownership of Allen Widman. He moved the Avian to Södertälje, 22 miles west of Stockholm, where it was to remain stored in a

boathouse until the early 1970s. Reportedly, Widman kept the Gipsy III engine in his flat, performing the occasional test-run! In 1972, the Avian was donated to the Arlanda collection, where it was restored.

VIP Dakota bound for Poland?

The fuselage of Douglas C-47A Dakota III FL547, which was used during 1944 as the personal transport of the general inspector of the Polish Armed Forces, Gen Kazimierz Sosnkowski, is currently stored in a compound at the Winnipeg, Manitoba home base of 17 Wing, Royal Canadian Air Force. It is hoped that this important piece of the country’s military history can be moved to Poland for restoration, and to that end Col Cezary Kiszkowiak, the Polish defence attaché to Canada, recently met with Col Andy Cook, the commander of 17 Wing, to inspect the aircraft.

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Unfortunately, during 2006, while FL547 was stored in a field on the base, the wings were removed and partially scrapped by persons who were not aware of the history of the machine. Now the fuselage, both outer wings, one undercarriage assembly, the tailwheel assembly and the vertical fin remain. In October 2016 the fuselage was moved into a compound on the base to secure it from further

damage, and the wartime markings are currently being re-applied by volunteers at 17 Wing. Using wartime photos of the aircraft as a guide, the name Spirit of Ostra Brama (Gate of Dawn) has been painted on the port side of the Dakota’s nose, and the Polish national insignia were applied to both sides of the fuselage behind the cockpit. Painting of Type C1 roundels and the serial FL547 on the rear

The Polish defence attaché to Canada recently met with the commander of 17 Wing, RCAF, to inspect the aircraft

fuselage will be completed soon. Built at Oklahoma City during 1943, and originally taken on strength by the United States Army Air Forces as 42-92139, the C-47 was transferred to the RAF as a Dakota III on 24 January 1944. It was operated by No 216 Air Transport and Ferry Group, tasked with VIP and general transport work, which had a number of Polish airmen in its ranks. From July to September of that year it flew with an all-Polish crew under pilot Józefa Tyszko. The name Spirit of Ostra Brama commemorates the Ostra Brama gate in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania. Vilnius

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November 2017 News

NEWS IN BRIEF CAMEL AND BLÉRIOT DISPLAYED AT NASM

ABOVE: RAF, French Air Force and Yorkshire Air Museum dignitaries line up in front of the Mirage IVA after the unveiling at Elvington on 3 September. YAM RIGHT: Former Halifax mid-upper gunner Robert ‘Mac’ McClements (second from left) after being presented with his Légion d’Honneur at Elvington. YAM

Mirage IV unveiled at Elvington

O

n 3 September, Allied Air Forces Memorial Day was commemorated at Elvington, north Yorkshire with the official unveiling of the Yorkshire Air Museum’s Dassault Mirage IVA by Brig Gén Lesellier, deputy chief of the French Air Force. The nuclear bomber, serial 45/BR, had arrived at the museum at the end of March following more than 12 years of complex negotiations to unravel Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty protocols in order to allow the transfer of

the aircraft to Elvington’s Allied Air Forces Memorial, as a gift from the French government to Britain. The 51-year-old Mirage — the only example of the variant exhibited outside France — is now displayed in recognition of Elvington’s historic links with the French Air Force, the Yorkshire base having been home to the two French units of Bomber Command, Nos 346 ‘Guyenne’ and 347 ‘Tunisie’ Squadrons. These units returned to France in October 1945, flying their Halifax bombers to Bordeaux-

Mérignac, to form part of the post-war Armée de l’Air. The memorial day also saw the presentation of the Légion d’Honneur to 92-year-old RAF Bomber Command veteran Robert ‘Mac’ McClements, who flew 38 missions as a mid-upper gunner in Halifaxes with No 10 Squadron from RAF Melbourne, just 10 miles south-east of Elvington. ‘Mac’ accepted the award on behalf of the rest of his crew, and was accompanied at the event by his wife Iris, who was a York-based WAAF plotter during the war.

A genuine Sopwith F1 Camel, B6291/G-ASOP, and a 1911 Colorado-built Vandersal Blériot went on show at the National Air and Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Washington on 12 September. The aircraft have been presented by the estate of the late Javier Arango, who died in the crash of his Nieuport 28 replica near Paso Robles, California on 23 April, and was a past NASM board member.

CAMEL REPLICA DAMAGED

John Shaw’s recently completed, Clerget 9B-powered Sopwith Camel F1 reproduction F-AZZC was damaged during its maiden flight from a private strip at Orbigny in the Loire region of France on 24 September following engine failure shortly after take-off. Built using original drawings, John has a second Camel, F-AZZB, in build.

WASHINGTON MUSEUM SHUTS

At Concrete, north-western Washington, the North Cascades Vintage Aircraft Museum has closed down, 15 years after being established by Harold Hanson. Among the aircraft that will be sold are a Monocoupe Clipwing 110 Special, a Gee Bee Model E Sportster replica, a Hall Springfield Bulldog replica, a 1930 Stinson Junior and a Beech D17.

BREITLING ENDS ‘CONNIE’ BACKING

ABOVE: The fuselage of Dakota III FL547/CF-TES at Winnipeg, with the recently repainted nose art. The rest of the fuselage is still in the Transair scheme. CAPT GORDON CROSSLEY ABOVE RIGHT: FL547 while serving with No 216 Air Transport and Ferry Group during the war, with Spirit of Ostra Brama just discernable on the nose. VIA CAPT GORDON CROSSLEY

(Wilno in Polish) had been part of Poland before World War Two. Within the gate is an icon of the Virgin Mary, which is said to have miraculous powers. After the war the aircraft was acquired by Trans Canada Airlines (TCA), and

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during July 1946 conversion to civilian airline standard was begun by Canadair. Registered as CF-TES, it served with TCA until midnight on 12 April 1963, when it landed in Winnipeg to complete the last flight by a TCA DC-3. It was

subsequently sold to Transair Ltd, repainted, and operated for four years with that carrier. In 1967 it was sold to Lambair, but retained its Transair livery, and was salvaged for parts and removed from the flying registry during 1970.

The Breitling watch company has withdrawn sponsorship from the Super Constellation Flyers Association’s Basle-based Lockheed Super Constellation, HB-RSC Star of Switzerland. During September, the Flying Bulls’ Douglas DC-6B OE-LDM was undertaking pleasure flights from Basle, with the profits going to support HB-RSC.

GATOW GETS Bo 105P

The Militärhistorisches Museum at the former RAF Gatow in Berlin took delivery of former German Army MBB Bo 105P1A1M serial 87+62 on 26 September. The helicopter wears special colours applied to mark the type’s retirement in 2016. BEN DUNNELL

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27/09/2017 10:47

Comment

Hangar Talk STEVE SLATER

Comment on historic aviation by the chief executive of the UK’s Light Aircraft Association

A 1990s Polish-built Jungmann — very true to the original (LOM M332 engine aside), but could it legitimately be classed as ‘vintage’? BEN DUNNELL

A

s we head into the autumn months, here’s a good question to start an animated discussion. What constitutes a vintage aircraft? The thought came to mind at the recent LAA Rally, when among the 500-plus aircraft on the ground on the sunny September Saturday at Sywell there were two immaculate examples of the 1930s Chilton DW1A (see pages 24-30). Officially, these diminutive racing aircraft were both replicas, having been constructed in recent years. However, they are as authentic as you could wish, having been built from the original drawings, with original materials, period engines and even instrumentation. Quite rightly they both won awards. Beside them were two equally worthy award-winners in the form of a 7/8th-scale Mustang and a scale Spitfire Mk26. Certainly there was no less work and dedication involved in creating these aircraft, but there is little doubt that these modern light

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aeroplanes are completely different machines, designed to offer their owners the feeling of flying a warbird at a likely fraction of the cost of the priceless originals. OK then, so what about the brace of Tiger Moths alongside? Both were equally immaculate, and both recently restored — which, of course, means new fabric covering, new wooden wing structures

With historic cars in the UK, there is a relatively clear series of age-related definitions. It is generally regarded that motor cars built before 1906 are labelled ‘veteran’, while those produced prior to the end of World War One are known as ‘Edwardian’. When the Vintage Sports Car Club was formed in 1934, its founding members felt that the adoption of mass manufacturing signalled the

There is nothing to define historic, vintage or classic aeroplanes in a similar manner to the relatively clear series of age-related definitions of historic cars in the UK and rebuilt Gipsy Majors. Of course we would classify them as vintage, even though I suspect that after more than 70 years of sterling service there is very little of the original left. As a further aside, it should be remembered that when the Vintage Aircraft Club organised its first events in the 1950s, Tiger Moths were excluded as being too modern!

end of ‘proper’ motor car production. The VSCC therefore set a cut-off date of 1931 for ‘vintage’ cars, creating a ‘post-vintage thoroughbred’ category for cars built between 1931 and 1940. Cars later than that seem universally to be referred to by the title of ‘classics.’ However, there is nothing to define historic, vintage or classic aeroplanes in a similar

manner. The Vintage Aircraft Club advocates a rolling 50-year classification for ‘vintage’ aircraft operated by its members. This, however, creates the anomaly of many Cessna 172s and Piper Cherokees, mainstays of flying clubs since 1956 and 1960 respectively, being therefore classed as ‘vintage’. The Historic Aircraft Association classifies vintage aircraft not by age, but by their demands on pilots and engineers. The definition, penned by the late test pilot Darryl Stinton, is that: “Historic aircraft are those generally regarded as possessing such technical features, flying qualities, operational and historic associations as to warrant uncommon knowledge or skill when preserving them for display and use in representative working order.” The US Experimental Aircraft Association has perhaps clearer guidelines. It divides its ‘vintage’ category into three sub-groups for its annual awards. The first, ‘antique’, covers the period from the dawn of flight to August 1945. The second, ‘classic’, runs from September 1945 to 1955, while the third vintage category, ‘contemporary’, spans 1956 to 1970. Having a robust dating mechanism is about more than just handing out awards. In the future across Europe we may need to gain special concessions to allow our aircraft, still using high-octane leaded aviation fuels, to keep flying. Organisations such as the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens, as well as the LAA via its membership of EFLEVA, the European Federation for Light, Experimental and Vintage Aviation, are already promoting historic aviation’s cause, but it’s a bit of a headache when we can’t agree on just what is vintage. ■

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02/10/2017 10:12

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27/09/2017 14:08

Comment

DENIS J. CALVERT

Flight Line

Recollections and reflections — a seasoned reporter’s view of aviation history

B

ritain’s east coast has a proud history of summertime seaside airshows, which are aimed squarely at the family market and frequently see six-figure crowds. Who could resist the attraction of a walk along the promenade, offspring in one hand and a choc-ice in the other, while watching the Red Arrows perform over the deep blue of the sea? The one problem is that such shows are, by their very nature, free to view, their economic justification being that they bring in the crowds to spend money in the resort’s shops, restaurants, bars, hotels and other tourist attractions. Such benefits are, though, extremely difficult to quantify. Lowestoft’s Seafront Air Festival was successfully staged over 15 seasons, but ended in 2012. Southend, the granddaddy of all seafront displays, similarly decided ‘enough is enough’ after its 2012 event, with everincreasing costs playing a huge part in both shows’ demise. All of which left the Clacton Airshow as the last of its kind on the east coast. This year’s Clacton show was on Thursday 24-Friday 25 August, with flying taking place along the seafront between the pier and Martello Beach. Both days enjoyed good weather. On the Thursday, there were two displays — the usual afternoon show at 14.00 and a shorter, twilight one at 20.00. Orangejacketed ‘ground crew’ patrolled the promenade throughout the day offering programmes at £5 and rattling collecting buckets for donations, but let nothing detract from the fact that this show was for free. The end of the afternoon’s flying was followed by a three-hour break — good for trade in Clacton, with the commentator

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Brendan O’Brien, Otto the Helicopter, and a tremendous nocturnal airshow spectacle. DAVID HALFORD

imploring visitors to go and eat, drink and spend money in the town — before the start of the evening display. By 20.00, the light was dropping fast. ‘Lights and pyrotechnics’ were promised for the evening slot, and lights and pyrotechnics were exactly what we got. Taking off from

dramatically marked the aircraft’s progress across the sky. The closing item was Otto the Helicopter, that great US act involving a Schweizer 300C, now imported to these shores by Brendan O’Brien. His aircraft had been fitted with a heavy external heavy load of fireworks; seven hours,

The twilight routines truly assaulted the senses. The UK air display scene has long needed something radically different. This is it nearby Clacton airfield, the two Silence Twisters of the Twister Aerobatic Team and the Fireflies’ pair of Vans RV-4s approached to make a first pass as a four-ship, before each team went into its own routine. Coloured LED lights on the fuselage, smoke and strategically placed fireworks

it was said, were needed to rig the Schweizer for its sevenminute slot. By this stage, darkness had fallen, and as O’Brien manoeuvred energetically and loosed off his pyrotechnics the helicopter itself was difficult to discern against the dark sky and the dazzling, exploding light show.

There may have been just three items on the evening’s programme, but these twilight routines were dramatic and truly assaulted the senses. It took a while for this type of show, long a feature of North American events, to develop in Britain. After Belgium’s Sanicole Airshow pioneered night displays in Europe, the Bournemouth Air Festival’s ‘Night Air’ did likewise over here from 2010, since when this part of the scene has gone from strength to strength. Many of the seafront shows whose flying programmes are run by TSA Consulting — Clacton being one — now feature a twilight element to great effect, and several performers have made night displays a speciality. The UK air display scene has long needed something radically different. This is it.

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02/10/2017 10:13

Q&A

COMPILER: BARRY WHEELER

WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK E-MAIL TO: [email protected], putting ‘Q&A’ in the header

Are you seeking the answer to a thorny aviation question, or trying to trace an old aviation friend? Our ‘questions and answers’ page might help

THIS MONTH’S QUESTIONS Varsity nose

Q

The Database on the Vickers Varsity in the August issue was appreciated by Philip Pain, but left him with a puzzle, which remains unsolved. What was housed in the large and voluminous Philip Pain’s picture of the exposed nose of Varsity nose cone of the Varsity? WL690. Following the type’s withdrawal, examples could be found in use for fire training on RAF airfields, and almost without exception the detached nose cone contained nothing more than a blank bulkhead at the rear. An exception was WL690, an ex-No 5 FTS example lying dismembered at RAF Oakington in 1970. Something had been fitted in the nose where a radar scanner would normally be seen, but were there any radar trainer versions in service? Any details on this strangely nagging problem would be welcome.

‘One-way’ Lancasters

Q

One of the many seductive stories about undiscovered wrecks relates to RAF Bomber Command aircraft, particularly Lancasters, lost while involved in ‘oneway’ shuttle missions to Russia, such as that involving No 617 Squadron’s attack on the Tirpitz on 15 September 1944. Robert Pendry poses the question of whether any Lancasters are unaccounted for, which may have crashed during such missions in the vast forested wastes of Russia?

Merlins at Castle Vale?

Q

Following the questions and answers on RollsRoyce Merlins in the October issue, Tom Parkinson’s memory went back to a radio programme nearly 40 years ago, in which a guest was looking for Merlin engines for the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. He had heard a number were buried in the Castle Vale housing complex

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near Birmingham, on part of the old Castle Bromwich Spitfire factory. The engines were purportedly buried en masse, some still in their crates. With no follow-up programme on the subject,

Tom wondered if anyone knows whether any serious investigation of the area was ever undertaken.

Any FK8 drawings around?

Q

Henry Simpson (e-mail [email protected]) is searching for manufacturer’s drawings — cutaways, repair manuals, etc — for the Armstrong Whitworth FK8, with particular focus on the wings. Can anyone help?

Dieppe raid leaflet

Q

Presumably produced by Goebbels’ propaganda ministry, the adjacent fourpage leaflet in English was dropped over England following the disastrous Dieppe raid — Operation ‘Jubilee’ — on 19 August 1942. It shows burning tanks and landing craft, dead and surviving troops, many of them Canadian, with the headline “We and British invade France.

The front of the German propaganda leaflet submitted by Mike Hooks. The centre pages include more pictures of the Allied troops and tanks following the Dieppe landings.

(American journal)”. On the back page, attributed to The Times: “If this is not in any sense the opening of a second front, what may it be taken to mean?” Mike Hooks would like to know how widespread this leaflet was and whether it was dropped, along with bombs, during German night raids over the UK. Were bundles

Was this DC-3-based caravan (left) at Portmarnock near Dublin made from one of the spares source airframes acquired by Aer Lingus? Also, the C-47 fuselage section near Shrivenham in 1969 (right): what was its identity?

Derelict ‘Daks’

Q

September’s news item (page 14) on the appearance of German-based, Aer Lingus-marked Douglas DC-3 ZS-NTE at numerous airshows in Ireland this summer prompted Graham Skillen to seek the identity of the two spare airframes that were mentioned in the story and acquired by the airline in 1945-46. He says: “Allegedly, one of them was painted as EI-AC, a shortened non-registration, [while] at Portmarnock,

north of Dublin, in 1964 there resided two caravans based on one or two C-47s, assumed to be the spares aircraft. What happened to them?” Graham adds a supplementary question on the fate of the C-47 fuselage that was visible from the railway line at Shrivenham, Wiltshire, in 1969. A faded, pinkish finish possibly indicated North African connections. Details if possible, please.

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THIS MONTH’S ANSWERS pushed out down a flare chute by some hapless Gefreiter, much as the RAF did in the early months of the war, or did the Luftwaffe lay on special ‘drop and run’ propaganda flights to shower the British populace?

Panel puzzle

Q

Susan Scott is curious about a metal panel and wonders if anyone can identify the type of aircraft it comes from. ‘War — Peace’ stencilled on what is clearly the exterior is the main clue, added to which are the two clips that appear to snap out as steps or for panel access.

Tiger with a tale

Q

Tony Palmer would be interested in anyone who trained in Canada on DH Tiger Moths and who can check through their logbooks for details of RCAF 5084. It was taken on strength by No 4 Training Command on 29 July 1941 and overhauled by Mid-West Aircraft in Winnipeg in late 1942. Stored until 4 June 1943, it was pending disposal through 1944 before returning to store with No 8 Repair Depot, No 26 EFTS at Neepawa, Manitoba. Registered post-war as CF-CTK, it last flew in 1954, being struck off by 1972. It is now in the throes of a rebuild with the engine firing up for the first time for 63 years on 1 August, hence the request.

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Buchón wing fences: a correction

Q

The October issue contained a question about the use of wing fences on the Hispano Buchón, and a response from engineer Col Pope of the Aircraft Restoration Company, which operates Buchón G-AWHK. Unfortunately, Col’s reply was edited in such a way as to render incorrect some of the details he provided; with apologies to him, we reproduce its original text in full here. “My understanding”, says Col, “is that when the Hispano 20mm cannon were installed into the HA-1112-M1L there was an immediate handling problem when they were fired. The cannon position is just inboard of the outer wing slats and, on firing, a shockwave would be produced that then made the slat deploy, causing a violent and uncommanded aerodynamic wing stall at the speed the aircraft would be at at this point of the flight envelope, this being because the slats are automatic and rely on a lack of forward air pressure to deploy. This was obviously a major problem, and yet the fix was simple. By fitting the large wing fence it prevented the shockwave from progressing down the leading edge and essentially flicked it away, so preventing the slat deployment. The problem was not apparent on the earlier ‘Emil’ model Bf 109 as the calibre of the machine guns didn’t produce anything like the shockwave of the 20mm. In addition, later G-models that had additional wing armament had it mounted in underwing gondolas and the shockwave went underneath the wing, in essence. The Hispano armament does alter the internal structure significantly compared to a 109 and would be an easy give-away on seeing if one of the ‘restored, genuine’ 109s had used a Buchón wing for its rebuild. The wing fence is not needed on the single airworthy HA-1112-M1L G-AWHK (nor any other example) simply because we don’t fire the guns! The ‘guns’ are, of course, film props that have no firing capacity and are purely a visual representation made of a solid steel alloy.” BD

A

Spitfire fin tips

Q A

Ian Statham questioned the use of different rudder shapes on Spitfire IXs. Antoni Lachetta adds detail by recording trials with MkVB AB186 fitted with a larger elevator horn balance, followed by similarly modified MkVII BS229 in February-March 1943. The change affected lateral stability so larger vertical tail surfaces were recommended as a countermeasure. Modification 914, dated 23 February 1943, was applicable to the MkVII, VIII and IX, but the modified rudder would not be seen on operational MkIXs until mid-1944, although it was fitted as standard to most production MkVIIs and VIIIs. Pointed rudders were widely fitted to later LFIX/HFIX/LFXVI derivatives, but the absence on FIXs may have been because few were built with the enlarged hornbalanced elevators; photos show virtually no Supermarine-built FIXs with the later-style elevators leaving the assembly plants. The change to the later-style elevators on MkIXs seems to have been introduced on aircraft in the MA600 serial range.

UK airfields — highs and lows

Q A

Brian Murray queried the highest and lowest airfields in the UK. John Anderson and Dick Guntrip both agree that RAF Davidstow Moor is the highest airfield in the British Isles at 970ft/296m. John notes that the RAF still occasionally uses the base as part of the Bodmin Moor Dry Training Area, while Dick renewed his PPL there in 1983 flying a Quicksilver MXII.

A burnt offering

Q A

In October we ran a photo of the burnt wreck of a Douglas Invader. The aircraft is, according to David Miller, a B-26B and not an RB-26C. It was sent to Vietnam in June 1962 as part of Project ‘Farm Gate’, and returned to Clark Field in the Philippines in April 1964. It was en route to the Belgian Congo for a clandestine CIA operation when it crashed and burnt out at RAF Khormaksar, Aden, on or about 21 August 1964. The picture was probably taken there. David also believes the aircraft was not passed to the French in Indochina.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS • Further to his Q&A item at left, Graham Skillen says that Aer Lingus in March 1946 actually had three DC-3s, one bought new in 1940 (EI-ACA) and two others, probably ex-Douglas examples, that the Irish carrier acquired early in 1946 (EI-ACE and ’F). • Following on from both the September issue’s news item and last month’s follow-up in this section, David Kemp of Ontario writes to say that the Burnelli CBY-3 Loadmaster was not built

by CCF at its plant in Fort William, but at the company’s facility in Cartierville, Québec. “If the company had been successful in marketing the CBY-3”, he adds, “the production line would probably have been set up in Fort William… A wooden mock-up was constructed in Montréal and transported to the Fort William plant in July 1938. However, by that time the company was gearing up to begin Hurricane production and work on the CB-34 went no further.”

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02/10/2017 17:16

Skywriters R LETTE e of th H MONT

In association with… WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK E-MAIL TO: [email protected], putting ‘Skywriters’ in the header

In every issue, the writer of our Letter of the Month wins a £25 book voucher to spend with leading military and transport publisher Crécy.

The Dragon’s bite

As usual, receiving the September Aeroplane was the highlight of my month — however, I feel I must take issue with ‘Pontius’ on his 1933 flight test of the DH84 Dragon. I have flown Sir Torquil Norman’s G-ECAN for close on 400 hours, and while that’s not high-time in old-fashioned hours it’s quite a few by today’s standards. I have to say that while ‘ECAN is probably heavier than Pontius’s machine — it has a long-range fuel tank, dual-battery starters and generators — I cannot relate the aeroplane he is talking about to Sir Torquil’s! On take-off I use all the power I have; it is, after all, only a total of 280hp pulling along 4,500lb. The controls are, at best, lethargic, especially the ailerons — in fact, it’s a miracle how DH got four ailerons to do so little. The rudder is super-critical and not very effective, and the elevators require a big input. It is dynamically just about stable but will diverge in a flash, and it is very difficult to fly on instruments. At the stall it drops the port wing quite steeply, and I have no intention of

Trojan force

The story of interchangeable markings on aircraft during the Vietnam War (Flight Line, Aeroplane August 2017) is true, especially on a number of North American T-28s that served in that conflict. Several T-28Ds were supplied to the Royal Laotian Air Force by the US in the autumn of 1963. They were based at Udon Thani air base and the Americans taught the Laotians to fly the aircraft attacking supply routes in North Vietnam. Particular targets were trucks due to the slow speed and manoeuvrability at low level of the T-28s. Air America pilots certainly flew some T-28 missions, and funding for these operations probably came from the CIA. These sorties were to attack targets in Laos and Cambodia, and this is where the story of

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Henry Labouchere at the helm of DH84 Dragon G-ECAN during a Woburn Moth Rally. BEN DUNNELL

carrying out any aerobatics in it, as per Pontius. I think one of its problems is having too much nose forward of the wing. Maybe the dorsal-finned ones were more pleasant. It is a very wonderful aeroplane, it is always a challenge to fly, and I love its quirky habits, but the pussycat as described by Pontius it definitely is not. Henry Labouchere

the guide rails comes in. An international agreement banned foreign military personnel from operating in Laos so various insignia were used. What these missions were and why they were undertaken will probably never be known. The knowledge of the insignia rails on the T-28s was

confirmed when 16 of these former Laotian warbirds were bought by Australians Keith D’eath, Col Pay and Noel Vinson. A number of them were restored in Australia and are still to be found flying to this day, some complete with the guide rails. John Wilkinson, Ivanhoe, Australia

The Flying Professor

I was very interested to read your article on the Cranfield College of Aeronautics covering the successful growth of the Flight Department at the college. However, I was surprised that no reference was made to the head of the Flight Department from 1949 to 1978, Wg Cdr Charles McClure AFC. This was especially surprising as Aeroplane featured a two-part biography of him in February and March 1999, entitled ‘The Flying Professor’. Most of the March article covered his time at Cranfield, and the successful development of the Flight Department during difficult financial circumstances. Much of its success was indeed due to Charles McClure. Mary Saunders (daughter of the late Charles McClure), Billingborough, Lincolnshire

Varsity adventures

Your Database feature on the Vickers Varsity (Aeroplane August 2017) brought back many memories of this fine aircraft. The Varsity afforded me three unique experiences while serving as the very last National Service navigator to qualify — two incidents could have been fatal, while one was truly bizarre. At No 1 Air Navigation School, RAF Topcliffe, where I

T-28s lined up at Udon Thani air base, Thailand, during the South-east Asia conflict. USAF

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Skywriters trained in 1957-58, it was custom for navigators that the last flying exercise before being awarded ‘wings’ was an overseas trip to Idris in Libya. We took off at 06.10hrs in Varsity ‘A’, captained by Wg Cdr Wylie, crossed the English coast at St Catherine’s Point and set course across France for Orange, in the south of the country, where the RAF had staging facilities. En route, the crew dinghy started to stream from the port engine nacelle. Concerned that it had the potential to wrap itself around the tailplane with catastrophic results, a ‘pan’ call led to a radardirected emergency landing at Châteauroux, with the port engine shut down and full USAF emergency services in attendance. Following extended super hospitality and technical support from a USAF B-47 squadron, we took off for Orange. Too late to continue on to Africa, accommodation was sought and a party ensued. The signaller had baled out of a Lancaster in the area in 1944 and still had good mates from the Resistance. Next morning we set off on a low-level maritime exercise for Libya. Brushing off the effects of the mistral, and having passed down the coasts of Corsica and Sardinia, we exchanged greetings with an Italian search and rescue unit at Cagliari-Elmas and turned eastwards towards Pantelleria. Without warning, the starboard engine erupted in smoke, flames and rough running. At the time, the captain was down the back of the aeroplane drinking black coffee with the navigators. The aircraft was being flown by a Meteor pilot, just along for the ride as a guest of the wing commander. He was momentarily fazed by the malfunction of a powerful piston engine. The captain hastily regained his position, took charge, feathered the propeller and shut down the offending powerplant. We were down to 500ft above the Mediterranean. A debate ensued as to the cause — was it incorrect fuel

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Soldiering on

In the news story about the ex-Aurigny Trislander going to Solent Sky (Aeroplane May 2017) you mentioned a few other Trislanders still in service worldwide. I therefore thought you might be interested in this picture of Trislander 8R-GRD, which is in uplifted from Orange and could the other engine be about to fail, too? Preparations were made to ditch. Another ‘pan’ call was radioed and acknowledged by CagliariElmas, but this time there was no radar coverage within hundreds of miles. Meanwhile the navigators were working fast to establish a course to steer back to Cagliari, the nearest land. A second emergency singleengine landing ended an eventful day. Fire services at this tiny Italian Air Force base, operating only an SAR floatplane, consisted of an elderly Land Rover equipped with hand extinguishers. We spent a week in Cagliari and were ‘rescued’ by one of the other three Varsities that had set out from Topcliffe. It took six weeks to recover the stressed aircraft — an engine change was required due to a collapsed cylinder and a re-rigged wing due to twisting when the faulty engine seized on ground running. A more bizarre ‘Varsity first’ took place on 18 August 1959 when, as navigator and married families officer — my secondary role, aged 19! — a pram was safely delivered to my opposite number at RAE

operation with Roraima Airways in Guyana. The carrier also has an ex-Blue Islands example sitting at its base at Eugene F. Correia Airport in Georgetown, which I am told they plan to return to service. Greg Quinn

Farnborough, causing great hilarity in the control tower. Christopher Smith

Too close for comfort

I was amused by the comment in the Vickers Varsity feature about the emotions resulting from being in the bomb aimer’s position during a landing. I spent two years at Watton, 1960-62, during a short service commission in the engineering branch. The catholic collection of types in the Central Signals Establishment fleet comprised Comets, Canberras, Lincolns, a Meteor (the station commander’s toy) and Varsities. There were two squadrons in the unit: No 51 Squadron and what we knew as the Development Squadron. I don’t recall hearing a number for that one. One day I got myself on a jolly in a Varsity to Wildenrath for the day. We were scheduled to land at Manston en route, and just for fun I went down into the belly position as we crossed Kent and decided to stay there for the landing. This was certainly interesting as the ground rushed up at us, and then suddenly became much more

so when a tyre burst on touchdown! No harm ensued, of course; the wheel was changed and off we went, but as your writer observed it wouldn’t be allowed today. Robin Webb

Trusty old friend

As someone who did his advanced pilot training on the Vickers Varsity at Oakington, I enjoyed your Database piece on the venerable ‘Pig’. As its nickname implied, the Varsity wasn’t an attractive aircraft to look at, nor an exciting one to fly, though my friend ‘Chunky’ managed to barrel-roll one. The autopilot was nothing to write home about and you risked getting scurvy lumbering down to Malta. We all knew about the stolen Varsity when an airframe fitter stole WF426 off the line at Thorney Island and crashed in France. Afterwards, his parents blamed the RAF for leaving the ignition key in. Andrew Brookes, chief executive, The Air League, London

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CHILTON DW1 80TH

MASTERPIECE I

The scene outside Chilton Lodge near Hungerford, Berkshire, for the 80th anniversary event on 1 September. DW1 G-AFGH and DW1A G-AFSV were brought in by road to be displayed on the lawn. DARREN HARBAR

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E IN MINIATURE This year marks the 80th anniversary of the first flight of the Chilton DW1, an event celebrated recently at the ultralight’s birthplace at Chilton Foliat, Berkshire. Among the guests was the founder and first editor of this magazine, who recalls the birth and formative years of the Chilton Aircraft company WORDS: RICHARD RIDING

New-build Chilton DW1As G-DWCB and G-JUJU Black Magic over Berkshire this September. DARREN HARBAR

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CHILTON DW1 80TH

In a wooden building hidden discreetly under the trees at the rear of Chilton Lodge, TOP: The large wooden shed in the grounds of Chilton Foliat where the four DW1s were built during 1936-39. One, possibly G-AESZ, is visible at left. WARD FAMILY

ABOVE: A mock-up fuselage section with Carden Ford engine in place during 1936. WARD FAMILY

A

t midday on 1 September this year I was standing on the lawn in front of Chilton Lodge, not far from Hungerford in deepest west Berkshire. Contrary to impressions conjured up by the term ‘lodge’, this is an extensive Grade II-listed, Palladian-style mansion designed by William Pilkington and built in 1800 for John Pearse. In 1908 it was acquired by The Hon John Ward (later Sir John) and his wife Jean, and it was here, during the 1930s, that an outstanding ultralight aircraft was born — the Chilton DW1. The ultralight was the creation of the Wards’ second son, Alexander Reginald, known to all as ‘Reggie’, in partnership with The Hon Andrew Dalrymple. Together, they formed Chilton Aircraft Ltd to produce “a real aeroplane in miniature”. G-AESZ, the prototype, first flew in April 1937. To commemorate the 80th anniversary year Sarah Scrope, Reggie Ward’s great-niece and a direct fourthgeneration descendant of Sir John and Lady Ward, together with her husband Adrian, threw open their house to 70 or so invited guests to celebrate the achievements of the two young men. On the huge lawn in front of the lodge were red and silver Carden Ford-engined Chilton G-AFGH and all-black Train-powered

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G-AFSV glistening in the summer sun surrounded by Chilton owners and pilots, outnumbered by Chilton enthusiasts and members of the Ward family. Reggie Ward was born on 27 February 1915 and educated at Eton College. In 1934 he and The Hon Andrew Dalrymple (1914-45), the third son of Lord and Lady Stair, enrolled with the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School (DHATS) at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, having met previously at one of the RAF Pageants at Hendon. The DHATS had transferred from Stag Lane to Hatfield in January 1934 and by the time Reggie arrived nearly 200 students were training as designers, ground engineers and production managers. Students had already produced the TK1, a wooden two-seat biplane powered by a 120hp DH Gipsy III, registered G-ACTK and first flown on 14 November 1933 by Hubert Broad. Why TK? A Dutch student who was prominent during the machine’s initial design stage labelled his drawings as TK1 (Tekniese Kollege) and the designation stuck. By the time Ward and Dalrymple arrived the very different TK2 was being built. This single-seat, long-range racer, powered

initially by a 147hp DH Gipsy Major, took to the air on 16 August 1935 in the hands of Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. It may have been the inspiration for the two students to produce a light aircraft of their own design. Ward and Dalrymple completed their studies in 1936. Meantime, Reggie had gained his ‘A’ licence with the London Aeroplane Club at Hatfield the previous September, receiving pilot’s licence number 8292 on 7 October 1935. The pair had already worked out the basic design for a low-cost, light, singleseat sporting aeroplane powered by a ‘proper’ engine giving sufficient power and performance, rather than an unreliable converted motorcycle engine. Utilising skills learned and honed at the DHATS, they formed Chilton Aircraft on 18 May 1936. Working from a purpose-built wooden building hidden discreetly under the trees at the rear of Chilton Lodge, they produced plans for a beautifully proportioned and charismatic design — the Chilton monoplane. With the help of former DHATS instructor Frederick Luscombe, who they had lured to join them at the lodge and who stayed with the company for 41 years, work started that summer on two prototypes. The first was designed, stressed and built within a year, Luscombe fabricating

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W

,

Ward and Dalrymple planned a beautifully proportioned and charismatic design a test wing to begin with and loading it with bricks in order to confirm the integrity of the structure; it proved to be immensely strong. A mock-up of the forward fuselage was also built. So far as which partner was responsible for what, Reggie wrote me the following: “I did all the line drawings and all those of the control surfaces, their position in relation to each other, and some of the stressing — all the tail for instance, fin and rudder, tailplane, elevators. I made all the fittings myself and fitted them. The aircraft was stressed to existing aerobatic requirements: around +9g CP [centre of pressure] forward and +6g CP back. We had no workers with us, except Luscombe, until after the prototype had flown”. Others were to join the company soon after. Another DHATS contemporary who became integral to the Chilton story was fellow student Ranald Porteous (1915-98), educated at Canford School, Dorset. Though he played a peripheral part in the design, he carried out most of the initial test flying. More of Ranald later. One wonders what influenced Ward and Dalrymple when conceiving the basic design for the Chilton. I have always likened the DW1 (DW standing for Dalrymple and Ward)

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to a scaled-down Miles M2 Hawk or M5 Sparrowhawk. Ranald Porteous was also of that opinion, but when I met Ward in 1985 he said the Chilton owed only its basic geometry to the Hawk. Designed entirely by Blossom Miles, using mostly existing Hawk components, the M5 was larger and heavier than the DW1. M5 G-ADNL took part in the 1935 King’s Cup air race run from Hatfield on 6-7 September; possibly both Dalrymple and Ward were there. I think that the youthful designers were further influenced by the Tipsy S, which was very similar in concept. Tipsy S OO‑TIP first appeared in The Aeroplane in May 1935 under the heading ‘A Really Light Aeroplane’. Designed by E. O. Tips, the S visited Hatfield that summer too. Former DHATS student Geoffrey Alington remembered that it fitted like a glove and was delightful to fly, the controls being very light and well co-ordinated. On the debit side, it suffered from a poor rate of climb from the 750cc twin-cylinder air-cooled Douglas engine, a type of powerplant that The Aeroplane’s first editor referred to as “pot-bottles”. Ranald Porteous was also of the opinion that the Tipsy S had been influential in shaping the Chilton’s design. Determined to fit a practical and reliable engine to the Chilton

rather than a high-revving converted motorcycle engine, Ward and Dalrymple settled on a conversion of the Ford 10 Model C. Sir John Valentine Carden (1892-1935), technical director of VickersArmstrong, previously associated with others in the design of cyclecars, tracked vehicles and oneman tankettes, turned his hand to developing the four-cylinder, four-stroke Ford car engine to power aircraft. It was done by reversing the engine and fitting a thrust bearing to what became the front, and by replacing the chain drive with lightweight fibre gears and optional dual ignition. Though all wearable parts were Ford components, most of the engine was redesigned. Carden Aero Engines (CAE), based at Heston, was formed in 1935 at the height of the ‘Flying Flea’ craze, but tragically Carden lost his life on 10 December that year when a passenger on Sabena Savoia-Marchetti S73 OO-AGN. Flying from Brussels to Croydon the tri-motor crashed at Tatsfield, Kent, killing all on board. CAE was first taken over by Carden-Baynes Aircraft before being acquired by Chilton Aircraft in 1937, continuing in limited production with the Ford engine for use in the DW1. The engine had already proved successful in other ultralight types

ABOVE: G-AESZ at Chilton Foliat during 1937, almost structurally complete but awaiting fabric covering. WARD FAMILY

ABOVE LEFT: The Aeroplane’s photographer pictured Reggie Ward and The Hon Andrew Dalrymple with the as yet unregistered G-AESZ at Chilton Foliat in March 1937. AEROPLANE

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CHILTON DW1 80TH

RIGHT TOP TO BOTTOM: G-AESZ was taken by road to Witney, Oxfordshire in April 1937 for initial test flying by Ranald Porteous. WARD FAMILY

G-AESZ and G-AFGH at the Earl of Cardigan’s strip at Tall Trees. WARD FAMILY

The low-drag profile and beautiful lines of the prototype Chilton are evident in this early photograph. VIA RICHARD RIDING

TOP RIGHT: Perhaps the best-known flying Chiltons today are the two based at Old Warden. Here Anna Walker pilots Mike Gibbs’ newbuilt, Walter Mikronpowered DW1A G-CDXU, while Clare Tector follows in the very first DW1 G-AESZ, owned by Roy Nerou. Sadly neither aircraft was able to attend the anniversary occasion.

— the Kronfeld Monoplane, various ‘improved’ Mignet HM14 ‘Fleas’ and the Watkinson Dingbat. But the Carden Ford was heavy; the dry weight without water or radiator was 131lb and accounted for a third of the Chilton’s empty weight. Ready to run with attendant plumbing, the engine weighed in at 180lb. This gave a very low power-to-weight ratio of around 5.2lb per horsepower, described by Reggie as a designer’s nightmare, yet still suited ideally to the Chilton’s light but strong airframe. Porteous recalled that the power loading at a representative mean flying weight was something in the region of 16-17lb per horsepower, with a wing loading in the region of 8lb per square foot. Even so, the Carden Ford gave the Chilton many advantages over its competitors. It was reliable, easily maintained with spares available immediately from any Ford dealer, and — probably most importantly — conferred the magic cruising speed of 100mph. The Chilton was a low-wing cantilever monoplane of strong orthodox construction and design, the 1mm birch plywood-covered fuselage being a rectangular wooden semi-monocoque structure built on spruce longerons and ribs. The fuselage top decking, complete with pilot’s headrest, had a slight double curvature.

DARREN HARBAR

The wings were built in three sections, on two spruce box spars with birch plywood and spruce ribs, comprising the parallel centre section with detachable, finely tapered outer panels of Clark YH section with very little wash-out, causing the stall to be a little on the sharp side. The wings were plywood-covered as far back as the rear spar, aft of which fabric was used. They were immensely strong, as born out by static tests carried out by simply loading bricks onto a test specimen. The differential woodenframed ailerons were also fabriccovered. The split trailing-edge flaps, unusual for such a small aeroplane, occupied 50 per cent of the span. The cantilever tail unit was a wooden framework, with ply-covered fin and tailplane and fabric-covered rudder and elevators. The neatly faired 6ft track undercarriage (allegedly wheelbarrow wheels with low-pressure tyres) was of the divided type, each leg being a robust cantilever structure of steel tubing with coil spring telescopic legs, giving 4in travel. Even before the wings were fitted Ward was taxiing the Chilton in order to assess ground

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handling. Brakes were not fitted, though a sprung rubber-mounted tailskid was an effective brake and ensured the aircraft maintained a straight course once it had landed. Because the Carden Ford engine lacked vibration it was bolted directly to the fuselage. Behind the engine was a metal fireproof bulkhead, aft of which was the eight-gallon fuel tank. The engine drove a ‘home-made’ wooden propeller. The roomy cockpit was positioned directly over the centre of the wing with a semi-reclining seat slung between the spars and Moseley ‘Float-on-air’ upholstery cushioning the pilot’s derriere. Entry to the roomy cockpit was via flap doors located either side of the fuselage, and though a closed cabin top was optional the draught-free windscreen was very efficient. There was space for 20lb of luggage, carried in two compartments located behind the seat. The fully aerobatic aircraft cruised at 100mph, had a still-air take-off run of only 80 yards and a landing run of just 50 yards. The 6ft-wide undercarriage reduced greatly the chance of ground-looping on landing. Fully instrumented, this beautifully proportioned, fighter-like aeroplane’s fly-away price was a mere £315. Overall, the Chilton was very economic to operate. Reggie told me that, over a three-year period, pre-war maintenance costs amounted to £30 per 400 flying hours. Direct running costs amounted to 2s 9d (13.75p) per hour. That was when fuel and oil cost 1s 4d (7p) and 4s (20p) per gallon respectively. Total operating costs including depreciation, insurance and maintenance came to a mind-boggling 9s 4d (47p) per hour. During the summer of 1936 work began on two prototypes, G-AESZ and G-AFGH; they differed only in colour scheme and engine cowling. The red and silver G-AESZ was completed in 11 months, taken by road to Witney, Oxfordshire and assembled for test flying. Ranald Porteous made the first five-minute flight on 16 April 1937, curtailed by the Carden Ford engine overheating. A second flight of 20 minutes was undertaken on 18 April, but the problem persisted, to be rectified partially later by enlarging the air intake beneath the crankcase. On 2 May the Chilton was flown for 40 minutes at its all-up weight of 650lb. The following day ’SZ embarked on its first cross-country, from Witney to Brooklands. While based at Witney during May the Chilton was flown to

Cardiff, Reading, Hanworth, Heston and elsewhere, raising eyebrows wherever it landed. Over the following months ’SZ was flown by more than 90 pilots of varying experience. Reggie recalled: “Few club pilots had ever flown a monoplane and therefore did not know about rotation on take-off, had never used flaps and used to forget how very low to the ground they should land, in spite of the most careful pre-flight instruction”. Porteous once wrote that the Chilton was too sensitive for inexperienced hands, but this proved not to be so, though there were minor accidents on landings by very novice pilots. The instant control response was once demonstrated by Gp Capt Edward Mole, flying the Train-engined G-AFSV, who startled Ward by making a couple of flick rolls

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DW1 AT A GLANCE

Data for DW1 with Carden Ford engine (DW1A with Train engine variations in parenthesis)

while approaching to land. Mole had earlier made his name by performing 147 consecutive loops in a Turul M2 sailplane in Egypt during April 1938. Porteous recalled: “In the air the machine behaved beautifully. It was very crisp on all controls and had just a trace of positive stability in all three planes. Although aerobatics were officially not allowed for an aircraft operating in the permit to fly category, it would loop and roll like a fighter and I used to do quite a lot of display flying both in the Carden and Trainengined machines.” Porteous marvelled that the aircraft was incredibly economical, using fewer than two (Imperial) gallons per hour at a cruise speed of 100mph. “It was just like flying a baby Spitfire with an electric shaver in the front running on dry batteries. I recall

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once taking part in the London to Isle of Man air race, and landing at Speke (Liverpool) at the compulsory half-way checkpoint where we were supposed to refuel. I was surrounded by orthodox light aircraft of the Moth/Avian variety, whose pilots were clamouring for fuel in terms of “25 gallons of Shell please” or “20 gallons of BP, quickly”, while I was able to pipe up in a small voice, ‘Twoand-three-quarter gallons of National Benzole Mixture, with a little Redex’.” G-AFGH, the second Chilton, initially registered in March 1938, was also powered by a Carden Ford engine. So was G-AFGI, the third example, first flown on 20 October the same year. G-AFSV, the fourth and final Chilton to be completed and

DIMENSIONS Span: Length: Height: Wheel track: Wing area: Wing loading:

24ft 0in 18ft 0in 4ft 10in 6ft 77 square feet 8.3lb per square foot

WEIGHTS Empty weight: All-up weight:

398lb (380lb) 640lb (650lb)

PERFORMANCE Maximum speed: Cruising speed: Stalling/landing speed: Rate of climb: Range: Fuel consumption:

112mph (135mph) 100mph (115mph) 35mph 650ft per minute 500 miles 60mpg

registered in April 1939, was fitted with a French Train 4T engine. This was a 45hp, four-cylinder, inverted inline air-cooled unit, weighing 101lb. It was found by Reggie. Lighter than the Carden Ford, this unit increased the Chilton’s cruising speed to 115mph and raised top speed to 135mph. On declaration of war Chilton had already started work on a two-seat cabin version of the DW1. The DW2 was designed with the training needs of the Civil Air Guard in mind. After construction was abandoned the incomplete fuselage remained at Chilton Lodge until 1984, when I arranged for it to be taken to a restorer in the hope that it could be completed to static condition, but it was too far gone. There were ambitious intentions to build a racer with clipped wings, retractable undercarriage and a

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CHILTON DW1 80TH

ABOVE: DW1As G-DWCB and G-JUJU overfly the elegant Chilton Lodge, with G-AFGH and G-AFSV just visible on the grass. DARREN HARBAR

Train or Mikron engine. On the drawing board were plans for a twinengined army co-operation aircraft. During the war the Chilton company turned to making aviation components, including aircraft instruments. Reggie Ward joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) on 18 November 1941 and left the business in the hands of Dalrymple and Luscombe, who became the company’s chief inspector. Reggie remained in the ATA until 31 December 1945, flying 836 hours on 35 single-engine types, 684 hours on 14 twin-engine types and 108 hours on four-engine types for a total of some 1,630 hours in all — and some not without incident. From 1942 until D-Day, meanwhile, Chilton Lodge’s grounds became home to the official US Army parachute school, camp buildings mushrooming around the landscape. The Chilton company obtained an ex-Luftwaffe Fieseler Fi 156 Storch in December 1945 for use as a glider tug. Chilton designer D. B. Phillips, a former Boulton Paul Defiant pilot who had been invalided from the RAF, travelled to Germany to liberate the Storch, which had been surrendered in the US zone of occupation and dumped to await scrapping. The aircraft was patched up, given RAF roundels, and flown via Belgium to Chilton Foliat. On 25 December Phillips, with Dalrymple as passenger, was making a couple of circuits when, watched by Ward, the starboard wing detached following aileron flutter. It caused the Storch

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to crash and burn, killing both occupants. After the war Chilton produced its own version of the German-designed DFS Meise glider, the Olympia Meise, first flown on 11 August 1946. Though orders were received, Ward had lost interest in aviation following Dalrymple’s death and production rights were sold to nearby Elliotts of Newbury. In 1946 Chilton Aircraft became Chilton Electronics, renowned for the Chilton shaver socket, the Chilton rechargeable torch, circuit breakers and hair clippers. It moved to new and larger premises in Hungerford in 1959. Originally, the name chosen for the Chilton aircraft was Mayfly, an insect that exists for only one to four days. Eighty years on, this would have been quite inappropriate. During the war all four Chiltons, plus a spare fuselage, were stored on the Earl of Cardigan’s nearby High Trees strip and were destined to fly again. They survive to this day and, thanks to the generosity of Reggie Ward and Roy Nerou’s patient redrafting of missing drawings, their numbers are swelling. Plans have been available since the mid-1980s, the first ‘new’ Chilton

being built in Canada by Don Giffin. And the list of prospective builders is growing fast, more than 90 sets of plans having been issued to date. Several aircraft have flown, including Michael Gibbs’ Mikron III-engined G-CDXU and Tim Harrison’s Lycoming O-145-powered G-BWGJ. Two ‘new’ Chiltons, G-DWCB of Christopher Barnes and David Reid’s G-JUJU, made several flypasts over their birthplace at the Chilton Lodge celebrations on 1 September. Another three would have joined in the fun had they been able. Reggie Ward died on 13 May 1987, aged 73. He lies in the family plot at St Mary’s Church, Chilton Foliat. Shortly after his death his widow, Constance, wishing to commemorate Reggie’s contribution to British aviation, wrote asking if I thought a propeller cross motif carved on Reggie’s gravestone would be a good idea. I suggested that a plan view of the Chilton might be a more appropriate and indicative alternative, and this was duly carried out. For the special day on 1 September, I put forward the idea that a wreath should be laid on the gravestone, and Sarah Scrope produced one created from flowers from the Chilton Gardens.

FURTHER READING...

One person who, more than anyone else, has spread the gospel according to Chilton is Roy Nerou, owner of G-AESZ and G-AFSV. The full story of the Chilton up to the present can be found on his excellent website, www.chilton-aircraft.co.uk

AEROPLANE NOVEMBER 2017

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27/09/2017 11:35

CAPTURED RAF Bf 109s

SIZING UP THE

In many respects the Messerschmitt Bf 109 equalled or bettered the RAF’s Spitfires up to 1942, when the German fighter was finally eclipsed by the Spitfire IX. Development of that mark was aided in no small measure by experience gained on captured Bf 109s, which, in the hands of specialist pilots at RAE Farnborough and A&AEE Boscombe Down, gave up their secrets WORDS: BARRY WHEELER

ABOVE: Bf 109E-3 AE479, here up on a photo sortie for The Aeroplane, was the first ‘Emil’ extensively examined and flown in Britain following its transfer from France in May 1940.

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W

hen early Spitfires flew sorties during the Dunkirk evacuation, Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf 109 pilots found a true adversary in the air. Adolf Galland, later General der Jagdflieger, said: “The modern VickersSupermarine Spitfire may have been some 20 or 30km/h slower than us, but was clearly superior when it

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came to manoeuvrability. The older Hurricane was no match for the Bf 109 when it came to speed and climb rate. Our ammunition and guns were also much better. Another advantage proved to be our engines which, unlike the British, had fuel injectors instead of carburettors. This meant that during critical moments in a dogfight the engine didn’t cut out at negative g. The British fighters

would attempt to shake their pursuers by making a split-S (half-roll) when we got on their tails, whereas we simply pitched down and pressed our attack home with full throttle and eyes bulging out of our heads…” Of course pilots like Galland and his RAF Fighter Command adversaries could gain insights into the performance and capabilities of the other side’s aircraft through

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‘Emil’

encounters in aerial combat. But of still greater value was the information obtained through in-flight evaluation of captured examples. In the case of the RAF and the Bf 109, this encompassed most of the major derivatives that were operated throughout wartime, and contributed a great deal to Allied fighter development.

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Gefreiter Anton Hesselbach of 2./ Jagdgruppe 152 had the dubious distinction of presenting the European Allies with their first flyable Bf 109E when he force-landed on the French side of the border near Rimling at lunchtime on Sunday 28 September 1939, less than a month after the start of the Second World War. Hesselbach became a prisoner of war, and France and Britain received the first intact example of the new Luftwaffe fighter about which much had been written, but little become known about its true performance. The French repaired the light damage and flew the Bf 109E at Nancy, but 12 days later it suffered a heavy landing on a test flight. Repaired again, it was finally lost on 28 November in a collision with an escorting Curtiss Hawk 75A. The second flyable ‘Emil’ to fall into Allied hands was Bf 109E-3 Werknummer 1304 from 1 Staffel of Jagdgeschwader 76 (1./JG 76) flown by Feldwebel Karl Hier who force-landed in fog near Wörth on 22 November 1939. Dismantled and transported to the Centre d’Essais en Vol at Orléans-Bricy, it was re-assembled and flown by French test pilots before going in April 1940 to the RAF at Amiens, where it was flown in mock combat against a Hawker Hurricane of No 1 Squadron and a French Hawk 75A. It then departed under escort across the Channel for more extensive examination, arriving at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down on 3 May. Given serial AE479, the Messerschmitt flew to RAE Farnborough on 14 May for general handling trials. These quickly showed

that the ‘Emil’ was superior in performance to the Hurricane, except in low-level combat where the British fighter could out-turn the German machine. Compared with the Spitfire, with its then standard two-pitch airscrew, the Bf 109 could outclimb it up to 20,000ft, above which the British fighter had the edge. However, the Messerschmitt could out-dive the Spitfire after pushing over in a ‘semi-bunt’, which caused the engine of the British fighter to splutter and stop, thanks to the direct injection fuel system in the ‘Emil’s’ Daimler-Benz DB601A engine compared with the float carburettor on the Rolls-Royce Merlin. Obvious from the start were the Bf 109’s weak undercarriage, which would plague it throughout its life, and the cramped cockpit.

TOP: The AFDU’s first Bf 109E low and fast. VIA BARRY WHEELER

ABOVE: The cockpit of AE479. The two large dials at the top of the panel were British additions and took the place of the gunsight, which was slightly offset to the right on the coaming. VIA BARRY WHEELER

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CAPTURED RAF Bf 109s

ABOVE: A breezy flight for the test pilot of DG200 for a recognition photoshoot, the canopy having been lost following a road transfer to another airfield. After trials, this ‘Emil’ managed to avoid the scrap-man to survive for post-war exhibitions, and can be seen today at the RAF Museum London.

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BELOW: The rolling hills to the south of RAF Duxford provide the backdrop to this shot of AE479, taken on a wintry day in late 1941.

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Having explored its capabilities, the RAE transferred AE479 to the Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU) at Northolt in September 1940, followed by a period with the newly formed No 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight at Duxford, now also the AFDU’s home, at the end of 1941. The airframe having given most of what was required, the Air Ministry agreed to its transfer to the USA for American pilots to gain experience of the type’s capabilities. On 28 January 1942, the ‘Emil’ was flown to RAF Sealand for shipment. Undertaking trials at Wright Field, another accident in November 1942 forced the machine’s grounding. Its remains were sent to Chanute Field, Illinois, as an instructional airframe before it was scrapped. DG200 was a combination of a number of different Bf 109Es, but the original airframe was Werknummer 4101, a fighter built by the Erla

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Maschinenwerke plant at Leipzig and converted ‘in the field’ into an E-3/B fighter-bomber version. It had been attached to I./JG 51 at Wissant, and on the day of its loss was being flown by Leutnant Wolfgang Teumer. Flying a hit-and-run mission on the afternoon of 27 November 1940, Teumer was attacked by three Spitfires over the Thames estuary, prompting him to quickly jettison his single 550lb bomb over the water. The aircraft sustained combat damage to the radiator and cooling system, forcing Teumer to make a wheels-up landing at RAF Manston. While Teumer became a prisoner of war, the all-but-complete aircraft, coded ‘Black 12’, was recovered and transported to Rolls-Royce at Hucknall. Using parts from other crashed Bf 109E-3s, the Messerschmitt made its first flight in

British hands on 25 February 1941. The aircraft underwent performance trials related to the engine, but intended tests on its variable-pitch propeller at de Havilland’s Hatfield factory were cancelled. Instead, it was sent by road to Duxford on 24 April 1942 and joined No 1426 Flight. It was seldom flown due to the loss of its canopy at Hucknall, limiting its usefulness. Surprisingly, the Messerschmitt survived the war, unlike many of its contemporaries. Assigned to ‘museum storage’ it received a replacement late-war Erla canopy for appearances in airshow static displays. Refurbished and given the finish it carried when first captured, it went to the RAF Museum at Hendon in 1980 as a rare specimen of a German aircraft that actually took part in the Battle of Britain — now displayed with the proper canopy. It remains there to this day.

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‘Friedrich’ In December 1940, Messerschmitt began work on a much-refined successor to the ‘Emil’ to wrest combat superiority from the Spitfire. The result was what many considered to be the nearest the design came to being a true ‘pilot’s aeroplane’. The Bf 109F gave the Luftwaffe a more advanced fighter with improved performance, powered by a 1,270hp DB601N compared with the ‘Emil’s’ 1,100hp unit. Airframe changes included rounded wingtips to improve handling, Frise-type ailerons replacing the earlier slotted type, a new cowling with blended spinner giving an aerodynamically smoother shape, deletion of the elevator bracing struts, and a retractable tailwheel. In response to the Luftwaffe’s plea for more range, the designers crammed another 100 litres into the fuel tank and armament was concentrated in the nose — two MG 17s above the engine and a single 20mm MG 151 in the propeller hub. When it arrived on the Channel coast early in 1941, the newcomer proved a tough customer for the RAF’s latest Spitfire V, which made its debut that February with No 92 Squadron at Biggin Hill. But the ‘Friedrich’s’ early days in combat revealed serious structural problems. The losses prompted an irate Gen Albert Kesselring to send a telegram to Generalleutnant Ernst Udet at the German Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium, or RLM) in Berlin on 15 February 1941, refusing to take any more deliveries of the new fighter until its weak tail

assembly was strengthened. The designers at Augsburg, in conjunction with Luftwaffe engineers, urgently set about a structural redesign with a field modification involving two webs each side of the rear fuselage to prevent separation of the tail. It was one of these modified aircraft that, in a stroke of good fortune for the British, was forced down during an attack on a Short Stirling bomber over southern England on 10 July 1941. The unfortunate pilot was Maj Rolf Pingel, Gruppenkommandeur of I./JG 26 and a rising star among the Luftwaffe’s aces, who bellylanded his stricken machine near St Margaret’s Bay, Dover. RAF

Fighter Command immediately signalled RAE Farnborough, to where the disassembled airframe was transferred, saying: “The highest priority to be given to repairs to this aircraft for return to flight status!” Despite the urgency, work on the engine and airframe took more than two months before Bf 109F-2 Werknummer 12764, now ES906, returned to the air for a test flight on 19 September 1941. To the extreme frustration of HQ Fighter Command, the aircraft suffered a series of oil and hydraulic leaks. It was 11 October before ES906 was cleared for collection from the RAE, and re-assignment to the AFDU at Duxford. At first inspection, a unit pilot wrote, “The cockpit was cramped, much like the Me [sic] 109E, and comfortable only for small pilots”, yet he “preferred the flat cockpit sides to the curved one on the Spitfire. The aircraft appears to be in a poor state of repair.” Among a number of AFDU pilots, Sqn Ldr Smith flew mock combat trials on 12 October against Spitfire Vb AD315, which had been collected from Debden that afternoon. He found the controls light and responsive, and in speed comparison tests at 18,800ft he recorded: “the F was some 21mph faster at 362mph than the Spitfire in level flight, while at 1,000ft the German could still beat the Spitfire in level flight — 305mph compared with 292mph. When dived at 420mph indicated, aileron

The Bf 109F was some 21mph faster at 362mph than the Spitfire in level flight, while at 1,000ft the German could still beat the Spitfire AEROPLANE NOVEMBER 2017

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ABOVE: Bf 109F-2 Werknummer 12764 at Farnborough with a bent propeller following its forced landing near Dover. VIA BARRY WHEELER

LEFT: Gruppenkommandeur of I./ JG 26, Hauptmann Rolf Pingel, the only top-scoring German ace to be captured and his aircraft flown and assessed by the British. VIA BARRY WHEELER

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CAPTURED RAF Bf 109s

ABOVE: Retaining its original JG 26 code number and insignia, Bf 109F-4 NN644 proved a useful addition to No 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight at Collyweston. The aircraft’s bomb carrier was removed from its ventral position, having been badly damaged in the original wheels-up landing. VIA BARRY WHEELER

control still found to be good but considerably heavier. Elevator quite good, but not very light. The aircraft was not pleasant to take-off or land”. Smith added, “the aircraft was not taken above 22,500ft due to engine problems (oil leak and hydraulic tank leaking badly).” General comments included: “The view ahead is rather better than that of the E, but still poorer than the Spitfire. Landing approach speed is about 110mph and although high, the run is short and brakes can be safely applied”. Within the high-priority assessment passed to Fighter Command was the summary: “Climb and dive is better than the Spitfire Vb and 109E. As a result of

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elevator heaviness at 400mph-plus, violent evasion is not possible. A Spitfire attacked from above should take advantage of the ‘Spit’s’ greater manoeuvrability and turn sharply towards the direction of attack, thus evading. Recovery at high speed near the ground would be difficult for the enemy which may account for Fs being seen to dive straight into the ground. This would allow the British aircraft to regain height and withdraw or return to combat in a more favourable position.” Further trials with ES906 were cut short when, plagued by oil pressure problems on the repaired engine, it crashed near Fowlmere on 20 October 1941. The Polish test pilot, Fg Off

Skalski, was seen to perform several slow rolls before diving into the ground, apparently overcome with carbon monoxide poisoning. After Pingel’s machine arrived in the UK, two airworthy Bf 109Fs were discovered among the many wrecks littering the desert landing grounds in North Africa and taken on charge in January and April 1942. Neither HK846 nor HK849 appeared to gain a ticket to the UK and are understood to have been flown by Allied pilots on familiarisation flights, probably at No 107 Maintenance Unit at Kasfareet. A number of enemy aircraft were made airworthy by individual squadrons of the Desert Air Force, but received no official serials.

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Within the high-priority assessment of the Bf 109F passed to Fighter Command was the following: “Climb and dive is better than the Spitfire Vb and the 109E. As a result of elevator heaviness at 400mph-plus, violent evasion is not possible”

‘Hit-and-run’ raids on Channel shipping and targets along southern Britain became part of Luftwaffe operations from late July 1940 when, following tests with a ventral bomb carrier capable of accommodating a single 250kg weapon, Bf 109Es began fighter-bomber attacks against targets negotiating the Channel between Britain and France. Scoring a number of successes against ships, the bomb-carrying fighters expanded their operations to inland targets such as radar stations and No 11 and 12 Group airfields. The ‘Jabo’ ( Jagdbomber) campaign proved more of a nuisance than achieving war-changing value, but as the daylight Battle of Britain switched

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to a night Blitz against London and other industrial cities, the Luftwaffe continued its fast bomber operations despite the general dislike for these missions by the pilots of the singleseat fighters. In 1942, the faster Bf 109F-4 assumed the ‘hit-and-run’ role across the Channel, and it was an aircraft flown by Uffz (Unteroffizier) Oswald Fischer from 10./JG 26 that presented itself to the RAF on 20 May. Werknummer 7232 succumbed to naval anti-aircraft fire and, hit in the engine, belly-landed on Beachy Head. Dismantled and taken to Farnborough, ‘White 11’ eventually

flew from RAF Collyweston on 24 October 1943, to add to the enemy ‘circuses’ on the strength of No 1426 Flight. The length of time taken to return the aircraft to flight underlines the lack of urgency on the part of the RAF to add another ‘Friedrich’ to its group of captured types. With the Bf 109G series now in full service across the Channel there was no requirement for a full-scale assessment of the F model. Nevertheless, NN644 was widely demonstrated at Allied fighter and bomber bases and flew mock combats with British and American aircraft until the unit was disbanded in January 1945, the 109F being scrapped soon after.

TOP: ES906 was with the AFDU at Duxford until its loss on 20 October 1941. VIA BARRY WHEELER

ABOVE: A trophy of the desert war was this Bf 109F-4, given serial HK849. Taken on charge in April 1942, having probably served with JG 77, it stayed in North Africa and was used for familiarisation and tactics development by the Desert Air Force. VIA BARRY WHEELER

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CAPTURED RAF Bf 109s

‘Gustav’ TOP: US Army Air Forces groundcrews and pilots listen to a pep talk by an RAF officer from No 1426 (Enemy Aircraft) Flight at Framlingham, home of the 390th Bomb Group’s B-17s, in 1944. He perches on the nose of a ‘Gustav’ with a Focke-Wulf Fw 190A behind as the ‘Rafwaffe circus’ does its rounds of UK airfields. The third aircraft is the P-47 Thunderbolt that accompanied the ‘enemy’ duo during transit flights to prevent Allied fighters from taking pot-shots at these familiar German types. VIA BARRY WHEELER

Captured at Gambut Main landing ground in North Africa in November 1942, ‘Black 6’ was the first ‘Gustav’ taken intact by the British. Built by Erla Maschinenwerk of Leipzig, Bf 109G-2/Trop Werknummer 10639 was operated by III./JG 77 and was made airworthy by ground crews of No 3 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force, remaining with the unit until December before flying trials at Lydda, Palestine. Departing for the UK by ship and arriving at Collyweston in crates on 26 December 1943, RN228 first flew with No 1426 Flight on 19 February 1944, being evaluated against Allied types. Storage post-war was followed by an eventual restoration to airworthiness, covered in the feature that follows. While the ‘Emil’ had shortcomings, some of which were rectified with the more refined ‘Friedrich’, it was the ‘Gustav’ that proved the most efficient of the breed. So it was with great

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surprise and not a little excitement that the RAF received news that two Bf 109G-6s had landed in error at Manston, Kent, during the night of 20-21 July 1944. The first of these was Werknummer 412951, an Erla-built machine coded ‘White 16’, piloted by Lt Hans Prenzel of I./JG 301. Before he realised his mistake, Prenzel had unknowingly presented the RAF with its first undamaged G-6/U2 variant, complete with a 66-gallon drop tank and two MG 151 20mm underwing cannon. Some three hours later, the station’s duty staff were even more amazed when a second ‘Gustav’ landed, this one from III./JG 301, but the arrival was less than perfect. Fw (Feldwebel) Gromill thumped ‘Yellow 8’, Werknummer 163240, down on the hard runway in a wheels-up landing, robbing the RAF of a second flyable

‘Gustav’ but providing a useful source of spares. Five days later, Sqn Ldr Roly Falk carefully flew ‘White 16’ to Farnborough, where it became TP814. After eight test flights the Bf 109G-2 was flown to Wittering on 31 August for use by the AFDU, but not before the late Capt Eric Brown test-flew it on 25 August. He found the ‘Gustav’ “a sound all-rounder”, but concluded that it had been overtaken by the speed of development in fighter design. The cockpit remained very cramped, and “visibility forward for taxiing was terrible but the aircraft was easily steerable via toe pedaloperated wheel brakes; even more degraded was the view downwards from the quarter lights due to the bulges on each side of the forward fuselage that covered the ammunition feed chutes for the 13mm MG 131s. “Once airborne its climb was a creditable 3,800ft per minute with good stability. Control harmony was

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CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Carrying the CV code of No 3 Squadron, RAAF, Bf 109G-2/Trop Werknummer 10639 takes off on its first flight after capture at Gambut in November 1942. Regarded by the Australians as a war trophy and planned for shipping ‘down under’, the Air Ministry had other ideas and ordered its transfer to the UK. KEY COLLECTION

With all the new types appearing at the German aircraft exhibition at Farnborough in October 1945, the sole Bf 109G-14 there, VD358, was rather sidelined. It received British colours with D-Day stripes under the wings and the code EA-2 on the fuselage. AEROPLANE

questionable, the light rudder and ailerons contrasting with extremely heavy elevators. Low-level cruising at 240mph was good if rather disappointing, but in a dive at 400mph the controls felt as though they had seized! Against the Spitfire LFIX, the British fighter had a slight speed advantage at all heights and up to 25mph below 15,000ft, but while the ‘Gustav’ could leave the Spitfire behind in a dive, the roll rate and turning circle of the British fighter was superior at all speeds. The North American Mustang was faster than the ‘Gustav’ at all altitudes, up to 50mph at 30,000ft, and could outturn the German with ease.” Brown measured the G-6 at a maximum speed of 384mph in level flight at 23,000ft. The stall was found to be fairly gentle with the nose dropping and the port wing simultaneously dropping about 10°.

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On checking operation of the outer wing slats, Brown found that with the aircraft clean and the engine throttled back the stall was preceded by elevator buffet and opening of the slats unevenly about 20mph above the stall, resulting in unpleasant aileron snatching. TP814 ended its days with the RAF on 22 November 1944 when, taking off at Wittering and about to unstick, the port oleo support strut fractured and the aircraft cartwheeled before coming to rest the right way up. The pilot, Flt Lt Len Thorne, survived, but with other examples available it was decided not to repair the aircraft. Bf 109G-14 VD358 was at the Enemy Aircraft Exhibition at Farnborough in October 1945 with the code EA-2 on its fuselage. It had been discovered dismantled at GilzeRijen, the Netherlands, and after assembly at Antwerp — where it was overhauled for a flight to Hawkinge — it flew on to the Central Fighter

Establishment at Tangmere in March 1945. As the latest and last version to be assessed, it undertook a number of flights at Farnborough, but the RAE lost interest in it. Flown to No 6 Maintenance Unit in January 1946, it went on to be scrapped. Also found at Gilze-Rijen, Bf 109G-14 VD364 was taken on charge by the Enemy Aircraft Flight of the Central Fighter Establishment at Tangmere on 26 April 1945. However, the old Achilles’ heel struck once again. The undercarriage collapsed on landing the following month and it was struck off charge. Bf 109G-6/Trop VX101 was captured in North Africa during 1943 and made its initial flight in the UK at Collyweston in April 1944. Its original Luftwaffe unit is unknown. After a little in excess of 11 flying hours in RAF service, it succumbed to an undercarriage collapse that May and was reduced to spares for No 1426 Flight.

A surprise night arrival at Manston in July 1944 resulted in a late-production front-line Bf 109G‑6/ U2 for the RAF to ‘play with’. It carried underwing cannon and the larger fin and rudder. As TP814, the aircraft is pictured at Farnborough in RAF markings, and later flew tactical trials with the Mustang III and Spitfire XIV. VIA BARRY WHEELER

The second part of 10639’s flying life began when it became RN228 as part of the ‘Enemy Aircraft Circus’, touring British airfields for recognition and identification purposes as well as mock combat flights against Allied fighters. The ‘Gustav’ is accompanied by an Fw 190 at a 9th Air Force B-26 Marauder base in 1944. VIA BARRY WHEELER

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02/10/2017 13:15

Bf 109G ‘BLACK 6’

The

great great‘Black W

hen Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2/Trop Werknummer 10639 arrived at RAF Lyneham by Hercules after a short flight from RAF Wattisham in 1972, I was the grand age of three. The project took some time to gain momentum, particularly with my father — then flying the Comet 4C with No 216 Squadron — being away for many weeks on end. The disbandment of 216 and retirement of the Comet fleet meant Russ being posted to RAF Northolt in Middlesex with the 109 duly following. It is to there that my earliest memories of the restoration extend.

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Having moved to Northamptonshire some time prior to retirement from the RAF in the late 1970s, Sunday mornings consisted of a lengthy drive down with my dad to Northolt. There the team of Ian Mason (who had also, thankfully, transitioned from Lyneham to Northolt via Brize Norton), John Elcome, Kevin Thomas, Pete Hayward, Tony Leek and Ian Pursey gathered to spend many hours in a dimly lit blister hangar, painstakingly bringing the airframe and associated systems back to serviceability. Anyone who has read my father’s book about the restoration will of course understand what the team

went through over the years in order to realise his dream of returning ‘Black 6’ to airworthy condition. The fact that this took 19 years could never have been anticipated at the beginning — in fact, I believe Russ had set a notional goal of five years at the outset. The move to RAF Benson in Oxfordshire was where things really started to come together. With the closer location to our family home meaning more frequent visits and a team bolstered by enthusiastic and dedicated individuals including John Dixon, Paul Blackah, Bob Kitchener

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6

k

Twenty years after its last flight, the Ministry of Defence-owned, IWM-operated Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2/Trop ‘Black 6’ remains among the most revered warbirds to have appeared on the UK circuit. The leader of the team that restored it to flying condition, Russ Snadden, passed away earlier this year; here, his son recalls the operation of this remarkable aeroplane WORDS: GRAEME SNADDEN

’ 6 and, latterly, Chris Starr, the project made tangible progress towards the first engine runs. Actually getting the lumbering Daimler-Benz DB605 to start was a different matter, with many turns taken by the team on the hand crank over a period of weeks. For anyone who witnessed this process during our time at Duxford, there is probably some appreciation of the physical effort involved. The short crank handle has to reach an optimum of 60rpm — ‘easy’, I hear you say, but when you first bear on the handle it literally doesn’t move, such is the gearing through the multi-stage epicylic gear train that drives the

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starter dog. When the huge DB605 finally burst into life, the elation amongst the team was one of many memorable moments from my association with ‘Black 6’. The next step was, of course, the first flight. That misty March day in 1991 was something everyone had been anticipating, but as the time approached there was some trepidation. When the diminutive airframe shot off down the grass glider strip at Benson, I think everyone held their breath, with some soft ground causing the aircraft to pitch nose-down and the torque from the broad three-bladed prop resulting in not insignificant yaw.

We were all glad to see air under the wheels. At the time, I was the only one who suspected the propeller blades had touched the grass, and sure enough this turned out to be the case. Regardless of this, our ‘baby’ was airborne and zipping around Benson and its environs at a quite incredible rate. I distinctly recall pilot Reg Hallam stating over the radio that she was “going like a train.” When the bent propeller blades had been repaired and the prop assembly returned to Benson, an engine run revealed some unexpected (orange) flames licking from one of the exhaust stubs. Closer inspection revealed a chipped exhaust valve, meaning a

ABOVE: John Allison flying Messerschmitt Bf 109G-2/Trop Werknummer 10639/G-USTV ‘Black 6’ on its first air-to-air sortie in 1991. RAF

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Bf 109G ‘BLACK 6’

ABOVE: The Bf 109 restoration under way at RAF Lyneham in 1973. PETER R. MARCH

TOP: A first public outing for the nearly completed aircraft came in the static display at RAF Benson’s Fete on 14 July 1990.

RICHARD PAVER

TOP RIGHT: The 1991 Duxford Classic Fighter Display was to have seen ‘Black 6’ making its public flying display debut, but the lack of a permit to fly relegated it to engine runs only. Note the Old Flying Machine Company’s Buchón G-BOML on the right.

RICHARD PAVER

ABOVE RIGHT: Charlie Brown flying ‘Black 6’ with the Aircraft Restoration Company’s Blenheim IV ‘Z5722’ for a Cosford show press preview. KEY COLLECTION

complete engine strip — the cylinder banks and cylinder heads are a single piece on DB engines. This stymied progress slightly, but once this hiccup was resolved it was full steam ahead to get her in the air again and across to her new home at IWM Duxford, where the full testing programme would be undertaken. Being ‘outsiders’ to the longestablished warbird scene at Duxford, we didn’t know what to expect. After all, there was one operator on the airfield that had a Buchón (Spanish-built, Merlin-powered Bf 109) on strength, so the arrival of our DB-engined version must surely cause some friction! This was far from the case, the team at the Old Flying Machine Company being among the first to come forward. Mark and Ray Hanna both wanted to get a closer look at ‘Black 6’ and compare it with G-BOML — in fact, Mark was keen to get his hands on her, but he was out of luck. Being (then) a Ministry of Defence asset, it had been determined that only currently serving pilots with relevant experience would fly her. The test programme was successfully negotiated by John Allison and Dave Southwood, and the permit to fly followed thereafter. The IWM was to be the operator of G-USTV, as she was now registered, and understandably was keen to get her earning a crust. The man responsible for this was David Henchie, then

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the aerodrome manager at Duxford, a jovial fellow who was extremely supportive of our efforts. With my parents now living in Scotland and Russ flying for Britannia Airways — and the internet not yet available to the masses — communication between Dave and my father took the form of letters, with occasional telephone calls. Russ was obviously protective of the aeroplane as well as the team behind it, and sometimes it’s fair to say the letters were short and to the point. Dave took them in good heart and coined the term ‘Russogram’ for the missives, much to everyone’s amusement. I was by this time a student at the University of Newcastle-uponTyne, so visits to Duxford were few and far between. In fact I missed the first public display, at Duxford 91 on 15 September that year, and a truly spectacular performance at October’s Autumn Air Show by our newest pilot Dave Southwood. The aforementioned display left such an impression when viewed on video that I longed for it to be repeated, somewhat selfishly. Due to the restrictions of flying only from grass strips, most of our displays were based from Duxford, visits to Shuttleworth being some of the more local. It was customary for ‘Black 6’ to display at its home base

upon returning from ‘away’ venues, fuel allowing, and on this particular occasion Dave Southwood asked if there were any requests upon his return from Bedfordshire. At this time, Dave and Charlie Brown had worked up a superb sequence that opened with the aircraft running in head-on to the crowdline, before pulling into a full 360° turn affording the crowd a view of the ‘Gustav’ from its upper and lower sides, so Dave was understandably disappointed when I requested a repeat of the aforementioned display. Fortunately he duly obliged. The element that left its mark was the entry. Returning from Shuttleworth meant approaching from the west was logical, but the twist in this instance was the fact that Dave arrived from the north-west, over the A505 in a banking turn. This was amazing to witness since it took all the spectators by surprise. The distinctive whistle of the supercharger could be heard approaching but the hangars masked the view to the north, so he literally ‘bounced’ the airfield. Having become established at Duxford, we became increasingly busy with the demands of airshows and maintenance. It was to this end that myself and one of the newer team members, Frank Aldridge, were cleared by our chief engineer Ian Mason to conduct before-flight and after-flight checks, this at the

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Escaping from Duxford by 9pm was good going on a display day

time being based on the CAA’s A8-20 scheme. We generally shared duties, ensuring that a fresh set of eyes was always cast over ‘Black 6’, though having since graduated from university I was now living a little over an hour away, so got called upon for short-notice and weekday requirements. One such, a press day for the RAF Cosford Air Show which saw us flying with the Blenheim, was sprung on us. So, turning up at Duxford early on a Wednesday morning, I had to first enlist the help of some manual labour to extract the aircraft from Hangar 5. Due to excessive wear on the original stub axles of the main gear, we had replaced them with a pair of Pilatus P2 axles fairly early on in her flying career, these being exactly the same save for the omission of the towing eyes. This meant that the only option for ground handling was to push with someone steering the tailwheel with a specially manufactured yolk. The unfortunate individuals this time were Mark Hanna and two of his engineers, Tim Fane and Steve Kingman — the bare minimum of horsepower needed to move the fighter around. The renowned 109 main gear geometry with significant toe-in, not aided in the slightest by ribbed Canberra nosewheel tyres, ensured we were all puffing and wheezing by the time she was on the grass outside the tower.

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On this particular day, Charlie Brown was taking her north. Having completed his walk-round and myself the pre-flight drills, I assisted him with strapping in, closing and locking the canopy before mounting the starboard wing to start cranking. This process was exhausting when you were on your own, it generally being a two-man job, so you can imagine my despair when the small chain securing the magneto ‘key’ in place became entangled during the start sequence and the starter began to wind down. Even at much decreased speed, though, she fired up. All I had to do then was pull the chocks and marshal Charlie out onto the taxiway… then collapse in a heap. Upon return from the press day and the customary display, the Bf 109 was tucked away in the hangar next to our stablemate, the Shuttleworth Sea Hurricane. Therein ensued the customary cleaning process focusing on props, wing leading edges and the oil-coated underside. Suffice to say the DB605 did lose a little oil. Escaping from Duxford by 9pm was considered good going on a display day — all the Spitfire operators had long since retired to the pub! Fortunately the team had been bolstered by several others willing to roll their sleeves up and muck in with the cleaning. Keeping her looking

immaculate was something my dad took great pride in, so more hands were always welcome. In parallel to operation of the aircraft, we built up a significant inventory of ‘Black 6’-related goodies that we sold on a stall on display days. The sale of photos, mugs, baseball caps, patches, stickers, booklets and T-shirts, amongst others, was intended to subsidise the purchase of additional original equipment to add to the authenticity of the restoration. One of the key things that had evaded us was a set of original machine gun mounts, but having seen photos of a Bf 109F recovered from Russia — now in the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa — complete with said mounts, Paul Blackah managed to broker their loan from the then custodian of the airframe, Tony Ditheridge, to allow a set to be produced for ‘Black 6’. The addition of these, along with the associated interrupter drives, made a huge difference to the ‘underbonnet’ appearance of the 109. The exterior had already benefited from the addition of a superb reproduction of the tropical filter, copied from the example on the South African Air Force Museum’s F-model by the late Mark de Vries. We also managed to obtain a drop tank and mount for static display. Along the way, we encountered various technical issues but always

TOP: Russ Snadden in the cockpit for a preseason engine run, watched by Paul Blackah. JOHN ELCOME

ABOVE LEFT: The summer of 1995 saw memorable appearances by two Bf 109Gs, as ‘Black 6’ was joined by Hans Dittes’ Bf 109G-10 D-FEHD, then operated by the Old Flying Machine Company and flown by Mark Hanna. Apart from display appearances like this one at the North Weald Fighter Meet, where the ‘Gustavs’ flew in formation with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, they both took part in the BBC miniseries Over Here starring Martin Clunes. KEY COLLECTION

ABOVE: A temporary overpaint colour scheme turned ‘Black 6’ into ‘Red 3’ for filming The Land Girls.

KEY COLLECTION

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Bf 109G ‘BLACK 6’

from two private individuals — one remains anonymous to this day, but they both know who they are — and the IWM itself. Those contributions go to show the high regard in which the project was held.

ABOVE: Father and son, Russ and Graeme Snadden, with the Messerschmitt after its installation in Hendon’s Bomber Command Hall. JOHN ELCOME

BELOW: A sad end to a great flying career: the ‘Gustav’ inverted in a field east of Duxford on 12 October 1997, thankfully without injury to pilot John Allison. JOHN DUNNELL

BELOW RIGHT: Last year, ‘Black 6’ was moved by the RAF Museum to Cosford, where it is displayed nose-on to Spitfire I K9942. RAFM

To be greeted by the sight of a bent and twisted aeroplane upside-down on a farm trailer after recovery to the airfield was truly heartbreaking for my father managed to find a fix that saw her back in the air. In fact, it was through reaching out to the now growing DB605 operator community that we were fortunate enough to meet Sigi Knoll. Sigi is a true DB expert, selftaught and learning from the mistakes of others in the past. He is a true professional and quickly became a valued contact, provider of spares and advice and, latterly, personal friend of my father. It should be noted that, beyond private commissions, Sigi is responsible for maintaining three DBs for the Messerschmitt Stiftung at Manching, Germany. The nature of some of the technical issues did have an impact

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on availability for displays, and it was based on this and some careful brokering by the team and the IWM that saw the initial operating period extended from three to six years. One of the more significant of these was the failure of the original self-sealing fuel tank. Having discovered the problem, flying obviously ceased immediately. Finding a fix initially had us stumped, but contact with a respected producer of flexible fuel cells saw a new tank produced to the exact dimensions and installed with little to no trouble. The financing of this was a concern, and ultimately the lion’s share of the funds came from generous donations

A request from John Altmann of Aircraft Records to document the unique sound of ‘Black 6’ resulted in a truly memorable morning. Due to the proximity of the A505 and M11 to Duxford, it was essential that the sound recording took place as early as possible. Early in this instance meant a take-off at some time around 07.00hrs, when we really did have the airfield to ourselves. Hearing the 605 reverberating off the hangars was something to behold, but not everyone seemed to agree. Some time into the routine, Dave Henchie was seen hustling towards us, which initially had us worried. When he got closer it was obvious that something had tickled him. Sure enough he had great pleasure in declaring that the IWM had already received its first complaint from a local resident, said as if it was a moral victory. I and the rest of the team consider ourselves very fortunate to have been involved to varying degrees with the restoration and operation of ‘Black 6’. I was lucky to see the first engine run and the first and second flights, and unfortunate enough to witness the final flight at Duxford’s Autumn Air Show on 12 October 1997. Having flown down from Scotland the day after the display, to be greeted by the sight of a bent and twisted aeroplane upside-down on a farm trailer after recovery to the airfield, was truly heartbreaking for my father. Due to work commitments he had not been able to attend the show.

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THE TEAM REMEMBERS...

Once the initial shock and anger had subsided, Russ resolved to ensure that the team responsible for putting her back in the air would also be the team to return her to as close to original condition as possible. This duly happened, and with another two years of hard work resulting in a truly immaculate Bf 109 being rolled out of Duxford’s Hangar 5 one Sunday morning, our close association with ‘Black 6’ was nearly over. All that remained was to see her safely to her new home in the RAF Museum at Hendon. Once the final screw had been put into the wing root fairings and the airframe given a good clean, there were some tears shed that day in the Bomber Command Hall. A future move a few hundred metres into the newly completed Milestones of Flight building was also conducted by the team, a subsequent visit seeing the installation of the original ammunition rounds-counters in the cockpit. The retirement to Hendon was always on the cards, something lamented by many, but the background to which was never probably understood. The fact is that Dad never wished to overutilise the airframe to the extent that significant repairs would be required. Originality and authenticity were key tenets for the project, repairs to the airframe during the restoration being absolutely minimal, the many layers of post-war paint having served well to preserve the structure. Anyone fortunate enough to see ‘Black 6’ fly was watching what was — and is likely to remain — the most original and authentic World War Twoera Luftwaffe aircraft restoration, period.

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Some of the team who restored and operated ‘Black 6’ look back on their involvement

J

ohn Elcome: “It was while photographing RAF Northolt’s Spitfire XVI gate guardian, TE476, in 1978 that I ran into Sgt Ian Mason. I was there with an official letter, but no-one had told him and the Spitfire was part of his ‘department’, so he came out to see who was poking around her. Our conversion led to him asking, “Do you want to come and photograph a real aeroplane?”, and my turning up the following Sunday to see this Bf 109 that he, with others, was working on — an aircraft my old reference book still listed as being at RAF Wattisham. It had been at Lyneham after that, prior to Northolt, which just showed how out-of-date my book was! “I arrived at the very dingily lit building to find three people cleaning various bits of airframe. They were Ian, Russ Snadden and Kevin Thomas. I was shown around the racks of assorted parts, most of which were waiting to be cleaned and inspected prior to being refitted if serviceable or repaired/ replaced if not. With nothing else to do that day, I offered to “clean something while I’m here”. The speed with which a grottylooking piece of pipe, a sheet of Wet & Dry and some synthetic thinner came my way had to be seen to be believed. “That ‘cleaning stuff’ and documenting things, via photos and video, was to continue from that late 1978 visit through moves to RAF Benson and IWM Duxford to the installation of ‘Black 6’ in the Milestones of Flight hall at the RAF Museum Hendon in December 2003.”

C

hris Starr: “I was waiting for my flight out of RAF Benson in early 1989, just passing the time having a look around in the busy Wessex servicing hangar, when I was fortunate to meet Chief Technician John Dixon. John was keen to show me the Messerschmitt Bf 109 that he was helping to rebuild with Russ Snadden’s voluntary team. Although the aircraft was at this stage more of a collection of parts, I was captivated by seeing this historic fighter and I became excited later when I realised that, by driving down from my home at RAF Marham every Sunday, I might be able to join in with the project. “As the Bf 109 progressed towards reassembly, I became more closely involved with Roger Slade of Rolls-Royce Bristol in the setting-up and operation of the big 35.7-litre DB605A inverted V12 engine. Rolls-Royce Bristol had generously overhauled the DB605, and although the team had to overcome some technical problems during the years of flying the aircraft, when correctly maintained and operated the engine proved itself to be impressive and reliable.”

M

ike Grzebien: “It was during the rebuild years after 1997 that I really got to know Russ Snadden, the masterful orchestrator who did not suffer fools gladly. Russ managed the second restoration as professionally as he managed the first, with an eye for detail and an uncompromising insistence on originality wherever possible, right down to the tiniest screws and washers, of which he knew each and every one by their correct size and RLM part number!”

C

hris McKay: “Russ must be given unceasing praise for his persistence, patience, and ability to get serious support from institutions and individuals. He was a quiet (mainly!) inspiration to all the team members. ‘Black 6’ is a worthy and wonderful memorial and tribute to this dedicated man — now sorely missed. I feel privileged to have been involved in the project.”

P

aul Blackah: “I had been in the RAF for eight years and was stationed at Benson when I first set eyes on the Bf 109G-2. When the aircraft first arrived at Benson it was placed a little further down from the structures bay where I was working, and before long I thought I would have a wander down and see what was going on. “The first time I met Russ Snadden he was busy cleaning the wings of the aircraft, and was grateful for a break and to chat about his new baby and the project as a whole. Seeing what a large job they were tackling I volunteered to take away the radiator fairings to work on in my own bay in my own time. The rest, as the saying goes, is history. “In the late 1980s a high-powered RAF meeting was convened and the decision was made that, as ‘Black 6’ had been restored to such a good standard, it would be allowed to fly with the volunteer team taking responsibility. I, of course, was up for the job, but nothing would prepare us for the first time she took to the sky. “I have now worked on the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight for 24 years, having been made a reservist in order to be retained on the flight due to my knowledge and passion for historic aircraft. I know that without my experience with ‘Black 6’ I would never have even thought of restoring Spitfire TE311, let alone restoring her to flight. Who knew, all those years ago when I walked into work that day and went down to investigate what was going on further down the hangar, that meeting ‘Black 6’ and Russ Snadden would shape my career for the rest of my life.”

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Bf 109G ‘BLACK 6’

For the leading test pilot who gave some of ‘

6

L A E P AP AV E S O WORDS: D

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UTHWOOD

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me of ‘Black 6’s’ most memorable displays, the experience remains as vivid as ever

W

Dave Southwood airborne out of Duxford in the Bf 109G-2/Trop during 1991, its first season on the display circuit. PHILIP MAKANNA/GHOSTS

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hen Gp Capt Reg Hallam left the UK in 1991 and John Allison became ‘Black 6’s’ chief pilot, I was asked by John if I would like to join the team as second pilot. It gave me one of the greatest opportunities of my flying career. I had flown a Buchón for the Charles Church collection and had followed the restoration of ‘Black 6’ by Russ Snadden and colleagues with keen interest. I was aware of the high standard of originality to which it had been rebuilt and the efforts that had been expended during the project. My first flight in ‘Black 6’ was on 4 August 1991, which was flight seven of the series of test sorties for the award of the permit to fly. My debut display in it was at the Autumn Air Show at Duxford during October that year. In addition to the Buchón I had, at that time, also flown the Spitfire, Hurricane, P-51 and Corsair, all of which had generic similarities to each other with respect to having engine manifold pressure calibrated in inches of mercury (P-51 and Corsair) or pounds per square inch of boost (Spitfire and Hurricane), air speed indicators in knots or miles per hour, altimeters reading in feet, and propellers with constant-speed units. The Bf 109G was considerably different. Manifold pressure (MAP) was measured in atmospheres (atm), with 1atm equating to 30in Hg or 0psi boost. The air speed was measured in kilometres per hour (km/h) and the altimeter was in metres. Perhaps the most significant difference was the manner in which the propeller operated. It had two selectable functions, auto and manual. With auto selected, moving the throttle forward increased the manifold pressure as per the other types but also increased the rpm to maintain the powerplant on an optimum running line and maximise power output; similarly, the rpm reduced in addition to MAP when the throttle was retarded. With manual selected, the propeller ran with a fixed blade angle when the throttle was moved or when air speed changed, acting like a fixed-pitch propeller. However, the blade angle could be changed by the pilot using a rocker switch on the throttle, with the blade angle indicated on a clock-format dial on the instrument panel.

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Bf 109G ‘BLACK 6’

BELOW: The ‘Black 6’ pilot team for 1993: from left to right, the author, John Allison and Charlie Brown. KEY COLLECTION

The cockpit was cramped and the seat and rudder pedals were not adjustable by the pilot. However, ‘Black 6’ had been restored to a very original standard, one of the few exceptions being that the gunsight had been removed and a modern radio fitted in its place. All of the cockpit markings and labels were in German, which the CAA allowed when we convinced them that any pilot who flew it had passed O-level German! For starting the engine the propeller was set to manual and the blade angle to 12 o’clock. The fuel was selected on and the engine primed using a mechanical pump. Two groundcrew then operated a crank handle to wind up the starter flywheel, one standing on the starboard wing root and one on the starboard mainwheel. When maximum flywheel rotation had been achieved, the handle was removed and the groundcrew dismounted, remaining clear of the propeller. The magnetos were then selected on and, prior to engaging the starter, a small ‘T’ handle on the lower instrument panel was pulled out to retard the ignition; the literal translation of the label for this handle was ‘spark plug cleaner’. The starting handle was then pulled out to engage the flywheel to the engine, which, hopefully, resulted in the engine firing and running. If you had not primed the engine enough or set the throttle correctly such that the engine did not start you had to start again, and you were very unpopular with the groundcrew who had to crank up the flywheel again. The engine was then warmed

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up at 1,000 to 1,200rpm, and when the oil temperature reached 20°C the aircraft was taxied. The radiator flaps, positioned on the trailing edge of the wing roots, were set to ‘auto’ and they remained closed until a certain temperature was reached, when they started to open under thermostatic control. To taxi, the ‘Gustav’ was very tail-heavy and there were no worries about tipping it onto its nose. It had a tailwheel that had to be locked for take-off and landing, but all taxiing was done with the tailwheel unlocked. In order to turn tightly, full forward stick was applied to unload the tailwheel, and a ‘handful’ of power applied to give some yawing moment from the rudder and to further unload the tailwheel by increasing lift from the tailplane. The Bf 109 had toe brakes at the top of the rudder pedals and maximum braking was applied in the required direction of turn. Once the tailwheel had broken out of the detent, it was easy to control the turn using brake alone, and likewise to stop it by applying brake opposite to the direction. The tailwheel then quickly dropped into the detent and subsequent small, gradual heading changes could be made by brake alone. However, tight turns on grass, especially if it was wet, often resulted in the mainwheel skidding along the ground and the aircraft not turning. So saying, one person holding back on the wingtip could generate enough moment to cause the tailwheel to break out of the detent, and then the turn was continued easily. The minimum engine temperatures prior to run-up and then take-off were 70ºC coolant and 20ºC oil, and typically the radiator flaps had opened fully by the time the runup was commenced. The magnetos were checked at 2,000rpm and the maximum drop with one turned off was 50rpm. If the mag drop was excessive, the spark plug cleaner was pulled out for about 20 seconds, which resulted in an rpm drop to about 1,400 — the engine ran somewhat roughly, but it recovered immediately on returning the spark plug cleaner in. In reality, this hardly ever needed to be done. One critical characteristic of the ‘Gustav’ was that the coolant temperature rose quickly after start. At best, you would get about 12 minutes from engine start to reaching the coolant temperature limit of 110ºC for the first start of the day on a cool day.

At worst, on a hot day when starting up within one hour of shutting down from a previous sortie it was only six to seven minutes. In the pre-take-off checks, 20º flap was set with 1º nose-up tailplane trim. Each of these settings was achieved using identical large wheels mounted side-by-side to the left of the seat. When the flaps were lowered, the radiator flaps went down to add to the flapped wing area, and tailplane trimming was effected by a variableincidence tailplane. The propeller was checked at ‘manual’ and 12.00 because we did not wish to take the risk of the automatic system malfunctioning during take-off. We never had any malfunctions with the auto rpm control once we had it working. It is worth stating here that the maximum crosswind component limit that we used for take-off and landing was 10kt. We did not accept a tailwind component for take-off unless the total wind speed was less than 5kt, when a 1-2kt tailwind component might be accepted on a long runway. Significantly, we only flew from grass runways. This was because grass has less friction than concrete or asphalt and so the tendency to ground-loop was reduced. I had flown the Buchón from hard runways, but it was decided that it was unnecessary to expose ‘Black 6’ to this increased risk. Lined up on the runway the tailwheel was locked while rolling forward slowly at 1-2kt. This was absolutely essential because it was the one item that actually helped you to keep straight on take-off. Power was increased slowly to 1.1atm with the tailwheel still on the ground. With the throttle set and the aircraft running straight, the tail was raised slowly and carefully until it was just clear of the ground, and then the pitch attitude was held. Raising the tail too quickly or too high gave a marked swing to the left. Generally, the right rudder force needed during the take-off roll was moderate and easy to apply, equating to about half rudder deflection. Sometimes, a rapid yaw occurred (usually to the left), possibly as a result of a bump on the runway, a gust of wind or, more usually, too rapid a throttle movement. This yaw could be stopped with a rapid rudder input of up to full deflection. Brake was rarely needed but it was always considered as an option. No attempt was then made to correct back to the runway heading and the heading achieved when the yaw was contained was maintained. Any attempt to turn back to runway

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heading led to the aircraft rolling opposite to the direction of yaw and the potential for a high-speed ground-loop was marked. Neutral aileron was maintained throughout the take-off roll. Once stabilised on the mainwheels in a tail-low attitude, a small amount of back pressure was applied to the stick until the aircraft became airborne, often with some small bounces on the mainwheels if the take-off speed was low. When positively airborne the brakes were selected on then off and the undercarriage ‘up’ button pressed in, which activated the hydraulic pump and raised the landing gear. The MAP was checked at 1.1atm, the propeller set to auto and the rpm monitored to check a reduction to about 2,200. Power was set to 1.15atm/2,300rpm for the climb. Any failure of the propeller to govern correctly on selecting ‘auto’ would have needed an immediate reselection of ‘manual’ and a blade pitch of 11.30 to be set, although this problem never occurred. If the propeller blade angle had been kept at 12.00 in ‘manual’ after take-off, an rpm overspeed would have occurred very soon and certainly well before the climb speed of 270km/h was reached. Once the engine was set up in this way, the flaps were retracted. The remaining two actions were easily forgotten; pulling the undercarriage ‘up’ button out once the undercarriage had locked up to stop the hydraulic pump running, and selecting the electric fuel pump to ‘off ’ because it was designed to run for only five minutes per sortie. The coolant temperature, if high, dropped fairly quickly once settled in the climb. In the cruise, if the radiator flaps were kept in ‘auto’ they maintained a coolant temperature of around 85ºC. They were then fairly wide open, which generated a significant amount of drag. Once stabilised in the climb/cruise I adjusted the radiator flaps manually to maintain 90-95ºC (minimum 70ºC, maximum 115ºC), which gave significantly less drag. However, on a cool day with cruise power set (1.0atm, 2,000rpm) the radiator flaps were fully closed. With display power set (1.15atm, 2,300rpm) I usually set them to be open about 2-3in at the trailing edge. If operating the radiator flaps manually, a close scan of the coolant temperature was necessary as they had to be adjusted

LEFT: The cramped confines of the ‘Gustav’s’ cockpit, restored to a highly original standard — modern radio aside — and complete with German-language instruments and placards. KEY COLLECTION

periodically to maintain the desired coolant temperature. The ‘auto’ rpm was set up so that it governed correctly to the optimum running line at the continuous power setting (1.15 atm, 2,300rpm). Any small errors away from this power were accepted.

aileron trim tab adjustments could be made, so this required multiple air tests. Fortunately, if the aileron trim was correct at these cruise conditions it was correct throughout almost the entire flight envelope. I believe that the aircraft was originally flown to a limiting airspeed of 750km/h. On air tests we flew dives to 650km/h, and therefore the maximum permitted speed on the permit to fly was 585km/h, 90 per cent of what was achieved on test. It was straightforward to achieve 650km/h in a shallow dive and to have exceeded it would have been easy. The power setting for this test was 1.3atm/2,600rpm. The speeds that we flew to were more than adequate for all displays and film work that we did. Vertical manoeuvres such as loops and half-Cuban eights were entered at a minimum speed of 420km/h (450km/h for an upwards quarter vertical roll) and height at the top was approximately 2,000ft above entry. For displays I set 1.15atm with the propeller to ‘auto’. During the first season of flying in 1991, when the ‘auto’ rpm was not functioning, I selected 1.15atm and then set the propeller blade angle to 11.05 at entry to a loop; at 420km/h this gave 2,300rpm. Approaching the up vertical the blade angle was reset to 11.15 by reference to the gauge in order to prevent the rpm reducing too much. Once on the down vertical in a loop, or once stabilised erect on the

Lined up on the runway the tailwheel was locked while rolling forward slowly at 1-2kt. This was absolutely essential because it was the one item that actually helped you keep straight on take-off

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Nominal cruise power was 1.0atm or 2,000rpm. The technique for setting cruise power was to set 1.0atm with the throttle and see what rpm resulted. If it was 2,000 or greater, the propeller was kept in ‘auto’. However, sometimes it was slightly less than 2,000 (1,900-1,950), in which case the propeller was set to ‘manual’ and the blade angle adjusted to give 2,0502,100. This was so that the engine was not overboosted and to ensure that the generator stayed on line, which required a nominal 2,000rpm. The ‘Gustav’ did not have cockpitadjustable aileron or rudder trim devices, but it did have fixed trim tabs on the control surfaces which were set to give centralised slip ball and wings-level flight with cruise power set (1.0atm, 2,000rpm) in straight and level flight. If adjustments were needed, the rudder trim had to be adjusted first before the required

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Bf 109G ‘BLACK 6’

‘Black 6’ was the most memorable aeroplane that I have ever flown. The challenge of its demanding flying qualities, the exceptionally original standard of the restoration and the phenomenal ethos of Russ and the entire team all made the opportunities I was given an unbeatable privilege

45º descending line in a half-Cuban, the blade angle was reset to 11.05 as the air speed increased to prevent the rpm becoming too high. Looking with your head in the cockpit to reset the blade angle while descending during low-level aerobatics was a significant distraction, so we did not fly complete loops in displays. The stick force per g was high, such that if trimmed at the pullup speed two hands were normally used for high-g turns and looping manoeuvres. As a comparison, the forces were similar to a P-51 but significantly higher than those for a Spitfire. Rudder forces to keep straight during a loop were moderate and easily applied. Interestingly, after the ailerons were re-covered one winter some aileron snatch often occurred at the top of looping manoeuvres. This was disconcerting but did not cause a wing drop or any control problem. Eventually, this

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tendency disappeared before its cause had been identified. Another interesting characteristic that I saw once was with a large amount of rudder in the same sense as the aileron while rolling erect during a half-Cuban. A large pitch-down occurred, probably due to the sideslip. This was surprising, resulting in a large yaw and a marked increase in dive angle. I saw no signs of departure, but the lesson was that only moderate rudder should be used for co-ordination during rolls at low speed. Roll performance was typical for most World War Two fighters and comparable to an elliptical-wing Spitfire. Full aileron was easy to apply, some rudder co-ordination was needed to keep straight, and roll performance was similar in both directions. In displays all rolls were carried out on a positive climbing line and I considered it quite safe to roll at low level. The stalling characteristics were benign in both clean and landing

configurations. The wings featured floating slats on the leading edge, and a ‘clunk’ was heard as they deployed when the angle of attack was increased, but no associated roll, pitch or yaw occurred. If any sideslip was present, one slat would deploy before the other, but again there were no resulting wing drops or yaw-off. In straight, wings-level decelerations, just prior to the stall there was some buffet and the stall was characterised by a slight wing drop, mild pitch-down and often a snatch on the ailerons. Recovery was straightforward by releasing stick back pressure and smoothly applying power. If power was increased too rapidly, full right aileron and right rudder could be needed to control the torque and prop-wash effects. With display power set, stalls in turns and when pulling through from the apex of low-speed loops were similar to straight, low-power stalls. I felt that the stall warning was adequate and the stall characteristics

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undercarriage. It was selected down below the limit of 250km/h, and once it indicated locked down the ‘down’ button was pulled out to stop the hydraulic pump running. The blade angle was then reset to 11.30 to minimise the risk of prop overspeeds during a go-around. A speed of 200km/h was aimed for at the end of the downwind leg and maintained around the finals turn using power as required. This was treated as a minimum as well as a target around that turn, and as it was quite difficult to lose speed on finals. Long straight-in approaches were avoided; a curving approach to a low roll-out was the best technique. Once wings-level, the speed was reduced using the throttle so that 175km/h was achieved at the threshold. The field of view on the approach was reasonable and speed stability was good. It was important to trim on finals because, with the variableincidence tailplane, elevator authority for the flare was reduced if the approach was flown holding a pull force on the stick.

benign enough that the stalls were not a problem or risk for low-level aerobatics. On rejoining the circuit the radiator flaps were selected to ‘auto’ and the electric fuel pump switched on. The flaps required a lot of effort and time to wind down, so this was done either during a long downwind leg or while rejoining, although the speed then had to be kept below the 250km/h limit. If the throttle was pulled back to idle with the propeller selected to ‘auto’, the rpm reduced excessively and the engine ran roughly such that the ‘auto’ propeller function was not really worth using below 1.0atm. Therefore, before I reduced power on the break I selected the propeller to ‘manual’, which froze the blades at their current angle, and reduced MAP slowly while progressively increasing the blade angle to 11.45, ensuring the 2,600rpm limit was not exceeded. This propeller setting was needed to achieve an rpm allowing adequate hydraulic pump output to be obtained to lower the

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As the threshold was crossed the throttle was closed and the aircraft flared smoothly to keep flying for as long as possible. The ‘Gustav’ floated far more than many contemporary aircraft and it was very important to keep it flying wings-level about 2ft above the ground while it decelerated. Eventually the aircraft dropped on in the three-point attitude. Often it bucked around on a rough strip and it was important just to maintain the pitch attitude until it settled, at which point the stick was pulled fully aft. Below touchdown speed the ailerons and rudder were ineffective and directional control on the ground needed very rapid large rudder and differential brake inputs to keep straight. Once under control directionally the brakes were used symmetrically to slow the aircraft down. They were not very powerful and it appeared to take a long time to eventually bring the Bf 109 to a halt. The tailwheel was unlocked once at walking speed and before attempting to turn off the runway. The engine coolant temperature rose quite rapidly after landing, and long taxi distances were not possible before the temperature limit was reached. In the circuit there were several aspects to be avoided: first, wheeled landings. The locked tailwheel was the main source of directional

stability during the landing roll-out and rudder authority was insufficient for directional control at idle power with the tailwheel off the ground or unlocked. If during the flare the mainwheels touched before the threepoint attitude was achieved, I made a small aft stick input to get airborne again and then continued with the deceleration just above the ground to land in the three-point attitude. Secondly, reduced threshold speeds. Due to the protracted float during the landing flare there was a great temptation to reduce the threshold speed below 175km/h. Any attempt to do this would probably lead to a hard landing as the normal flare would not arrest the rate of descent. Thirdly, crosswinds and tailwinds. With up to a 10kt crosswind component no consideration had to be given to crosswind landing technique. If you had to think about crosswind technique, you probably should not been airborne. If you did get caught out by unforecast excessive crosswinds, any drift had to be counteracted by flying slightly wing-down into the wind and touching down firmly on the into-wind mainwheel and tailwheel simultaneously; the other mainwheel then dropped on at touchdown. I have landed with a 15kt crosswind without any problem, but 10kt was always the maximum planned component to allow a controllability margin. Tailwinds were avoided at all cost as they exacerbated any ground-loop tendency. Finally, rapid power increases during go-arounds. These were flown by smoothly increasing MAP to 1.1atm, selecting undercarriage ‘up’ with a positive rate of climb, selecting the prop to ‘auto’, then raising the flaps. If the throttle was increased too rapidly, full right aileron and almost full right rudder were required to maintain straight, wings-level flight. I know it would have been possible to lose roll and directional control if the throttle was opened too much and too quickly. To put this technical description into the context of my entire flying career, ‘Black 6’ was the most memorable aeroplane that I have ever flown. The challenge of its demanding flying qualities, the exceptionally original standard of the restoration and the phenomenal ethos of Russ and the entire team all made the opportunities that I was given over that wonderful six-year period an unbeatable privilege. The memories have not faded over the last two decades. If only I could wind the clock back…

LEFT: By the time of this 1992 photo sortie, ‘Black 6’ had its replica tropical air filter fitted. PHILIP MAKANNA/GHOSTS

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Bf 109G-12

MESSERS made f

Klaus Plasa flying Hangar 10’s rebuilt Messerschmitt Bf 109G-12 D-FMGZ, here equipped with its Merlin 500-45 engine, over the Usedom coast.

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SCHMITT e for two When Germany’s Hangar 10 collection decided to rebuild its Hispano Buchón as a two-seat Messerschmitt Bf 109G-12, it created a unique aeroplane on the worldwide warbird scene WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: RICHARD PAVER

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n April 2013, the Heringsdorfbased Hangar 10 collection was preparing its Hispano HA-1112-M1L Buchón, D-FMVS, for the forthcoming season’s flying programme. The aircraft had not been flown for more than six months, and several tethered ground power runs were carried out before it was ready to take to the air again. With these completed, the pilot undertook taxi trials and then taxied the Buchón to the fuel pumps to refuel. Sadly it became stuck in very soft ground after the pilot left the taxiway, and on applying power to get out the aircraft suffered a nose-over and prop strike, causing considerable engine damage. When owner Volker Schülke telephoned Elmar Meier of MeierMotors

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to discuss what work would be necessary to get the aeroplane repaired, Elmar floated the idea of using the damaged Buchón as the basis for a project to complete an airworthy Bf 109G-12 two-seater. The Bf 109 was, of course, a notoriously difficult aircraft to operate, and it is well known that during World War Two the Luftwaffe lost many in taxiing, take-off and landing accidents. As the war progressed the numbers of experienced, high-time Bf 109 pilots diminished, and younger pilots who were becoming operational were given fewer training hours as the demand to get them to the front line as soon as possible increased. Therefore, the two-seat Bf 109G-12 trainer variant was developed in the

latter stages of the war as a conversion of existing ‘Gustav’ airframes. Usually occupied by the instructor, the second cockpit, with basic instrumentation and flight controls, was added directly behind the otherwise unchanged front cockpit. The framed canopy was extended aft and the hood over the forward cockpit modified so that the starboard panel was fixed in place to help with the rigidity of the extended rear structure. Visibility forward from the rear cockpit was virtually non-existent, so outwardextended side panels were added, but they didn’t improve things much. Some examples were given a periscope to aid the instructor’s visibility, but in practice these were just about useless.

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Bf 109G-12

CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT: One of the G-12’s last DB605powered flights at Heringsdorf in 2016, before poor weather and decreasing daylight hours put an end to the test programme for the year. Original Bf 109G-12s of Luftwaffe fighter training unit JG 101 during 1945, among them ‘Yellow 27’, the aircraft the Hangar 10 example now depicts.

VIA HANGAR 10

Hangar 10 owner Volker Schülke (right) congratulates Charlie Brown after the aircraft’s maiden flight in August last year. A taxi trial at Bremgarten for the G-12, here fitted with its DB605 engine. The rear cockpit of the two-seater contains only basic instrumentation and flight controls. Klaus Plasa took over the flight test effort when it resumed this summer.

In most cases the original armament was removed to save weight, although some G-12s retained their nosemounted armament, thus enabling gunnery practice. Undoubtedly the biggest drawback was the loss of almost half the Bf 109’s on-board fuel capacity because the main internal fuselage tank was located directly below and behind the pilot, where the second seat was placed. Many G-12s were therefore fitted with an additional external fuel tank, and a new, cylindrical, 200-litre external tank was specifically designed for the variant. Despite this, most G-12 sorties comprised nothing more than take-offs, circuits and landings to suit the primary purpose of giving trainee pilots improved general handling skills on take-off and landing. They were not used for longer cross-country flights. G-12s were converted from just about every ‘Gustav’ variant, and the aircraft retained their original Werknummern when completed. The modification work was carried out by Blohm und Voss in Hamburg. It is known that 494 G-12s were completed by December 1944, when the lack of record-keeping and the progression of the war stopped the programme. At the time of the Buchón taxiing incident there were no known G-12s in existence, so after discussing the viability of such a major project Volker Schülke gave MeierMotors the go-ahead. The damaged airframe was dismantled and moved by road to Bremgarten in southern Germany for work to commence in May 2013. This very complicated and extremely ambitious rebuild was concluded during August 2016. MeierMotors had finished the aircraft to a superb, completely authentic standard, including a very rare Daimler-Benz DB605 engine that had been acquired from Sweden and overhauled prior to installation by Mike Nixon in the USA. The machine has been finished to represent ‘Yellow 27’, a G-12 of fighter training wing JG 101 when it was commanded by the famous Luftwaffe ace Walter Nowotny and based at Pau, France during 1944. The MeierMotors team completed engine runs and taxi trials in preparation for the first flight, which would be carried out by Charlie Brown from the UK. Charlie has flown many examples of the Bf 109 and Buchón, and was one of the regular display pilots for Bf 109G-2/Trop ‘Black 6’. Travelling over to Bremgarten in August 2016, Charlie described

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to me his proposed test flight programme. Due to the installation of the second cockpit, the capacity of the main fuselage fuel tank had been significantly reduced, giving only 165 litres of useable fuel. At that time MeierMotors was assessing other options to increase the aircraft’s endurance, but it was decided to press ahead and conduct the initial flight test with the limited-on board fuel as it would take some time to develop the alternatives and achieve the necessary approvals. These included fitting a secondary fuselage tank, wing tanks or an external belly tank. Adding wing tanks would involve considerable structural work in the wings, an external belly tank would have to be scratch-built, and an additional internal fuselage tank would need to be manufactured from new and detailed assessment of weights and balances done to understand any impact on the aircraft’s centre of gravity. After Charlie Brown had successfully completed ground tethered power runs and taxi trials, he was able to take the G-12 for its maiden flight on Thursday 4 August 2016, during which he made a number of wide circuits of Bremgarten and some basic handling trials. A second sortie was completed the following day. These two test flights were kept deliberately short — Charlie told me that with the limited fuel capacity and the need to maintain a reserve in case of any delays in getting landing clearances he did not intend any of them to last much longer than 10-15 minutes. Interestingly, it is believed that the last person to fly a G-12 had been Capt Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, who piloted a captured example in the UK on one occasion in 1946. That both this and the next G-12 flight in 2016 were carried out by British test pilots by the name of Brown was something of a coincidence! Eric Brown decided to test-fly the G-12 from the rear seat alone in order to fully ascertain the visibility and control available to the instructor. It was said that he realised as soon as he was airborne that this was a very bad idea, and it reportedly took him three attempts to get it safely back on the ground. After this ‘Winkle’ never flew the G-12 again. The Hangar 10 aircraft is now registered D-FMGZ. Due to the complete authenticity of the restoration/conversion project the Luftfahrtbundesamt (LBA,

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Most Bf 109G-12 sorties comprised nothing more than take-offs, circuits and landings to give trainee pilots improved general handling skills

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Bf 109G-12

ABOVE: This image of Klaus Plasa airborne in the G-12 over northern Germany shows well the outwardextended side panels on the rear cockpit.

the German CAA) has officially allocated an authentic Bf 109G-12 Werknummer, 15208, to the airframe. During the first two flights that took place at Bremgarten there were clear concerns among the whole team about the oil pressure in the rebuilt DB605 powerplant, and while the issue was being assessed the aircraft was not flown. In September 2016 the engine was removed and replaced by another freshly overhauled DB605, which Hangar 10 had ready for its Bf 109G-6 project. The aircraft was then transported by road to Hangar 10’s main base at Heringsdorf airfield on the northeastern German island of Usedom, with the intention that test-flying would resume later that year. Charlie Brown was again asked to do the honours, and further sorties duly took place at Heringsdorf in October 2016, but the weather and decreasing amounts of available daylight soon brought the test programme to an end. The aircraft was thereafter put on static display in the Hangar 10 collection.

The ability to fly this ultra-rare and unique Bf 109 with a Merlin engine provides a more practical and sustainable basis for the operation of the aircraft 56 www.aeroplanemonthly.com

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Over the winter of 2016-17 the owner decided to complete the further modifications necessary to improve the aircraft’s endurance. Fuel capacity has been significantly increased to 320 litres, more than double what it had before, with the installation of an additional fuselage fuel tank. This gives the aeroplane far greater endurance and hence ease of operation. At the same time the winter period was used to examine the possibility of enhancing the Bf 109’s capability by enabling it to be flown with either a DB605 engine or a Rolls-Royce Merlin 500-45. Early 2017 saw the installation of a quick engine change (QEC) system, whereby everything in front of the firewall can be changed rapidly so that the aircraft can use a choice of powerplants. The aircraft now has two engines, two propellers and two cowling sets, all of which are fully airworthy. A complete engine change can be made in a few days. The ability to fly this ultra-rare and unique Bf 109 with a Merlin engine provides a more practical and sustainable basis for the operation of the aircraft. Merlins are far more readily available than DB605s, while Merlin spares and overhaul facilities are much easier to find. As so many Merlins are active in airworthy World War Two types, it was also considered that this option would be far more appropriate if the offer of passenger

flights in the G-12 was to be thought about. The QEC mods were completed in the spring and a Merlin installed for the 2017 season. Test flights with this engine were made at Heringsdorf in June, and due to Charlie Brown’s other flying commitments the owner asked Klaus Plasa to carry them out. Since he regularly flies the Bf 109s of the Messerschmitt Stiftung, Klaus is a highly experienced test pilot on the type; in addition, he is the approved test pilot for the Flug Werk FW 190s and is very active flying for GossHawk Unlimited in the USA. The G-12 test programme therefore recommenced at Heringsdorf with the Merlin fit. Despite unseasonably wet and overcast weather for June, five successful sorties were completed. The Hangar 10 team then considered giving passenger flights in the Merlin variant, and the aircraft was brought to the UK by road in July 2017 to be displayed at the Aero Legends Battle of Britain Airshow at Headcorn, Kent. Due to the fact that the Bf 109 was still under the jurisdiction of the German LBA, it was not allowed to fly in the UK, but it did carry out some taxi demonstrations during the Headcorn show and may well return to be operated in Britain during 2018. Hangar 10 also has plans to offer a very limited number of flights in it with the DB605, but flying hours with this engine will be restricted due to its rarity.

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Messerschmitt Bf 109G-12 D-FMGZ and Supermarine Spitfire FRXVIIIe TP280/D-FSPT Hangar 10 RICHARD PAVER

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RAF FAR EAST FLIGHT

The LONG ROUTE EAST In October 1927, four Supermarine Southampton flying boats lifted from the waters of Plymouth on the most ambitious long-distance flight the RAF had ever undertaken: a mammoth expedition to Australia and the Far East WORDS: PETE LONDON

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amed the Far East Flight, one of the main objectives was to collect information along the journey on possible future waterborne aircraft bases, thereby opening up potential Empire air routes. The personnel involved would gain experience of operating in remote and widely varying conditions, while their aeroplanes’ durability could be evaluated to the full. Speed was not a consideration. At that time just a handful of pioneer airmen had flown from Britain to Australia, while

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a commercial passenger service had yet to be established from the mother country as far as India. The flight was led by Gp Capt Henry Cave-Browne-Cave. By the spring of 1927 its aircrews were forming at Felixstowe, though their mounts had yet to arrive. Summer’s preparations centred on establishing refuelling stops, at times requiring fuel dumps to be set up in particularly isolated locations. At a cruising speed of, say, 80mph the Southampton’s safe range was around 500 sea miles in still

ABOVE: The four Far East Flight Supermarine Southamptons over the China Sea on 9 November 1928. ALL PHOTOS VIA PETE LONDON

air, not enough for some of the longer stages between remote towns or cities without intermediate fuelling. Numerous sites selected were mere pinpoints on the map, unavoidably untried and with no guarantee of suitability. Where jetties weren’t available, fuel from tins or drums would be fed into the

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RAF FAR EAST FLIGHT

BELOW: A Southampton with a small stores boat at Cochin, south-west India. In the background a second aircraft is attended by a similar vessel.

Southamptons from local craft moored alongside. Each flying boat carried a hand-pump to push fuel from its lower centre-section sump up to tanks situated beneath the upper wings. Also needed was a reliable supply of spares along the route, together with overhaul and repair facilities at major staging points. To help with preparations an RAF base party of three officers and 23 airmen travelled east to Karachi, then Singapore, and later to Melbourne and Hong Kong. All the boats were duralumin-hulled Southampton IIs, serialled S1149, S1150, S1151 and S1152. A fifth, S1127, was earmarked as a spare and shipped to Singapore. Mindful not least of possible forced landings far from assistance, to allow on-board living each boat was provided with cooking facilities including small stoves, as well as a week’s food and water, sleeping bags and a large rubber dinghy for trips to shore. Several modifications were made bearing in mind the hot climes. To improve cooling of the Southamptons’ 500hp Napier Lion VA engines their radiator areas were enlarged by around 50 per cent compared with those operating in home waters. Each hull was finished with white enamel inside and out, except for the inside bottom which was painted grey. For use at rest, provision was made for slinging hammocks between the two

clusters of engine struts, while white canvas awnings were carried to shield the hull from the sun. The two light alloy fuel tanks, each usually of 200 gallons’ capacity, were replaced by white-painted tinned steel versions — easier to repair if necessary — totalling 500 gallons. The oil tanks were enlarged. Weight was saved by removing all armament, Scarff rings and bomb racks. Fully equipped, the modified aircraft tipped the scales at around 15,400lb. Two boats began the journey with wooden propellers and two with new metal Leitner-Watts types. It was hoped the metal propellers would prove more immune from damage due to excessive temperature changes and flying spray. The metal variety duly proved satisfactory, and at Aboukir the wooden props were replaced. The Southampton was agreeable to fly but its open cockpits gave little protection from tropical sun or pouring rain, while the crew’s proximity to its engines made for an ear-numbing passage over long distances. Just two were fitted with wireless telegraphy sets and air-to-air communication between the four was by Aldis lamps or, in close formation, hand signals. Each boat was crewed by two officers and two airmen. CaveBrowne-Cave and Flt Lt Herbert

Sawyer travelled in S1152 while S1150’s crew was led by Flt Lt David Carnegie and Fg Off Gilbert Nicholetts. S1151 was flown by Flt Lt Cecil Wigglesworth and Fg Off Stuart Scott, and S1149 by Sqn Ldr Gerald Livock, the flight’s secondin-command, accompanied by Flt Lt Percy Maitland as flight navigator. The three base party officers were Flt Lt Sydney Freeman, Fg Off Bernard Cheeseman and Fg Off Leonard Horwood, soon dubbed by their colleagues ‘Freeman, Hardy and Willis’. On Thursday 13 October the boats were launched at Felixstowe, tested and moored out. Moving to Plymouth, four days later at 09.00hrs they left Cattewater, an understated departure recorded by a solitary press photographer. A generally placid flight followed to the Mediterranean, but the passage to Baghdad on 5 November was marked by increasing headwinds and alternating dust and rainstorms with very limited visibility. This gave way to a full-blown thunderstorm. Low on fuel, the aircraft set down at Ramadi on the Euphrates River, refuelling from the nearby RAF emergency landing ground. After an uncomfortable night moored in 20kt winds, with jackals howling from the shore, a brief 60-mile stage saw the aviators breakfasting at RAF Hinaidi. During their stay S1151 took King

Travelling down the west coast of India, news of the flight’s progress was sent ahead. Time and again the low-flying aviators saw large crowds gathered on the beaches to watch them pass over

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Faisal I for a spin over Baghdad, which he found thoroughly enjoyable. The flight continued down the Persian Gulf as far as Bushire, arriving on 12 November. There, the contrary authorities banned shore excursions and put the boats under quarantine. Nonetheless the flyers were mobbed with sightseers who visited them using all manner of craft, both seaworthy and rickety. On 18 November, escorted by local RAF aircraft, the group alighted at Karachi. There all four boats were beached while the base party performed a thorough examination and service. After a substantial stay, on 14 December as they prepared to leave the Southamptons were inspected by AVM Sir W. Geoffrey Salmond, Air Officer Commanding RAF India. Reuters reported that Salmond, “who flew in one of the machines, described the flight as one of the most perfect he had ever made.” Travelling down the west coast of India, news of the flight’s progress was sent ahead. Time and again the low-flying aviators saw large crowds gathered on the beaches to watch them pass over. Bombay was made on 15 December, and Ceylon’s Colombo harbour in fine weather on New Year’s Eve. There, though, 12 days moored out led to marked marine encrustation of the flying boats’ hulls. The problem had previously been treated at Karachi, but the barnacles were quick to return. Fortunately Colombo harbour was roomy, for the growth acquired on their planing bottoms caused the Southamptons’ take-off run to almost double, much the worst experienced so far and made more so because the fuel load in each boat was only 400 gallons. On 12 January 1928, as S1149 and Gerald Livock headed north-east for Trincomalee, sharply deteriorating conditions set in. Later he wrote: “I innocently decide to fly through the middle of a tropical storm instead of going round it… the rain literally roared down, while the turbulence inside the squall threw the aircraft about in the most terrifying manner”. Livock was almost blinded, his engines running unevenly. “The water, about a hundred feet below, was only just visible. When, after five or ten minutes, we passed through the storm and emerged into bright sunshine, I was dripping with rain and perspiration and was extremely shaken.” At Trincomalee the hull bottoms were cleaned in shallow waters

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off the Naval Sick Headquarters, whereupon take-off performance returned to normal. By 23 January the airmen had arrived at Chilika Lake on India’s east coast, mooring near the Raja of Khallikote’s palace. On the 26th S1149 made a local flight carrying the Raja of Khallikote, the Raja of Mandasa and his brother as passengers. The airmen were visited too by the Rani, who was transported to the shoreline in a heavily shrouded RollsRoyce, and thence via barge and dinghy to the aircraft. Once aboard S1149, the much-veiled lady threw back her coverings and requested a cigarette, chatting to the crew and examining the Southampton closely before returning to the palace. After several brief stops including Calcutta, Rangoon and Penang, at 17.00hrs on 28 February the four boats arrived in formation at Seletar, completing the RAF’s first flight from Britain to Singapore and narrowly avoiding a heavy rainstorm. The following day the aircraft were hauled up onto the apron, using sets of wheels shipped by the base party. Preparations began for the most difficult part of the journey, the flight circumnavigating Australia and returning to Singapore. Three months were spent at Seletar while

airframes and engines were inspected and restored. From their launch at Felixstowe until they’d been brought ashore there, the Southamptons had been almost continuously in the water, mostly under tropical conditions, except when actually flying and for one day at Karachi. Despite such demands, the boats had experienced no major problems. Their hulls hadn’t leaked, no wires had broken, and the flight surfaces experienced minimal wood shrinkage with practically no adjustment required. Many light alloy hull rivets that showed signs of deterioration were replaced by stainless steel ones, while the hulls were cleaned yet again. During the work, conducted mostly outside, some protection from the fierce sun for the maintainers was provided by the awnings carried by each aircraft. These covered the forward and aft hull areas. Despite that, at times temperatures inside rose to around 100°F. At the day’s end, the flying boats’ dinghies came in handy as improvised baths. As Gerald Livock recorded: “Seletar was in the very early stages of construction. There were no officers’ quarters and no barracks for the airmen. The flight office or HQ RAF Far East was a small […] attap hut built on stilts over the water.

ABOVE: The Supermarine flying boats moored on the River Tigris at Hinaidi, 8 November 1927.

SWIFT PROGRESS At Seletar a family of swifts made their home in S1151’s wing struttery. Livock wrote: “We did not disturb the nest and the birds actually remained in it while the aircraft was being air tested”. On 21 May the airmen began the long passage from Singapore to Western Australia. As for the swifts, “they travelled in the nest to our first stopping place at Bangka Island and after a trip ashore rejoined for the next stage.”

Unfortunately though, off the Sumatran coast the nest disintegrated. Livock reflected: “I hope the birds got ashore… I wrote this story up for Country Life, but the Air Ministry would not allow me to publish it on the grounds that it was bad publicity for people to be given the impression that RAF aircraft were so badly inspected that birds were able to nest in them.”

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RAF FAR EAST FLIGHT

ABOVE: Southampton S1127, the spare aircraft for the journey around the China Sea to Hong Kong and back, with two other examples over a placid seascape.

BELOW: A Supermarine advertisement celebrating the Far East Flight’s achievements.

The workshop and store for the spare machine were also of matting, as were the airmen’s quarters. It was all very primitive and inconvenient, but I think everyone enjoyed the feeling that they were pioneers out in the wilds.” Slowly working their way east across the Java Sea, the final stage was launched from Kupang in Dutch Timor. Of the waters they would encounter Livock recorded: “So much had been written about the Timor Sea… it was, we were told, rough, devoid of shipping and swarming with sharks, licking their lips at the prospect of some fool aviator tempting providence in a ramshackle flying machine. As it turned out, our fears were groundless. The first of June dawned fine… the dreaded sea as calm as a millpond.” Later that day, after around 470 miles and approaching seven hours’ flying time, finally the Australian coastline came into view. Via Cape Leveque the party alighted; Livock wrote with a lack of enthusiasm: “We landed at the little town of Broome in Roebuck Bay. It was here that

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Dampier had touched in 1699, the first Englishman to sight Australia. He did not think much of the landscape and I cannot say I blame him.” Happily the flyers’ reception was more upbeat, Broome’s lyrical press reporting: “All Friday morning the town was agog with expectation... Shortly after noon the ‘zoom’ of the approaching squadron was heard. On approaching the jetty and sighting the mooring buoys the squadron took a spread, formed line… then, with a graceful downward swoop all four alighted simultaneously on the water, without a splash, each adjacent to its mooring buoy. No flock of seabirds could have performed the manoeuvre with more grace or exactitude.” Early the following morning, though, disaster was only narrowly avoided. Rising seas and wind broke two boats from their moorings several hundred yards offshore, after the buoy mooring wires gave out. Fortunately the duty airmen aboard were able to start up, taxi to shallow water near the shoreline and re-anchor while new moorings were laid. Nonetheless the two Southamptons were thrown around until conditions eased that afternoon. Cave-Browne-Cave and Livock were obliged to attend an official lunch, “but we spent the time between mouthfuls anxiously looking over our shoulders out to sea, where the boats bucked and wallowed.” Luckily no damage was sustained and all four Southamptons left the next morning, beginning their anti-clockwise circumnavigation of the great continent. The flight’s log recorded: “From the experience gained at Broome it is considered

unsuitable for a seaplane base, except in emergency. The rise and fall of the tide was 28 feet and this leaves a long expanse of soft mud between the shore and the sea at low tide”. It was just this sort of assessment that proved so helpful in identifying or discounting possible future flying boat bases. On 7 June the flight arrived at Perth and an imposing civic reception. Gerald Livock enjoyed himself. “The local people […] overwhelmed us with functions, dinners, dances… In return we showed hundreds of people over the flying boats”. He continued: “The [reception…] was attended by several of the local state politicians... [one] suggested we took members of the opposition party as passengers and dropped them in the sea! This proposal was greeted with loud applause, and a voice shouted, ‘It will be the first wash they’ve ever had!’ Australian humour is straight from the shoulder.” Via Albany there followed one of the most potentially difficult stages, the 850-mile flight east across the Great Australian Bight to Ceduna, the coastline of which was almost deserted. Uninhabited Israelite Bay had been chosen as a refuelling point. Around 330 miles by air along the coastline from Albany, on the map it appeared sheltered and was known to have a small jetty. The flight got there in good weather but found that the facilities consisted of a tin shed for the petrol and an inadequate hand-crane. Transporting the fuel cans out to the aeroplanes, half a mile by dinghy in choppy seas, took a tough four hours. That said, the airmen were assisted by two farmers who’d driven 70 miles along bush roads to help out, breaking the rear springs of their Buick. By way of Ceduna’s Murat Bay, on 22 June the four boats alighted at Adelaide. Since Broome they’d been accompanied by the Australiandesigned and built Widgeon II single-engined amphibian, flown by its creator Lawrence Wackett. As they circled overhead, in the water the airmen spotted wrecked RAAF Southampton I ‘S1158’ (by then allotted RAAF serial A11-1 but still wearing its original RAF identity) which, while being made ready to fly out to greet them, had been capsized by a sudden squall. Happily nobody aboard was injured. A week later, in good weather the RAF boats and the Widgeon II made St Kilda, Melbourne. A hop followed to the RAAF station at nearby Point Cook — at last the outward flight was at an end. Hauled into the base’s sheds,

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another round of inspections took place. It was the first time the boats had been under cover since Felixstowe. Meanwhile the airmen were subjected to a stream of celebratory receptions, wireless interviews, formal dinners and ad hoc parties. Ashore, S1149 had a small wooden bridge built over the prow allowing the public to view it close-up. Over a weekend more than 8,000 people visited. Cave-Browne-Cave wanted to press on to New Zealand, but try as they might there was no solving the problem of refuelling en route. On 30 July, after circling Melbourne escorted by RAAF Southampton I A11-2 together with a Moth, the boats took off. Via Paynesville, at lunchtime on 1 August they alighted at Sydney, mooring in the shelter of Farm Cove. A group of RAAF aircraft had arrived to provide escort, but DH9A A1-25 experienced engine failure and was obliged to ditch in the harbour near Bradley’s Head. Pilot and passenger, the latter a Paramount cinema photographer, were immersed but unhurt. Flight reported: “The interest in the cruise was less in Sydney than at any other of the large towns visited, and one section of the press appeared surprised that the flight had no sensational information to give”. In fact Cave-Browne-Cave, never at ease with the media, had given local journalists short shrift. Gerald Livock later recorded: “The reporters […] vented their spite by giving us a roasting… the ‘gallant birdmen’ became ‘stuffedshirt pommies’ overnight”. But, he continued: “The Governor [Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair] and Lady de Chair were very kind to us and said that it was an honour to be slanged by the Sydney press!” Via Brisbane, Gladstone, Bowen and Cooktown, on 28 August the airmen arrived off the northern tip of Queensland at Thursday Island. Crossing the Gulf of Carpentaria, they alighted at the western part of Melville Bay, meeting the anchored lugger McBride which had transported fuel in eight-gallon drums from Port Darwin. After an overnight stop, Darwin was made on 30 August. Returning west across the Timor Sea and the Dutch East Indies, on 15 September the four Southamptons alighted at Seletar once more. A cable was received four days later from Britain’s Secretary of State for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare, congratulating the flight on its success.

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But a final trip was still to be made: a flight around the China Sea to Hong Kong and back. For this tour the spare aircraft S1127, still in its hangar, was assembled and prepared. Gerald Livock’s S1149 was shipped back to Britain. New Lions were installed on the other three machines, the first batch each having completed more than 300 hours’ flying time. On 1 November the flight set off once again, its first port of call Kuching, Sarawak. Via the Philippine Archipelago and a stay at Manila, a journey was made across the South China Sea to Hong Kong. It was an unpleasant passage calling for first-class navigation, made over open sea in strong crosswinds, low cloud and frequent rain squalls. After nearly eight hours’ flying, the grateful airmen put down at Kai Tak. During the return to Singapore, at Tourane in Vietnam Southampton S1151 was found to have a cracked propeller boss. Repaired at a local motor garage, the boat soldiered on but en route to Saigon it went down with a radiator leak. While mending the radiator it was found the patched-up propeller had failed, while the tailplane had been damaged, perhaps by flotsam during the take-off from Tourane. With temporary repairs, S1151 managed to make Saigon but had to be left behind. The three remaining aircraft departed for Bangkok. From there, with a prop removed from one of the other boats Gerald Livock flew

back to S1151 and the two rejoined their comrades. On 11 December 1928 the four Southamptons alighted at Seletar for the third time, and the Far East Flight finally ended. The saga had lasted 14 months and, excluding local flights, had covered some 27,000 miles at an average speed of around 80mph. Understandably, Supermarine and Napier were delighted with their products’ performance. In the aviation press a host of triumphal adverts appeared. Typical were Napier’s claims, set alongside flattering remarks lifted from the flight’s official report, that the Lion was “The engine which never lets the RAF down!” and “The finest aero engine in the world”. In January 1929 the Far East Flight disbanded. It became No 205 Squadron based at Seletar, the first RAF unit in the Far East and commanded by Gerald Livock, who received the Air Force Cross. Of his time with the flight Livock later remarked: “We had worked to a pre-determined timetable and had flown over largely unknown territory without serious mishap”. It was a measured evaluation. C. G. Grey, editor of The Aeroplane, described the expedition rather more fulsomely as the “greatest achievement yet in aviation.”

BELOW: The Far East Flight officers. Back row, left to right: Flt Lt D. V. Carnegie, Fg Off B. Cheeseman, Flt Lt H. G. Sawyer, Fg Off S. D. Scott and Fg Off L. Harwood. Front row, left to right: Flt Lt C. G. Wigglesworth, Sqn Ldr G. E. Livock, Gp Capt H. M. Cave-BrowneCave, Flt Lt P. E. Maitland, Fg Off G. E. Nicholetts and Flt Lt S. T. Freeman. Also present is a commemorative model of a Southampton.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Geographical names are given as they appeared at the time.

Cave-Browne-Cave, never at ease with the media, gave local journalists in Sydney short shrift

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BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE

BESTof BRITISH BAE Systems isn’t all about cutting-edge military aircraft programmes. Its historic aircraft fleet — DH60 Moth, Blackburn B-2 and Avro XIX — occupies a prominent place in Britain’s aviation heritage WORDS: BEN DUNNELL PHOTOGRAPHY: DARREN HARBAR

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A very rare image of the three BAE Systems Heritage aircraft in formation: DH60 Moth G-EBLV, Blackburn B-2 G-AEBJ and Avro XIX G-AHKX.

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BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE

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or BAE Systems to operate a trio of historic aircraft represents more than a nod to its predecessor companies. Through these machines it recalls the products of de Havilland, Blackburn and Avro, names that have long since been merged out of existence, but which will never be forgotten. Continuing to own and fly de Havilland DH60 Moth G-EBLV, Blackburn B-2 G-AEBJ and Avro XIX Anson Series 2 G-AHKX is perhaps the most prominent activity undertaken by BAE Systems Heritage, but there are many other strands to it. Some are ‘in-house’, like the Heritage Flight operation — based with the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden — or the heritage centres at BAE’s Brough and Warton plants, staffed by volunteer retirees and available for employees to look at. Assistance is given to researchers and historians through access to the company’s central archive at its Farnborough headquarters. Yet contributions are also made to organisations that exhibit heritage products, like the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Royal Navy Historic Flight, as well as museum projects such as the Avro Heritage Museum at Woodford, Aerospace Bristol at Filton, the RAF Museum London’s First World War in the Air exhibition and Brooklands Museum’s Re-engineering Brooklands programme. And it’s not just aviation that benefits, but land systems and maritime heritage too.

Shuttleworth too. “BAE Systems Flight Operations has four flying test pilots”, explains Peter. “One is the chief test pilot, and there are three others. We cover the Tornado, Hawk and Typhoon between us. Two of us fly the [Piper] PA-44 and two of us the PA-42 as comms aircraft, flying people around to get to simulators, pick up aircraft and attend meetings. I’m the only one that flies for Heritage and that flies at Shuttleworth. Paul Stone used to fly for the company, but he’s moved into the business and doesn’t now fly professionally. John Hurrell is a contractor, full-time but about to go part-time.” The Heritage Flight demands quite a considerable commitment for

because BAE Systems has a very active and successful apprenticeship scheme. Also the Moth is very similar to the one Amy Johnson flew to Australia” — though Johnson’s machine had a DH Gipsy engine rather than the ADC Cirrus III of G-EBLV — “and the Blackburn B-2 is the next type along from the Bluebird that Mildred Bruce flew round the world in. Both aircraft are useful in supporting the idea of getting women into aerospace and engineering, which is a major objective for the company. The Anson was heavily used by the Air Transport Auxiliary, which was an equal opportunities employer in World War Two. And all three of the aircraft have strong links with training, which is something we’re very active in today with the Hawk and other contracts. We pride ourselves on our training expertise, not just with the aircraft but with the knowledge base as well.” The aeroplanes are kept as active as possible within the boundaries of their capabilities. “There’s a balance between use and lack of use”, Peter remarks. “One engineer at Shuttleworth was saying that we did around 25 hours in the Anson last year. Previous years have seen very little use. We’re always very careful with what we do with the aircraft — for example, if we’re flying formation we’re extremely careful not to jockey the throttles”. He puts

MAIN LEFT: Peter Kosogorin and John Hurrell manoeuvre the Avro XIX for the camera. The aircraft is currently in the scheme it wore as the prototype for the Series 2 derivative of the post-war civil Anson. INSET LEFT: Although the Avro has six cabin seats, its CAA permit to fly restricts it to carrying just two people in addition to the two up front.

All three of the aircraft have strong links with training, which is something we’re very active in today the BAE Systems pilots involved, given that they’re based 200 miles from Old Warden. Regulations relating to crew duty hours must also be borne in mind. However, the expertise on hand at Shuttleworth helps to fill in. Shuttleworth chief pilot ‘Dodge’ Bailey can fly the Avro XIX, and several other collection pilots are seen in the B-2 and Moth. “The aircraft support a lot of the company themes”, Peter Kosogorin continues. “G-EBLV is the oldest surviving Moth, rebuilt by de Havilland apprentices in the early 1950s. That’s really important,

BELOW: The side-byside seating arrangement of the B-2 was unusual in its day, but works well. However, the type was never to achieve the success of its de Havilland rivals.

It doesn’t do any of this for corporate exposure or publicity, although it’s very happy with the amount of positive reaction it gets at airshows and events. After all, many may be unaware of its involvement, especially in terms of the backing for external organisations. The company simply considers it important as a key part of its community investment. The relationship with Shuttleworth is a crucial link to its early aviation heritage. A new heritage partnership agreement was signed earlier this year, “to outline future work between the Shuttleworth Collection and BAE Systems across a number of activities and the benefits this will bring to both organisations.” All three of BAE Systems’ Heritage Flight pilots, Peter Kosogorin, Paul Stone and John Hurrell, fly for

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BAE SYSTEMS HERITAGE

I love flying the Typhoon, I love flying the Hawk, but flying these aeroplanes is one of the highlights of my job

ABOVE: Shuttleworth chief pilot ‘Dodge’ Bailey in command of the B-2, accompanied by Paul Stone in the DH60.

their excellent serviceability down to engineering expertise, preventive maintenance and careful husbandry. Obviously, the BAE Systems aircraft fly at several Shuttleworth shows, but their presence elsewhere has proved most welcome. “During the summer”, Kosogorin says, “they’re used for displays, the priorities being RAF and Fleet Air Arm locations. We prioritise shows that involve customers, and where we have a BAE Systems presence”. This year has involved the Avro XIX attending the RAF Cosford and Scampton airshows, plus families’ days at Valley, Marham and Lossiemouth. Recent seasons have seen representation at RNAS Yeovilton and the Royal International Air Tattoo. Military displays aside, the aircraft are used to the benefit of good causes: in

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2017, the Avro has given flypasts at the Avro Heritage Museum at Woodford and the Arthington Show near Leeds, and made an appearance at the Blackbushe Festival of Flight. Both the Avro and B-2 have flown at Stow Maries, and in to Goodwood for the Revival, while the Moth and Blackburn joined the Avro at the new Scampton show. “Last year”, Peter adds, “we had a heritage week where we brought all the aircraft here to Warton. In addition to displays on the history of women in aviation, how aircraft manufacturing has changed over the years and on our historic customer markets, we flew about 40 people in total, mostly in the Anson — two at a time, or three at a time if you include

someone in the front seat — but some in the Moth and the B-2. That was to give the employees — because they’re the shareholders, if you like, in the heritage — an opportunity to see the aircraft at really close hand, to see them flying, and to have the possibility in what was basically a lottery of getting a flight.” It goes without saying that engineering support is crucial. “We don’t have any BAE Systems employees working on the aircraft at all”, Kosogorin says. “There is no specifically dedicated team, and Shuttleworth only has something like half a dozen permanent engineering staff. However, there are one or two people who have become the experts in our aircraft. One in particular, Toby Lee, is the expert on the Anson, and when we went away to ‘Lossie’ — which was a bit of a hike — the company arranged his presence on the aircraft to give us some engineering support. We also rely on Shuttleworth groundcrew volunteers to provide support at events such as Goodwood, RIAT and Scampton.” Long-distance sorties like that are obviously only possible with the Avro. Closer to home, it’s proved handy as a stand-in act at Old Warden in case of conditions being unsuitable for some of the lighter Shuttleworth aeroplanes, and it has a use in providing lead-in training on a twin piston-engined type. The BAE Systems pilots themselves train on all three aircraft at Shuttleworth’s annual April training week, but about a month beforehand they hold their own Heritage Flight training weekend. Says Kosogorin, “We’ll fly all the types, we’ll do some formations, we’ll do aerobatics [in the B-2], and we’ll do some practice displays”. They take the Anson to fly circuits at Duxford as part of that. For all displays, and often on transits, the Avro is flown two-up. “It’s partly for obvious airmanship reasons, but also because of things like the fuel cocks. It’s physically impossible to reach the fuel cocks from the left-hand seat. And you need about four arms to go through

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the starting procedure if there’s only one of you. “The display pilot is very much concentrating on airspeed, trimming the aircraft, and making sure that attitude and line are safe. The co-pilot can monitor the engines, look for line or, nowadays, secondary spectators. Situational awareness is greatly improved by having two people. One of the advantages of the Anson is the cockpit, which has a fabulous field of view. When you’re turning or doing a wingover you can look up and see all the way back over through the multiple panels of glass. The disadvantage is that before you start the engines it’s like a greenhouse.” What of the two biplanes? “We’re very gentle with the Moth”, comments Kosogorin, “and it’s the one of our aircraft that we’ve flown the least, probably, in the last 10-15 years. It’s got a lovely sound with the extended exhaust baffle, which the B-2 and the Tiger Moth don’t have. It’s responsive and it flies beautifully — the aircraft talks to you. “I can see why the B-2 was not as successful as the Tiger Moth. Its handling qualities are fine, and directionally it’s comfortable, but with a little bit of inattention it will wander a lot. I really like the sideby-side configuration — that’s nice. It’s spacious enough such that there’s no offset to the seats. Two adults can sit reasonably comfortably together, as comfortably as in some of the more modern closed-cockpit aircraft, though it’s really uncomfortable on a long flight because it’s a 90° seat back. For aerobatics it always strikes me it’s probably slightly underpowered. It’s difficult to achieve the speeds… but it flies beautifully.” For Peter Kosogorin and his Heritage Flight colleagues, the attraction of the Avro XIX, the Cirrus Moth and the B-2 remains as great now as when they first flew them. The contrasts with their respective day jobs are stark. In Peter’s words, “I love flying the Typhoon, I love flying the Hawk, but flying these aeroplanes is one of the highlights of my job. It keeps me very interested and loyal to the company — the fact that the company allows me to do it, but also supports heritage in such a practical way, is a wonderful thing.” ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: With thanks to John Bulmer and Howard Mason.

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DH60 MOTH G-EBLV • Built in 1925 as the sixth pre-production Moth • Delivered new by Alan Cobham to Lancashire Aero Club at Woodford • To private ownership in 1938; damaged at Castle Bromwich the following year • Re-registered to de Havilland in November 1941 and kept stored • Returned to flying condition at Panshanger by de Havilland Technical School apprentices during early 1950s • With DH and successor companies — Hawker Siddeley, British Aerospace, now BAE Systems — ever since, at Hatfield and today Old Warden

The ever-elegant G-EBLV attending a Denham fly-in during March 1953. GERALD LAWRANCE

A May 1970 shot of G-AHKX at Staverton during its time on the strength of Kemps Aerial Surveys. ADRIAN BALCH

AVRO XIX SERIES 2 G-AHKX • Built in 1946 at Avro factory at Yeadon, Leeds (now Leeds Bradford Airport), as prototype of civilian Series 2 variant • Served with Smiths Aircraft Instruments as hack/communications aircraft until 1960 • Then flew with numerous operators: Meridian Airmaps, Treffield International Airways, Kemp’s Aerial Surveys

• Sold to Strathallan Collection in 1974, becoming unairworthy; auctioned 1981 and bought by British Aerospace for £600 as a restoration project • Initially restored by apprentices, then retired ex-Avro volunteers at Woodford • Flew again on 8 March 2001 in hands of Al McDicken and restoration project leader Mike Taylor; based with Shuttleworth since 2002

BLACKBURN B-2 G-AEBJ

The world’s only airworthy B-2, then as now — G-AEBJ flying near its Brough birthplace in 1960. The side-by-side trainer continued to be based at the Yorkshire airfield until 2008. BAE SYSTEMS

• The 37th of 42 B-2s produced, built 1936 with Hermes IVa engine • Served at Hanworth with Blackburn Aircraft-owned Flying Training Ltd, which operated No 5 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School • Retained by Blackburn when rest of Hanworth-based B-2 fleet impressed by RAF in 1939 • Re-engined post-war with DH Gipsy Major • Based for many years at Brough, initially with the flying club and then as historic display aircraft • Moved to join other BAE Heritage aircraft at Old Warden in 2008

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meets

RICHARD LAKE The CEO of Eastern Airways is no ordinary airline boss, as his very active involvement in the warbird scene shows WORDS: BEN DUNNELL

T

here are airline bosses, and then there’s Richard Lake. Far removed from today’s common corporate image of a man in his position, the avuncular yet no-nonsense chief executive officer of Eastern Airways is an aviator through and through. What’s more, he’s one who understands and appreciates the history behind it all, as his activities on the warbird scene show. Richard’s office in Eastern Airways’ headquarters at Humberside Airport bears out his character. “Have a look at Douglas Bader’s leg”, he says before we sit down for our interview. Still in a wartime box, the prosthetic limb is the replacement one dropped by an RAF Blenheim while Bader was hospitalised in St-Omer following his shoot-down over France in August 1941, and forms part of an extensive private collection of items relating to Sir Douglas’s career. On the walls Richard naturally has many photos from his own life in aviation — but also, I couldn’t help but notice, one of him with that marvellous comedy performer Graham Fellows

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in his most recognisable role as Sheffield singer-songwriter John Shuttleworth, along with the Austin Ambassador featured in Shuttleworth’s song ‘Y-reg’. It turns out that Lake and Fellows are friends and near-neighbours. And what of Richard’s own collections? Well, aside from his two immaculate Spitfires, LFXVIe TD248 and FRXVIIIe SM845, a Nord 3202 trainer he’s owned for years and two of the last Jet Provosts he keeps from an inventory that once ran into many dozens, there’s a choice classic car fleet. Having once raced motorcycle sidecars competitively to international level, Richard has long been a competitor in historic motorsport events such as the Le Mans Classic and Monaco Historique, often aboard his 1930s Aston Martin 15/98 or a 1952 HWM Formula 2 car. But his favourite, he says, is his late-model Austin Maxi. Both his children learned to drive in this veritable symbol of 1970s’ Britain, a period — “the three-day week, [Scottish miners’ leader] Mick

Richard Lake flying his Spitfire LFXVIe, TD248, in the lead of Cliff Spink in Buchón G-AWHE. RICHARD PAVER

A colourful line of Global Aviation’s ex-RAF Jet Provosts at Binbrook in 1996. Most airworthy JPs on the civil scene passed through the company’s hands at one time or another. RICHARD PAVER

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The end of a good day’s JP formation flying from Binbrook, so how better to celebrate than a lobster lunch, presided over by Richard in his Pope’s outfit? RICHARD PAVER

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AEROPLANE MEETS… RICHARD LAKE

TOP: A highlight of Richard’s flying career: airborne over the Okavango delta in one of a pair of ex-Botswana Defence Force Strikemasters.

VIA RICHARD LAKE

MIDDLE: An early flight in a Rotec Rally ultralight.

VIA RICHARD LAKE

BOTTOM: Richard campaigned Nord 1101 G-BSMD, masquerading as a Messerschmitt Me 208, on the airshow scene in the early 1990s.

VIA RICHARD LAKE

McGahey and so on” — he finds truly fascinating. There aren’t many other warbird owner-pilots whose heritage interests are quite so wide-ranging. “I was born in a place called Waltham”, says Richard, “and my house almost backed on to an old Lancaster base. My very formative years were spent mucking around, digging up bullets on No 100 Squadron’s old airfield, RAF Grimsby as it was known. Then I suppose the biggest airborne ‘thump’ that I had was when I won a ‘guess the release height’ competition at an airshow at RAF Bardney in about 1970. I guessed the release height of the glider, and won a flight in a glider that I promptly took. From the age of nine or 10 I was convinced that I had to go into the air, and I did.

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“When I was about 14 I managed to scrabble enough money together to buy a Weedhopper from the States. It duly arrived about six months later. I put it together in my garage and tried to fly the thing. Well, Weedhopper by name and Weedhopper by nature. It was the worst aeroplane I ever flew. “I was very interested in sticking engines on hang-gliders with homemade propellers, and I fiddled around doing all that until I was 16, getting airborne with various pre-microlights, the very first generation that was available. I did lots of paper rounds to earn the money to do it, and packed potatoes and various other things. It was the good old days of no licence, nothing — you just poked around the

sky. Then I was sent away for a short career in the Merchant Navy. “I had my first aeroplane, a Jodel D112, when I was 20 years old. I used to fly it from my sister’s horse paddock. To some degree I committed to being involved with old aeroplanes. I’m a bit of a nostalgist, and I like the nostalgia and the history that come with aeroplanes. I am not interested in the modern-day kit — I’m surrounded by it, because that’s the day job that pays for it, but my interest is in aviation nostalgia. The people that you interact with in that process are quite fascinating. “Throughout the ’80s I moved on to Harvards and Stearmans, flying them from a strip at Manby near Louth. I just got on with it. Roger Windley owned a Stearman,

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G-ROAN, that I had a share in and used to fly. It disappeared off on a film one day and was lost [the movie was The Aviator, starring Christopher Reeve, and the Stearman was wrecked in a storm at Krk in Yugoslavia]. “For me one of the most important training aeroplanes that I ever had was a Nord 3202, G-BIZM, which I’ve still got. I bought that in 1987, and it taught me everything I knew. That was my slight liking for offthe-wall educational aeroplanes. It’s a reasonably high-performance trainer with a wing like a barn door. I had a Nord 1101, masquerading as a Messerschmitt Me 208, and I did a few airshows in the late ’80s and early ’90s with that. Nothing happened to me that frightened me, which it should have done. I also had a

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Cassutt IIIM, and used to participate in Formula One air racing. I just enjoyed off-the-wall aeroplanes that were slightly more challenging than the usual Cessnas.” And what of day-to-day work? “After I logged out of the Merchant Navy I logged in to engineering. I started a company with a bunch of engineers that did shaft maintenance for British Coal, maintaining the winding gear”. It all helped pay for Richard’s next step up in aviation. “All that”, he says, “culminated in the acquisition of more than 100 Jet Provosts and Strikemasters. It was an opportunity. I thought I wouldn’t mind a little jet trainer, so I bought a single Jet Provost T3A off tender

from the Ministry of Defence in about 1988. I scratched around trying to find the bits to put it together, and over a period of two years managed to do so. For much of it I was helped by Sandy Topen [founder of the Cranfield-based Vintage Aircraft Team], who I was hanging around with a bit at weekends. He was a fabulously unusual man, but if we didn’t have the Sandy Topens of this world a lot of things wouldn’t be flying today. I got this JP certified, which was difficult at the time. It had about half a per cent fatigue life left on it, so we flew it very gingerly.” Richard did his own jet transition on the Jet Provost. He describes it as, “rather pudding-like and heavy, but comfortable to fly. The guy who did my conversion was the CAA

ABOVE: Beautiful silver Spitfire FRXVIIIe SM845 became the second ‘Spit’ in Richard’s warbird fleet. Here it’s in the hands of Cliff Spink, with the owner in TD248. RICHARD PAVER

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AEROPLANE MEETS… RICHARD LAKE

ABOVE: Global Aviation keeps two of the Jet Provosts from a fleet that once ran into the dozens. T5A XW333/G-BVTC is still airworthy. JOHN DUNNELL

test pilot Bob Cole. He used to come and stay at my house and we’d talk aeroplanes. “I kind of got a bit of a thirst for them. I enjoyed flying the aeroplanes — at the time I was operating out of RAF Binbrook, which was on care and maintenance as a relief landing ground for Scampton, so I had plenty of space — and I had a bit of technical help. I started buying more and buying more, and ended up with more than 100 JPs and Strikemasters coming through my hands. As I got to know the aeroplanes and the technical side of them I’d buy one, sell one, buy two, sell three, moving them on. They’ve gone to the four corners of the world. “As ever, I learned a lot. And what a fabulous aeroplane. At any one time I had about 70. Mostly they were airworthy, but from Saudi Arabia we recovered about 45 Strikemasters, and 10 from Botswana. It was a private arrangement with British Aerospace; because I had a team of people who knew the JPs insideout, we were tasked to go out there, and I subsequently bought them from BAe. As a professional job we refurbished some Strikemasters for the Ecuadorian Air Force, for their training wing — setting them up engine test facilities and that sort of thing. One of the most memorable times was flying a Strikemaster over the Okavango delta in Botswana — almost one of my three or four highlights in aviation.” Global Aviation’s operation at Binbrook became a substantial

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undertaking. “It was almost a factory”, recalls Richard. “And we were trying to maintain a bit of sensibility about who we sold them to. Anything that was exported was done in conjunction with the authorities, and we didn’t want these things to go into the hands of people who would cause a fledgling industry — the jet display scene — a problem. I was mature in my approach of selling these aeroplanes or disposing of them, and making sure they went into the hands of people who understood what they were doing. I think we did a good job, actually.” There was fun to be had, too. “We had some good times, and I met some great people. We just decided once to have a formation day with six or seven JPs, and because it was such a beautiful day, and we were rather near the coast, I thought we’d have a lobster lunch. I organised a great big feast, and to bless the lobsters I put my Pope’s outfit on. You never know when you might need a Pope’s outfit…” With all the RAF’s Jet Provosts replaced by the Tucano and the worldwide Strikemaster fleet largely sold on, by the late 1990s there weren’t many of either left to go through Global Aviation. But as the Binbrook operation wound down, Richard’s attentions were increasingly being devoted to his new airline, Eastern Airways. “I had a number of people working offshore in Aberdeen”, he says. “KLM

uk used to do the run to Aberdeen from Humberside, and they decided one day they weren’t going to do it any more. I quickly thought, how am I going to move my people up and down from this area, in the northern gas area, to that area? “I obtained an Icelandic-registered Fairchild Metroliner and started flying my own people. The ’phone started ringing with companies asking if they could put their people on it, and it went from there. I was intrigued by airlines at the time, even though I don’t fly commercially, and I wondered if I could build a business to fly oil and gas people up and down the east coast. It’s 20 years old this year. “After a couple of years I needed an engineering organisation. Tim Kilroe had Air Kilroe at Manchester, which had been going for many, many years. We bought it off him and operated in Manchester for about three years, but it was very difficult because we were the smallest in the pecking order of engineering organisations there and it was hard to retain staff. The decision was made to move everything to Humberside Airport, which is what we have now”. The Air Kilroe acquisition in 1999 also included an air operator’s certificate and a pair of Jetstream 32s, crucial steps in Eastern’s expansion. Through all this, Richard still had the much-loved Nord 3202 and a remaining pair of Jet Provosts, T3A XN498/G-BWSH and T5A XW333/G-BVTC. “I was still flying those”, he remembers, “but not to

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the serious intent that I’d been prior. I had a bit of a rest for a few years, because my energies were focused on the business. Then I had an opportunity to buy a Spitfire, which, naturally, is everybody’s dream.” The aircraft in question was lowbacked LFXVIe TD248, operated by Spitfire Ltd. Its regular pilot Cliff Spink arranged the sale and, in 2008, converted Richard on to the fighter. “I was quite happy with it”, he says understatedly. Around the same time, he also bought Hispano HA‑1112‑M1L Buchón N109ME from the Commemorative Air Force, which was returned to flight by the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford. It took to the air again as G-AWHE — its old identity during its time with Spitfire Productions for the Battle of Britain filming — during May 2011, in the hands of John Romain. Both John and Cliff have been key figures in Richard’s recent warbird activity. For its new owner, the Buchón would be a less regular mount than the Spitfire XVI. “Because I’m slightly large around the tummy”, he remarks, “it was almost impossible for me to sit in it. I did a few flights in it for the privilege, but it’s more a Cliff Spink mount than a Richard Lake mount. Nothing adjusts in it — the rudder pedals don’t adjust, and I had to go and diet to get the stick all the way back. No matter what we did with seats and all the rest of it, it was just too small and I’m just too big for it.” How did he find the Buchón when he sampled it, then? “Actually, from a good background of flying Cassutts and little high-performance tailwheel twitchy buggers, provided you keep the thing generally into wind and don’t get too excited on the power on take-off — and keep the tail down — it’s fine. Once it’s in the air it’s a delight.” Bought as a project following a fatal landing accident in Norway in August 2010, Spitfire FRXVIIIe SM845 completed the three-strong warbird fleet. Completed by Historic Flying, it was re-flown in December 2013. “I must admit”, says Richard, “even though everybody who flies the MkXVIII says, ‘This is the one’, my preference is the MkXVI. I think it’s absolutely delightfully balanced in every way.”

Richard does display flying in the Spitfires himself. He describes it as, “Nothing too exciting, but enough. Because I used to stare at them for so many years, I sort of know what I want to see. I want to hear it and I want to see it at various angles. I don’t want its neck wrung aerobatically for the privilege, I just like to see the shape and sound of that aeroplane, because it’s magical. I’m not too keen on doing the big displays… I’d rather go to a smaller show — Forties weekends, village events, that sort of thing — and give the look and sound to a few thousand people who really get excited by just hearing a Merlin and seeing a Spitfire.” Much of the country, meanwhile, was excited in 2014 when four more

its expenses, which it did, and my guarantee wasn’t called upon. It was there as the trigger for the trustees to say, ‘OK, we trust his financial guarantee: it can go’.” Naturally, Richard was given a place on the flight across from Canada. “I met it in Iceland, and flew with Don Schofield right down to Coningsby. We had an appointment to keep at Coningsby [on 8 August] because it was stuffed full of veterans. Over the middle of the Atlantic at 12,000ft between Iceland and Stornoway, in a Lancaster with a bit of water coming in, was rather a strange feeling. It was quite a spiritual feeling. “As we started to descend towards the UK, passing over Stornoway, we got reports of the weather being not very good. We ended up doing some straight-line flying over areas that a civil aeroplane normally wouldn’t be allowed over. The radar stations were guiding us in, and everybody in the air traffic world was encouraging that Lancaster to get to Coningsby on time. Quite remarkable. We went right over the top of Edinburgh, right over the top of Newcastle. Local knowledge of this area helped: let’s follow this river, let’s follow that river, when we see Tattershall Castle turn sharp left. Lo and behold, Coningsby’s runway. We got to Coningsby by the skin of our teeth. That was absolutely amazing. Even the Red Arrows couldn’t come and meet us because the weather was so bad. “We had the Lancaster here at Humberside for about three weeks, and we flew more than 120 people, mostly veterans. I heard the most amazing stories from them. Most of them said it was the best thing

Don Schofield from the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum asked who was going to pay for the Lancaster tour. I had another bottle of wine and said, ‘I will’. We put a plan together

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Merlins powered the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s Lancaster X FM213 across the Atlantic for a memorable summer tour. What many people may have been unaware of was Richard’s pivotal role in making it happen. A not-sochance meeting at the previous year’s Battle of Britain Memorial Flight annual dinner was the trigger. Says Richard, “It was very cannily engineered by Dunc Mason [the then officer commanding of the BBMF] that I’d sit next to the good gentleman from Canadian Warplane Heritage [Lancaster chief pilot Don Schofield]. I demolished a bottle of wine, he told me what he’d like to do, and I agreed that that’s what he should do. He then said, ‘Who’s going to pay for it?’ I had another bottle of wine and said, ‘I will’. “On the basis of that we put a plan together where I financially underwrote it. I did understand that they didn’t want this aeroplane stuck in the UK with problems, and the trustees quite rightly said that if someone could financially underwrite it, the aeroplane could come across. I did just that. I knew that my risk was very slim, because it would be welcomed so much over here that it would generate enough money for

BELOW: With one of Eastern Airways’ Saab 2000s. The carrier became the first British airline to operate the Swedish twin-turboprop. EASTERN AIRWAYS

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AEROPLANE MEETS… RICHARD LAKE

ABOVE: Without Richard, the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum Lancaster tour of the UK in summer 2014 would never have happened.

CWHM

they’d ever done in their life: to revisit the memories that it generated. In the hangar here virtually every day we had old men sat on chairs, some of them weeping, some of them talking. A lot of them suddenly opened up to their grandchildren, and the grandchildren would go, ‘I didn’t even know’. I feel, personally and privately, very pleased to have been able to do that, way in excess of anything to do with bringing the Lancaster across. “Millions of people saw the two Lancasters all round the country. I think it had a profound effect, to some degree, on that summer — on the spirit of the nation. And I was so pleased that, for once, everyone was so helpful: the authorities, the airports. Everybody was very, very positive. I flew on it many times, and flying in formation with another Lancaster: terrific.” The close link with the BBMF was further cemented a year later, when Richard put together a Battle of Britain 75th anniversary event at Humberside on 13 August 2015. It marked ‘Adlertag’ (‘Eagle Day’), the

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start of the Luftwaffe’s major effort to destroy the RAF at its airfields. “I’d decided with Dunc Mason that we should do something… I said, ‘We’ve got an airfield here; let’s see if we can get 13 machines’. It wasn’t a public display. I got good old BP to pay for the fuel, and we decided to fly these aeroplanes around the east of England to let people see and hear a formation of Spitfires gently flown over a large area. That’s what we did. The response was humbling and phenomenal as usual. People pulled off to the side of roads and sat in fields to just watch these aeroplanes go by.” All the while, Eastern Airways has carried on developing. Named as 2014’s Gold Airline of the Year by the European Regions Airline Association, its fleet now comprises examples of the Jetstream 41 (Eastern being the UK’s last commercial Jetstream operator), ATR-72, Saab 2000 and Embraer 175. Nineteen airports around Britain and mainland

Europe are on the schedule. For five years the Eastern Group has owned Humberside Airport itself, the purchase being made from the Manchester Airports Group. Sixty per cent of the business was sold to Bristow in 2014, and a franchise partnership has been entered into with Flybe, but Richard remains a very hands-on CEO. “I enjoy it”, he says. “I enjoy the people, and I enjoy the production of our 150-160 flights a day. It’s a busy activity, and it’s what I do — apart from fly historic aeroplanes.” The Buchón has gone, being sold in early 2017 to the Hangar-10 collection in Germany. Richard now has designs on another, larger warbird type. “The next aeroplane I’ve put on my list”, he reveals, “is definitely a B-25 Mitchell — the bomber that flies like a fighter. I think this country needs one.” What it also needs is new blood on the historic aircraft scene. Richard remembers fondly the people he met during his formative years around old aeroplanes: Ormond Haydon-Baillie when he used to see what was going on at Duxford in the 1970s, Lindsay Walton on the airshow scene, Sandy Topen, the great ‘Dizzy’ Addicott — not least when the Memphis Belle movie was filmed at Binbrook during Richard’s time as the airfield leaseholder, and ‘Dizzy’ came to fly Aces High’s B-25 cameraship — and Bob Thompson when the JPs started arriving. “Aviation’s given me the good fortune to meet some incredible people”, he says. “They always had time for you, and that’s something I try to give back.” Eastern Airways has done a lot of that, giving young pilots a leg-up in the early phases of their careers before they go on to bigger things. Richard wants to see that among historic aircraft, too. “Flying’s been very good to me, and I’ve tried to be good to it. We need to make a bit of an extra effort to bring people in, both on the flying side and the technical side. If you do make that little push, they’re in, they want to do it. You’ve just got to open the door for them to come in. We’re generating all this machinery — the populations of Spitfires and other warbirds — but someone’s got to take them on to the next generation. Who’s that going to be? We need to start seeding that now.” He’s absolutely right, of course. But it’s a fair bet that no-one from that next generation will have anything like the career that Richard Lake’s had.

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ROTHMANS TEAM

I

In the 1970s, two acts often shared top airshow billing: the Red Arrows and the Rothmans Aerobatic Team. Flying first the Stampe and then the Pitts Special, its ranks populated by legendary names, no wonder Rothmans’ outfit is revered to this day

WORDS: JEANNE FRAZER

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IN YOUR EYES M

ore than 35 years after its last ever public performance, memories of the Rothmans Aerobatic Team still remain vivid in the minds of many. It’s rare to encounter anyone, be they a display pilot or airshow enthusiast, who doesn’t either clearly remember having seen them, or who wishes they’d been born in time to have done so, the common thread being one of admiration. The first team ever to perform a genuine slow roll in tight formation, its reputation for precision flying and innovative manoeuvres was quickly established, and ultimately delighted many millions around the world. Testimony would seem to justify the accolade of ‘legendary’ status, achieved over 11 seasons of consistent excellence demonstrated by a team which secured its place in the annals as the first full-time, professional civilian aerobatic outfit on the planet. Legend abounds when it comes to team history. The tempting version of its origins is that Michael ‘Manx’ Kelly met John Brown, managing director of Carreras Rothmans when the story began in 1970, in a Buckinghamshire pub and persuaded him over a pint or two that sponsoring an aerobatic team would be a good idea. The venue might indeed be true, but according to one of the many lyrical articles penned by the late James Gilbert, Manx was honing his aerobatic skills at a local flying club when he discovered that Brown was a fellow member. After 19 years’ service with the RAF, flying Meteors, Swifts and Hunters before being assigned with the rank of squadron leader to a stultifying desk job, Manx took the decision to resign his commission. His real love was for a more basic kind of flying and he dreamed of forming his own light aircraft aerobatic team. Brown, whether or not because he was a pilot, was convinced of the potential and quickly set the wheels in motion to initiate the sponsorship. Manx resolved to use the Stampe SV-4 biplane, which had been out of production for 20 years. Two were sourced from France, dismantled and restored to airworthiness by Rollasons, to be paired with another

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couple they themselves were in the process of bringing back to flying condition. A mere three months after initial talks with Rothmans, Manx led three other ex-RAF pilots — Ray Hoggarth as number two, Iain Weston as number three and Neil Williams as box man — in the team’s May 1970 display debut at Blackbushe Airport. Personal Plane Services (PPS) had been established at Wycombe Air Park, otherwise known as Booker, by Doug Bianchi, primarily to restore and maintain vintage aircraft. Manx and Doug struck a deal for PPS to look after the team’s Stampes, a productive association which lasted through to operation of the Pitts, and beyond both their lifetimes. HQ for Manx and his merry men at Booker was an un-insulated and chilly Portakabin. Kelly Aeroplane Ltd had been formed as operating company for the enterprise by Manx and his wife Judy, with another retired RAF

pilot, Pete Woodham, managing the office set-up for them. During 1971, when annual appearances doubled to nearly 80, Manx was followed around the sky by a changeable line-up. Iain Weston had stayed on, but two new pilots departed the fold early in the season. Neil was tempted back, to enable temporary operation as a three-ship until recruitment of Barry Tempest revived the full complement. Despite these hiccups, it proved an outstanding year for Manx, as well as for team kudos and their sponsor: somehow Manx found time to compete in aerobatic contests and was crowned British champion, and the team was signed up for the prestigious Paris Air Show at Le Bourget. A consistent stable over the next two seasons comprised Kelly, Weston, Andrew White and Mike Findlay, and it was this crew that effected the seamless changeover when their elderly mounts were relinquished in favour of the bees-knees Americandesigned Pitts S-2A, in readiness

ABOVE: For some reason, at a Rothmans preseason press day at Blackbushe in May 1970 the Stampes weren’t thought interesting enough on their own… KEYSTONE PICTURES/ALAMY

LEFT: A Pitts S-2A mirror formation during the Rothmans Aerobatic Team’s last Middle East sojourn in 1980. ExFleet Air Arm pilot Marcus Edwards was by now leader. VIA MIKE EDWARDS

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ROTHMANS TEAM

TOP: Team founder Manx Kelly in Aerotek factory-fresh Pitts S-2A G-BADW. His nickname, incidentally, stemmed from the music hall song ‘Kelly from the Isle of Man’.

JAMES GILBERT VIA DAVE PULESTON

ABOVE: The 1973 line-up for the first season on the Pitts: from left to right, Manx Kelly, Iain Weston, Mike Findlay, Andy White and commentator Nick Daniels.

ROTHMANS VIA DAVE PULESTON

ABOVE RIGHT: Manx Kelly puts Pitts G-BADX on the knife-edge during a Rothmans formation sortie with the new mounts in 1973.

JAMES GILBERT VIA DAVE PULESTON

for their 1973 schedule of 100 displays. The Stampe’s limitations had been preventing any natural progression of the team’s routine. “For instance”, Manx recorded, “it was a constant struggle to gain and hold the sort of altitude needed for the manoeuvres we wanted to introduce. The machine simply was not fast enough or sufficiently versatile”. In 1966, Bob Herendeen had won the US nationals in a Pitts S-1C, and the world title in 1972 went to Charlie Hillard in a 200hp S-1S. So when Rothmans agreed to invest in the best available alternative, Manx’s recommendation was unambiguous: “it has to be the Pitts Special.” Today a familiar type in British skies, rewind 40-odd years and the Pitts was a rare bird. An S-1S, which featured symmetrical wings but a fixed-pitch propeller, had been purchased by Aerobatics International in the nick of time for the British team to compete in the 1972 World Aerobatic Championships, but any significant expansion of the UK fleet was still a decade or so away. Manx understood the importance of his choice when it came to indulging the needs of a sponsor, and opted for the S-2A version. Not only did its capabilities — boasting 200hp and a fully inverted fuel and oil system — enable the pilots to design and fly an entirely refreshed, energetic and more spectacular routine without

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loss of height, but its open-cockpit and passenger seat configuration replicated that of the vintage Stampe. In exploiting media coverage, the facility to offer flights to members of the press was essential. Staging of press days was a regular requirement of Rothmans, if not at Booker then upon early arrival at a display venue. So were special air-to-air sorties, when the likes of James Gilbert, Mike Vines and other favoured aviation photographers of the day

Manx Kelly’s recommendation for a Stampe replacement was unambiguous: “it has to be the Pitts Special”

were given unlimited airborne time, either in the Pitts or a cameraship, to snap away and provide them with new publicity material. By 1974, the team was relishing its second season utilising the Pitts, and once again employing a variable pilot line-up. White’s place had already been relinquished to Tim Mills, and some time into the calendar Williams was re-recruited when Canada beckoned Manx to set up the Carling Red Caps Aerobatic Team. Towards the end of the year, Williams’ other commitments took priority and resulted in a debut for Dave Perrin, the team’s first civiliantrained pilot. Perrin was destined to fly for Rothmans until the collapse of all its aerobatic sponsorship at the end of 1981. At the time of the team’s appearance in Monaco, at the invitation of Prince Rainier to perform in honour of the 25th anniversary of his accession to the throne, Weston was leading Findlay, Mills and Williams. One can imagine the sponsor’s pleasure when requests were received from Princesses Grace and Caroline to be flown! Another extra-curricular activity that year saw a ‘swap’ day with the Red Arrows, when the pilots of each were flown during the other’s display practice. There being little attention in the seventies devoted to liability, accountability or any related labyrinth

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‘HANGING ON’

B of risk assessments, the exercise was sanctioned with relative ease, though the ex-military backgrounds of the pilots no doubt helped the cause. Blanket news coverage of the pairing resulted, sufficient to satisfy the bean-counters at Rothmans — and doubtless their PR company to boot who, if true to form, would have totted up the value of the column inches and promptly headed out for an extended and expensive lunch. Contemporary airshow posters frequently heralded “The Red Arrows and the Rothmans Aerobatic Team” in parallel top billing. Historically these serve to illustrate both the high standing and reputation of the team in its heyday, as well as its uniqueness. Today’s fabulous wealth of civilian display teams — Blades, Yakovlevs, Global Stars — was not on the radar. Prior to the puffing of fags being deemed anti-social behaviour, and before the government engaged seriously in the process of curtailing tobacco advertising, half a floor of Rothmans’ substantial Baker Street office block was devoted to its special events department. The incumbents were responsible for managing a startling array of sportrelated sponsorships, each under the banner of a brand owned by the company: Dunhill was chosen for polo, yachting, show-jumping (and even one star-studded transAtlantic backgammon tournament played aboard the QE2 by the

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arry Tempest was already a seasoned display pilot by the time he joined the Stampe-mounted Rothmans Aerobatic Team during 1971, but even he found the learning curve a steep one. “Manx Kelly had approached me earlier about joining”, says Barry, “but I said no. I wasn’t satisfied that Rothmans would continue the sponsorship for more than a couple of years”. Then two pilots dropped out, and Kelly came calling again. “I’d done lots of aerobatics”, says Barry. “I’d done quite a lot of formation flying, but formation aeros? No. My introduction to it was to pick the spare Stampe up at Booker and fly it down to Exeter. I had to be there by nine in the morning; then they’d start my training. We briefed and went off as a pair. Forty-five minutes later we landed, debriefed, rebriefed, went off as a three-ship. After another 45 minutes we landed, debriefed, rebriefed, went off again as a three-ship. Finally we did two slots as a four-ship. That was all in one day. The next day we did the first airshow. The Stampe has an aluminium control column — it must have ended up half the diameter it was before I started, I was gripping it so hard. It took me a long time to relax, it really did. I wasn’t that good, but I improved over time. I hung on, shall we say? “And there were some lovely, lovely days. We started as a four-ship, then split for opposition manoeuvres and so forth. We rejoined as a four-ship and Neil Williams or Manx did a solo routine, all in a 25-minute slot. One day we did a show off Plymouth Hoe, and Manx said he wanted me to bugger off on a southerly heading and hold over the water before he’d call me back in for the rejoin. I duly split and went out two miles to the south, where directly underneath me was HMS Illustrious. They had a wonderful solo aerobatic display from a Stampe, level with the superstructure. I really enjoyed that, and we got a lovely telegram from the captain saying, ‘Excellent display, and glad you didn’t try to land’. “Each team pilot got a carton of Rothmans King Size every week. I was the only smoker, and, what’s more, I smoked Benson and Hedges. I took the Rothmans cigarettes out of the pack, put Bensons back in, smoked those and had a full pack of Rothmans in my other pocket to offer the sponsors’ guests… “I only did a year with them. Manx wanted me to continue, but it had been very hectic. I didn’t have a day off for the full season — I was either with Rothmans or the Barnstormers, or instructing. And I still thought Rothmans would pack it in. In fact, they stayed with it for 12 years.” Ben Dunnell

ABOVE: The Stampe SV-4 — a mixture of DH Gipsy Majorpowered SV-4B and Renault-engined SV‑4C models — held sway from 1970-72. In the second of those years, Barry Tempest joined the fold. ROTHMANS VIA DAVE PULESTON

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ROTHMANS TEAM

ROTHMANS REVIVAL

ABOVE: Restored Pitts S-2A G-BADZ being flown over Wiltshire by Jeremy Liber. The cameraship pilot was Phil Hall.

IAN FRIMSTON

BELOW: A touch of glamour — no, not team commentator Brendan O’Brien (left), but Princess Grace of Monaco following her Pitts flight over the principality in 1974.

ROTHMANS VIA DAVE PULESTON

likes of Omar Sharif ), Piccadilly for golf, while motor racing, tennis, football, rugby, snooker and more were conducted under the umbrella of Rothmans. Some well-established events merely welcomed an injection of funds in return for incorporating the sponsor’s name in the title. Innovative proposals for others were conjured up by the department as a desirable sponsorship vehicle, negotiations filtered through the sport’s national body and, hey presto, a new event was launched. Some of these survive, albeit with less controversial sponsors: World Match Play golf at Wentworth, tennis at the Albert Hall, and Christmas showjumping at Olympia.

For those with long enough memories, it’s a sight for sore eyes: a genuine Rothmans Aerobatic Team Pitts Special flying once more in Rothmans colours. One of the original mounts when the team converted from Stampe to Pitts for the 1973 season, Aerotek-built S-2A G-BADZ has been the subject of a magnificent restoration at Oaksey Park, Wiltshire, as part of which it was returned to Rothmans colours. It took to the air again on 2 April 2016. The owner of ’BADZ, Robert Warner, has now put this piece of air display history up for sale — should any readers have a genuine interest in buying it, please contact the editor. Ben Dunnell In 1974, I was attracted by a job advertisement in The Times and found myself hired to concentrate on two sections, one being Dunhill yachting — Cowes Week, Admiral’s Cup, numerous other affairs afloat and a boozy press lounge at the London Boat Show — and the other the Rothmans Aerobatic Team. At that stage, ‘aerobatic’ was shockingly absent from my vocabulary, and I had no inkling of how central the threedimensional aerial art would be to my own future. A few months later, Richard Butler relinquished the adrenalin buzz of the company’s motor racing involvements to move desks and take over sponsorship management of the team. Rapidly renamed ‘Biggles’, Butler served in the role until 1980, masterminding not only the UK appearance schedules but all the team’s overseas tours, on which he accompanied them as tour manager. Mike Findlay assumed the lead in 1975. With Weston, Perrin and Colin Woods, their schedule took them to Finland and Sweden, as well as to Le Bourget and the traditional round of UK venues. Woods remained for the next season to take over as number one, recruiting Graham Rutson and Bob Thompson to join Perrin, and

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took on the added task of organising the flying programme for Rothmans’ own airshow at Booker on 1 May 1976. For those involved who knew Manx, the day was blighted by the awful news early on of his death; the Acroduster he was flying in California had come apart in mid-air. Earlier in the year, he’d notched up a highly successful solo tour around the Gulf for Rothmans, flying at more than 20 venues in fewer days. Manx’s pioneering for future excursions by the team reflected the tobacco industry’s need to seek new markets in the light of increasing UK advertising restrictions. In 1977, when a tour of the Middle East loomed, days were absorbed in applications for impossible overflight permissions of countries whose masters were reputed to cut off the hands of those who displeased them. Smoke diesel needed to be prepositioned in unlikely desert outposts, display permissions sanctioned in places where camels feared to tread, and then there was the diverting issue of baksheesh en route… The biplanes were dismantled, packed and transported, and the pilots — Findlay, Rutson, Perrin and Williams — took airline flights to meet up with their mounts. Shortly into the trip, Neil’s staccato instruction came: “We need a

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specialist Pitts engineer out here sharpish. You’ll find the best chap lurking in a hangar at Farnborough; his name’s Geoff Masterton”. A round of passport and visa applications later, he was on his way. It proved a clarion call, as on return from the Rothmans job Geoff resigned from his secure employment and set up as an independent aircraft engineer. His first workshop at Worplesdon had no landing strip, but from the outset was packed with fuselages of Zlins and Tiger Moths, wings and an array of engines. Geoff ’s operation later moved to a farm strip at Chessington, where it flourished until his sudden death from a heart attack. To the very last, ‘Mastermind’ was a key player in negotiations with BAE Systems to transfer design authority for de Havilland piston types to a new company of which he was a founding director. One could ponder as to whether the DH fleet would today have the benefit of ongoing technical back-up — and hence remain eligible for Cs of A — without his formative role in de Havilland Support and, by a fluke of history, without the springboard of Rothmans. Brendan O’Brien, recruited as team commentator in 1974, may not have needed Rothmans to propel his aviation career, nor to trigger his wider fame as a Discovery Channel presenter. Like his predecessors, the role tasked him to fly the fifth, ‘spare’ Pitts to each venue, and excite audiences via the public address. With his unique style and exceptionally broad vocabulary, Brendan excelled when it came to the dual demands of broadcasting the required script and being a natural improviser, a rare talent in sponsorrelated commentaries. The 1977 season culminated with the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Air Pageant at White Waltham in May, billed as a farewell performance. Rothmans blamed the British government’s imposition of an End Product Tax, saying that it “trebles the costs to the smoker of any sponsorship”. However, the lull didn’t last long. By July it was known that the team was being re-formed under a new operator for overseas displays. Kelly Aeroplane was succeeded by Anvil Aviation, which combined the team base and engineering support at Teesside Airport. Its director was Bob Thompson and, as team leader, he began the season with Marcus

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A new addition to the team in 1978, G-BECM heads the four-ship here. ROTHMANS VIA DAVE PULESTON

Accompanying Shorts 330 demonstrator G-BDBS (today preserved by the Ulster Aviation Society) on a Middle Eastern tour. KEY COLLECTION

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ROTHMANS TEAM

ABOVE: A Rothmans stalwart both as team member and solo performer, the much-missed David Perrin was among the very finest aerobatic exponents of his day.

ROTHMANS VIA DAVE PULESTON

ABOVE RIGHT: David Perrin flying Pitts S-2S G-SOLO, his display and contest mount for 1980-81.

ROTHMANS VIA DAVE PULESTON

Edwards, George Smith, Perrin and Findlay. Ambitious tours of West Africa, the Canaries, Spain, Greece, Egypt and the Gulf were undertaken. After Smith died in a crash in Lanzarote in late May, his place was taken by Mike Cairns. Edwards took the lead in 1979 to create a five-ship with Cairns, Rod Rea, Alan Dix and thriller writer Brian Lecomber. As the UK season ended, the team headed off to fly another 80 displays in Malaysia. Worldwide demand spurred Rothmans to create a second team, and another four pilots — John McLean, Andy Legge, Bob Ruskell and Pete Jones — were recruited. Throughout 1980 they operated in tandem to tour the Middle East, the UK, West Africa, Sudan, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus and the Far East. It was a bumper year for Rothmans, which initiated an individual sponsorship with Dave Perrin. His remit was not only to display the 280hp Pitts S-2S, but to aim for the British aerobatic title. The aircraft was constructed by Anvil, but operated from Booker where the maintenance relationship with PPS was rekindled, this time with Doug Bianchi’s son. Tony was a friend and co-competitor at unlimited level, and the talented pair worked well together. I had left the Rothmans fold three years earlier to go freelance, and Perrin’s invitation to return as tour manager and competition coach for his solo enterprise was typically persuasive and impossible to refuse. Perrin had started flying at the age of 14, and is reputed to have looped his way round the Biggin Hill circuit on his first solo, conducted

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on his 17th birthday. With three years’ flying experience under his belt, he was already competent to display Sportair’s Fournier RF4, and lost no time in qualifying both as a flying instructor and commercial pilot. His selection of the S-2S was great for airshows, but its size and potency did him no favours competition-wise at a time when far more capable monoplanes were emerging. Flicks were a laboured business, and it was a struggle to produce one that warranted a high mark from the judges. A problem shared to this day by all competition aerobatic pilots is finding somewhere sufficiently remote where repeated practice flights don’t annoy the neighbours and result in an avalanche of noise complaints. Perrin’s resourceful solution was a 400-yard strip in a field east of Beachy Head, the local farmer agreeing to compensation for leaving it uncultivated. It was from here that much of the filming for Man in the Sky took place, with the dramatic backdrop of the White Cliffs. Director John Edwards and his Buff Films enterprise had also been responsible for earlier team movies, Wind in the Wires in Stampe days, and The Display featuring the Pitts. Given the uncertainties of British weather, Rothmans sanctioned Perrin to migrate to a more reliable climate in order to work up his competition flying, and in early 1981 he flew the S-2S to base at San Agustín on Gran Canaria for a short period. Having qualified for the British Aerobatic Team, he competed internationally

for the first time in August at the European Championship in Austria and reached the freestyle finals. The end of that display season signalled the final demise of Rothmans’ association with aerobatics, which had been sustained for more than 10 years. It was Perrin’s plan to secure new sponsorship for the launch of a Pitts duo, pairing up the S-2S with an S-2A, and with a second S-2A as back-up aircraft. Having always rated Mike Findlay as “the best”, he was thrilled when ‘Finn’ responded to his proposal to say that he was game to join him on a short contract, and the three biplanes were duly purchased from Rothmans in readiness. The following spring, Perrin joined Tony Bianchi in Yugoslavia to fly in the filming of High Road to China, and tragically lost his life when the Alouette II helicopter in which he was a passenger flew into wires across a ravine. Back in 1970, Manx Kelly would never have foreseen the amazing legacy that was to be created by his inventiveness, energetic drive and talent for showmanship as founder of the Rothmans Aerobatic Team. The inspiration he engendered for many future paths in aviation might also have surprised him; in retrospect, I’m one who has him to thank for my unplanned career as an airshow flying display director. Manx was not to live long enough to relish the subsequent worldwide explosion of brilliant civilian formation aerobatic teams undoubtedly inspired by his own dream-come-true, and the pleasure they give to millions. But that doesn’t stop us imagining his face spreading into that wide, cheeky grin… ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to Richard Butler for his assistance.

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BRIEFING FILE

Under the skin of aviation technology and tactics

Used by the RAF and Royal Navy to tr DH82 Queen Bee was the first succ

The Queen Bee’s modifications from a standard Tiger Moth

Receiving relays

Fuselage A cheaper, more buoyant, wooden Moth Major fuselage replaced the metal Tiger Moth’s

Rear cockpit Replaced with automatic control equipment

Windmill Drove a compressor supplying the automatic controls with compressed air

4

W/T receiver Aerial winch

Relay air valves

Receiving relays Elevator and rudder control units Undercarriage Wheels or floats

W/T receiver and relay

Catapult spools

2

Rotary line switch Rudder bar

3 10

How the system operated Using a left turn as an example

The ground control unit A series of push buttons transmitted control signals to the aircraft as combinations of dots and dashes

1 The button for ‘left’ was pushed 2 This operated the transmitting relay set and a 1

A rotary dial was a back-up control in case of failure of the buttons

coded signal, a dash and five dots, was transmitted to the aircraft

3 The aircraft’s receiver picked the signal up, operating the W/T relay

5 … selected a circuit that energised the ‘left’ relay air valve

6 The ‘left’ relay valve opened, supplying

compressed air to a servo motor on the rudder control unit

7 The servo motor applied a torque to the inner

4 This operated a further series of relays and a

gimbal of the control unit gyroscope and …

rotary line switch which…

DH QUEEN BEE I

n 1930 the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) successfully used a floatequipped Fairey IIIF, fitted with automatic equipment and named the Fairey Queen, as a target aircraft. A cheaper, simpler type was, however, selected for production. A modified development of the de Havilland DH82 Tiger Moth, the Queen Bee had a cheaper, more buoyant wooden fuselage from the Moth Major, a larger centre-section fuel tank, catapult spools and strengthening, and screened ignition. A two-axis radio control system was fitted. Launched by catapult, the initial Queen Bees could be operated on wheels or on floats. Early RAE demonstrations and operational checks were flown with a pilot on board, who could undertake a normal take-off and then allow the ground controller to take over and test the controls

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CONTROLLING THE QUEEN BEE

Float-equipped Queen Bees were launched from shore catapults at permanent bases, and from Royal Navy ships, as here. VIA JAMES KIGHTLY

in flight, one pilot recalling it as “a most uncanny job at first”. Operational Queen Bees were fitted with twin floats and flew from a catapult aboard ship, at a coastal base, or occasionally overseas. Later wartime examples were used with wheeled undercarriages.

The Queen Bee was most successful, some proving hard to bring down. One survived three hours of being fired on, though some was with non-lethal ‘burst shot’. On the other hand, of nearly 300 examples delivered before 1939, 109 had been ‘destroyed’ by gunfire or a crash-landing.

The take-off and landing were entirely automated. On takeoff the gyro was pre-spun by a ground-based air supply to run on until the airflow turned the winddriven compressor in flight. With controls centralised the Queen Bee was flown off — or more usually catapulted — with the trailing aerial then automatically reeled out, at which point radio control direction could be received. Signals were sent to direct the aircraft past the artillery gunners, or to manoeuvre to make the shoot (normally flown at around 6,000ft) harder. The two RAF crew controlling the Queen Bee on land shoots were often stood near the gunners and could thus anticipate their adjusted aim, rendering the exercise still more challenging. The signals sent worked in the same manner as the automatic

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Navy to train anti-aircraft gunners from the late 1930s into World War Two, the de Havilland first successful production remote-control target aircraft to enter service — but how did it work? B 5

er

Rudder control unit

6 8

W/T signal

Gyroscope

7 9

10

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The automatic landing system

Relay air valves

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ers

C

Landing sight

Electrical signal

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D Co rre

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Un

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Angle adjustment for wind speed

Servo motor

10 The piston on the motor turned the rudder via mechanical links to the control lines and the aircraft turned. There were no automatic control links to the ailerons

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50ft

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Link to rudder

9 The precession opened the valve to the rudder servo motor, supplying it with compressed air

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Compressed air

8 … the gyroscope precessed

Sighting plane

ho

A

F

E Airfield

A A landing sight is set up at the airfield boundary.

D From here, the landing is fully automatic.

B The aircraft is flown towards the sight at 1,000ft C Just before intersecting with the sighting wires

E A weight on the aerial strikes the ground F This triggers a landing valve in the aircraft

Its sighting wires are inclined to the aircraft’s glide angle, adjusting the angle for wind speed

the ‘glide’ button is pressed and the signal is transmitted to the aircraft

The aircraft glides towards the ground, passing over the landing sight at 50ft

which raises the elevator, flares the aircraft, lowers the tail, turns off the magnetos and the aircraft comes to a stop

WORDS: JAMES KIGHTLY ARTWORK: IAN BOTT telephone dialling system, albeit through wireless transmission, and were selected by pressing one of a selection of buttons, with a backup telephone ring dial. They were: –• Navigation lights on –•• Navigation lights off –••• Right turn –•••• Straight ahead –••••• Left turn –•••••• Climb –••••••• Level flight –•••••••• Glide –••••••••• Dive

TECHNICAL DETAILS The operation of the Queen Bee would be more familiar in principle to a modern UAV operator as a system than it would be to 1930s’ aviators. The ground unit consisted of the control box, the only part usually illustrated, which was coupled to a 1,500lb mobile transmitting unit using a 250ft aerial array. Apart from the

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ABOVE: The Queen Bee at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum shows its pilot’s cockpit, with (at top centre) a ‘telephone’-type dial supervisory control that a test pilot could use to check the control signals; some of the control equipment in the former aft cockpit position; and the larger access hatch and cockpits revealing the remote control set-up. JAMES KIGHTLY ABOVE RIGHT: A 1935 publicity image of a Queen Bee being ‘flown’ by ground control at RAE Farnborough. A safety pilot was usually carried for these demonstrations over populated areas. VIA JAMES KIGHTLY

catapult the remaining equipment could be put on three trucks. Aboard the aircraft a gyroscope controlled two compressed air valves, which drove pistons acting on the rudder and elevators (there was no aileron control). The engine ignition and the throttle were also controllable. Air pressure was provided by the propellerdriven pump on the fuselage.

WANT TO KNOW MORE? The de Havilland Aircraft Museum (DHAM) at Salisbury Hall has a composite Queen Bee (BAPC 186), marked as ‘LF789’. The museum’s extensive documentation was made available to research this feature. Ian Grace’s restoration of Queen Bee V4760 has a comprehensive website at www.n5490.org, while LF858/G-BLUZ is airworthy in private hands in the UK — without the radio control equipment. Thanks to both the DHAM and Ian Grace for their help with this piece.

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02/10/2017 15:36

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13

DATABASE IN-DEPTH PAGES

WORDS: BRUCE HALES-DUTTON

Development

AVRO TUDOR

Technical Details

Tudor IVB G-AHNN Star Leopard of British South American Airways.

● Exactly why did the Tudor fail?

In Service

AEROPLANE

● Troubles in service ● View from the flight deck

Insights Tudor II VZ366 (ex-G-AGRZ) Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY

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DEVELOPMENT AVRO TUDOR

“Hardly the ideal passengercarrying machine”

H

istory hasn’t dealt kindly with the Avro Tudor. This is hardly surprising: it suffered from persistent handling defects, which led to protracted delays in development, and it was rejected for service on the North Atlantic route by its intended user. Worse still, two aircraft were lost in mysterious circumstances that remain the subject of speculation to this day. Inevitably, some of the real issues at the heart of the Tudor affair have become obscured, even though they had important implications for the future of aircraft procurement and for the government’s relations with the nationalised airlines. Yet the Tudor story began promisingly enough with proposals from A. V. Roe and Company for an airliner offshoot of its Lancaster IV, later known as the Lincoln. The firm’s highly respected chief designer, Roy Chadwick, had suggested substituting the bomber’s rectangular-section fuselage for a circular one to produce Britain’s first pressurised airliner. By October 1943 the government and the British Overseas Airways Corporation were sufficiently impressed to seek advice from the Brabazon Committee, which was then considering

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the airliner types Britain would need after the war. At that stage, the Avro proposition was regarded as a stopgap able to compete with the Douglas DC-4, then seen as America’s best, pending the development of completely new airliners. The committee

Brabazon proposed an “intensive study” with design work taking precedence ahead of the committee’s proposals. He added: “It must be left to the designer and the operators […] to produce the very best that can be got out of a compromise machine.”

As flight testing progressed handling defects were discovered. They seemed more difficult to overcome than had been hoped agreed with this approach. In a letter dated 25 October Lord Brabazon said that while the Avro proposal wouldn’t be an effective substitute for the committee’s proposed Type IIIA trans-Atlantic airliner, “it would do the job as a stopgap machine fairly well even though not very economically.”

Accordingly, Chadwick and his team began design studies in consultation with the Ministry of Supply. In March 1944, following discussions with BOAC, the ministry issued issue one of specification 29/43 for an airliner with a still-air range of 4,000 miles (6,400km), a minimum payload

ABOVE: The first example of the type to fly was Tudor I G-AGPF, which at the time was devoid of markings; it had received some by the time of its appearance at the November 1945 Farnborough exhibition. AEROPLANE

ABOVE: A beautiful colour image of Bristol Hercules-engined Tudor VII G-AGRX, taken on 26 April 1947. AEROPLANE

of 3,760lb (1,709kg) and an all-up weight of 72,000lb (32,727kg). At the specific request of BOAC, which wanted greater comfort than American airliners could offer, it was to accommodate 12 sleeper passengers. A variation in the specification was issued in July 1945 to increase the payload to 5,500lb (2,500kg) after Avro had been led to expect better fuel consumption from the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. Detailed design work didn’t begin until June 1944 because of wartime needs, but by August a mock-up was available for inspection by ministry and BOAC officials. The airline representatives wanted more passenger accommodation and a bigger mock-up was duly produced. Subject to further changes, this was approved by BOAC in February 1945. The aircraft retained the Lancaster’s basic wings, Merlin engines and tailwheel undercarriage (at a time when American rivals had nosewheels) but featured a single fin and rudder in place of the bomber’s twin tail. Meanwhile, a contract for two prototypes of what was

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Development

bounce, shorter undercarriage legs were specified for production aircraft. These changes meant the aircraft could receive a limited certificate of airworthiness in September 1946, leading to a full C of A that November, 15 months after flight-testing had started. But many modifications had been requested too. Of 357 changes, 343 had been sought by BOAC, with 123 considered essential and supported by the Air Registration Board on safety grounds. Of the remainder, 210 were to be incorporated in all aircraft as soon as possible, and 10 others when convenient. Yet in March 1946 the ARB said that the “essential” modifications included a stronger undercarriage, better fire precaution arrangements and improvements to the oil system heating. All this, particularly strengthening the undercarriage, would take some months, requiring a revision to the production programme. It now called for the first production aircraft to be ready by April 1946 and the whole order for 20 by October. To prepare for the Tudor’s entry into service by familiarising crews with the aircraft, BOAC took delivery of

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analysis of every flight, starting on 20 July 1946. In his autobiography, Wings on my Sleeve, Brown said the Tudor in its original form had “no hope” of gaining a certificate of airworthiness, “nor, indeed, of crossing the Atlantic, which it had been designed to do”, because of excessive cruising drag, high engine-failure safety speed, bad stalling characteristics and control difficulties on take-off. “It was, to say the least of it”, Brown recalled, “hardly the ideal passenger-carrying machine.” But Brown and Lyons realised the “the good name of the British aircraft industry” was in their hands. Brown added: “I did regard it as one of the greatest tests of my ability”. Even though the RAE handed the aircraft back “with a reasonably clean bill of health”, it was clear that some redesign was necessary, “and we said so.” Following the RAE’s recommendations, a larger tailplane and bigger fin and rudder were fitted. Pre-stall buffet was cured by enlarging and reshaping the wing root fillets and by extending the inboard engine nacelles. This involved a minor modification to the flaps. To minimise

ABOVE: The Tudor II prototype’s debut public appearance was at Farnborough in June 1946. AEROPLANE

G-AGRE in September. It was returned to the manufacturer five months later having logged 83 flying hours. G-AGRD, which was more representative of production aircraft, was delivered during November for service trials. As BOAC was not keen on conducting winter North Atlantic trials until further experience had been gained, it was agreed to switch to Africa. Accordingly, the aircraft left for Cairo and Nairobi on 16 December, returning on 17 January 1947. On board were representatives of the A&AEE, Avro and Rolls-Royce. BOAC told the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 30 December 1946 that the Tudor I’s performance deficiencies made it unsuitable for the North Atlantic. It appeared that the defects uncovered by earlier testing were much more serious than previously thought. These included tail buffeting within certain speed ranges in bumpy conditions, a pronounced tendency to swing on take-off and high fuel consumption reducing range. The heating system also gave trouble. The Tudor’s weight continued to grow from an all-up figure of 76,000lb to 80,000lb by early 1947. Avro blamed this on airline demands for additional equipment and furnishings. Engine power hadn’t increased markedly and there were doubts about the aircraft’s ability to operate from airfields in the more remote areas of the Empire. By March 1947, 18 Tudor Is had been produced, with the balance of the Ministry of Supply order expected soon afterwards. An MCA position paper dated March 1947

Insights

known as the Tudor I to the original specification had been placed in September 1944. This was followed in November by another for 14 production aircraft, further increased to 20 in April 1945 by the Ministry of Supply acting as agents for the Air Ministry. These numbers were based on BOAC’s estimates of its requirements. The official production programme issued in October 1944 scheduled the first production aircraft for March 1945, with completion of the initial 14 by the following August. But the programme was subject to delays as design changes were made, new requirements proposed and production setbacks arose. The first prototype Tudor, G-AGPF, made its maiden flight — unpressurised and without passenger seating — on 14 June 1945. Bill Thorn and Jimmy Orrell were at the controls. The aircraft was powered by Merlin 102 engines rated at 1,750hp, although production aircraft were to have Merlin 621s with 1,770hp. Initial impressions of its flying qualities were favourable, but as the flight test programme progressed handling defects were discovered. As they seemed more difficult to overcome than had been hoped, an extensive test programme was conducted jointly by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down and the manufacturers. At the RAE, testing was assigned to the late Capt Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown, who worked closely with a young scientist called Joe Lyons. Together they conducted a thorough

AEROPLANE

In Service

ABOVE: G-AHNJ was both the first Tudor IV to take to the air and the aircraft that carried out the type’s inaugural flight with BSAA.

Technical Details

ABOVE: Avro chief designer Roy Chadwick (left) congratulates test pilot Bill Thorn as he steps down from the Tudor I following its first flight in June 1945. AEROPLANE

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DEVELOPMENT AVRO TUDOR

TUDOR VARIANTS AT A GLANCE

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udor production reached 33 examples in two basic variants, the baseline Type 688 and the enlarged Type 689. From these two lines of development emerged a total of nine sub-types. One aircraft was fitted with turbojet engines.

Avro 688 series Tudor I Twelve built, of which one converted to Tudor IV, two converted to IVB and two converted to Super Trader IVB Tudor III Two built, of which one converted to Tudor I Tudor IV Eight built, of which four converted to Super Trader IVB; construction of two others abandoned

Avro 689 series Tudor II Four built; construction of one other abandoned Tudor V Six built Tudor VI Six ordered by FAMA of Argentina but not built Tudor VII One built with Bristol Hercules engines Tudor VIII One converted from Tudor IV with four Rolls-Royce Nene V engines Trader (Avro 711A) 10 ordered but none completed. Total built 33 (22 Tudor I series and 11 Tudor II series); there were 15 conversions (14 Tudor I series and one Tudor II series); 54 were cancelled

observed that “the Tudors have so far proved a sad disappointment”, especially as BOAC had indicated there was “practically no possibility of modifying them to produce an aircraft which is economic to operate.” An intensive development programme was put in hand, but BOAC wasn’t prepared to wait. On 11 April 1947 it announced its rejection of the Tudor I even though the fourth production aircraft, G-AGRF, had been named Elizabeth of England by Princess Elizabeth at a ceremony at London Airport on 21 January. A major public row thus blew up between Avro and BOAC. Sir Roy Dobson, Avro’s managing director, claimed that all the airline’s criticisms had been met by March and that subsequent corporation statements that the 4,000-mile range was insufficient for trans-Atlantic operations had contradicted its original requirement. BOAC had also doubled the passenger accommodation from 12 to 24. Dobson said the Tudor had been developed in three years, half the time it had taken Lockheed to get the Constellation into service. He accused BOAC of indecision and added that Avro’s workforce was beginning to feel that the dithering had been a ploy by the corporation to delay the Tudor to the point where it would become obsolete and justify the purchase of foreign aircraft. BOAC’s response was to call for an inquiry into the affair. The government duly obliged by appointing a committee headed by retired ACM Sir

The contrasting lines of the Tudor II, represented here by G-AGSU in the foreground, and the smaller MkI, depicted by G-AGRC. AEROPLANE

Christopher Courtney to report on the development and production of the Tudor for BOAC (see box). But nothing could hide the major blow to British aviation prestige that BOAC’s rejection of the Tudor represented. A further disappointment came when Australia abandoned plans to build 12 examples for use as military transports. Two aircraft, G-AIYA and G-AJKC, had been sent to Armstrong Whitworth at Coventry to be fitted with luxury accommodation for use by senior government ministers. Designated as the Tudor III, they received military serials VP301 and VP312 but never entered RAF service. The former ended up being converted back into a MkI. British South American Airways (BSAA) didn’t share BOAC’s disdain for the Tudor. Avro modified four Tudor Is to meet its requirements in accordance with specification 28/46B — they were lengthened with a 5ft 9in (1.75m) ‘plug’ ahead of the wing leading edge. Powered by Merlin 621s or 623s, these had seating for up to 32 passengers without a flight engineer (Tudor IV) and 28 with (the IVB). The first Tudor IV, G-AHNJ, made its maiden flight from Woodford on 9 April 1947 with

Thorn in command. The second, G-AHNK, was delivered to BSAA by Orrell and the airline’s chief executive AVM Donald Bennett, wartime leader of Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force, on 29 September, but a delayed departure from Woodford meant that it arrived at Heathrow after dark. The next morning it left on a 16,500mile route-proving flight. Commanded by Bennett, it headed for Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Santiago via Lisbon, Dakar and Natal. The second prototype Tudor I was rebuilt as a MkIV and later fitted with a quartet of Rolls-Royce Nene jet engines. As the Tudor VIII it retained the tailwheel undercarriage and made its first flight as a jet on 6 September 1948. Orrell demonstrated it at the SBAC show.

BIGGER TUDORS Earlier complaints about the Tudor’s limited passenger capacity had meanwhile meant that a bigger version, the Avro 689 Tudor II, was soon on the drawing board. This variant was designed from the outset to accommodate 60 passengers in a fuselage lengthened by 25ft (7.7m) and increased in diameter by a foot (0.3m). Flying surfaces,

No Tudor variant, least of all the initial MkI, could hold a candle to Lockheed’s beautiful Constellation in any respect. G-AGRC is here parked next to an L-049 model of Pan American. AEROPLANE

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In Service Insights

extended inner engine nacelles to be fitted. The second example, G-AGRY — also displaying military serial VX202 — was flown to Nairobi for tropical trials. These confirmed that stretching the basic Tudor I had not improved its performance, especially in hot and high conditions. Indeed, it was considered unsuitable for operations east of Calcutta and south of Nairobi. Qantas and South African Airways cancelled their orders, buying the Constellation and DC-4 instead. Tudor II orders dwindled to 18. Eventually, only four were built including the prototype. On Saturday 23 August 1947 the Tudor II programme received another blow. Nearly a year-and-a-half after its first flight, ’SU crashed near Woodford, killing the Tudor’s creator Roy Chadwick. Shortly after take-off the port wing had

Technical Details

powerplants and undercarriage were unchanged. By May 1945 aerodynamic considerations and changing requirements had inflated the Tudor II’s fuselage still further. Now, at more than 105ft (32.3m) long, it was the biggest aircraft yet built in Britain. BOAC, Qantas and South African Airways all decided to standardise on the larger variant for Commonwealth routes. In fact, BOAC was so enthusiastic that in late 1944 its order was raised from 30 to 79. The prototype, registered G-AGSU, made its first flight on 10 March 1946 from Woodford with Thorn and Orrell at the controls. Alas it soon became clear that the new variant was suffering similar aerodynamic problems to the Tudor I. After trials at Boscombe Down it was returned to Woodford for an enlarged fin and rudder and

To improve performance, the initial production machine, G-AGRX, was built with four 1,750hp Bristol Hercules radial engines. Redesignated as the Tudor VII, it was first flown on 17 April 1946. With shortened undercarriage and displaying serial VX199 it was delivered to the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Defford. It was scrapped in 1959. The six Tudor Vs were powered by Merlin 621s and had seating for 44 passengers. The five delivered to BSAA differed visually from the MkIIs by having circular in place of rectangular windows. They were later stripped of cabin furnishings and employed as fuel tankers on the Berlin Airlift. Another example, G-AKBY, was operated by Fairflight but crashed at Llandow in March 1950. The designation Tudor VI was reserved for six aircraft ordered by Argentine airline FAMA for operations over the South Atlantic with up to 38 passengers. The order was cancelled and they were not completed. The final variant — initially dubbed the Tudor IX — formed the basis of the jet-powered Ashton highaltitude research aircraft.

Development

The four Nenes of the sole Tudor VIII, VX195, kick up the dust on take-off during the 1948 SBAC display at Farnborough. AEROPLANE

dropped when Bill Thorn attempted a turn to starboard. The engines were cut and the aircraft ploughed into trees lining a field near the airfield. The nose was severed and the two pilots were drowned in a pond hidden by the trees. Chadwick, who had been standing in the cockpit, was flung out 60 yards and died of a fractured skull. He was 54. It was subsequently determined that the aileron cables had been reversed. Of the surviving aircraft, G-AGSV was intended to be the prototype Trader with a tricycle undercarriage but construction was abandoned. The other three were scrapped in 1959.

THE COURTNEY COMMITTEE’S REPORT

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he Courtney report was completed by the end of 1947. It proved highly significant, criticising existing aircraft procurement arrangements and calling for improved liaison between the government departments involved. In fact, none of the parties in the Tudor programme escaped criticism. There had been a lack of co-ordination between the Ministry of Supply and the Ministry of Civil Aviation; BOAC had lacked the drive and determination to get the Tudor into service, and relations between it and Avro were soured. But the key point was that all concerned had lost sight of the original purpose of the programme. “It was never thought that the Tudor I would be an economic aircraft in the sense that it would make a profit on the North Atlantic route”, the committee observed. The intention had been to offer passengers regularity, comfort and convenience as good as that of American airliners. This would help uphold British prestige, as well as gaining practical experience that would be valuable when further new airliners were ready for service. For this plan to work it was essential for the Tudor I to replace the Liberators and Boeing 314s that BOAC was operating on the North Atlantic, which would have meant getting them into operation by spring 1946. The original intention had been for

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the Tudors to remain in service until the first of the Brabazon Committee types arrived in late 1948 or early 1949. The report’s pithy conclusion was: “The original concept was a relatively simple adaptation of the Lancaster bomber. In the outcome there was little of the Lancaster left”. But not enough time had been allowed for rectifying the inevitable problems and, as a result, the production timescale turned out to be “hopelessly over-optimistic.” Under the circumstances BOAC wasn’t censured for wanting American equipment — its first Lockheed Constellation had been delivered in March 1946 and went into service in July — but it was criticised for delaying the Tudor programme with constant demands for changes and improvements in cabin furnishing. It had, the committee considered, demanded the best when good would have been enough. The committee stopped short of calling for the nationalised airlines to be responsible for their own aircraft procurement, but the fact that BOAC hadn’t actually been the customer was a major factor in the delay. The root cause, though, was the “defective co-operation” between user and producer, “where there should have been single-minded concentration on the primary objective, namely to get the aircraft into service as quickly as possible.”

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TECHNICAL DETAILS AVRO TUDOR

A flawed design

Tudors in production at Woodford in 1946, when prospects for the aircraft still seemed bright. AEROPLANE

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he Tudor’s circular fuselage was a conventional, all-metal semi-monocoque structure of 10ft (3m) diameter, formed from channel-section frames with stringers bolted directly to them. The outer sheeting was of two layers of light aluminium sandwiching kapok insulation material. The fuselage structure comprised four elements joined by T-section extruded frames. Where the wing spars met the fuselage, the frames were of deeper section with plate webs to which L-section extruded booms were riveted. The fuselage floor was of light alloy and mounted on a framework of light channel members supported by vertical posts attached to the part of the frames. Wing-tofuselage attachment was achieved via cast shrouds bolted to the spars and riveted to the skin. At the centre section-fuselage junction only the spars pierced the skin. Based on the Lancaster, the wings comprised five-piece, all-metal, twin-spar structures and were of modified NACA 23000 section at the roots. The centre-section spar webs RIGHT: Functional accommodation for passengers on the Tudor V, distinguished by way of its circular windows. AEROPLANE

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parted at the fuselage skin line, where a separate length of web was carried across the fuselage interior on continuous booms. The centre section terminated immediately outboard of the inboard engine nacelles. The outer wing panels featured 4° of dihedral and were formed in

two portions with the joint at about one-third span. They were attached by short high-tensile steel butt straps on both sides of the spar booms and secured by bolts. The ailerons were also in two parts, joined by cast torque tubes and attached at each end by laminated spring leaves. The hydraulically

Based on those of the Lancaster, the Tudor’s wings comprised five-piece, all-metal, twin-spar structures

operated split flaps were in three sections on each side of the trailing edges of the centre section and inner wings, and featured piano-type hinges. An elliptical-section tunnel between the wing spars and outboard of the centre section housed three collapsible bag fuel tanks. They were installed through an access door at the inboard end, laced together and pulled through the tunnel. A further tank was installed in the centre section, giving a total fuel capacity of 3,300 gallons (15,000 litres). The inboard engine nacelles projected from two large castings bolted to the main spar’s front face. They supported the triangular beam engine bearers and provided mounting points for the main undercarriage legs. The hydraulically operated main-wheel units, similar to those of the Lancaster, featured single Dunlop wheels retracting rearwards into the inboard engine nacelles. The twin tailwheels retracted rearward into the fuselage and were enclosed by twin doors. The all-metal tail unit had a dorsal fin integral with the fuselage and a 43ft (13m) twin-spar tailplane with inset divided elevators. The control surfaces were mass-balanced and each had controllable trim and servo tabs. As originally designed, the forward

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TECHNICAL DETAILS AVRO TUDOR TUDOR IV

TUDOR IV

TUDOR I TUDOR II

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cabin into three different compartments, were covered with beige-pink Vynide. The seats were upholstered in deep scarlet moquette and trimmed with scarlet leather. The cabin decor featured straight-grain natural walnut panelling. The seats themselves could be arranged to form sleeping berths with individual reading lights and call buttons. Behind the passenger cabin were the ladies’ and gentlemen’s dressing rooms, each with wash basins, dressing tables

and full-length mirrors. Toilets were located further aft with access via sliding doors. In the tail was the fully equipped galley with cabin crew seating. The Tudor’s fuselage was pressurised to 5.5lb per square inch at 2,500ft, the conditioning system providing a complete change of air every three minutes. The system itself was located beneath the cabin floor and fed by two engine-driven Marshall blowers, located in the inner nacelles. Cabin heating was provided by a Janitrol heater

mounted in the forward fuselage under the flight deck. Heated air was ducted to vents in the cabin. This heater was basically a paraffin burner with a naked flame and a heat exchanger. If the flame went out the heater could not be re-lit in flight. That often happened. This system would be suspected as a possible cause of the losses of Star Tiger and Star Ariel, but these units were widely used and there was no evidence to reinforce the suspicion.

Insights

portion of the fin was built integral with the fuselage, the fin itself being designed as a separate sub-assembly. The Tudor I flight deck was laid out for five crew: captain, first officer, flight engineer, radio operator and navigator. The instrument layout was functional, with duplicated blind flying panels flanking the centrally positioned engine instruments above the Sperry autopilot panel. Between the two pilots a pedestal housed throttle and flap controls, and there was a Lancaster-style ‘spectacle’ control wheel for each pilot. A half-bulkhead separated the two pilots from the other three crew members. The flight engineer’s station was to starboard and faced forward, with the other two crew members sitting to port and facing outboard. The navigator’s seat was to the left of the radio operator with an instrument panel above the chart table. Behind the flight deck were two mail and freight compartments. In the prototype Tudor, seating was arranged to meet BOAC’s initial requirements for accommodating 12 passengers. The walls and ceiling, together with the half-bulkheads dividing the

In Service

ABOVE: The cockpit of a Tudor IV shows the Lancaster-style control wheels. AEROPLANE

SPECIFICATIONS: TUDOR I, IV AND V Tudor I

Tudor IV

Tudor V

POWERPLANTS: Four Rolls-Royce Merlin 621s, 1,770hp each

Four Rolls-Royce Merlin 621s, 1,770hp each

Four Rolls-Royce Merlin 102s, 1,770hp each

DIMENSIONS:

79ft 6in (24.1m) 120ft (36.6m) 20ft 11in (6.1m) 12-24

85ft 3in (25.0m) 120ft (36.6m) 20ft 11in (6.1m) 28-32

105ft 7in (32m) 120ft (36.6m) 24ft 3in (7.3m) 36-44

WEIGHTS: All-up:

71,000lb (32,300kg)

80,000lb (36,400kg)

80,000lb (36,400kg)

PERFORMANCE: Cruising speed: Range: Service ceiling:

210mph (336km/h) 3,650 miles (5,840km) 26,000ft (7,900m)

210mph (336km/h) 4,000 miles (6,400km) 27,400ft (8,350m)

235mph (376km/h) 2,330 miles (3,728km) 25,550ft (7,790m)

Length: Span: Height: Passengers:

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IN SERVICE AVRO TUDOR

Overshadowed by tragedy

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he last day of October 1947 was an historic one for British South American Airways. The state-owned airline had kept faith with the Avro Tudor and was about to reap its reward, or so it appeared. After several proving flights, BSAA was confident of the Tudor’s suitability for operations between the UK, the Caribbean and South America. One of them had left Heathrow for Jamaica via Prestwick, Bermuda, and Port of Spain, Trinidad on 23 July. Tudor IV G-AHNJ Star Panther (previously Star Lion, a name later bestowed on G-AHNK) had been commanded by BSAA chief executive Donald Bennett. On board were 15 passengers, including representatives of the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Air Registration Board, Avro and Rolls-Royce as well as BSAA staff. According to Susan and Ian Ottaway in Fly with the Stars, their acclaimed history of BSAA, the Prestwick-Gander leg was disrupted by a fuel system malfunction which threatened to dump the aircraft into the sea 250 miles short of its destination. It eventually arrived safely after a nail-biting 11-hour 15-minute flight. By the time it returned home the aircraft had covered 11,713 miles (18,740km) in six days. BSAA believed the Tudor would be able to carry 32 passengers and 3,000lb

(1,360kg) of freight over 3,250 miles (5,200km). Fuel consumption had worked out at 1.13 miles per gallon; cruising speed was 252mph (403km/h) at 10,000 to 12,000ft (3,000 to 4,000m) using 41 per cent power. The aircraft lacked a full pressurisation system due, it was said, to the “presence of extraneous equipment and the difficulty of sealing the fuselage.” Bennett was convinced that the Tudor was better suited to BSAA’s routes than the Lockheed Constellation. Speaking in October after a further 16,500-mile (26,400km) route-proving flight to Brazil,

BSAA’s Tudor operations had been launched with little prior publicity. After two months it was being reported that the Tudor IVs were giving encouragingly satisfactory service. But on 30 January 1948, during a scheduled flight from Heathrow to Bermuda, contact with Star Tiger — carrying 29 passengers and six crew — was lost. Departure from Lisbon had been delayed because of trouble with the port inner engine. The flight was delayed by two-and-a-half hours, but then poor weather turned a 75-minute refuelling halt at Santa Maria in the Azores into an overnight stop.

A judicial inquiry into the loss of Star Tiger sat for 11 days to investigate the facts, but could not explain the accident Argentina and Chile, he called the Tudor “10 per cent better” in terms of comfort, silence, payload and cost of operation than the American aircraft. On Friday 31 October, G-AHNK Star Lion left Heathrow to operate the first regular scheduled Tudor IV operation to Bermuda, Nassau and Cuba via Lisbon and the Azores. The airline hoped to extend the service to Mexico and on to the west coast of South America. When the 44-seat Tudor Vs became available it planned to operate them on the east coast route.

Despite strong winds Star Tiger took off at 15.34hrs the next day on the next leg of its journey to Bermuda. Capt Brian McMillan decided to fly at no more than 2,000ft (610m) to avoid the worst of the winds. At about 03.00hrs Star Tiger’s radio officer requested a radio bearing from Bermuda, but the signal wasn’t strong enough for an accurate reading and the request was repeated 11 minutes later. This time the Bermuda radio operator was able to oblige. It was acknowledged at 03.17hrs, but despite several

attempts there would be no further contact with the aircraft. At 04.40hrs a state of emergency was declared, but despite a widespread and comprehensive search no sign of Star Tiger was ever found. Inevitably, the Tudor’s disappearance created wide publicity, especially as Air Marshal Sir Arthur ‘Mary’ Coningham, former CO of the Second Tactical Air Force in 1944, had been on board. The Minister of Civil Aviation, Lord Nathan of Churt, ordered BSAA’s Tudor fleet to be grounded pending an examination. This order was eased a few weeks later when the aircraft were allowed to carry cargo, although they had to fly from Santa Maria to Bermuda via Newfoundland, a diversion that reduced the longest over-water leg by 250 miles (400km). A judicial inquiry sat for 11 days to investigate the facts. But although its report noted a “want of care and attention to detail” in the flight plan, it could not explain the accident. It found, in the “complete absence of any reliable evidence as to either the nature or the cause of the accident”, that it was unable to do more than suggest possibilities to account for the aircraft’s loss”. The report concluded: “What happened in this case will never be known and the fate of Star Tiger must remain an unsolved mystery.”

BSAA’s Tudor IV G-AHNK Star Lion about to leave London Airport for the type’s inaugural commercial flight at the end of October 1947. Behind it is Lancastrian III G-AHBZ of Skyways. AEROPLANE

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commanded by Capt J. C. McPhee. The flight was planned for an altitude of 18,000ft and the estimated arrival time was five hours 25 minutes after leaving Bermuda. There was fuel for 11 hours’ flying. Weather reports were good. A routine position report at 09.37hrs was the last heard from the aircraft. A comprehensive search involving BSAA, BOAC and US Air Force aircraft as well as US Navy ships was launched but no trace of debris, oil slicks or wreckage was ever found. Pakenham announced on 19 January that BSAA’s Tudor fleet would be withdrawn for a full technical examination by ARB and Avro engineers. An imminent Tudor departure for Buenos Aires was cancelled. Accidents Investigation Branch inspector Maj John Stocks was despatched to Bermuda where he found that two Tudors, G-AGRF and G-AHNK, were about to take off. Stocks rushed to the tower and had them recalled so that they and a third aircraft, G-AHNJ, could be inspected. The aircraft were placed under guard while items of luggage and freight were removed and checked against the manifest.

Meanwhile, Bennett continued to believe in the sabotage theory. He wrote to Pakenham to express his alarm at the lack of a proper criminal investigation, maintaining that if one had been conducted into the loss of Star Tiger the second disaster might have been avoided. In a letter to Air Cdre Vernon Brown, chief inspector of accidents, he described the fierce rivalry that existed between airlines operating in Latin America and the Caribbean, which he believed made sabotage a “distinct possibility”. Bennett was probably not aware how seriously the authorities were taking the sabotage theory. BSAA chairman John Booth had received a letter from a mysterious individual who claimed to have information that both Tudors had been

Insights

Two BSAA Tudors were subjected to a thorough examination at Boscombe Down. This included fuel consumption and range tests. Further tropical trials were undertaken at Nassau at a revised all-up weight of 82,000lb (37,300kg), made possible by greater take-off power for the Merlins resulting from an additional 1.5lb (0.7kg) of boost. The Tudors could now carry their full complement of 32 passengers and freight instead of the 25 to which they had been restricted on east-west flights via Keflavík and Gander. With nothing sinister found in the surviving aircraft, the Tudor’s certificate of airworthiness was restored and the type was cleared to return to passenger operations. Accordingly, on 3 December 1948 BSAA launched a weekly service from Heathrow to Buenos Aires via Gander, Bermuda, returning via Santa Maria. But on 17 January 1949, Tiger almost a year after Star Tiger’s disappearance, Star Ariel was reported overdue at Kingston, Jamaica. It had left Bermuda at 08.25hrs carrying 13 passengers and a crew of six

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The Tudor performed well in the Berlin Airlift. Pictured with a number of Avro Yorks at RAF Gatow, MkI G-AGRJ was leased to BSAA and flew 117 sorties during the operation. AEROPLANE

Technical Details

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Development

Don Bennett defended the Tudor while refuting accusations that route-proving operations had been inadequate. He maintained that sabotage was the most likely cause of Star Tiger’s loss, insisting that “a known saboteur” had been seen near the aircraft shortly before its last take-off. On 5 February 1948 the Daily Express published an interview with Bennett in which he strongly disagreed with the decision to ground the Tudor. He criticised Lord Nathan for interfering in what he thought “a matter for my own decision”. Four days later he was sacked by BSAA. The airline’s board insisted there had been “a difference of opinion on matters of policy resulting in his forfeiting the confidence of the board.” If Avro was anxious to restore public confidence in the Tudor its parent company, Hawker Siddeley, wanted to ensure that the aircraft’s loss didn’t jeopardise future South American sales. Star Panther was therefore chartered with a BSAA crew of seven, commanded by Capt D. M. Walbourn, on what was essentially a flag-waving trip. It left Heathrow on 17 April 1948 with 10 passengers, including Hawker Siddeley chairman Sir Frank Spriggs, his wife and daughter, and Sir Roy Dobson and his daughter. The aircraft followed the BSAA route to Buenos Aires via Lisbon, Dakar, Natal and Rio de Janeiro. Out of a total of 60 hours 30 minutes’ flying time, 28 hours were spent flying above 20,000ft (6,770m). Three months later BSAA invited Lord Nathan’s successor at the ministry, Lord Pakenham, and his officials to fly in a Tudor IV. Then, in August, Star Leopard completed the first round trip to the Bahamas since the type’s grounding.

BELOW: Tudor IVB/Super Trader G-AHNI Star Olivia Air Charter CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY

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IN SERVICE AVRO TUDOR sabotaged. It was passed to MI5, which investigated the claim. Later, the same individual warned BSAA of a further threat to its aircraft. The airline responded by warning all its stations to ensure aircraft were guarded night and day. One of Pakenham’s first actions after Star Ariel’s loss was to request that Lord Brabazon conduct a thorough investigation into the design and construction of the Tudor IV. Brabazon was also asked to look into the aircraft’s structure and the materials used, and to examine the type’s defect history. The report has never been published, apparently on the grounds of its potential effect on UK civil aviation and the British aircraft industry, but there’s no reason to believe that he was able to shed any light on the losses. The Accidents Investigation Branch found no evidence of any defect in, or failure of, any part of the aircraft. The crew was experienced and the weather good. There was no evidence of sabotage, although the possibility couldn’t be eliminated. The report, published in December 1949, concluded: “through lack of evidence due to no wreckage having been found, the cause of the accident is unknown.” Inevitably, this finding did nothing to dampen the speculation surrounding the loss of the two Tudors, which also helped create the Bermuda Triangle legend. And the speculation has continued. In 2006 veteran broadcaster Tom Mangold presented a BBC Radio 4 investigation in which it was suggested that

Star Tiger’s loss could have been due to lack of fuel, while a defective heater might have caused Star Arial’s disappearance. In their book Fly With the Stars, Susan and Ian Ottaway reviewed the possible causes, which included structural failure, sudden incapacitation of the crew, contaminated fuel, clear air turbulence or a leakage of hydraulic fuel onto the troublesome heater causing an explosion. The resulting shortage of capacity meant that BSAA lacked suitable aircraft to maintain its services. The airline was absorbed by BOAC and, from 1 January 1950, became its South American Division. All told, BSAA had operated six Tudor IVs, plus two Super Trader IV/IVBs and five Tudor Vs.

THE BERLIN AIRLIFT AND LATER During the Berlin Airlift BSAA and its Tudors had performed well, flying 261 sorties with three stripped-out Tudor Is — G-AGRE, ’RH and ’RJ — while Tudor IIs equipped as tankers had flown 3,167 sorties into Berlin. BSAA’s efforts during January 1949 were singled out for Lord Pakenham’s praise. The company had, he said, “put up an excellent show”, its Tudors achieving an 86 per cent serviceability rate with a daily average of 3.65 sorties per aircraft. Bennett, meanwhile, had formed an airline called Airflight based at Blackbushe. It acquired a Tudor II and a V, which then joined BSAA’s fleet

flying fuel into beleaguered Berlin. One of the pilots was Stan Sickelmore. At first, he recalled to this magazine’s editor Ben Dunnell in 2008, the aircraft were used to carry cargoes like flour and coal, but “the Tudor wasn’t suitable for that, mainly because it had a very small passenger entrance door.” This, Sickelmore said, made it difficult to load and unload bulky sacks. “So Bennett brought them back to the UK and had them fitted with five Lancaster main tanks strapped in cradles in the fuselage. Each carried just over 500 gallons [230 litres] of fuel and, suitably linked together with hosing, they were used to carry fuel into Berlin — 2,500 gallons [1,130 litres] on each occasion.” Airflight, later Fairflight, put Tudor IIs G-AGRY and G-AKBY into passenger service. In March 1950 ’BY crashed at Llandow in South Wales with the loss of 80 lives in what, at the time, was Britain’s worst air disaster. It had been chartered to fly rugby union fans to and from an international game in Ireland. An inquiry found incorrect loading to be the cause. Freddie Laker’s Air Charter became the largest operator of Tudors during the 1950s. It acquired four MkI freighter conversions, G-AGRG to ’RJ, together with four MkIVB conversions, G-AHNI, ’NL, ’NM and ’NO, which, after overhaul at Southend, were intended to replace the company’s long-range Avro Yorks. G-AGRI was equipped for trooping flights with 42 rear-facing seats and in 1954 was granted a

certificate of airworthiness enabling it to carry passengers. Eventually all but ’RJ and G-AJKC were similarly converted, but the War Office would not allow trooping to be conducted by such aircraft. In 1955 G-AGRG and G-AIYA were converted to Tudor IV standard by Aviation Traders at Stansted. Air Charter used them on its Colonial coach service between Stansted and Tripoli and Lagos. Four aircraft, G-AGRH, G-AGNI, ’NM and ’NO, received large freight doors to become Super Traders. They made trouble-free longdistance charter flights to Christmas Island, Australia and New Zealand. They remained in service until 1959 when ’RG was destroyed by fire after a take-off accident at Brindisi and ’RH crashed into a mountain in Turkey while on its way to Woomera. This meant that one in five of all Tudors produced had been destroyed by accidents. Under the circumstances it’s hardly surprising that the Tudor is remembered as one of the most notorious failures in British aviation history. But the causes of its failure are rather more complex than is suggested by what has become the accepted version of events. The Tudor was intended as a simple stopgap pending the availability of more modern aircraft. Yet it quickly grew into a major project which, resting on the shifting sands of continually-changing requirements, was unable to bear the weight of expectation placed upon it.

Tudor V G-AKCC Star Swift parked with two of BSAA’s MkIVs. The MkV’s service was brief, but did encompass the Berlin Airlift. AEROPLANE

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INSIGHTS AVRO TUDOR

As the speed increased the ailerons remained light but the elevators became progressively heavier and the nose needed to be held up. On this flight, the aircraft reached about 200kt (230mph, 368km/h) IAS at 7,000ft (2,150m). The maximum permitted diving speed was 280kt (322mph, 515km/h). On the approach to the stall very slight buffeting was noticed at speeds between 105kt (121mph, 193km/h) and 110kt (127mph, 203km/h). The buffeting increased and became severe at 95kt (109mph, 175km/h). Further backward movement on the controls caused the Tudor’s nose and port wing to drop abruptly. Recovery at all stages was immediate on easing the control wheel forward. On the descent to Woodford the port outer engine was cut and no difficulty was found in holding course with the rudder at 170kt (196mph, 313km/h). It was found that a small application of trimmer enabled the aircraft to be flown straight with feet off the rudder pedals. All trimmers were found to be sensitive. Smith found that even with 25° of bank he had difficulty in

acquiring sufficient vision to position the aircraft for the approach. “I called for 2,650rpm Lancaster-style”, he reported. Wheels went down at 140kt (160mph, 258km/h) and little change of trim was noted. The initial approach and turn were made at 130kt (150mph, 240km/h), which flap reduced to 120kt (138mph, 220km/h). As flap angle increased the nose came up, requiring application of trim control. “Having made a rather tight approach”, Smith reported, “the airfield boundary came up almost immediately and we skimmed the hedge with a trickle of motor at about 115kt [132mph, 212km/h]”. He held off for a ‘wheeler’ landing and, after the flight engineer had cut the engines right back, Smith was surprised to feel the Tudor “grease on without the slightest jolt”. No directional instability was noticed during the landing, although there was some asymmetry resulting from the port outer Merlin’s fast idle speed. Smith concluded his report of the hour-long flight by saying: “Looking back I can honestly record that I enjoyed it very much and found nothing about the Tudor to offend me.”

Insights

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ABOVE: G-AHNN was the Tudor IVB sampled by Maurice Smith in early 1948. AEROPLANE

In Service

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take-off, Smith was taking particular care as he released the brakes. He found the tendency to swing to port could be corrected using a combination of throttle and rudder. As speed built up to 160kt (184mph, 295km/h) and the tail lifted there was a further tendency to swing to port, but this was corrected by rudder alone. The throttles were pushed through the gate to produce a “healthy shove in the back”. The Tudor lifted off with 200 yards (185m) of runway remaining. With wheels and flaps retracted, engine speed and boost were set for the climb at 650ft (200m) per minute with a forward speed of about 140kt (160mph, 258km/h). The pilot’s notes and operating instructions recommended a climbing speed of 135kt (155mph, 250km/h) indicated air speed to 20,000ft (6,150m), with speed being reduced by 1kt (1.15mph) per 1,000ft (308m) thereafter. For maximum range 2,650rpm and 9lb per square inch of boost was recommended. When Smith tried a few turns he was surprised by the lightness of the ailerons and rudder. “It did not take long”, he wrote, “to settle down and feel comfortable when cruising round with a low power setting at about 8,000ft and a speed of 160kt IAS.” He also noted that the view from the left-hand seat enabled the pilot to see just enough of the nose to provide a view sufficient for level flight. The field of view was, however, considered better than with most pressurised aircraft of the Tudor’s size. The flight deck noise level was low enough to permit the crew to talk normally. “The whole cockpit”, Smith reported, “would, I think, be classed as comfortable by airline pilots.”

Technical Details

T

he Avro Tudor generated strong opinions, but readers of Flight were given an objective view of its flying qualities by assistant editor Maurice Smith, whose three-page report from the left-hand seat of BSAA’s G-AHNN Star Leopard was published in March 1948. Although he discovered no unpleasant characteristics, his flight in a lightly loaded aircraft was relatively brief and no doubt part of an attempt to rehabilitate the Tudor. Accompanying him was Avro’s chief test pilot, Jimmy Orrell. A flight engineer stood between the two to operate the engine controls, located in an overhead panel, although on this aircraft these duties would have been performed by the second pilot. With limited time to familiarise himself with the flight deck, Smith was gratified to note that all flying controls and instruments were neatly and sensibly arranged, although he felt remote from the engines. He could only see the port outer Merlin 621 and this feeling was heightened by a lack of noise and vibration, the springy throttle controls and delayed response. On the ground the aircraft seemed highly manoeuvrable, swinging round with what Smith described as “almost alarming ease and rapidity”. The smooth action and effectiveness of the brakes was reassuring. At the threshold of Woodford’s runway Smith and the flight engineer decided to use plus 12lb of boost to get the 70,000lb (31,800kg) of Tudor safely airborne from the 1,600-yard (1,480m) runway. Flaps were set to 25°, the maximum angle being 40°. In view of the Tudor’s propensity to swing on

Development

View from the flight deck

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Reviews

REVIEWS RATING ★★★★★ Outstanding ★★★★★ Excellent ★★★★★ Good

★★★★★ Flawed

★★★★★ Mediocre Enough said

The latest books and products for the discerning aviation enthusiast BOOK of the MONTH R. J. Mitchell at Supermarine

by John K. Shelton published by Standon Books I’ll treat this as a new title, but it is in fact a revised and updated version of the snappily-named Schneider Trophy to Spitfire: The Design Career of R. J. Mitchell from 2008, with a new foreword by Julian Mitchell, great-nephew of R. J. This is as good a biography of Mitchell as you’ll find, giving balanced coverage of the man, his projects, the Schneider Trophy and, inevitably, the Spitfire. The text is backed up by a great array of photos, all in black and

The Avro Type 698 Vulcan by David W. Fildes published by Pen & Sword

Fildes’ approach ensures that this work has minimal overlap with anything previously available. His text concentrates on the design, development and production (rather than the service history) of the Vulcan and benefits enormously from access to documentation held in the Avro Heritage Centre at Woodford and to illustrations from Paul Cullerne and the Avro photographic department. While the chapters are broadly chronological, there is little in the way of linking text. Rather, the author presents a selection of brochure extracts, proposals, specifications, test results, drawings, pilot

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white, decently reproduced and from a variety of sources. A major attraction of this volume is in the insights it provides. It is well known — or, at least, often reported — that Mitchell considered Spitfire “a bloody silly name”, but the author here suggests that it was likely to have been inspired by Ann McLean, daughter of Vickers’ chairman Robert McLean, who was reputed to be “a right Spitfire”. Mitchell took great pride in prototype Spitfire K5054. Test pilot Jeffrey Quill recalled, “whenever the new fighter was flying Mitchell would get into his car and drive from his office to Eastleigh. As I was coming in to land I would see his yellow Rolls-Royce.” The only real niggle is that Sydney Camm, Hawker’s chief designer and a contemporary of Mitchell, is frequently misspelt as ‘Sidney’. Surely no disrespect was intended. Denis J. Calvert ISBN 978-0-9956781-0-1; 11.4 x 7.6in hardback; 372 pages, illustrated; £27.50

★★★★

reports and magazine articles to tell the story. Much of what is here is new, such as drawings and description of ‘bomb nacelles’ designed for the Vulcan — large, bulbous underwing affairs, each carrying one 10,000lb or 14 1,000lb bombs. Page 413 details (and here I kid you not) a ‘Vertical take-off Vulcan’ proposal dated 26 April 1960, with power provided by 14 engines (10 BE59s and four vectoredthrust Olympus). Fascinating stuff, and excellent value at under £20. DJC ISBN 978-1-47388-667-4; 9.8 x 6.8in softback; 488 pages, illustrated; £19.99

★★★★

Gone but Not Forgotten by Alan Phillips published by Fonthill

This volume, subtitled ‘Defunct British Airlines Since 1945’, is nostalgic to leaf through, although you may find the sheer number of companies that have ceased

trading over the past 70 or so years to be somewhat depressing. Most of your favourite carriers will be found, from Air 2000 to Yorkshire European Airways. Each has a short descriptive text with, in most cases, an image or two. Photo reproduction, in black and white and colour, is decent but many of the shots are crudely cropped, that on page 104 of a Manx Airways ATP having its nose and even part of its cockpit windows unsympathetically lopped off. The text is informative and suitably concise, but the proof-reading could have been a whole lot better, with references to Eagle Airways’ “Harold Bemberg” (Bamberg) and “BAC 146s” (BAe 146s), along with the puzzling photo caption “a BOAC Boeing Stratocrusers in flight”. In short, a useful and readable volume, but not by a country mile the definitive work on the subject. DJC ISBN 978-1-78155-627-6; 9.8 x 6.8in softback; 128 pages, illustrated; £16.99

★★★

MODELS Staples and Vine flying boats

The Staples and Vine — formerly Diverse Images — range of limited-edition, hand-crafted pewter models has been newly expanded with a superb pair of 1:144-scale Short Empire class flying boats. Imperial Airways S23 G-AETY Clio is depicted in the markings it wore as of late 1939, with red, white and blue stripes distinguishing a non-combatant aircraft, while S30 V3137 is the former G-AFCU Cabot following impressment into RAF service upon the outbreak of war. Very nice indeed. Ben Dunnell £164 each (plus delivery) from www.diverse-images.com

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Events

Dave Harvey, Clive Denney, Stu Goldspink, Paul Stone, Peter Teichman and Mark Levy bring the Hurricanes round during their formation passes. BEN DUNNELL

Will Greenwood and Richard Grace run in with the very attractive duo of Yak-3s. BEN DUNNELL

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Start-up for the six Hurricanes, more civilianowned examples of the type than had ever displayed together before. HARRY MEASURES

Duxford Battle of Britain A

E

arlier this summer, many of us were thrilled by the presence of five Hawker Hurricanes at Flying Legends. Only a few weeks on, to see seven during the Battle of Britain Air Show — IWM Duxford’s final display of the airfield’s centenary year — was a true delight. This occasion was planned to throw more of the spotlight on the Hurricane than had been possible at previous Duxford Battle of Britain commemorations. It also demonstrated how strong the British warbird scene remains. Two of the Hawker fighters were among this year’s newly completed restorations, while the line-up as a whole, which produced Duxford’s longest and busiest flightline for many a season, featured representation from almost all the UK’s major historic aircraft operators. Some hadn’t contributed to shows at the venue for several years. It bodes very well for future IWM displays. Provided by the Historic Aircraft Collection, the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar, Hugh Taylor, the Shuttleworth Collection, Hangar 11 Collection and Anglia Aircraft Restorations, the Hurricanes were initially flown in two

three-ship vics, a pattern that would have been very familiar in the early weeks of the battle. They transitioned into an elegant tailchase, on Sunday flown against a quintessential ‘Battle of Britain sky’ of high, wispy clouds and contrails. After the six landed, another Hurricane (PZ865) arrived as part of the BBMF, though it was unable to join the others on the ground. The contrast with the previous generation of Sydney Camm-designed combat aircraft was provided by Charlie Brown and Dave Harvey in the HAC’s Fury and Nimrod, the former giving its first public flying display for more than a year. There was a welcome return too for an old Duxford favourite, the Bristol Mercury-powered formation of the Aircraft Restoration Company’s Blenheim, Shuttleworth’s Lysander and Gladiator. Unfortunately Sunday’s gusty crosswind conditions prevented the Hawker biplanes from displaying at all, and reduced the Mercury trio to a particularly exuberant solo from John Romain in the Blenheim. There were no such problems for the Tiger Nine team, though, which saw Nigel Lemon’s very rare Moth Major interloping among the DH82As.

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The final salute: Blenheim, three Spitfire Ias, five Hurricanes and Gladiator. Marvellous. BEN DUNNELL

Seafire and Corsair made up a Fleet Air Arm Pacific theatre pairing. JOHN DUNNELL

It’s not every day that you see Sally B and two C-47s tailchasing. BEN DUNNELL

n Air Show Sally B being accompanied by the familiar One of the weekend’s outstanding pair of C-47A Skytrains from Aces High moments came as part of the naval and Dakota Heritage. The sight of these segment. The pairing of the Air Leasingmajestic machines, handled respectively operated Seafire III with The Fighter by Sally B’s three captains Roger Mills, Collection’s Corsair, both in Royal Navy Andrew Dixon and Peter Kuypers, Pacific Fleet colours, was flown to great engaged in a tailchase-type orbit was one effect by Pete Kynsey and Alan Wade. of the weekend’s most memorable. What a privilege to see this for the first Unfortunately, though, the ‘top cover’ time. Performed initially at Flying element was Legends, the involved in an routine by Plane Sailing’s Catalina The Hurricanes were initially incident on Saturday prior to and TFC’s Wildcat flown in two three-ship vics, a joining the was repeated here pattern that would have been Fortress. P-51D and works very very familiar in the early weeks Miss Helen well. Two Yak-3s, suffered a mid-air Will Greenwood of the Battle collision with the first-footing at Norwegian Spitfire Duxford in his Foundation’s ‘sharkmouth’ Mustang to example alongside Richard Grace in Mark the west of the airfield and was forced Davy’s ‘White 100’, saw off Lee Proudfoot into an immediate downwind landing in the ARC’s Buchón during the Russian with damage apparent to the port Front scenario. Vintage jet action was tailplane. The other P-51 was able to provided by the Norwegian Air Force make a conventional circuit and land Historical Squadron, which put up its normally. A lucky escape. Vampires alongside the SB Lim-2 All too soon, the large crowd’s (MiG-15UTI) to fly a very smooth — if attentions were turned towards the finale brief — sequence. — and what a finale it was. Thirteen The show’s ‘Heavy Formation’ saw Spitfires (well, 12 plus the Seafire) flew in another outstanding three-ship, B-17G

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23–24

SEPTEMBER formation and tailchased, a marvellous piece of choreography by leader Brian Smith, but what else would we expect? At most other displays this would have seemed an appropriate conclusion, but not here. The very final salute was to be a quite unique Battle of Britain flypast, in which the skies over Duxford witnessed the Blenheim heading a trio of Spitfire Ias from the IWM and Comanche Fighters, five Hurricanes (P2902 had a snag on Saturday, while Z7015 aborted on Sunday) and the Gladiator. Led by John Romain, this dignified formation — a superb piece of flying given the dissimilar types, and engines, involved — more than lived up to the IWM’s desire to recall how the Battle was won by more than just Spitfires. Out of all the September IWM shows, it is hard to think of many better than this. Next year will see the event again being dubbed the Battle of Britain Air Show, and no doubt it will be a major RAF centenary highlight. If the intention is to build on this success — and there will certainly be still more Hurricanes available, for one thing — the 2017 edition provides the perfect starting point. John Dunnell

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Events

Jersey International Air D The French-owned Alizé taxies out at Jersey Airport. BEN DUNNELL

B-17 leads Blenheim over the Bournemouth water. DAVID HALFORD

Bournemouth Air Festival Bournemouth’s record-breaking seafront show, held from 31 August-3 September, looked rather different in its 10th anniversary year. The RAF contingent, usually significant, was depleted by the grounding of much of the BBMF and the lack of the Typhoon. Classic jets promised to be one of the more dynamic elements, and the Norwegian Air Force Historical Squadron’s SB Lim-2 (MiG-15UTI) did not disappoint. However, the planned six-ship formation on the Sunday, where the MiG was due to be joined by the Norwegian group’s two Vampires, plus a Strikemaster and two Jet Provosts, was aborted by the dramatic change in the weather that cancelled the main Sunday flying programme. The most memorable display was by the Aircraft Restoration Company’s Blenheim, flown by John Romain with his son alongside him. It joined B-17G Sally B, tucking itself in under the Fortress’s tail for several passes before the two separated, leaving the huge theatre of sky and water between the Needles and the Isle of Purbeck in which to give a most elegant masterclass of how to fly a warbird. With graceful topside passes and almost a sense of poetry in the way he caressed the aircraft through its paces, a video of Romain’s performance should be used as a teaching aid for aspiring display pilots. David Halford

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L

et’s face it: take a glance at many British airshow flying programmes, and — as good as the acts are — you could be looking at the line-up from any number of events. Not so in Jersey. Every year it offers the choicest of pickings from the European air display table, character and imagination to the fore. Of course Jersey hasn’t been immune to the pressures afflicting all shows nowadays. Bar a single Royal Navy Merlin helicopter in the Lower Park static area, there was no modern military involvement

at all in 2017. Just the BBMF’s Lancaster, as welcome as always, represented the RAF. But who cares when the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight’s Saab jets are powering over St Aubin’s Bay? This year the J 29F, SK 35C Draken and AJS 37 Viggen were led by J 32B Lansen SE‑RMD, making this type’s first ever appearance in a British flying display. It had been hoped to see the Lansen in Jersey for fully a decade, but only with the aircraft’s transfer to the civil register and recent return to flight did the spectacle prove possible. While Per Weilander’s

Scampton Airshow

T

o the doomsayers who complain that there are ever fewer airshows staged on active RAF airfields, the 2017 season has seen a doubling in their number; last year just one, at Cosford, this year two. The new kid on the block is the Scampton Airshow, organised by RAF Charitable Trust Enterprises, the team behind RIAT. The static display was reasonably comprehensive. A quartet of jets — AJS 37 Viggen, SK 35C Draken, J 32B Lansen and J 29F ‘Tunnan’ — of the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight provided the undoubted highlight, the Lansen making the type’s first UK show appearance since 1994. Sadly, with the post-Shoreham changes to requirements for gaining display authorisations, they were unable to take part in the flying. Home-based defence contractor HHA

offered a unique line-up of four other classic jets: airworthy Hunter F58, potentially airworthy Buccaneer S2B and Su-22M4 ‘Fitter’, and spares source F-4F Phantom. A surprising exhibit was a full-size inflatable (yes, inflatable) Soviet ZSU-2S6 self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle, used as a range target at RAF Spadeadam. It packs into a 4ft cube for transport and can fit a heat pad where the engine would be, to provide an IR signature. “Five are going out to Oman at the end of this month for exercises”, I was told, “and we also have an inflatable ‘Scud’ launcher.” Opening the Saturday display was a flypast by the Red Arrows and a No 5 Squadron Sentinel R1, a salute to the RAF in Lincolnshire. Performing over their home airfield, the Reds did not have an easy weekend, putting up only a four-ship

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r Display performance was quite a restrained affair — especially in comparison with Lars Martinsson’s efforts with the Draken, the pick of the quartet for spectacle — the J 32’s rarity value marked it out as the star Jersey act this season. That accolade could equally have gone to the marvellous Breguet Alizé operated from Nîmes-Garons by the Association Alizé Marine. It too was first-footing, the anti-submarine aircraft’s inaugural visit having on several previous occasions been cancelled by issues relating to pilot availability. With the elegant Fouga CM175 Zéphyr from the Zéphyr 28 group, yet another Jersey and British show neophyte, and the more familiar MS760 Paris of Armor Aéro Passion, it formed a distant if welcome French naval threesome. With no Red Arrows, off to the Middle East, Latvia’s civilian Baltic Bees team of six Aero L-39C trainers took the finale slot and joined the list of newcomers. So did the Patrouille Reva, over from ColmarHoussen in eastern France, with its Rutan-designed trio of an Acro-EZ and two examples of the Long-EZ. Led by former Armée de l’Air fighter pilot Réal Weber, they flew excellently in the teeth of a very strong wind. The Fairchild Argus and Stinson Reliant are hardly regular British performers, but here we had individual appearances by Brent Owen in Richard Ellingworth’s RAF-schemed Argus G-RGUS from

14

SEPTEMBER

At last, a Lansen made it to Jersey. Fittingly, it helmed the rest of the Swedish Air Force Historic Flight formation — Draken, Viggen and ‘Tunnan’. BEN DUNNELL

Spanhoe, and Dutchman Remko Sijben at the helm of his Fleet Air Arm-marked Reliant N1943S. An extremely spirited performance from Simon Wilson aboard stalwart Beech 18 G-BKGL, recently acquired by Nick Houghton, further kept the classic American end up. Perhaps the most unusual sight was Dornier Seawings’ attractive little twin-turboprop Seastar CD2 amphibian demonstrator, though the rough sea kept it from landing on the water. And when the weather put paid to various other items, in from reserve came the Gnat Display Team’s Edwin

Buccaneer, F-4F, Su-22M4 and Hunter from HHA lined up in the Scampton static park. BEN DUNNELL

on Saturday and an eight-ship on Sunday, for various operational and serviceability reasons. BAE Systems’ Avro XIX G-AHKX and Mark Stott’s Pembroke WV740/ G-BNPH, flown by Peter Kosogorin and Jon Corley respectively, gave sparkling

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individual displays but unfortunately were not to be seen in the air together. With the ‘pause in flying’ and the Merlin engine inspections now largely behind it, the BBMF put up the classic Lancaster, Hurricane and Spitfire (Griffon-engined

Brenninkmeyer with Gnat T1 G-RORI, Boultbee Flight Academy MD Matt Jones in fine form at the controls of Spitfire IX RR232, and the highest of high-octane aerobatics courtesy Rich Goodwin and his ‘Muscle Biplane’ Pitts S-2S. High-quality entertainment all the way. This year marked the 20th anniversary of organiser Mike Higgins taking over the running of the Jersey show. Under his stewardship it has developed into nothing less than one of Europe’s premier displays, and long may it continue in that vein. Ben Dunnell

9-10

SEPTEMBER PRXIX PS915) three-ship in a welcome return on Saturday. Also notable was T2 Aviation’s oil spill response Boeing 727-2S2F(RE) G-OSRB, flown by Dan Griffith and Pat Cafferky, which doused the Scampton grass with water from its rear fuselage-mounted TERSUS spraying system — not that the Scampton grass needed watering. The addition of Scampton to the UK calendar is a welcome one. Despite the inhospitable weather, this was a very creditable effort for a new show. It wasn’t (and never pretended to be), a mini-RIAT, nor a one-for-one Waddington replacement, but the addition of a couple of ‘never-seen-that-one-before’ headline flying displays would have helped it to stand out from the competition. Something for future years, surely. Denis J. Calvert

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Archive

Ben Dunnell explores The Aeroplane’s outstanding archives to cast new light on past stories

HENDON’S FINAL FLIGHTS The former RAF Hendon as a ‘VTOL-port’? It was among the suggestions made when the famous London airfield closed to flying 60 years ago

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isit the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon today, and signs that there was once an airfield — let alone a large and very famous airfield — in this part of north-west London are few and far between. The very necessary pace of urban housing development has seen to that. It was even going that way in the mid1950s, when RAF Hendon’s heyday was some way behind it, but the aerodrome retained several important roles. The one-time home of Claude Grahame-White’s pioneering aircraft manufacturing and training activities, and scene of the illustrious inter-war RAF Pageants and Displays, had become a major Transport Command base by the end of World War Two. Yet even then its location played against it, larger transport aircraft being better off operating from RAF Northolt located to the southwest. Nos 601 and 604 Squadrons

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of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force arrived in October 1946 with their Spitfires, staying until 1949 when reequipment with Vampires saw them moving to North Weald. The presence of the Metropolitan Communications Squadron, part of Transport Command, was more enduring. While for a time it had Hurricanes on strength for rapid communications flights to Belgium, and Spitfires as the personal aircraft of senior command officers, less potent types held sway. There were DH Dominies, Avro Ansons, Percival Proctors, DHC Chipmunks and DH Devons, shuttling faithfully between RAF stations and other airfields at home and on the continent. On 13 August 1948, the unit was given the No 31 Squadron ‘numberplate’, but it reverted to its previous name in February 1955. By then, Hendon’s fate hung in the balance.

Another of the resident units, US Navy fleet aircraft service squadron FASRON 200 — formerly transport squadron VR-24 — knew the airfield’s limitations all too well. Hendon was fine for its main fleet of Douglas R4Ds and Beech SNB-5s, but missions involving the larger Douglas R5D necessitated the use of Bovingdon or, sometimes, London Airport. The unit moved out to Blackbushe in May 1956. As Flight remarked in a piece the following month, Hendon found itself “trapped, but miraculously not submerged, by the tide of ever-expanding suburbs.” The miracle couldn’t last. The decision was made during early 1956 to close Hendon to service flying, transferring the Metropolitan Communications Squadron to Northolt. It was, one must say, an eminently sensible move. But what to do with Hendon? Harold Watkinson, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, was saying in February

ABOVE: Anson C19 TX214 of the Metropolitan Communications Squadron overflies RAF Hendon on 7 November 1957. This aircraft is today preserved by the RAF Museum, but at Cosford, not Hendon. ALL PHOTOS AEROPLANE

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Archive RIGHT: A Metropolitan Communications Squadron Devon C2 has Royal Aeronautical Society/Nash Collection Sopwith Camel F6314 moved into place alongside for a unique ‘then and now’ photograph. The Camel is a proud museumpiece in the RAFM First World War in the Air exhibition, in the Grahame-White hangar.

1957 that its future “has not yet been decided”. This came in response to a question in Parliament about the possibility of opening the aerodrome up to club and private aircraft upon the closure of Croydon. Watkinson said, “I will do my best about Hendon and one or two other projects”. The site was, as The Aeroplane later remarked, briefly “classed as a ‘joint user aerodrome’, meaning that it was to be available both for Service flying and by light civil aircraft”. But this never came to pass. A very small box in The Aeroplane reported the news: “Unheralded and unsung, an end of flying at Hendon was made officially on November 2, when twenty-five RAF aircraft were flown away from the most famous of all London airfields for the last time. Though flying control has closed down, Hendon will be retained as an RAF station.” In fact, the Metropolitan Communications Squadron operations record book shows that the journal’s report was somewhat incomplete. The unit’s Ansons of ‘A’ Flight and Chipmunks of ‘C’ Flight did indeed leave on 2 November, a Saturday. However, ‘B’ Flight’s Devons, together with the squadron

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HQ and ground equipment, did not depart until the following week. The Anson held on stand-by as an air ambulance aircraft — one of the unit’s functions — stayed at Hendon until 8 November, when operations from Northolt officially commenced. What the “twenty-five RAF aircraft” that left were is uncertain, since just 15 had been home-based. Press and television representatives were invited to Hendon the previous day to see the formal departure of the last three resident aircraft, one of each type. Among them was a photographer for The Aeroplane, who captured the images that accompany this feature. Several aircraft from the Nash collection, which had been purchased in 1953 by the Royal Aeronautical Society, were now stored in a Bellman-type hangar at Hendon; one of them, Sopwith F1 Camel F6314 (marked as ‘H508’), was brought

outside for the occasion and parked next to a Devon. Dignitaries present on the day included the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Transport Command, Air Marshal Sir Andrew McKee. Many still hoped that the final RAF fly-out would spell only a temporary cessation of Hendon’s activity — that it might, perhaps, become the ‘new Croydon’ as far as private flying was concerned. It didn’t take long for those notions to be scotched. On 12 November, just days after the last Anson departed, the Secretary of State for Air, George Ward, responded to a written question in the House of Commons about the aerodrome’s future. He said: “The use of the airfield by flying clubs and for light aircraft generally has been studied by my Department with the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. My right honourable

The Secretary of State for Air said, “We see a possibility of Hendon being brought back into use at some future date for aircraft such as helicopters, STOL and vertical take-off aircraft”

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friend and I consider that the advantages of transferring air traffic from Hendon to Northolt would be prejudiced by the serious air traffic control difficulties which would arise if Hendon were to continue in use for this type of flying. However, we see a possibility of the airfield being brought back into use at some future date for aircraft such as helicopters, short take-off and landing and vertical take-off aircraft. A study is being made of interim uses of the airfield which would be consistent with this future flying use.” This, of course, was a time when the Fairey Rotodyne — which first took to the air in the very week of Hendon’s farewell to flying — still seemed to be ushering in a new era of commercial inter-city VTOL travel. Fixed-wing airliners with STOL characteristics offered their own opportunities. A proposed helicopter airline called Inter-City Airways proposed to include Hendon as part of a four-route network, operating via a central London heliport at Battersea to Gatwick. But such ideas fell by the wayside long before the Rotodyne was cancelled. Instead, rather quieter flying machines came onto the local scene. From November 1958, No 617 Volunteer Gliding School took up residence with its Kirby Cadets,

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providing air experience to members of the Air Training Corps. They stayed for a decade, giving hundreds of youngsters their first taste of flight at a site where many pioneer aviators had trained at Grahame-White’s school. The arrival of Beverley C1 XH124 to become the station gate guardian in June 1968 marked Hendon’s final fixed-wing powered aircraft arrival. It remained an active RAF station, home to the Joint Services Air Trooping Centre and the Supply Control Centre, until 1987-88. Even then, many visitors to the RAF Museum might have gone unaware. After a few more years, they certainly would. Still more of the historic camp buildings were demolished, and gradually that “tide of ever-expanding suburbs” would indeed submerge much of the place. As outlined in our ‘Aeroplane meets…’ interview with RAFM chief executive Maggie Appleton in the February 2017 issue, one of the museum’s challenges is to educate the local populace as to the area’s aviation heritage. After all, why would many of them know? It no longer looks as if there was ever an active airfield on their doorstep.

Incidentally, it’s also 60 years since approval was given in principle by the Air Council that Hendon’s GrahameWhite hangar could be used by the Royal Aeronautical Society as the home of a new national historic aircraft collection. It never emerged in that form, but when the decision came to establish a dedicated RAF Museum, finally opened in 1972, Hendon again presented itself as the obvious choice. That today’s RAFM exhibits Spitfire LFXVIe RW393, flown from Hendon from 1949-53 while on charge with No 31 Squadron, is most welcome indeed. But the museum also has another aeroplane from the station’s post-war complement: the Anson C19 shown in the lead image of this feature, TX214. It was on the strength of the Metropolitan Communications Squadron when the transfer was made to Northolt in November 1957. Would you believe it’s only ever been exhibited at Cosford? Well, it’s true. I suppose it’s a bit late to suggest it should come to Hendon as part of the RAF centenary redevelopment programme, but if the museum wants to make connections between Hendon then and Hendon now, the Anson and the Spitfire are the two most relevant airframes. Just a thought…

ABOVE: An aerial view of the soon-to-close airfield, with one Devon and two Chipmunks still on the ground. Overlooking the apron is the old Grahame-White office building and watchtower, since relocated and restored.

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