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VULCAN
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Contents 26
February 2017
Vol 45, no 2 • Issue no 526

34

66
74 100

60
NEWS AND FEATURES 66 P-39 AND P-63
Exclusive air-to-air coverage of the
COMMENT 22 AMPUTEE SOLOS A SPITFIRE Commemorative Air Force’s Bell
Airacobra and Kingcobra
Losing a leg was no barrier to Alan
4 FROM THE EDITOR Robinson going solo in the 74 ROLLS-ROYCE EXPERIMENTAL
6 NEWS Supermarine fighter, thanks to the DEPARTMENT
• Bristol Freighter to return home? Boultbee Flight Academy In 1937, a photographer for The
• Hudson unveiled in Canberra 26 BAADE 152 Aeroplane visited Rolls-Royce at
• RAF Museum fighter shuffle The 152 jet airliner designed by Hucknall during a crucial period in
• New-build BE2 arrives in Ardmore Brunolf Baade proved to be the death engine development
… and the month’s other top aircraft knell for East Germany’s fledgling
preservation news aircraft industry 83 DATABASE:
34 VINCENT AND BAFFIN SOPWITH TRIPLANE NE
In New Zealand, the Subritzky Pete London on
13 HANGAR TALK the First World War
Steve Slater’s monthly comment family is resurrecting two inter-war
British classics — the Vickers Vincent fighter that made an
column on the historic aircraft world immediate impact in
and Blackburn Baffin
the air war over the
REGULARS 38 GLADIATORS AGAINST
MUSSOLINI
Western Front 15
IN-DEPTH
PAGES

15 SKYWRITERS In 1940-41, the Gloster biplane

fighters were part of the Allies’ first
line of attack — and defence — against
18 Q&A
Your questions asked and answered Italian forces in East Africa
48 AEROPLANE MEETS…
80 HOOKS’ TOURS DR ROBERT PLEMING
The boss of the Vulcan to the Sky
More outstanding colour images
from Mike Hooks’ amazing collection. Trust reflects on the story of XH558’s
This month, a selection of classic return to flight, and the future of this
Lockheed aircraft most famous ‘V-bomber’
60 MOSS MA1 AND MA2
98 BOOKS The attractive British light aeroplanes
made by an unusual family firm —
106 NEXT MONTH one founded by five flying brothers
See pages 20-21 for a great subscription offer
100 BAY OF PIGS PILOT
Following the death of Fidel Castro,
a pilot for Cuba’s air arm recalls his
part in the Bay of Pigs operations
COVER IMAGE: Vulcan B2 XH558 captured
during one of its final sorties before grounding
in 2015. GAVIN CONROY
ESTABLISHED 1911
Aeroplane traces its lineage back to
the weekly The Aeroplane, founded
by C. G. Grey in 1911 and published
until 1968. It was re-launched as a
monthly in 1973 by Richard T. Riding,
editor for 25 years until 1998.

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 3

 From the
E D I TO R
I
wasn’t surprised that our ‘Aeroplane meets…’
feature on Royal Air Force Museum chief executive
Maggie Appleton caused quite a reaction. People
care hugely about our national collections, and
quite right too. So, I can understand some degree of surprise at
reading that the RAFM is to loan its Spitfire XIV to the Pima Air
and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. It is, after all, the RAFM’s
sole example of an important Spitfire mark.
Personally, I was delighted. Pima is an excellent museum, one
that has done much to preserve British aircraft and present them
to a different audience. To the Blenheim (in Canadian-built
Bolingbroke form), Gannet, Gnat, Harrier, Hunter, Hurricane,
Jet Provost, Lightning, Lynx, Shackleton, Vampire and Viscount,
the ‘Spit’ will make a fine addition. It will be properly cared-
for, and fill a gap in Pima’s collection. Sure, a MkXIV has little
link to America, but to the vast majority of visitors that won’t
matter. And it’s not as if the temporary loss of another of the
RAFM’s Spitfires is especially noteworthy in the wider scheme of
things. The museum has five examples on display at Hendon and
Cosford, so the type is hardly lacking.
In fact, I would like to see more interchange of exhibits in the
aviation museum world. Of course it’s not as easy to transport,
or find space for, a complete aircraft as it is for a smaller museum
artefact, but plenty of cases show how it can be done. To take
one example, it seems a shame that the RAFM has such fine
aeroplanes as its replica Vickers Vimy, the ex-Lindbergh Miles
Mohawk and, soon, the Westland Wallace fuselage in its Stafford
store. None is likely to go back on show at Cosford or Hendon
any time soon; they would surely be better served by being on
display elsewhere. Once the RAFM’s redevelopment and its
contribution to the RAF centenary celebrations are out of the
way, I am of the view that it should consider the active pursuit
of future loans as a key element of its policy, especially if they
bring mutual benefits. Likewise, one wonders whether the IWM’s
Bolingbroke, which has now been stored at Duxford for close on
15 years, might profitably be found a new home — one where the
restoration could be completed — while remaining part of the
museum’s collection?
No-one underestimates the logistical challenges involved in
such arrangements, nor the need to ensure that all the necessary
conservation criteria are met. But there are plenty of opportunities
out there, and ripe for the taking if the will exists.
There’s something of a change in our pages this month, as
Mike Hooks relinquishes his ever-popular Q&A column. Our
thanks to him for nurturing and compiling it so diligently —
Q&A continues to be an Aeroplane staple, and an excellent
way of interacting with all of you who write in. But Mike will
still contribute regularly, and Q&A from now on is in the
experienced hands of Barry Wheeler. Welcome to him.
Ben Dunnell

CONNECT WITH AEROPLANE… www.facebook.com/AeroplaneMonthly @HistoryInTheAir

CONTRIBUTORS THIS MONTH

Pe t e Andreas Santiago Barry
LO N D O N M E T Z M AC H E R R I VA S WHEELER

Pete is a former manager with BAE
Systems and Finmeccanica. A full-
time writer, he focuses mainly on
aviation history. He has written for
aircraft magazines since 1983 and is
currently researching the life of
aviator-designer John Porte. Pete
caught the aeroplane bug as a boy,
after his father took him to see a
beached Saunders-Roe Princess
flying boat. Other interests include
music; with his trusty bouzouki, he’s
played many festivals including
Glastonbury.
Although he started out as an
aviation author when he made a
documentary for a German TV
station about the history of Gotha
aircraft, Andreas’s interest in the
subject dates back to building
models in his youth. Aside from
aviation in Gotha, his home town, he
is interested above all in the service
histories of aircraft and their pilots.
This month he covers another East
German subject — the ill-fated 152
jet airliner, the first prototype of
which was lost on its second flight.
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
Santiago started his career as an
aviation and defence journalist and
photographer in 1997. Since then his
work has appeared in more than 70
different media outlets around the
world. Currently he specialises in
Latin American aviation, both
historic and modern. He has
published books in six countries.
Santiago’s work has taken him to
most Latin American nations, the
majority of whose armed forces he
has covered, and to Europe.
A life in aviation journalism began in
September 1960 when Barry joined
Flight, taking over as production editor
and learning to fly. In 1971, his model-
making hobby became his ‘day job’
when he headed up technical research
at Airfix. A decade later, he became
editor of the Joint Services Recognition
Journal within the Ministry of Defence.
Barry left to become editor at Air
International in 1991; two years
afterwards he moved to Air Pictorial,
which morphed into Aviation News, a
title he ran until retirement in 2009.

4 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

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WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford,
Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK

Help needed to bring

Freighter home

Bristol Freighter NZ5911, pictured at Ardmore during April 2015, could soon become the only example of the type in the UK. TIM BADHAM

On 29 November 2016 Iain
Gray, chairman of the Bristol
Aero Collection Trust (BACT),
announced that a Bristol 170
Freighter will be brought
back to Filton for restoration
at the new Aerospace Bristol
museum and learning centre,
subject to the necessary
funding being raised to
transport it from New
Zealand. There is currently
not a single ‘Biffo’ preserved
in the UK, the last example to
be extant in its home
country, C-FDFC, having
been written off in a take-off
accident at Enstone,
Oxfordshire during July 1996.
The prospective returnee is
former Royal New Zealand
Air Force Freighter 31M
NZ5911, which flew in to
Ardmore aerodrome,
Auckland on 31 August 1978
and has been parked there
ever since. The corpulent
cargo-hauler is the last of
eight Freighters that were
acquired by Dwen Airmotive
from the RNZAF. During 2004
Dwen advertised the Freighter
for sale as a package with
several tonnes of airframe and
engine spares, but by early
2016 the firm had decided to
clear the site at Ardmore and
scrap the Freighter.
Demolition of the surrounding
buildings began in September,
but fortunately the BACT was
able to negotiate a deal to
save the aircraft from
destruction in the nick of time.
Freighter NZ5911 was the
last but one of an order for 12
Freighter 31Ms for the RNZAF,
and was built at Filton in 1954.
It arrived at Whenuapai on 4
May 1954, entering service as a
dual-control trainer. It made
its last flight with the air arm
on 14 December 1977 and was
stored at Whenuapai until
making its final flight to
Ardmore.
From a total of 214
Freighters built between
1945-58, just 10 complete
examples survive: three in
Canada, two in Australia, one
in Argentina and four in New
Zealand.
On 6 December a
spokesman for Aerospace
Bristol — which is due to
open at Filton during the
summer of 2017 —
announced that it had
secured the shipping
costs to transport the
Freighter to the UK from New
Zealand and had launched
an urgent appeal for
donations to cover packing
and land transportation
costs. Anyone who wishes to
help bring the Freighter
home, and help plug a
yawning gap in the UK’s
aviation heritage sector,
should visit aerospacebristol.
org/donate or telephone
0117 931 5315.

6 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

Hudson goes on show at Canberra
The Australian War Memorial’s
Lockheed Hudson IV, A16-105,
went on display near the Virgin
Australia check-in desks at
Canberra Airport on 19
December, following six years’
work at the AWM’s Treloar
workshops to restore the
bomber to its December 1942
configuration.
Acquired by the AWM in
January 2001, the machine spent
a brief period on display in the
museum’s Anzac Hall before
being taken to the Treloar
facility where restoration began
in September 2010. The most
complex task has been the
installation of a Boulton Paul
turret, which had been absent
since the aircraft was civilianised
post-war. An invaluable source
of parts has been the damaged
rear fuselage section from
Hudson A16-128, which The recently completed Hudson IV A16-105 after its unveiling at Canberra Airport on 19 December.
contained a large proportion of VIA GREG KIMBALL
the structure missing from ’105
to support the upper gun turret. directly behind the pilot airframe. The restoration was during early December 1941 and
A large number of structural reconstructed. The project has made possible by a was initially used as a trainer.
components have been required the fabrication of more collaboration between the Between December 1942 and
manufactured and fitted into than 5,800 parts and tools, AWM, Canberra Airport, and the January 1943 it saw operational
the lower airframe, including the extensive research into an Virgin Australia Group. The service in Papua and New
tunnel gun position. The beam accurate colour scheme and Hudson will be on show at the Guinea, carrying out supply
gun positions have been added, internal equipment fit-out, and a airport until the end of 2018. It flights during the Allied advance
and the radio operator’s room major reconditioning of the originally arrived in Australia on Buna, on Papua’s north coast.

Aussie Comper Swift completed

Comper CLA7 Swift VH-UVC collector Roy Fox at Bankstown aircraft and in very good
will soon take to the air for the in south-west Sydney, Australia. condition, requiring only
first time in more than 60 Fox also owns the world’s only inspection, sand-blasting and
years at Omaka airfield near surviving de Havilland Gipsy III repainting. Virtually all the
Blenheim, New Zealand, in line-powered Comper Swift, wood has been replaced for
following a complete rebuild VH-ACG. varying reasons. Overhaul of the
with JEM Aviation. It is hoped JEM director Jay McIntyre told engine was a minor challenge
that the 1932-built machine Aeroplane, “The Swift arrived in as, although quite simple in
will make its first public Blenheim in January 2014 and a many regards, the design of the
appearance at the Classic complete rebuild was started Pobjoy Niagara is somewhat
Fighters show at Omaka in immediately. We were lucky in complicated for 90hp! Modern
April, after which it will return that virtually all the metal brakes and a tailwheel have
to its owner, vintage aircraft components were still with the been fitted for operations at her
eventual home in Bankstown.”
Originally built in 1932 at
Hooton Park, Cheshire and
registered G-ACAG, the machine
made its first flight with Nicholas
Comper at the helm on 14
November that year. Comper
took the machine on an
extensive tour of Europe during
1933, but the following year it
was sold to the Australian Aero
Club (Victorian Section). It
arrived at Port Melbourne
aboard the SS Ormonde on 24
The 90hp Pobjoy Niagara on Swift VH-UVC being run for the first September 1934, and was
time since rebuild at Omaka in mid-October 2016. PETER R. ARNOLD test-flown at the start of the
following month at Essendon,
Melbourne. ’UVC hasn’t flown
since the port undercarriage
collapsed on landing at
Bundaberg, Queensland, on 27
July 1962.
Jay McIntyre adds: “We are
hoping to fly ’VHC towards the
end of January. It received a
New Zealand CAA certificate
of airworthiness in late
November, but we have a few
small details to attend to
before flying her for the first
time, not least of all ensuring
the scratch-built electronic
ignition units are up to the job.
These have been fitted for
increased reliability over the
old BTH magnetos, which had
a bit of a reputation as hand
grenades. Test flying will be
completed in New Zealand.
VH-UVC has been finished in
what we believe to be a
pseudo-authentic scheme to
replicate G-ABRE, in which
Arthur Butler flew from
England to Australia in 1931.”

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 7

News
Fighter reshuffle at Hendon
Hurricane I P2617, wearing its original No 607 Squadron codes,
being moved to the main exhibition hall at Hendon. RAFM
On 15 December, Hurricane I
P2617 left the RAF Museum’s
recently closed Battle of Britain
Hall and moved into the main
display hall, prior to going on
show ‘tail-to-tail’ with a trio of
other 1940 combat veterans.
The other three aircraft are
Spitfire Ia X4590, in which Plt
Off S. J. Hill of Middle-Wallop-
Zuch on show at Krakow
The sporty-looking Zuch 2 SP-BAM, now on display at the Kraków museum. MIKE SHREEVE
At the Polish Aviation Museum
in Kraków, an example of the
indigenous LWD Zuch 2 trainer
recently went on display in the
main building following a full
restoration. The machine,
SP-BAM, was the second
production example and has
been in the museum’s
collection since retirement in
the mid-1960s.
The prototype of this
tandem trainer was built in
8 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
based No 609 Squadron was
credited with a half-share of a
Ju 88 near Lymington on 21
October 1940; Messerschmitt
Bf 109E-4 Werknummer 4104,
operated by 2./JG 51, which
made a belly landing at
Manston, Kent on 27
November 1940 after being
shot up by a Biggin Hill-based
1948, powered by a
Czechoslovakian 160hp Walter
Minor six-cylinder in-line
engine. A supply of engines
could not be guaranteed for
production aircraft, so the
design was modified to use a
second-hand ex-Luftwaffe
Siemens-Halske Sh 14A radial, of
which plentiful supplies were
available in post-war Poland.
Five series production examples
of the radial-engined Zuch 2
Spitfire I X4590 and Bf 109 Werknummer 4104 in the main Hendon
hall, but not yet in their final positions, on 15 December. RAFM
Spitfire; and Fiat CR42
MM5701, which force-landed
on a beach at Orfordness,
Suffolk on 11 November 1940
after suffering a broken oil
pipe while escorting Fiat BR20
bombers mounting a raid on
Harwich.
Another former inhabitant
of the Battle of Britain Hall,
were built by LWD in Łódź in
1950, and were used by Polish
aero clubs into the 1960s.
However, they suffered both
from the increased drag of the
radial engine over the original
in-line design, and an inability of
the worn second-hand
powerplants to meet their rated
output of 160hp, only about 75
per cent of that figure being
achieved in service.
Mike Shreeve
Messerschmitt Bf 110G-4/R6
Werknummer 730301, will
soon go on display next to
Lancaster I R5868 in Hendon’s
Bomber Command Hall, a
location far more appropriate
for this late-war, night fighter
version of the Bf 110 than its
previous home in the Battle of
Britain display.
New wings
for Roland
In the First World War
display hangar at Kraków,
the LFG Roland D.VIb
fuselage — another sole
survivor — now has a set
of wings which were
manufactured in New
Zealand, but these are
unable to be fitted at
present due to the space
constraints of the new
exhibition layout, opened
in 2014. Mike Shreeve
BELOW: The fuselage of
the Roland D.VIb, 350 of
which were built during
1918. The recently
delivered reproduction
wings sit alongside.
MIKE SHREEVE
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
BE2 arrives at Ardmore

BE2e reproduction ZK-PXA having its 90hp RAF 1a engine run up at Ardmore on 18 December. DAMON EDWARDS
The star exhibit at the gala
opening of New Zealand
Warbirds’ new visitor centre at
Ardmore aerodrome, just
south-east of Auckland, on 3
December was newly arrived
Royal Aircraft Factory BE2e
reproduction ZK-PXA. This
dual-control version of the BE2e
is the fifth new-build BE2
reproduction to emerge from the
workshops of The Vintage Aviator
Ltd (TVAL) at Wellington, and
made its maiden flight on 15
September 2016 with Gene
DeMarco, production manager
and chief pilot of TVAL, at the
controls. It is painted in the
markings of the aircraft flown by
William Rhodes-Moorhouse to
bomb a railway junction at
Kortrijk, Belgium, on 26 April
1915. He was severely injured by
small arms fire during the attack,
and sustained further wounds
from ground fire while flying
back to base. Rhodes-
Moorhouse died the following
day, and was posthumously
awarded the VC.
The aircraft has been gifted to
New Zealand Warbirds by a
benefactor, and joins several
World War Two aircraft at the
facility including Spitfire IXT
MH367/ZK-WDZ.

Historic C-46 heading for Israel

A Curtiss C-46 Commando
that was used during August-
September 1947 to fly Iraqi
Jews to safety in Israel has
been saved from the scrap
man in Alaska, and is now
destined to go on display at
the Atlit Detention Camp
Museum, 12 miles south of
Haifa, Israel.
The clandestine rescue
mission, named Operation
‘Michaelberg’, was mounted
due to the increasing
persecution of Jewish
residents in Iraq by their Arab
neighbours. The British
authorities had denied the
Jewish community’s petition
to allow Iraqi Jews to enter
Israel legally, so a plan to
smuggle them into the
country was devised. The
operation was planned by the
Aliyah Bet group, part of
Haganah, a Jewish
paramilitary organization that
operated in Israel in defiance
of the British Mandate.
Former Israeli Knesset
speaker Shlomo Hillel — who
had been involved in
‘Michaelberg’ — learned of the
continued existence of the
historic C-46, 44-78628/
N23AC, which was derelict at
Fairbanks, Alaska. In mid-
November, the aircraft,
latterly registered N23AC,
was crated for delivery to
Israel by sea. It is expected to
arrive at Atlit by the end of C-46 Commando N23AC at Fairbanks, Alaska. It is due to arrive in
January. Israel by the end of January. PETER MARSON
The Atlit detainee camp
was established by the to prevent Jewish refugees 1987. The museum is
authorities of the British from entering Mandatory dedicated to the history of
Mandate for Palestine at the Palestine. It was declared a pre-Israeli state immigration
end of the 1930s in an effort National Heritage Site in efforts.

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 9

News

Qantas ‘Super Connie’ moves

During the early hours of 12 N4247K was transported nine will be shipped to Australia in Boeing 707, a Boeing 747, a
December 2016, the Qantas miles from Manila mid-2017. Currently displayed Douglas DC-3, a Consolidated
Founders Museum’s Lockheed International Airport to the at the museum in Longreach, Catalina and replicas of
L-1049 Super Constellation nearby seaport, from where it Queensland, are Qantas’ first several early-era aircraft.
BELOW: Still bearing the name of its last operator, Winky’s Fish, on the cheatline, L-1049 Super Constellation N4247K is gingerly moved
from Manila Airport early on 12 December. QANTAS

South Australian museum forging ahead

Construction of a new, Commonwealth Disposals during 2016, the museum non-running Merlin engine has
1,200-square metre display Commission by Mallala-based president Peter Van Dyk saying, been acquired and is being
hangar at the South Australian farmer Reg Franks in May 1947, “the Battle has advanced more used to ensure that the engine
Aviation Museum in Port it was donated by him to the this year than in the previous 10”. cowlings can be properly
Adelaide was due to be nascent museum 38 years later. The tail section including the fin, fitted. It is hoped to have the
completed before Christmas. Restoration of the rarest rudder, tailplanes, elevators, fuselage complete and the
The first two aircraft to enter aircraft in the collection, Fairey tailwheel and tailcone is undercarriage fitted by the end
the building will be recently Battle I N2188, moved on apace approaching completion, while a of 2018.
completed Avro Anson I EF954
and de Havilland Canada
DHC-4 Caribou A04-225, which
arrived by road at the museum
from the Oakey Army Aviation
Centre in Queensland in June
2016.
Construction of the
$5-million building began in
September, with $205,000 of
the cost being met from the
Commonwealth Government’s
National Stronger Regions
Fund.
The Anson was the first
aircraft taken on charge by the
museum back in June 1984, and
was due to be rolled into the
new hangar almost exactly 72
years after being delivered to
No 6 Service Flying Training
School at RAAF Mallala, 30-odd
miles north of Port Adelaide, on
28 December 1942. Once in
position, the former crew
trainer will be painted in its
original No 6 SFTS markings.
Acquired via the Anson I EF954 in the restoration hangar at the South Australian Aviation Museum. PETER R. ARNOLD

10 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

Carvair could fly in 2017
The wonderful sight of Carvair N89FA having its Pratt & Whitney R-2000 engines run up. It is hoped it will fly again during 2017.
RICHARD VANDERVORD
At Gainesville Airport in the far
north of Texas, it is hoped that
one of the world’s two
potentially airworthy examples
of the Aviation Traders ATL-98
Carvair, N89FA Fat Annie, will fly
again during the spring of 2017.
The Pratt & Whitney R-2000
engines have been run
successfully, and work has been
carried out on the
undercarriage and the
paintwork, but plans to ferry
the former British Air Ferries
machine to Chino, California
during 2016 for a full overhaul
were thwarted by last-minute
regulatory problems.
Orbis DC-10 hospital to Pima
The latest exhibit at the
ever-expanding Pima Air and
Space Museum in Arizona is the
second production Douglas
DC-10, N220AU, which arrived
on 7 November. For the past 22
years the historic airliner has
been operated as an airborne
eye hospital by the
international non-profit
organization Orbis
RIGHT: The Orbis DC-10, N220AU, on final approach for the last time
on 7 November. PASM
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
There have been suggestions
that the Carvair — which was
acquired by owners South
African Air Lease during 2012
— could even be destined to join
the display circuit in original
period colours, although the
ability of this unique design to
carry unusual loads cannot be
overlooked.
The machine, originally
registered G-ASHZ, was the ninth
of 21 Carvairs built by Freddie
Laker’s firm Aviation Traders Ltd
(ATL) at Southend and Stansted.
The ATL-98 was a conversion of
the Douglas DC-4 with an 8ft
8in-long extension to the
International, and visited 78
countries.
The aircraft first flew on 29
January 1971. It was retained
by the manufacturer until
going to Gatwick-based Laker
Airways in June 1977 as
G-BELO. It flew with the fleet
name Southern Belle until the
much-loved airline ceased
operations in February 1982.
forward fuselage, which featured
a bulbous hump to
accommodate the flightdeck, a
sideways-hinged nose door, and
a redesigned and enlarged
vertical tail section.
In July 1963, ’ASHZ became the
fourth Carvair to go into service
with British United Air Ferries,
bearing the name Maasbrug.
During September 1967, BUAF
changed its name to British Air
Ferries and ’ASHZ was re-
christened Fat Annie, a name it
bears to this day. The machine
left the UK in 1979 after being
acquired by Dallas, Texas-based
Falcon Airways and registered
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 11
N89FA, but within a year that
cargo hauler failed. After
several further changes of
ownership, during 2003 the
machine went to Gator Global
Flying Services of Grayson
County, Texas, seeing limited
use on ad hoc cargo charters. It
achieved fame in August 2005
when it was used for a series of
extraordinary parachuting
missions during the World
Freefall Convention in Rantoul,
Illinois, dropping some 80
jumpers on each flight and
setting a record for the largest
number of people to ever fly in
a Carvair.
News
Gugnunc goes on show
The Handley Page HP39 hanging in the Science Museum’s new Winton Gallery. The name Gugnunc, at
first unofficial, came from a baby talk word used by a character in the Pip, Squeak and Wilfred cartoon
that ran in the Daily Mirror newspaper. SCIENCE MUSEUM
A full 82 years after it was
presented to the Science
Museum, the unique Handley
Page HP39 Gugnunc G-AACN
went on show in the new
Winton Gallery at South
Kensington on 8 December. The
experimental biplane is
suspended in the centre of the
gallery, which is dedicated to
“the importance of mathematics
in our everyday lives.”
The dramatic curving
overhead structure and overall
layout of the gallery was
designed by Dame Zaha Hadid
— who died in March 2016 — to
represent the field of turbulence
created by the wings of the
aeroplane, the intention being
to demonstrate how
mathematical practice has
helped to solve real-world
Yankee gets an A-4
Douglas A-4C Skyhawk BuNo
148543 arrived at the Yankee Air
Museum at Willow Run,
Michigan on 2 December 2016.
It is now on display on long-
term loan from the National
Naval Aviation Museum at
Pensacola, Florida. The
lightweight strike aircraft has
RIGHT: The newly delivered A-4 Skyhawk at the Yankee Air Museum
on 3 December. YAM
12 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
problems. The gallery has more
than 100 other exhibits on show,
including a German equivalent
of the Enigma machine.
The HP39 was built specifically
to compete in the Guggenheim
Safe Aircraft Competition, and
made its first flight from
Cricklewood aerodrome on 30
April 1929. The 150hp Armstrong
Siddeley Mongoose-powered
sesquiplane boasted full-span
leading-edge slats on both the
upper and lower wings, the
outer slats on the upper wing
being automatic and
independent of any other
control. The remaining slats
were linked to flaps on the
trailing edge. When a critical
angle of attack was reached, the
slats would open and
automatically lower the flaps.
been painted as BuNo 148442 of
VA-216, based on the USS
Hancock and flown by Lt Cdr
Paul Galanti, who achieved 97
combat missions over Vietnam.
He was shot down and captured
on 17 June 1966, and spent
seven years as a PoW until being
released during February 1973.
The aircraft had a speed range of
33-112mph, and a landing
distance of just 21 yards.
The competition was devised
by the Daniel Guggenheim Fund
for the Promotion of Aeronautics,
with a $100,000 main prize and
five $10,000 secondary awards
for aircraft that achieved certain
requirements. Among the
necessary criteria, competing
machines had to be capable of
getting airborne from a standing
start in 300ft and then clear a
35ft barrier located 500ft from
the start point; land over a 35ft
obstacle with a maximum 300ft
roll-out; demonstrate hands-off
stability for five minutes at any
airspeed between 45 and
100mph in gusty air; and have a
top speed of no less than
110mph.
The contest was to be
staged at Mitchell Field, New
York, between 30 April-1
October 1927, but of the 27
original entrants only 15
aircraft arrived, the HP39
being the only non-American
entry. Three aircraft were
withdrawn before flight trials
began, a further two crashed
in preliminary tests, and eight
failed to meet any of the
necessary requirements. Only
two entries, the HP39 and the
Curtiss Tanager, made it to the
final stages of the competition,
during which members of the
Handley Page team noticed
that the Tanager was fitted
with leading-edge slots of a
patented Handley Page
design, for which no licence
had been obtained. After the
Tanager was declared the
winner, legal action ensued,
and at the end of an 18-month
court case Curtiss finally
admitted a ‘technical’
infringement.
Meanwhile, the HP39 had
returned to Cricklewood for
further experimental duties. In
October 1930 it was
purchased by the Air Ministry
and sent to the Royal Aircraft
Establishment at Farnborough
for official performance
testing with the service serial
K1908. On 25 October the
Gugnunc flew in a display at
Croydon alongside the
Westland Pterodactyl IV and a
Cierva C19 autogyro, the
strong wind enabling the
formation to fly backwards
across the aerodrome. This
spectacle proved so popular
that repeat performances
were staged at several RAF
Displays at Hendon. In July
1934 the HP39 was struck off
charge and presented to the
Science Museum. It had been
in storage, latterly at
Wroughton airfield, ever since.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 Hangar Talk
STEVE SLATER
O
Our monthly comment
ccolumn on the historic
a
aircraft scene

John Moffat As Donald Trump prepares to

1919-2016
Lt Cdr John (‘Jock’) Moffat, pilot
of the Fleet Air Arm Fairey
Swordfish whose torpedo was
credited with crippling the
German battleship Bismarck
in May 1941, died in
Perthshire on 11 December at
the age of 97.
Born in Kelso during 1919,
Moffat served in HMS Ark
Royal, HMS Argus, HMS Furious
and HMS Formidable. In his 60s
he took up private flying, and
was an active member of the
Scottish Aero Club into his 90s.
A staunch supporter of the Fly
Navy Heritage Trust, during
the spring of 2016 Jock marked
the 75th anniversary of the
sinking of the Bismarck by
raising nearly £15,000 to help
keep the Royal Navy Historic
Flight Swordfish flying.
The late Lt Cdr John Moffat.
DENIS J. CALVERT
give up his personal Boeing
757 for the bigger aircraft that
comes with his next job,
perhaps it is time to take a
closer look at his new company
vehicle and its past history. It is
of course best known as ‘Air
Force One’, but, strictly
speaking, one of the most
famous aeroplanes in the
world is not an aircraft at all.
‘Air Force One’ is merely a radio
callsign, applied to any USAF
aeroplane upon which the
President of the United States
is travelling.
Today ‘Air Force One’ is
usually associated with the
current Presidential transports,
two VC-25s, a military
designation for Boeing
747-200 airliners specifically
configured for the role. They
follow a line established more
than seven decades ago. In
1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt
travelled to meet Churchill and
Stalin at the Yalta conference in
a Douglas C-54 Skymaster
which was modified with a
sleeping area, radio telephone
and a retractable elevator to
discreetly lift Roosevelt in his
wheelchair.
That aircraft was rather
ingloriously nicknamed the
‘Sacred Cow’. Subsequent
Presidential transports were
given rather more dignified
titles by their incumbents.
Roosevelt’s successor Harry
Truman named his aircraft
Independence after his home
town in Missouri. When
additional soundproofing and
communications equipment,
marble flooring in the
Presidential area and a
mahogany desk where
Eisenhower wrote his famous
‘Atoms for Peace’ speech that
he gave to the United Nations
General Assembly in 1953. The
President used the aircraft
extensively, including flying to
Korea to meet troops stationed
there, but the VC-121 was
relegated to secondary duties
when, in 1962, the Kennedy
administration entered the jet
age with the purchase of two
VC-137 Stratoliners, modified
long-range Boeing 707s.
As recounted by Tony
Harmsworth in our June 2016
issue, Columbine II, though,
proved a remarkable survivor.
It was retired to Davis-
‘Columbine II proved to be a
remarkable survivor’
Monthan Air Force Base for
storage during the late 1960s
and was later sold to Mel
Christler, a Wyoming
businessman who owned a
crop-dusting and fire-bombing
business, using old military
aircraft and airliners to drop
fire-suppressing chemicals on
wildfires. The ‘Connie’ was
originally earmarked as a
source of spare parts, but then
the Smithsonian Institution
contacted Christler and told
him of its history.
The aircraft was partially
restored during the 1980s and
flew at a number of airshows,
but the cost of maintaining it
proved beyond Christler’s
means. In 1990 the VC-121 was
flown to Marana Airport,
Arizona, where it languished
for more than a decade,
awaiting sale. A quarter of a
century later the aircraft was
acquired by Dynamic Aviation,
a specialist aviation business
working in areas such as pest
control and airborne fire
control. After a year of work in
the blistering heat of the
Arizona desert, Dynamic
Aviation’s engineers returned
Columbine II to a ‘ferryable’
condition, which late last year
allowed it to be flown to their
headquarters in Virginia for
further restoration. It is set to
open a new page in the
history of this unique
aeroplane — a volume that is
clearly a long way from being
closed just yet.

Italian P-51
wreck recovered
The substantial remains of an
Italian Air Force P-51D Mustang
were recovered from a depth of
200ft at Lake Garda in northern
Italy on 2 December. The fighter
had crashed into the lake on 7
August 1951 after suffering
engine problems. The parts are
destined to go on display at the
Volandia Park and Museum of
Flight near Milan Malpensa
Airport.
Aussie
Mustang flies
Commonwealth Aircraft
Corporation CA-18 Mustang
A68-199 made its first flight in
nearly 38 years at Tyabb,
Victoria on 15 December. The
former Royal Australian Air
Force fighter, now registered
VH-URZ, arrived at Tyabb for
restoration in December 2002,
and was acquired by current
owner Peter Gill during 2012.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
introduced the last propeller
aircraft, the Lockheed VC-121A
Constellation, into Presidential
service his two successive
machines were named
Columbine I and Columbine II
after the state flower of First
Lady Mamie Eisenhower’s
home state, Colorado.
It was 48-610 Columbine II
that made aviation history. In
December 1953, with
Eisenhower on board, it was on
a flight over Richmond,
Virginia. Identified by air traffic
controllers simply as ‘Air Force
8610’, an overworked
controller confused that with a
similar airliner flight number,
8610, and the two aircraft were
given clearance to enter the
same airspace. Thankfully a
mid-air collision was avoided,
but the unique ‘Air Force One’
callsign was created to ensure
that such a mistake could
never happen again.
Columbine II had other ABOVE: President Dwight D. Eisenhower and First Lady Mamie
special features including Eisenhower on the steps of VC-121A 48-610 Columbine II.

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 13

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Skywriters WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO
Box 100, Stamford, Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK
E-MAIL TO: aeroplane@keypublishing.com,
putting ‘Skywriters’ in the header

Letter of the Month

in association with

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.

‘United in Effort’
Your excellent coverage of the life and times of the Shorts Belfast
freighter in the December edition brought back many memories of
my time at RAF Brize Norton in the mid-1970s. We had recently
disbanded the Britannia strategic fleet of Nos 99 and 511
Squadrons and believed we could look forward to continued
operations with the Belfasts of No 53 Squadron, now at the peak of
their operational efficiency. But a revised plan was evolving and, as
station commander at the time, it was my job to relay the changed
circumstances to the several hundred aircrew and ground
engineers now facing an uncertain future.
The technical disbandment of the airframes followed as ordered,
and soon all 10 Belfasts were on the ground at RAF Kemble,
making an unmistakable fix for passing pilot/navigation exercises.
But the human dimension was far-reaching with unexpected
family disruption, changes to housing and school plans and new ABOVE: The prematurelly retiired
d Bellfast C1s in open storage at
postings. Ironically, the Belfasts themselves went on to serve much RAF Kemble. PETER R. MARCH
the same national interests as before but now in the civilian
colours of HeavyLift. No 53 Squadron’s badge evokes strong Scottish links with a St
Formal disbandment took place on 17 September 1976. The Andrew’s cross and thistle ‘slipped and leaved in front of a saltire’,
members of No 53 Squadron could proudly claim that they had and the overwhelming view of the squadron and station was that
received 10 Belfasts from industry, operated them highly effectively the last resting place of the retiring standard should be St Giles’
for 10 years, and were now returning all 10 aircraft to the civil list. Cathedral, Edinburgh. Thus it was on 18 September 1976 that we
On one well-remembered occasion all 10 Belfasts were airborne flew up to Turnhouse in a Belfast with OC 53, Wg Cdr Crawford
together in one enormous ‘Balbo’ formation. The last formal flight, Simpson, at the controls. The next day the standard was laid up in
by Belfast XR366 Atlas captained by Flt Lt Laurie, took place on 3 St Giles’ in the presence of serving and former squadron members,
May 1977 across many locations in the UK. ground engineers and their families with ‘ne’er a dry eye’ in the
The question of where to lay up the squadron standard was the cathedral. A great squadron — ‘United in Effort’.
subject of much discussion by the air staffs and senior chaplains. Richard Bates

Belfast to Germany
In 1969 I flew in a Belfast as an Army
captain from Brize Norton to RAF Gütersloh
in Germany with two FV432s in the hold.
These are small tracked armoured
personnel carriers, weighing 14.5 tonnes
each. We were taking about 30 vehicles to
BAOR (the British Army of the Rhine), two of
which — for a trial — would go by air.
Prior to the flight I was sent on an
airportability course for instruction on how
to load and tie them down in the aircraft,
but in the event the RAF would not let us do
that, insisting they did it themselves. We
took off from Brize in late afternoon and I
was invited up to the flight deck. By the
time we reached Germany it was dark, and
the biggest problem in the cockpit was that
the map light did not work, so the flight
engineer was told to fix it. Then on
approaching Gütersloh the pilot asked for
the length of the runway, and as he
apparently thought it rather short he asked
for the safety barrier at the end of the
runway to be erected, which did not
improve my confidence. However, all went
well. For me it was a very enjoyable
experience and a successful trial.
Richard Unwin, Lt Col REME (retd)
‘Shack’ far from home At the office next morning I heard the
story of their arrival. As they approached
The excellent article on the AEW Shackleton
the Virginia coast at 2,000ft they contacted
in your December issue reminded me of a
Norfolk air traffic for joining instructions
visit by a Shackleton MR2 to NAS Norfolk,
and were asked to climb to 3,000ft. After a
Virginia, in 1967. I was then the Martin-Baker
pause the Shackleton’s captain replied, “It’s
technical representative with the US Navy
taken the whole Atlantic to get this high!”
Atlantic Fleet. On arrival at the fighter class
They duly joined as requested.
desk, where I resided in the headquarters, I
I went to see them depart that evening,
started getting calls informing me that there
but they found that a flap jack bolt had
was a Lancaster on the flightline. This I just
sheared and punctured the flap. When they
had to see, and I went down to have a look.
asked for fabric and dope to make a repair
There in all its glory stood not a Lancaster
it was the last straw and those gathered
but a gleaming Shackleton, contrasting
broke into gales of laughter. It was decided
strangely with the Crusaders, Skyhawks and
that a flapless take-off would be OK. In the
other fast jets.
crystal-clear afterglow of evening we
I soon tracked down the crew and, as a
watched a Crusader roar down the runway
fellow Brit, did my best to help them. They
with a 30ft diamond-pattern afterburner
had just arrived from Ballykelly and were en
flame, rotate and climb near-vertically until
route to Greenwood, Nova Scotia to collect a
out of sight. As they boarded, the
group captain and return him to Northern
Shackleton captain — who had neither
Ireland. It was so nice to talk to fellow
denied nor confirmed the story of his arrival
countrymen and share some British humour
— shrugged his shoulders and said, “Huh,
and news of home after two years away. In
just watch our take-off!” I’m sure that, like
civvies, we had a very merry evening at the
me, the rest of the crowd had goose-bumps
officers’ club sing-along at the Little Creek
at the unique sound as the ‘Growler’
amphibious base — I got the whole crew
lumbered down the runway and turned
into my station wagon with eight of us on
slowly for Canada.
the bench seats and four, sardine-fashion, in
Brian A. Miller, Penn, Buckinghamshire
the back!

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 15

Skywriters
ABOVE: The Omaka museum’s superb reproduction of ‘Grid’ Caldwell’s SE5a.
JIM TANNOCK/OMAKA AVIATION HERITAGE CENTRE
‘Grid’ honoured
It was a good article on ‘Grid’ Caldwell in the
December edition. Your readers might be
interested to know that his deeds are vividly
recorded in Peter Jackson’s Omaka Aviation
Heritage Centre at the top of New Zealand’s
South Island. A full-scale, authentic replica of
his SE5a shows the famous crash-landing.
Coincidentally, Caldwell was CO of the
nearby RNZAF Base Woodbourne during
World War Two.
I’ve visited the centre and it’s very good
indeed, with the added attraction that it’s
interesting to the non-aviation-minded as
well. Any Aeroplane reader who visits New
Zealand should try to include it on their
itinerary.
Mike Wicksteed
Friends reunited?
Having subscribed to Aeroplane for some
considerable time, I was pleased on receiving
the March 2016 edition to see the front page
and the inside article on the ‘V-Force’. When
turning to the centrespread I was even more
pleased and surprised to see my 18-year-old
self in the background with other
groundcrew overlooking the battery pack,
which was used for the quick start procedure
(I am second from the right). I believe it was a
QRA practice for a Farnborough display.
The above story probably doesn’t warrant
a letter, but when the 2017 calendar arrived
(Aeroplane December 2016) and there was
the same photo for October I thought it was
probably fate, and worth trying to connect
with past friends.
No 617 Squadron was my first posting
after leaving St Athan. Can you imagine the
pride at being part of such an iconic
squadron, and also working on the
‘V-bomber’? I followed this with No 38
Squadron on Shackletons at RAF Luqa, Malta
for two-and-a-half years, and my final
posting was with No 543 Squadron at Wyton
on Victors. They were happy days with
16 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
wonderful memories and gave me an
opportunity to see the world. It also involved
me in a trade which has kept me employed
in the aircraft industry all my working life — I
still work three days a week for Multiflight at
Leeds Bradford Airport, and I’m only 74!
I hope to be at the Scampton Airshow in
September 2017; it would be wonderful if
any of the airmen I knew during my service
career were there and we could meet again.
Gerry Athorne, Otley
Wing and a prayer
The article in December’s Aeroplane about
the Fulmar spurred me to look up a passage
in my late ‘big’ brother’s (unpublished)
memoirs of his time as an electrician in the
Fleet Air Arm from 1944-46.
ABOVE: Gerry Athorne is second from right among the groundcrew in the background of
this famous No 617 Squadron Vulcan ‘scramble’ shot. AEROPLANE
After basic training he was posted to RAF
Henlow in Bedfordshire (soon to close in the
latest defence cuts) for a five-month
technical course, and he recounts the
following concerning the Fulmar. “The
Fulmar’s folding wings, unlike later types, did
not operate automatically; instead, they were
lowered back into position alongside the
fuselage by the groundcrew after a locking
pin had been removed from the junction of
the nose and the wing’s leading edge. We
were gathered in the angle between the port
wing and the fuselage as the sergeant
instructor explained that gravity would help
the wing to swing back when the locking pin
was removed. A keen student standing near
the pin said, ‘What, like this?’ and removed it.
Everybody, including the sergeant, jumped
clear as the wing scythed backwards — except
one trainee furthest from safety, standing
close to the fuselage, towards which the wing
was now swinging like a horizontal guillotine.
He stood transfixed, as did we, expecting to
see him decapitated or cut in half. But the
Fulmar’s wing flaps, by sheer good fortune,
had been left in the down position, creating a
rectangular gap in the trailing edge. It was
this gap which imprisoned the trainee as the
wing crashed back against the fuselage; a
metre either side would have finished him.
The consequent bawling-out from the
sergeant was hardly needed. We had learned
that aircraft can be almost as deadly on the
ground as in the air, and we never needed a
second lesson.”
The photo in the article of the FAA
Museum’s aircraft clearly shows this life-
saving gap! After training my brother Dennis
was posted to India and, on the war’s end, to
Singapore.
Terry Hancock, Cherry Willingham,
Lincoln
The editor reserves the right to edit all letters.
Please include your full name and address in
correspondence.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
Holiday Guide
Q&A
Changing of
the guard
After some 25 years
providing the Q&A
pages, compiler Mike
Hooks writes: “My
advancing years have
encouraged me to hand over the column
and I am delighted that Barry Wheeler, a
friend of more than 50 years, has agreed
to take over the reins. Barry has been
involved in editing a number of aviation
titles during a long career in aerospace
journalism and takes over this new task
with enthusiasm. But remember: without
your input, Q&A would not exist, so
please continue to support it. I shall be
hovering in the background, and
continuing to provide Hooks’ Tours and
other features from time to time.”
THIS MONTH’S
ANSWERS
Engine rotation
Q Aasked
query in the January issue
why British radial
engines rotate counter-clockwise,
most Merlins clockwise and all
American radials clockwise.
A Former naval pilot Brian Toomey
responds with memories of his
US Navy training in the 1950s. He
recalls moving from Harvards to
stubby-wing F8F Bearcats and, on his
first familiarisation flight in the
Grumman fighter, experiencing how
unbelievably strong the torque effect
was on take-off. Back in the UK on
Sea Furies with 811 Squadron at
RNAS Arbroath, the reversed torque
effect was less than in the Bearcat,
but the problem was managed “with
difficulty” until it became merely part
of flying the type.
18 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
COMPILER: BARRY WHEELER
Are you seeking the answer to a thorny aviation question?
Our ‘questions and answers’ page might help
WRITE TO: Aeroplane, Key Publishing Ltd, PO Box 100, Stamford,
Lincolnshire PE9 1XQ, UK
E-MAIL TO: aeroplane@keypublishing.com, putting ‘Q&A’ in the header
RAF sayings
Q In the January issue, we
queried the origin of the term
‘two-six’, which was familiar to
many National Servicemen as well
as those in the regular ‘mob’.
A
Don Burnett recalls his flight
sergeant regularly using the
term. He believes it originates from
French practice, since “un, deux”
would be very difficult to
differentiate in a howling gale, as
would “trois, quatre, cinq”.
Colin Pomeroy is certain that the
expression is naval in origin and
harks back to the days of muzzle-
loading cannon. A gun crew
consisted of six men and the story
— sometimes disputed — goes that
crew members 2 and 6 pulled the
loaded gun to the gun port for firing.
The full order by the gun captain
would have been “two, six — heave!”
Alex Ellin, aerospace engineering
lecturer at Teesside University, also
maintains that it comes from naval
tradition and is now connected with
the RN field gun competition as a
direction to crew numbers 2 and 6 to
“heave”.
Lightnings and
Hunters
Q Regarding a Hunter/Lightning
display at Farnborough 1962,
January’s issue carried a detailed
answer from Mike Hooks.
A A further e-mail adds to the
story. Tony Cook was a sergeant
fitter on the No 92 Squadron
Hunters at Farnborough that year,
and remarks that he doesn’t think
the combined Lightning/Hunter
formation flew a loop. Tony
remembers the day as glorious, with
Doug Bridson opening 92’s show in a
Hunter F6, coming down the runway
at zero feet and max speed before
pulling up into a vertical rolling
climb, vanishing into the blue. Being
in charge of the aircraft’s Form 700,
Doug came back to Tony to sign off.
Beaming, he asked, “How do you
spell knackered?” Squadron boss
Brian Mercer told him years later
that Bill Bedford had said it was very
naughty of Doug, as he had bent the
aircraft a bit.
Jim Jobe also witnessed the
display, remembering in particular
the earth-shattering take-off by the
25 aircraft. The Hunters rolled first,
while the Lightnings engaged
afterburners and took off over the
Hunters, which kept low before
climbing for altitude. In those days,
press photographers crouched
alongside the runway, braving the
ear-splitting din — and presumably
still having the pictures to prove it!
E-MAIL USERS:
Please include a Jim adds that the serial given as
postal address XF321/X should be XF521/X.
with any
correspondence
THIS MONTH’S
QUESTIONS
German ejections
Q Victor Copson is curious
about the pioneering
BELOW: Some
emergency use of German
ejection seats during the Second
World War and writes, “The first
might have recorded live emergency ejection
found the Sea
Fury tricky to
handle during a
was by test pilot Flugkapitän
Helmut Schenk when he used the
compressed-air Heinkel/Draeger
carrier deck
take-off due to
seat in the Heinkel He 280 jet on
the amount of 13 January 1942. This seat had
torque, but one been tested successfully in late
had to come to 1941 when the first live ejection
terms with it. was made from the back of a
AEROPLANE Junkers Ju 87.
“Less familiar was another
emergency ejection, albeit an
unexpected one, by Junkers test
pilot Flugkapitän Hans Pancherz.
The Ju 390 V-1 had been fitted
with a modified Ju 288 seat by
Draeger, which used compressed
air and was armoured so the pilot
would have some protection if the
seat hit the tail. According to
Pancherz, on 15 July 1943” — which
was three months before the first
flight of the Ju 390 on 21 October,
meaning the incident must have
involved a Ju 290 — “the aircraft
had entered a sudden, violent
pitch down due to overstressing
the elevators, having tried to enter
a dive at some 348mph. This tore
the compressed air tanks loose,
starting the ejection sequence by
first blowing off the pilot’s canopy
roof, which should have
disconnected the control column.
Pancherz states that this was
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 “Another less well-known fact is
that the spring-type catapult seat
tested in the Me 163 Komet is
believed to have been similar to
the Stanley Yankee system fitted to
the post-war Douglas Skyraider,
which was possibly based on that
fitted to the Komet. There is even
less on the development of the
parachute-delayed opening
device used by Me 262 pilots,
where a simple ring device
delayed pack and parachute
opening at high speeds by way of a
simple sliding ring, allowing pilots
ABOVE: The
first live
to eject without breaking their
ejection from a necks.
“Any information on the Ju 87
Junkers Ju 87
operated by development aircraft and
the Rechlin test
centre.
confirmation, correction or denial
of the above information, as well
as details on the seats in the
He 162, Me 262, He 219 and
Do 335, would be welcome.”
A Quite a request, Victor.
Perhaps I can start the
responses by suggesting that two
German sources say that Pancherz
was actually ejected from Ju 290
Werknummer 0156/SB+QF over the
LEFT: The early
Heinkel/
Rechlin area on 15 July 1943, and
Draeger not the prototype Ju 390.
ejection seat A number of He 219 night fighters
was a simple were shot down by RAF Mosquitos
affair, but over Europe, the first live ejection
saved a being on the night of 11-12 April
number of 1944, when Gefreiter Werner Perbix
German pilots. and Unteroffizier Herter of NJG 1
based at Venlo, the Netherlands,
swiftly followed by his being ejected safely after being attacked
ejected from the aircraft and by a Mosquito of No 239 Squadron.
being knocked unconscious for a The following month, on 19-20 May,
few seconds. Lt Otto Fries and Fw Alfred Staffa did
“The column did not disconnect. likewise, only to repeat the process
He came round in time to release on 16 January 1945, thus achieving
the seat and activate the the dubious honour of each having
parachute sequence, enabling him two ejections to their names.
to land with just bruised knees. Regarding the He 162, pilots from
The clearly amazed co-pilot, JG 1 known to have ejected from
surprised by Pancherz’ sudden, this type were Lt Rudolf Schmidt on
unexpected departure, recovered 20 April 1945, Fw Erwin Steeb the
control to land the aircraft safely following day, and Hptm Paul-
back at Dessau. Pancherz states Heinrich Dahne on 24 April (he died
that the second Ju 390 was not as a result of not first opening the
flown and that the Ju 390 V-1, canopy).
coded GH+UK, was broken up at On the Dornier Do 335, an
Dessau shortly after this incident. armoured ejection seat was fitted as
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
Our regular item in which we set the record straight on errors in recent issues. Do send notice of mistakes you may spot to the editorial addresses.
• Aeroplane contributor Air Cdre Phil Wilkinson contrast that view with what the pilot’s eye told
— a former Canberra B(I)8 pilot himself — writes him (and best recorded by the nose-mounted
with reference to the picture at the bottom of F95 camera), check out page 82 of the December
page 103 of the January issue, captioned as 2007 Aeroplane, where a similar view from the
showing the “pilot’s eye view” from a B(I)8 prone navigator’s position is contrasted with
making a run at a Libyan range target. “If that was what I was seeing as I pressed the camera button
his view”, says Phil, “who was flying the over that piece of desert.”
aeroplane? That’s the view through the nose, as
seen by the recumbent navigator (or hitch-hiking • Jerry Vernon provides a correction to the news
spare pilot on occasion). To compare and item in the November 2016 issue on the first
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
standard. In an emergency, the
pilot went through a sequence of
buttons from front to rear on the
starboard side of the cockpit. The
first blew off the rear propeller, the
next blew the top fin off, the third
armed the seat, and the fourth blew
the pilot from the cockpit —
provided the hapless pilot had first
jettisoned the canopy. Such was the
speed of the hood leaving its
location that at least two pilots lost
an arm during trials.
Can readers offer additional
information to augment or correct
the above?
Fokker at Brighton
Q Geoff King would like to
know whether anyone can
provide details on the
accompanying photograph. It was
taken on 9 May 1940, and shows a
Royal Netherlands Navy Fokker
T.VIII on the shore at Brighton,
Sussex. The date is understood to
be correct and is interesting as the
following day the Germans
invaded the Netherlands; the
Dutch Royal Family did not leave
the country until the 13th,
courtesy of HMS Hereward. The
crowd by the floatplane was told
by the police not to take any
pictures, but this hasty shot taken
by a neighbour of Geoff King has
survived to record the unusual
event. The Sussex coastal holiday
town was hardly a ‘secret’
location, so what was the purpose
of the trip?
ABOVE: The interesting picture of the
Dutch Fokker T.VIII at Brighton.
post-restoration flight in Norway of CF-104D
Starfighter 637/LN-STF. He points out that none
of the two-seat CF-104Ds supplied to the Royal
Canadian Air Force (637, then serialled 104637,
having been among them) were built by
Canadair; serials 12631 to 12668, later changed
to 104631 to 104668, were manufactured in
California by Lockheed. Their delivery from
Lockheed is detailed on the relevant RCAF
record cards.
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 19
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A MPU TE E S O LO S A S PI TF IR E
 In the
footsteps
of
Bader

Just as in World War Two, a pottentially life-changing disabillity

may be no barrier to flying solo in a Spitfire. Thanks too the Boultbee
Flight Academy and its Spitfire Sccholarship, RAF serviceman Alan
Robinson has prooved exactly that
WORDS: BEN DUNNELL

‘‘A
little over fi
fivve years ago
l woke up in a hosspital
bed to find my legg
gone. The simple things
previously taken for granted werre to
become the greatest challenge, su uch as
walking. I was sure I wouldn’t bee able
to ride a bike again and thoughtt that
gaining a pilot’s licence would be out
of the question. I thought beingg unable
to achieve my dream would probably
be a reggret that would haunt me for that class, but Alan was far from done.
the rest of my life.” In Novembber 2016, he weent solo in a ABOVE: Sgt Alan
So said Sgt Alan Robinson of the Supermarine Spitfire. Robinson aftfter
t
effects of his motorcycle accid dent in How he got to that poin nt was thanks his successful first
2011. The RAFRAA engineer had his right to the Goodwood-based Boultbee solo flight in the
leg amputated above the kneee, but as Flight Academy. Using its two-seat Boultbee Flight
time went on he resolved thatt he was Spitfire IXT SM520/G-IL LDA, Academy’s Spitfire
not about to let that get in thhe way during 2013 it launched itts Spitfire IXT SM520.
ALL PHOTOS
of his ambitions. During 2013 he Scholarship with the support of the ANDY ANNABLE/BOULTBEE
passed his microlight general skills test, Royal Family’s Endeavour Fund, an
proving that he could fl
flyy aircraft in organisation that provides funding to
ð

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 23

 A MPUTE E SOLOS A SPITFIR E

ABOVE: Caption
CREDIT

ABOVE: HRH schemes aimed at aiding the recovery Only one other is known to have done Both men were much in mind when
Prince Harry with of wounded, injured and sick service so: double amputee Colin ‘Hoppy’ the Spitfire Scholarship was launched.
the two successful personnel through sporting and Hodgkinson, who lost both legs From the start of the Endeavour
Spitfire Scholarship adventure challenges. The objective during pre-war pilot training for the Fund’s involvement, Prince Harry has
candidates and
other leading lights of the scholarship was to give two Fleet Air Arm when his Tiger Moth been a very active supporter. Early
in the scheme. such individuals the chance to solo a was involved in a mid-air collision. on he visited Goodwood to meet
With him on the Spitfire, thus experiencing flight in one Despite this, and serious burns, he the candidates, seven having made it
aircraft’s wing is of its most exhilarating forms. returned to flying with the RAF. through to the final stage. From those,
Steve Boultbee It was very appropriate to be two would be selected to progress to
Brooks, founder
of the Boultbee
flying from Goodwood. As RAF
Westhampnett, the satellite for ❖ Spitfire training. At RAF Cranwell
in October 2014, their flying skills
Flight Academy; Tangmere, the West Sussex airfield Converting to Spitfires, were assessed in a Chipmunk. Alan
in the front row, was the location from which Gp Capt Hodgkinson’s first posting in was chosen as one of the successful
instructors Chris
Hadlow (left) and Douglas Bader made his last wartime December 1942 was to No 131 pair; the other was former Parachute
Phill O’Dell (right) flight — the ‘Circus’ escort mission Squadron, also at Westhampnett. He Regiment member Nathan Forster,
flank Alan Robinson over northern France on 9 August scored two kills, but in November badly injured by an improvised
and Nathan 1941 during which he baled out when 1943 he further emulated Bader when, explosive device in Afghanistan.
Forster. Both Chris his Spitfire Va was brought down. now with No 501 Squadron, he baled Alan’s progress was rapid. He
and Phill work At today’s Goodwood Aerodrome, a out of his stricken Spitfire over France converted his microlight licence into
for Rolls-Royce, statue of Bader commemorates the — the aircraft having suffered an a light aircraft private pilot’s licence,
which is one of the link. Now the Spitfire Scholarship has oxygen system failure during a weather passing the test in a Cessna 152.
scholarship’s other
backers, along with made another connection. reconnaissance sortie — and was taken From that, in 2015 it was on to the
Scott Investment Before Robinson, Bader is believed prisoner. Repatriated prior to the war’s Chipmunk, and taildragger conversion.
Partners. to have been the last amputee to have end, ‘Hoppy’ resumed flying as a ferry “After my first few lessons I felt that I
flown solo in a Spitfire, during his pilot, and later flew Vampires in the really wasn’t getting it and didn’t think
brief service in the post-war RAF. Royal Auxiliary Air Force. I ever would”, he wrote. Soon, though,

24 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017


with experience came increased
confidence. Largely under the tuition
of Dieter Sinanan, he soloed the
Chipmunk, and then progressed to the
academy’s T-6G Texan.
In some ways, Alan told Aeroplane,
the T-6 was the most challenging aspect
of the training programme, “just from
the point of view of finding something
that worked with the prosthetic. It’s got
almost a ‘van-like’ seating position, and
in the natural position that I wanted
to sit in I couldn’t get any leverage
through the rudder pedals. That,
coupled with the fact that it’s got toe-
brakes, made it an absolute nightmare.
But after about three or four hours we
worked out that if I lowered the seat
down quite a lot, so I wasn’t using my
normal eye-line, and pushed the pedals
out a little bit, I could find a position
where I could operate the rudder and
toe-brakes fairly well. From that point
on, it went quite nicely.”
The Spitfire was now an attainable
goal. “Ergonomically, the Spitfire
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
worked much better”, says Alan. “It
doesn’t have a steerable tailwheel, and
the brakes are just on a hand-operated
lever on the control column. Ground
handling — steering and using the
brakes — was an awful lot easier. The
biggest problem I found with the
Spitfire was speed control. It’s such
a slippery aeroplane, and I found I
really had to speed up all my thought
processes to keep up with it. Change
your pitch attitude a very small
amount, and all of a sudden you’re
going 10-20mph quicker.
“My instructor” — John Dodd —
“was quite pleased with the way I was
performing, even when I had doubts.
Once I started catching up, all of a
sudden it came together.” switch had been turned off the tears TOP: Alan Robinson
On 20 November, with less than came. is believed to be the
150 hours in his logbook, Alan went “It’s impossible to put the experience first amputee since
solo on SM520, much to the delight of this achievement into words — how Douglas Bader to fly
a Spitfire solo.
of Boultbee Flight Academy managing it feels and what it means. Put simply,
director and seasoned Spitfire pilot I have achieved a childhood dream,
ABOVE: A flypast
Matt Jones. “To watch an initially but as a boy I could not have known by Alan in the
extremely inexperienced pilot now a devastating accident would be the Boultbee Spitfire.
soloing the Spitfire is one of the catalyst to that dream becoming a
highlights of my own flying career”, reality.”
said Matt, “especially seeing what it Alan, who is stationed at RAF
meant to him.” Waddington, now wants to start flying
‘It was utterly overwhelming. Once the
final switch was off, the tears came’
Alan reflected: “When the moment more aerobatics in light aircraft, and
came, the emotion of five years of hopefully to get into the airshow scene
highs, lows, frustrations, successes, that way. “I also plan to become an
doubts, fears, the desire to make my ambassador for disabled aviation”,
family proud and honour the memory he says, “proving a focus on ability
of my father, was all compressed into not disability, and challenging the
10 minutes of flying. It was utterly perception of disability among
overwhelming, and once the final able and disabled people alike.”
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 25
BAA DE 1 52
BAA
AADE
A IDEA
D
resden, 4 March 1959. A
column of black smoke
marks the beginning of
the end of a dream — the
dream of an aviation industry reborn
in the German Democratic Republic
(GDR). The second test flight of the
152 V1, the first German turbine-
powered transport aircraft, had ended
in catastrophe.
The four-engined design to which
the GDR had pinned so many hopes
had been developed under considerable
difficulty in a country still recovering
from the ravages of war. Above all, it
bore the hallmarks of former Junkers
engineers, who had been taken to the
Soviet Union once Red Army troops
had occupied the eastern portion of
Germany at the end of the war.
When these engineers were allowed
to return to Germany in 1954, they
brought with them Project 15.2 — the
design for a four-engined commercial
jet aircraft, in turn based on the
EF 150, a twin-jet bomber that they
had designed for the Soviet Union.
‘EF’ stood for Entwicklungsflugzeug,
or ‘development aircraft’, a project
code used for non-series Junkers
aircraft types. The head of the new
construction bureau was former
Junkers engineer Brunolf Baade.
As was the case with the Western
Allies, German aviation engineers had
to provide development assistance to
the Soviets once the war had ended.
The Soviets did not lose any time,
introducing a crash programme to
address the serious technological
shortfall in their aircraft industry.
After the Soviets occupied the
Junkers works in Dessau in the spring
of 1945, they immediately resumed
various projects, including the Ju 287
jet bomber and the Jumo 012 jet
It was the last engine. This continued for a year,
before the Soviets closed off Dessau
of the Junkers to the outside world on 22 October
1946. Around 1,800 technicians,
line, but East designers and pilots were forced to
pack their belongings and, along with
Germany’s 152 their families, were transported on the
long rail journey to the Soviet Union.
jet airliner is At secret engineering offices deep in
the Soviet interior, they were made
best-known to work together with other forcibly
relocated technicians from Arado,
for being an Heinkel and Siebel. Their assignment:
to develop new jet aircraft and engines
ignominious for the Soviets.
They found technical conditions
failure. How did at least partially similar to those they
had enjoyed in Germany. The Soviets
it become so — had dismantled Nazi factories in their
occupation zone and transported them
and why did the wholesale to the USSR, where they
were rebuilt. Examples included the
first prototype Junkers aircraft engine plant that was
moved from Köthen to Chernikovsk
come to grief? in the Urals.
When the German workers returned
to their homeland in 1954, they found
WORDS: an entirely different country waiting
ANDREAS METZMACHER for them. Nine years after the end
of the war there was no longer an
aviation industry in East Germany.
All aircraft works within the Soviet
occupation zone had either been
dismantled or demolished, and
subcontractors were no longer
available. The one exception was the
Junkers factory in Dessau, which
remained essentially intact until
1953. Up to this point it had been
planned to produce the MiG-15 jet
fighter under licence there. However,
after the workers’ uprising in the
GDR on 17 June 1953, the Soviets
lost confidence in the East Germans
and confiscated the MiG-15 kits that
had already been delivered.
Despite this, the plan to
develop an East German aviation
industry remained, and with it the
commitment of the Soviet Union
to support it. The GDR leadership
did not opt for Dessau, where
many former Junkers employees
had returned to their old factory,
but instead for Dresden, around
200km (124 miles) distant. Here,
on the site of the former Luftwaffe
Luftkriegsschule (Air Warfare
School) at Dresden-Kl Klotzsche
l hurdle that the Soviets placed in the
airfield, suitable conditions would
have to be created. Meanwhile,
development of a new jet engine was
to be undertaken in Pirna, south of
Dresden, while manufacture of the
powerplant itself would take place in
Ludwigsfelde near Berlin.
Moscow planned to order 100
examples of the new passenger
aircraft, providing the crucial basis
for an economically battered East
Germany to proceed. But before it
could begin in earnest the project
suffered its first setback. Important
construction documents for the
aircraft that had already been
drafted in the Soviet Union would
have to remain there. As a result,
the schedule was delayed from the
outset. This would not be the only
way of the programme, which was
by turns encouraged by Moscow, and
then repeatedly hindered.
Nevertheless, they provided aid
in the form of construction plans
for the Ilyushin Il-14P twin-engine
commercial aircraft. Between 1956
and 1958, VEB Flugzeugwerke
Dresden produced 80 examples of the
Il-14P for use by the GDR and for
export.
As first designed, the new aircraft
was to carry 24 passengers over a range
of up to 3,000km (1,864 miles) and
achieve a cruising speed of 850km/h
(528mph). It was intended to provide
a smaller supplement to the much
larger Tupolev Tu-104. Power was to
come from four Pirna 014 jet engines
with a thrust of 32kN (7,194lb)
each. The powerplant was a direct
development of the Jumo 012, which
had been designed by Junkers for the
Ju 287 bomber and then completed in
the Soviet Union, and the BMW 003
and 018.
As of 1955 the project carried
the designation 152, continuing the
Junkers series. In view of the good
reputation that Junkers commercial
aircraft enjoyed all over the world,
Brunolf Baade, a former Junkers
designer, proposed the designation
Ju 152. However, the GDR leadership
refused. Although the engineer Hugo
Junkers had been ousted by the Nazis
and died in 1935, bomber aircraft
built under his name had clearly
damaged his reputation during World
War Two. At the same time, the
communist leadership of the GDR
did not adopt the suggestion of calling
the aeroplane the Baade 152. It was
considered that an aircraft built jointly
by workers and engineers should not
bear the name of one individual. And
so it was officially called the 152.
A first flight was planned for ABOVE: The
1956, but the start of work proper fuselage of the
was delayed. In 1957, Brunolf Baade 152/I V1 takes
re-drafted the project as a more shape in the
Dresden factory.
economical aircraft carrying 48 to SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING
73 passengers over a range of about
2,500km (1,553 miles). With this, OPPOSITE: The
it came closer to the capabilities of first 152 prior to
the Tu-104 and thus became a direct its initial flight on
competitor to the Soviet airliner. 4 December 1958,
with groundcrew,
❖ pressmen and,
presumably, state
For the forthcoming flight tests security operatives
of the 152, several crew members in attendance at
Dresden-Klotzsche
were recruited who had relevant airport.
wartime experience on multi-engine ELBE FLUGZEUGWERKE GMBH
Luftwaffe aircraft, but none of them
had ever flown a jet aircraft of this
size. So as to train them for the special
characteristics of jet propulsion, three
Tu-104s were chartered from the
Czechoslovakian airline ČSA and the
Soviet Aeroflot.
The prototype 152 was presented
to the public in Dresden on 1 May
‘What looked like a
finished aircraft was
actually just an empty
shell, without engines’
1958, in the presence of GDR State
Secretary Walter Ulbricht. But the
unveiling was more illusion than
reality. What remained concealed from
the assembled press was the fact that
what looked like a finished aircraft was
actually just an empty shell that had
been pulled out of the assembly shop,
and which was still without engines.
Nor could the roll-out hide the fact
that the project was now two years
behind the original schedule.
ð
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 27
 BAA DE 1 52

ABOVE: Jubilation the next day. With bright sunshine,

at the end of the cloudless skies and an outside
152’s inaugural test temperature of 8°C, conditions at
flight.
SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING
Dresden-Klotzsche were ideal.
The prototype 152/I V1, with the
RIGHT: The registration DM-ZYA and carrying a
ceremonial roll-out three-man crew comprising captain
of the 152 on 1 May Willi Lehmann, co-pilot Kurtz Bemme
1958 was not quite and flight engineer Paul Heerling, was
all it seemed. ready for the maiden flight of the first
DRESDEN AIRPORT
German passenger jet. To provide a
better view for take-off and landing,
the navigator’s seat in the glazed nose
was removed, so it was only a three-
man crew that taxied to the end of the
runway.
Lehmann released the brakes at
11.18hrs on 4 December and the 152
V1 was on the move. It was planned
to complete an extended circuit with
BELOW: The Pirna landing gear and flaps deployed. After
014 axial-flow jet At the beginning of December Tumanski RD-9B turbojets, each around 900m (2,953ft), the aircraft
engine was not
ready in time for 1958, the 152 was finally ready producing 30.9kN (6,947lb). By lifted off the runway and quickly
the first prototype. for flight tests to begin. Since the 3 December taxi tests had been gained altitude. Lehmann immediately
SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING Pirna 014 engines had not yet been completed successfully, some of had to respond with control inputs,
completed, the prototype would them up to take-off speed, and it was as the 152 drifted slightly to the right.
initially be powered by four Soviet decided to carry out the first flight Even in horizontal flight, the tendency

28 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

to drift right could not be completely
trimmed out. Clearly, the engines
were not producing uniform thrust.
To Lehmann it seemed as if they were
receiving an irregular fuel supply.
Nevertheless, the aircraft was stable
once in the air.
Following several circuits, Lehmann
waggled the wings as he flew over the
enthusiastic Dresden workers, who
were following the test flight from the
ground. The aircraft was back on the
tarmac after 35 minutes.

❖
Exactly three months later, on
4 March 1959, it was time for the
second flight. Following a sortie
of approximately one hour, it was
planned to make some low-altitude
passes for the benefit of a camera crew,
to produce a film about the 152 for a
ABOVE: As the 152/I V1 climbs out during its maiden flight, a good view is provided of the
presentation by Baade at the Leipzig unorthodox — and, for a commercial airliner, unsuitable — undercarriage arrangement, with tandem
Trade Fair. For this, Willi Lehmann landing gear and wingtip outriggers. SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING
was to begin a descent and then
present the cameras with a low-level it suddenly entered a steep dive. It was The crash meant that the planned
pass at relatively slow speed and with impossible for the crew to increase flight of the 152 to the Leipzig Trade
the undercarriage retracted. thrust and to recover the 152, which Fair that afternoon was now an
As well as Lehmann, Bemme and was already too low. It hit the ground irrelevance. There it had been planned
Heerling, navigator Georg Eismann
was on board when the 152 began
this flight at 12.56hrs on 4 March. ‘The aircraft suddenly entered a steep
The crew completed the pre-defined
test programme as planned. Then, dive. It was impossible to recover the 152’
shortly before reaching the airport,
Lehmann began the descent for the 6km (3.7 miles) from the airport. to impress no less a guest than Nikita
planned filming. The aircraft was at an The four-man crew had no chance of Khrushchev, the Soviet state and party
altitude of around 100m (328ft) when survival and were killed instantly. leader, who had announced the Soviet
BELOW: The 152/II V4 is towed past three Dresden-built Il-14Ps — the nearest two destined for Romanian airline
Tarom — at the factory airfield in March 1960. SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING

ð
 BAA DE 1 52

technical problems in what was left of

the aircraft that could have caused the
crash — the design fault in the fuel
system stayed hidden — and assigned
principal responsibility to the crew.
Since this report was not published it
gave rise to much speculation.
It is obvious that the aircraft
crashed after suffering a stall when
transitioning to the descent. What
led to the extreme angle of descent,
whether the result of crew control
inputs and/or a technical malfunction,
remains controversial to this day. Most
probably, the aircraft was simply too
slow and too low. With an abrupt
descent, the engines were clearly
starved of fuel by a construction fault
in the fuel system. In such a situation,
Lehmann was thus unable to increase
thrust or, if he was, the engines
responded with a delay. Whether the
engines were functioning during the
descent, or whether they lost power
and then spooled back up, is still
uncertain. Testimonies that followed
the crash are contradictory as regards
this point.
Perhaps the crew’s inexperience
with the behaviour of jet engines also
played a role in the accident, though
Lehmann had been able to gain
Union as the largest customer for the The exact cause of the accident enough flying time on jet-powered
aircraft. However, instead of a written remained under lock and key for aircraft including the Il-28 and the
purchase agreement for more than many years. Although a commission Tu-104. However, we do not know
100 examples, a cancellation followed investigated the crash, it was whether he had been able to undertake
a few months later. The Soviets were immediately taken over by the Stasi, such low-level, low-speed flying in a
jet. It was probably a combination of
‘The GDR regime pulled the plug on the both technical and human failures that
led to the crash.
152 on 5 April 1961, and broke up the Despite the loss of the first
prototype and any Soviet order,
construction work continued. The
fledgling East German aircraft industry’ 152/I V2 was a fatigue test airframe
for static tests and was identical to
no longer willing to buy aircraft from the GDR secret service. Only after the the V1. Building of the V3, which
the GDR, be it the 152 or any other end of the GDR did more detailed resembled the V1 with the exception
model then under development in information become available. The of its Pirna engines, was abandoned in
Dresden. commission was unable to find any favour of the improved V4.
The next airworthy prototype was
therefore the 152/II V4, which differed
significantly from the V1. Finally, the
Pirna 014 A-0 engines were installed,
TOP: Prof Brunolf
Baade (left) flight-testing having begun on board a
talking to head of factory-operated Il-28 testbed — the
construction Fritz first of two such aircraft operated. The
Freytag (right). navigator’s nose glazing on the original
Freytag left for 152 gave way to a permanently
West Germany installed radar. The tandem landing
in October 1960, gear with two supporting wheels was
joining Weserflug omitted in favour of a three-wheel
in Bremen. He was
later involved in retractable undercarriage with the
the Franco-German main units housed in the engine
Transall C-160 nacelles.
transport aircraft Because of the new undercarriage,
programme as its the entire structural analysis of the
technical boss. aircraft had to be recalculated and
SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING the airframe reconstructed, since the
engine nacelles and the wings were
RIGHT: Final subject to entirely different forces.
assembly of the At this stage of development, there
152/II V4 at the were even considerations that the 152
head of the Dresden
production line. should be converted to a low-wing
DRESDEN AIRPORT planform. Baade refused, since such
a change would have led to further
delays.

30 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

 On 26 August 1960 there occu
the first flight of the 152/II V4,
DM-ZYB, with a crew comp prisin
Heinz Lehmann as pilot, co-pilott
Gerhard Güttel and flight engineer
Bernhard Jendrusch. The 22-min
sortie was trouble-free, all systems
working well with the exception of
some minor items.
The aircraft was docile once in the
air and the new Pirna powerplantts
proved themselves too, running
without problems. Another test fl
of 20 minutes with exactlyy the sam
flight programme took place on 4
September. This time, the factoryy’s
Il-14 DM-ZZB accompanied thee V4
as a camera aircraft. No-one suspected
that it was documenting the last fl
of a 152.
The test flight went relatively
smoothly, but afterwards the crew
still felt that the crash of the 152//I V1
might have been related to a faultt in
the fuel system. Further fl fliights were
dependent on this being checked.
Erring on the side of caution, on
7 September the V4’s nosewheel was
rolled into a pit and, in this simu
nose-down position, fuel began too be
removed from the aircraft. The teests
showed that the fuel tanks — wh
were made of rubber — were pulled
together in the wings by a lack off
ventilation, and sometimes even torn
out of their fifixxtures. Instead of fuel, air
was sucked into the engines. The same
effect was found in both wings. Itt was
thus proven that the engines wou
no longer be reliably supplied witth
fuel during a descent. Since the ru
tanks could not be modified in a safe
manner, a complete redesign of th
fuel system was deemed necessaryy.
The third flying prototype, the 152/
II V5 DM-ZYC, had meanwhile been
completed. Its fl fliight test programme
was su upposed to begin on 7 September
urred
ng
nute
flight
me
flight
w
ABOVE: Not the result of a mishap, but the 152/II V4 with its nose in a pit during ground testing
on 7 September 1960, the aim being to simulate the eff
ffects
f of a nose-down flying att ttitude
t on the
aircraft
ft’s
t fuel system. SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING
ulated
1960. However, after the fuel su upply
problems were uncovered in thee V4, TECHNICAL DATA : 152/II V4
hich this aircraft remained on the grround
Powerplants: Four Pirna 014 A-0 turbojets, 7,261lb (32.3kN) thrust each
and was only used for taxi tests. Wingspan: 88.6ft (27m)
Two months later, on 1 Novvember Length: 103ft (31.4m)
1960, the main civil aviation Height: 31.5ft (9.6m)
administration of the GDR withdrew Empty weight: 63,978lb (29,020kg)
the 152’s flight permit due to the Cruising speed: 497mph (800km/h) at 38,058ft (11,600m)
Maximum speed: 569mph (915km/h)
faulty fuel system, and demand ded Range: 1,510 miles (2,430km)
uld further amendments. The proggramme
had run its course. In the mean ntime
ubber the East German leadership had be deliveered to a customer. By this
given consideration to cancellinng it, point, th
he type would no longer be BELLOW: The 152/II
he and Brunolf Baade himself wass not competitive. V5 being towwed
unaware of these discussions. Cautious The GDR regime pulled the plug ontoo the facto
ory
estimates indicated that it woulld be on the 152 on 5 April 1961, and airfi
field. This aircraft
ftt
nevver flew.
1964, once major reconstructioon decided to break up the fledgling East ELBE FLUGZEUGWEERKE GMBH
work had been completed, before the German aircraft industry. Long delays
first production aircraft could fi
finally and spiraalling costs had made this
ð
 BAA DE 1 52
ABOVE: The move entirely unavoidable. Developing
part-restored 152 and constructing the 152 reportedly
with constructor’s consumed up to 2 billion East German
number 11 at marks. It was a huge sum for the
Dresden Airport’s
already economically stifled GDR.
80th anniversary
open day in 2015.
It is owned by the
The Soviet Union’s decision not to
take any of the 100 aircraft that it had
Verkehrsmuseum verbally committed to was the death
Dresden (Dresden sentence for the project, which had
Transport Museum). been based upon this expected order.
DRESDEN AIRPORT The possibility of the 152 finding other
TESTBED TRIO
Three specially modified test aircraft supported the 152
programme. The first was Il-14 DM-ZZB, the initial example built
by the VEB plant in Dresden. A scale model of the 152’s horizontal
stabiliser was mounted on top of its fuselage for aerodynamic
trials in flight. The Il-14 flew for the first time in this configuration
during 1958. Airflow measuring strips stuck onto the assembly were
monitored from the open side door.
Early flight tests of the new Pirna 014 A powerplant were
conducted on an Ilyushin Il-28R, DM-ZZI, modified for this role
by the MAB Schkeuditz facility in Leipzig. A single such engine was
positioned in an under-fuselage gondola, while an extra fuel tank
and test recording equipment were located in the bomb bay, and
Il 14 DM-ZZB
ABOVE: Il-14 DM ZZB flying with the scale model of the 152’s
horizontal tail mounted atop its fuselage. SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING
32 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
the GDR military — were scrapped.
A single fuselage was preserved, the
hull bearing construction number
011. It was stored for many years on
the military airfield at Rothenburg,
before it was taken to Dresden airport
in 1993 and part-restored by Elbe
Flugzeugwerke.
All other aircraft projects from
Dresden were cancelled too. The
most advanced was Project 155, a
commercial jet designed as a successor
to the Il-14, and for which even a
wooden mock-up was built. Like the
Projects 153 and 154 (a twin-engined
turboprop transport with seating
for 56-82 passengers, and a four-
engined turboprop seating 70-108,
respectively), the 155 would have had
to compete with Soviet aircraft and
thus had no real sales chance in an
Eastern Bloc dominated by the Soviet
Union.
New engines from Pirna
were planned for these various
developments. The Pirna 014, specially
developed for the 152, did not power
any other aircraft apart from the
prototypes of the 152 and the Il-28
foreign customers was considered testbeds. Those engines built ended
extremely unlikely. Under these up being converted for use as gas
conditions, production would never generators or ship turbines.
have been an economic proposition. From then on, the VEB
Flugzeugwerft Dresden served only
❖ to repair aircraft. Today, the company
belongs to the Airbus Group as
All prototypes up to the 152/II V7 Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH and is
and six pre-series aircraft that were mainly involved in the conversion
already in production — intended of passenger aircraft to cargo
for the East German Lufthansa and configuration.
a test engineer was carried in the navigator’s station in the nose
(the navigator moved to a position behind the pilot). The aircraft’s
maiden flight with the Pirna engine aboard took place from
Dresden on 11 September 1959. A second Il-28R, DM-ZZK, joined
the effort in February 1960. Different versions of the powerplant
were tested, all performing well.
Following cancellation of the 152, DM-ZZI made the last ever
flight connected with East Germany’s ambitious aircraft building
programme on 20 June 1961. Suitably de-modified, both of
the Il-28Rs went on to serve with the LSK/LV (Luftstreitkräfte/
Luftverteidigung), the East German Air Force, as target tugs.
Ben Dunnell
Il 28R DM-ZZI
ABOVE: The final flight of Il-28R DM ZZI with the Pirna 014 engine
underneath took place on 20 June 1961. SAMMLUNG SCHINNERLING
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
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V IN C E NT A ND BA FF I N R ESTO R ATI O N S

BAC
CK
At a private location near
the New Zealand capital
Auckland, a father and

FROM THE
son are painstakingly
resurrecting unique
surviving examples of

DEAAD
two British aircraft from
the inter-war years — a
Vickers Vincent and
Blackburn Baffin
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY:
PETER R . ARNOLD

H
ow many times have we
heard the refrain, “If
only we’d saved one of
those”? How could they
have burnt a Dornier Do 217 in
the mid-1950s, or let a substantially
complete Handley Page Halifax at
Radlett go to the scrapyard in 1961?
Notwithstanding the logistics of
preserving aircraft of that size, it
seemed like a good idea at the time,
but how we regret it now, 50 or
60 years down the line. And if we
couldn’t save a glorious de Havilland
Hornet or Sea Hornet, an operational
Westland Wyv yvern
v or a Supermarine
Spiteful, what chance for some of the
not-so-glamorous heavy vyw
yweights
w of the
1930s, a period from which there is a
multiplicity of missing types?
Step forward retired Air New
Zealand engineer Don Subritzky. Don’s
passion and foresight for collecting
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
EXCLUSIVE REPORT
what some might have considered ‘old
junk’ knows no bounds. His collection
goes back to the early 1970s and has
included a couple of Spitfire wrecks
from Kiriwina Island in New Guinea,
of which JG891 is now flying in the
US and EF545 is with Guy Black in
the UK. The sheds on his property
contain an Airspeed Oxford, an Avro
Anson, a Gloster Meteor TT20, several
Hawker Hinds, a Percival Proctor, a
Westland Wasp and a Fairey Battle
‘starter kit’, while a serviceable Percival
Provost is kept at nearby Dairy Flats
airfield. Don’s current focus is on
a Blackburn Baffin while son Steve
continues to work on a Vickers
Vincent, both types having previously
been considered extinct. On a recent
visit I was privileged to persuade Don
and Steve to extract the aircraft from
their cramped accommodation for
outside photography.
The Vincent was a 1934 design,
basically a development of the
Vildebeest but carrying long-range
internal fuel tanks in place of the
torpedo bay. It was used for army co-
operation duties, mainly in the Middle
East and India, and was an archetypal
aircraft of the British Empire. Nearing
the end of their RAF
RAA service, some
60-odd examples were transferred to
the Royal New Zealand Air Force in
1939 and given new serials in the range
NZ300 to NZ361.
A fortuitous stencil on the armament
trough panel revealed Don’s example
to be NZ311, formerly K6357 of duties at the Air Observation School TOP: The typically
the RAF.
RAA K6357 had served with at Ohakea from December 1939 to unergonomic
No 55 Squadron in Iraq before being January 1940 before going to No cockpit of K6357.
shipped aboard the SS Gamaria to 22 Army Co-operation Squadron, ABOVE: The Vincent
Auckland, arriving on 17 July 1939. It also at Ohakea, between October remains at Don
was assembled at No 1 Aircraft Depot and November 1942. It was finally Subritzky’s home in
and taken on charge at Hobsonville. transferred to No 1 Operational 1972.
NZ311 was allotted for air gunnery Training Unit at the same base in April VIA SUBRITZKY FAMILY
LEFT: Vickers Vincent
K6357/NZ311 on a
rare venture outside
at the Subritzky
family’s premises at
Dairy Flat, just north
of Auckland.
ð
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 35
 V I NCE NT AND BA FF I N R ESTOR AT I O N S
ABOVE: Don 1943 for drogue towing before being
Subritzky with a reduced to spares on 4 November
Baffin control wheel 1944 due to airframe deterioration.
donated by an The broken-up parts were thereafter
RNZAF technician.
dumped in a pit in Marton, some
10km (six miles) north of Ohakea,
only to be recovered by Don on an
expedition in 1972.
From the outset Steve Subritzky
made no pretence that this would ever
be a potentially flying restoration.
The Vincent was to be a static exhibit,
restored to the highest level both
internally and externally for eventual
museum display. In consequence, it has
proved possible to treat and conserve
three quarters of the aeroplane’s
original steel fuselage spaceframe
structure. Period cockpit fittings and
furniture have been meticulously
sought, acquired and fitted, and are a
joy to behold.
‘Steve Subritzky made no pretence that
this would be a flying restoration’
This is a big aircraft, standing no less
than 13ft 6in (4.1m) from the ground
to the upper wing centre section. It
only just squeezes through the door
of its workshop accommodation.
Although a considerable amount
of wing structure and spar material
is extant, its lightweight, delicate
construction has not fared too well,
36 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
and thus it will mainly be used for
patterns. The wing ribs are principally
all the same, making the wing
reconstruction a relatively easy though
time-consuming task.
The Baffin was at one time the Fleet
Air Arm’s standard torpedo bomber.
Like the Vincent, it was introduced
in 1934. It offered little performance
benefit over its predecessor, the
Blackburn Ripon, and was only in
service for a couple of years before
being declared obsolete and replaced
by the Fairey Swordfish by September
1937.
Twenty-nine redundant Baffins were
acquired by the RNZAF. Used to equip
various territorial squadrons, they were
fully operational by the start of WW2.
As with the Vincents, all were given
new serials in the range NZ150 to
NZ178. Don’s Baffin was NZ160. It
was built as a Ripon IIc and converted,
its FAA serial being S1674; it spent a
period with the code ‘5’. The aircraft
was shipped to New Zealand on the
SS Waiwera in 1938 and brought on
charge with No 1 Aircraft Depot at
Hobsonville. However, it came to
grief in 1941 and was broken up at
Rongotai.
On a mission to recover a Fairey
Gordon from New Zealand’s Southern
Alps in the mid-1970s, Don and
Charles Darby carried on to Pigeon
Bay to inspect what was left of the
Baffin and ended up recovering most
of the parts they could see at that
time. Further parts were found on two
subsequent trips.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 During previous visits to Don’s ABOVE: Blackburn
workshop I had seen the recovered Baffin S1674/
remains of the Baffin and wondered NZ160 has been
what he could possibly do with proceeding well,
the aft wooden
them. Three years on, the parts have structures having to
been transformed into a recognisable be re-created.
fuselage. The Finnish Air Force used
the Ripon operationally in WW2, LEFT: An air-to-air
and with the aid of a number of view of Baffin
representative drawings acquired S1674, before it
from Finland — further assisted by was re-serialled by
information supplied by the RAF the RNZAF.
Museum — Don has re-created the aft DON NOBLE COLLECTION
wooden structure and bracings to near-
airworthy standard. Wonderful work.
A Pegasus engine, however, is still on
the shopping list. Later in my travels I called in on Australian client. They simply exuded
Forever the collector, Don showed Don’s elder son Mike, now based in quality.
me his two latest acquisitions, a pair of Victoria, Australia, where he has a very I guess it must be in the genes, for
Britten-Norman Trislanders. For sure, well-equipped aviation and vintage Mike had a little project tucked away
in 30 or maybe 40 years, somebody car restoration business. He had just for the future, the beginnings of a
will be saying, “I’m so glad he saved completed the almost scratch-build Westland Wapiti… but that is
them.” of a pair of Spitfire XIV wings for an another story.

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 37

 E A ST A FR IC AN G LA DIATOR S

GLADIATORS
against Mussolini
In 1940 and d into
i t 1941
1941, Gl
Gloster
t Gladiators
Gl di t off RAF and d SSouth
th Af
African
i Ai
Air
Force units were part of the Allies’ first line of attack — and defence —
against Italian forces in East Africa. Despite their obvious inadequacies,
the biplanes performed gallantly
WORDS: PETE LONDON

38 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

O
n 10 June 1940, Benito
Mussolini declared war on
Britain and France. Italian
forces entered southern
France, the conflict there lasting barely
two weeks. In Africa the situation
was different. Italy’s North African
ambitions, its military defeats and the
intervention by Germany’s Afrika Korps
are familiar stories; less well-known is
the East African campaign, launched by
Mussolini from his colonies of Ethiopia,
Eritrea and Italian Somaliland.
The three linked territories sat on the
Horn of Africa, Ethiopia landlocked
but Italian Somaliland overlooking the
Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden,
and Eritrea’s coastline running along the
Red Sea toward the Suez Canal. From
its East African airfields Italy’s Regia
Aeronautica was able to conduct attacks
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
against British shipping passing through
the region.
Surrounded by Italy’s possessions,
a thin strip of land formed British
Somaliland. To the east of Ethiopia
was the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and
to the south Kenya. Across the Gulf
of Aden, facing British Somaliland on
the southern tip of Arabia, sat the key
British-controlled port of Aden. Britain’s
air power in these territories was
meagre, many colonial aircraft being
antique compared with those at home.
Numerically the Italian air presence was
far superior. But Britain was fighting for
its life over its own skies. More modern
types could not be spared.
The most advanced fighters facing
the Italians in East Africa as of June
1940 were mainly Gloster Gladiators.
At Sheik Othman airfield, just north
of Aden’s port, No 94 Squadron was
commanded by Sqn Ldr Freddie
Wightman. Responsible for the port’s
air defence, 94 flew eight Gladiator
IIs with eight MkIs in reserve. That
month, eight Gladiators of ‘B’ Flight,
No 112 Squadron led by Flt Lt Pete
Savage arrived at Summit airfield in BELOW: A No 94
the Sudan, 3,000ft above sea level in Squadron group
the Red Sea Hills. A ninth joined later. photograph taken
Four of those aircraft were temporarily at Sheik Othman
airfield, Aden. A
detached shortly after their arrival to Gladiator forms the
Port Sudan. backdrop, revealing
Kenya’s air defence was provided black-and-white
by the South African Air Force’s No 1 undersides. Sqn Ldr
Squadron, which flew Hawker Furies Freddie Wightman
and a handful of Hurricanes. In May is in the centre of
1940, though, many of its pilots had the front row.
ALL PHOTOS VIA
travelled to Abu Sueir in Egypt to start PETE LONDON
training with Gladiators, the intention
being to re-equip with the type.
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 39
 E A ST A FR IC AN G LA DIATOR S

TOP: Gladiator During the Norwegian and Belgian

N2284 of No 94 campaigns the Gladiator was outclassed
Squadron after the by Luftwaffe aircraft, but the Regia
visit of Fiat CR42s to Aeronautica’s types were less up-to-
Berbera airfield on
8 August 1940. date. In the East African theatre the
leading Italian fighter was the Fiat
ABOVE: On CR42 biplane. Operated there by flames, though two crewmen survived intercepted a lone aircraft in the
1 August 1940, the autonomous 412a, 413a and 414a and were captured. vicinity of Erkowit airfield, south of
No 112 Squadron Squadriglie, the CR42 was fast if lightly That day too, nine SM79s Port Sudan. Led by Fg Off Richard
Gladiator I K7974/ armed, and was equipped with neither approached the port. Two were ‘Dickie’ Whittington they began a stern
RT-O, flown by armour nor wireless. damaged by 94’s biplanes flown by attack, but rather than responding with
Plt Off Oliver Immediately following Italy’s Plt Off Stephenson and Sgt Price. weaponry the crew of the target aircraft
Green, shot down declaration of war, Savoia-Marchetti Stephenson succeeded in stopping his fired a Verey light. It turned out to be
a Caproni Ca133 SM81 bombers began raids against Port target’s starboard engine but its return No 47 Squadron Vickers Wellesley
bomber near
Gedaref in the Sudan and Aden. Generally, the only fire damaged the Gladiator. Breaking K7742 from Erkowit, its distinctive
Sudan. warning of the enemy’s approach came off, he put down at Bi’r am Makhnuk, underwing nacelles having been
from widely-dispersed railway stations, a well west of the port. removed. No-one was injured, though
ABOVE RIGHT: On should aircraft pass over them. These the Wellesley’s starboard wing was
14 August 1940,
a Gladiator flown
messages reached the fighter bases by
telephone, sometimes after the enemy ❖ riddled with holes from the Gladiators’
bullets. The matter was settled later
by No 1 Squadron, aircraft had bombed. The Italians attempted a raid on that day over a glass of Tops, Summit’s
SAAF’s Lt Adrian At first unopposed, on 13 June Summit during the early evening favoured drink consisting of half a glass
Colenbrander the Italians were caught for the first of 16 June but were seen off by ‘B’ of lemonade and a top of beer.
damaged a Ca133. time over Aden by No 94 Squadron. Flight, No 112 Squadron. In the face No 94 Squadron played a part
Sheltering from In the early hours four Gladiators of two Gladiators flown by Plt Off in an unlikely episode on 18 June
the sun under
an umbrella, he were scrambled from Sheik Othman, Gordon Wolsey and Sgt E. Norman involving the Italian submarine
recounts the story including N2290 piloted by Fg Woodward, the two S81s turned away Galileo Galilei. On patrol in Gladiator
of the action. Off Gordon Haywood. In a single and jettisoned their bombs. N2279, Gordon Haywood spotted
attack Haywood hit an SM81 based At dawn on the 17th, three the craft on the surface off Aden and
at Diredawa, Ethiopia. It crashed in Gladiators from the same flight called up assistance. A Blenheim and

40 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

a Vincent joined the attack, both
bombing the Italians. The arriving
armed trawler HMS Moonstone tore a
hole in the submarine’s conning tower.
The destroyer HMS Kandahar also
appeared. Galileo Galilei surrendered
and was towed to Aden, her crew taken
prisoner.
By the end of June, 94’s aircraft
were attacking targets across the Red
Sea. On the 28th N2279 and N2294
successfully strafed an Italian fuel
dump at Macaca, near Assab airfield
on the Eritrean coast, in company
with a Blenheim of No 39 Squadron.
The Blenheim bombed, but missed.
However, using incendiary ammunition
the Gladiators, in the hands of Freddie
Wightman and Plt Off Alan Carter,
set fire to some 100 drums of petrol
and alcohol. Before any opposition
appeared the British aircraft made good
their escape.
‘B’ Flight of 112 bagged its first
enemy the following day. Hearing an
engine above, Plt Off Jack Hamlyn
took off in Gladiator L7619 to
investigate. Climbing flat-out over
Port Sudan, above the moored ships
he caught an SM81 on a bombing
run. The Savoia spotted the fighter
and turned out to sea but Hamlyn
closed to around 30 yards. During a
quarter attack, which turned into a
stern chase, he fired more than 1,000
rounds. His target burst into flames,
pieces damaging the Gladiator. Two of
the SM81’s crew were picked from the
water.
94’s Gladiators encountered the
CR42 for the first time on the morning
of 2 July, the Fiats flown by the newly
formed 414a Squadriglia. Attacking
Assab airfield, Wightman in N2283
destroyed one CR42 on the ground
before a pair appeared in the air, having
‘Generally the only warning of the
enemy’s approach came from railway
stations, should an aircraft pass over’
taken off to quell the assault. He turned
inside one and fired into its cockpit.
The Italian fighter was set ablaze and
crashed near the aerodrome.
Sgt Bill Dunwoodie tussled with
the second Fiat. He loosed a burst of
fire into its Fiat A74 RC38 engine,
which stopped. As it glided to earth
Dunwoodie attacked again and
the CR42 struck the ground hard,
though subsequently it may have
been repaired and returned to service.
Eight days afterwards, accompanied
by a Blenheim, 94 effectively wiped
out 414a Squadriglia when three more
CR42s were destroyed on the ground.
The Italian unit was disbanded, and the
exposed Assab airfield abandoned.
The first East African Gladiator
casualty came on 13 July, when 94’s
L9042 came down while attacking fuel
dumps south of Assab. Alan Carter
died, the crash having been caused by
ground fire rather than air combat.
Two days on, two of the unit’s fighters
collided while patrolling off Aden. Plt
Off Bartlett parachuted from N2279
and was picked up, while Plt Off Hogg
made a safe return to base.
No 1 Squadron, SAAF had brought
Gladiator reinforcements from Egypt to
the East African theatre by the month’s
end, splitting them between Khartoum
and Kenya. A detachment of 94’s
aircraft moved to Berbera, the capital
of British Somaliland, as Italian forces
were concentrated at the border.
A Caproni Ca133 bomber was
reported near Gedaref in the eastern BELOW: These
Sudan on 1 August. Scrambled from Gladiators served
Gedaref ’s polo field, Gladiators of with both Nos 1
112’s ‘B’ Flight investigated: K7986 and 2 Squadrons,
with ‘Dickie’ Whittington, L7619 with SAAF. Nearest is
Plt Off Chapman at the controls, and N5851; the further
K7974 flown by Plt Off — later Air example, N5815,
also flew with No
Cdre — Oliver Green. Green caught 237 (Rhodesia)
the raider first, his bursts causing its Squadron.
starboard engine to start smoking. The
Caproni force-landed, its crew being
ð
 E A ST A FR IC AN G LA DIATOR S
ABOVE: Wearing local people who had been bombed by
his tin helmet at a the Italians. Hearing of his victory, they
jaunty angle, Capt killed a goat for a feast in his honour.
Brian ‘Piggy’ Boyle After forays a few miles into
of No 1 Squadron,
SAAF is pictured Sudanese and Kenyan territory, on 3
with N5852. While August Italian forces invaded British
flying this example Somaliland. Overwhelmed by superior
Boyle shot down numbers, as British and colonial troops
two enemy aircraft; withdrew Gladiators flew covering
he was the most missions from Berbera. Two Fiat
successful SAAF CR32s and a 413a Squadriglia CR42
Gladiator pilot. strafed the capital’s airfield on the 8th,
destroying 94’s Gladiators N2284 and
N5778, and damaging N5890 beyond
repair.
In Kenya, meanwhile, three Caproni
Ca133s attacked the northern town
of Wajir on 14 August. A single
Gladiator flown by No 1 Squadron’s
Lt Adrian Colenbrander intercepted
BELOW: No 1 the enemy and succeeded in damaging
Squadron, SAAF one aircraft, the squadron’s first action.
Gladiators in a Over in the Sudan, ‘B’ Flight, No 112
remote setting. In Squadron was re-designated as the
the foreground is
N5813, which also independent ‘K’ Flight.
served with No 2 Three of the South African unit’s
Squadron. Gladiators, led by Maj Schalk van
Schalkwyk, attacked two CR42s over
Kassala in the eastern Sudan on 18
September. One enemy aircraft was
seen to spin and crash. The other was
pursued to its airfield at Tessenei,
Eritrea, where it crash-landed, shared
by 2nd Lts John Coetzer and John
Hewitson. A detachment of 1’s aircraft
subsequently travelled to reinforce ‘K’
Flight, shuttling between Azzoza and
Port Sudan airfields. The squadron’s
Kenyan-based Gladiators temporarily
became No 2 Squadron, SAAF at the
end of the month, but in October the
aircraft reverted to 1’s ownership.
❖ Sudanese border town of Gallabat
A trio of South African Gladiators
led by Capt Brian ‘Piggy’ Boyle
encountered three 412a Squadriglia
CR42s on 4 October, over the
Sudanese border town of Metemma.
Again, two kills were claimed though
only one CR42 was actually shot down,
its pilot baling out. The victor was Lt
Servaas de K. Viljoen. The Italians in
turn claimed an unconfirmed kill of
their own, but South African records
show just a damaged aircraft, that of
Boyle.
Twelve days later, 412a Squadriglia
CR42s attacked Gedaref airfield,
destroying two antique Vincents
(reported by the Italians as Gladiators)
together with eight No 47 Squadron
Wellesleys. No 1 Squadron hit back on
the afternoon of 18 October, attacking
412a Squadriglia’s airfield at Barentu
in Eritrea. Between them ‘Piggy’ Boyle
in N5832, Lt Andrew Duncan and Lt
Robin Pare shared the destruction of
three CR42s as they tried to take off,
then strafed the airfield’s Ca133 and
SM79 force before returning safely to
Azzoza.
November opened with another
South African victory. Boyle, Duncan
and Pare were escorting bomb-carrying
Gloster Gauntlets of No 430 Flight,
RAF to targets in northern Eritrea
and Ethiopia. Ca133s were spotted,
Duncan making a successful attack on
one from below and astern. The Italian
went into a dive. Two injured crewmen
managed to bale out before the aircraft
crashed.
No 1 Squadron soon fought again
with 412a Squadriglia, near Metemma.
Lt Leonard ‘Polly’ Theron claimed one
CR42 shot down, the pilot of which
baled out; ‘Piggy’ Boyle (N5852)
another, and Duncan a third, though
the Italians recorded only one loss.
The first offensive of the
Second World War by British and
Commonwealth forces began on 6
November, an attack to retake the
and nearby Metemma. Gladiators
from ‘K’ Flight and No 1 Squadron
covered the action, patrolling over the
assaulting troops. Support came too
from Gauntlets, Hardys, Vincents and
Wellesleys.
The Italians reacted strongly, a
force of between six and eight 412a
Squadriglia CR42s attacking three ‘K’
Flight Gladiators from out of the sun
near Metemma, and destroying all of
them. Flt Lt Pete Savage in L7614 went
down in flames over Gallabat, having
fought off four or five CR42s for 15
15 minutes. Plt Off Harry Kirk baled
out of K7969 and was taken prisoner.
Jack Hamlyn’s L7612 was damaged,
but he managed to put down and
survived.
In the same area Schalk van
Schalkwyk, by then 1’s commanding
officer, fought a lone battle in N5855
against the CR42s. His plight having
been reported by ground troops, ‘Piggy’
Boyle took off from Azzoza in N5852,
racing to help. Arriving at the scene he
saw van Schalkwyk’s Gladiator on fire.
The pilot baled out with his clothing
alight. Boyle then fought a desperate
action of his own, being wounded as
the CR42s attacked. Finally N5852’s
engine stopped, but he made a
successful crash-landing in no-man’s
land.
The British attack on the ground was
bombed by Ca133s escorted by CR42s.
Gladiators responded, ‘K’ Flight’s Fg
Off Jack Hayward in K7977 seeking
vengeance for his flight commander’s
death. During their time serving in
Egypt and then the Sudan, Savage
and Hayward had become great pals.
Hayward led his section into a large
formation of CR42s. After a long scrap
he was set alight and crashed fatally.
Lt John Coetzer claimed a fighter
shot down, as did Robin Pare, though
Italian records show no such CR42
losses; perhaps these aircraft were
merely damaged. Near the Metemma-
Gondar road, two Ca133s were lost
to the guns of Andrew Duncan and
fellow Gladiator pilot John Hewitson
in N5824.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
The fort at Gallabat finally fell on
the evening of 6 November, but the
Italians recaptured it the very next day,
their bombers pressing home attacks
against Allied ground troops, and the
Regia Aeronautica for the moment
controlling the local airspace. Again
No 1 Squadron fought the CR42s,
one being claimed by Robin Pare
near Metemma. Sadly, Schalk van
Schalkwyk succumbed to his burns,
and Capt Gerald Le Mesurier took
temporary command of the squadron.
Recovered by Indian troops, ‘Piggy’
Boyle spent several weeks in hospital
and received the DFC for his bravery in
going alone to his CO’s aid.
20 November saw No 94 Squadron’s
final Gladiator victory when Wightman
and N5627 destroyed an SM81,
intercepting it over Aden before dawn.
With the target held in searchlights,
Wightman fired incendiary
‘Hearing of Green’s victory, the locals
killed a goat for a feast in his honour’
ammunition into his enemy’s port wing
root and cockpit. The SM81 went into
a long dive before crashing into the sea
off Khormaksar. Wightman visited the
rescued pilot in hospital, who turned
out to be Diredawa’s (former) station
commander.
Several Hurricanes arrived with
No 1 Squadron over the last few
weeks of 1940, but it also received
more Gladiators. On 27 December
three of the biplanes set upon a single ABOVE: A rare air-
CR42, destroying it. In the New Year, to-air photograph
1 received a new CO, Maj Laurie of a No 1 Squadron,
Wilmot, and moved to Tessenei airfield SAAF Gladiator
in Eritrea, which had been liberated patrolling over the
flat East African
from the Italians. Gladiator N5822 was scrubland.
lost over Aroma, Sudan on 12 January,
Lt John Warren falling under the guns
of a CR42.
Hurricanes provided cover as the
Gladiators strafed Gura airfield in
Eritrea on 27 January, damaging
several Ca133s, SM79s and SM81s.
Five Gladiators — accompanied by
Hurricanes — took on an estimated 10
CR42s and a formation of SM79s near
Gura on the 29th. The South Africans
made stern and head-on attacks. Enemy
casualties were not entirely clear to
them but they claimed five fighters, two
downed by the Gladiators. The Italians
recorded no losses, though three CR42s
were seriously damaged.
Six No 1 Squadron Gladiators hit
airfields in the Gondar region on 3
February. South of Gondar they found
an airstrip with five Ca133s, strafing
them and claiming all as destroyed. A
second airfield was then attacked, and
when enemy fighters appeared ‘Piggy’
Boyle achieved his final Gladiator
victory. Boyle pressed his attack home
so closely that he could see the rank
badges on the Italian pilot’s uniform.
ð
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 43
 E A ST A FR IC AN G LA DIATOR S
RIGHT: Lt Leonard
le Clues Theron of
No 1 Squadron,
SAAF straps into his
mount.
The 413a Squadriglia CR42 went
down smoking, and there was no
parachute. All the Gladiators returned
safely, but Lt H. P. Smith crashed on
landing after his starboard tyre burst.
412a Squadriglia lost two more Fiats
to 1’s Gloster fighters on the 5th; soon
afterwards, the remaining biplanes were
‘Quote to write and insert in here please’
‘Quote to write and insert in here please’
moved on and the South African unit
became all-Hurricane.
In the meantime ‘K’ Flight’s new
BELOW: Under the CO, Flt Lt John E. ‘Ian’ Scoular, had
Kenyan sky, two
Gladiators of No opened his East African account with
2 Squadron, SAAF the destruction of an SM79 on 22
shelter from the sun. February, while escorting Blenheims.
Freddie Wightman was awarded the
DFC, while during March 94 sent a
44 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
detachment of Gladiators to Berbera to
support Allied ground forces in their
recapture of British Somaliland.
No 1 Squadron’s surviving Gladiators
were taken on charge by No 237
(Rhodesia) Squadron — formerly
No 1 Squadron, Southern Rhodesia
Air Force, which had moved from its
Kenyan bases to Gedaref, Kassala and
Khartoum. The unit was charged with
army co-operation and reconnaissance,
flying Hardys and Lysanders as well
as its newly acquired fighters. In the
fierce battle for the Italians’ Eritrean
stronghold at Keren, on 16 March
1941 Plt Off Peter Simmonds in
N5789 was attacked by a CR42, which
damaged his Gladiator. Simmonds
fought back successfully, the enemy
machine crashing and exploding.
Three aircraft from 237 strafed
Italian forces at Ad Teclesan, Eritrea,
at the month’s end. Simmonds in
N5853 was hit by anti-aircraft fire and
force-landed, but managed to evade
capture and reached friendly troops.
He went on to share in the obliteration
of a Ca133, a CR42 and an SM79
on the ground, becoming 237’s most
successful Gladiator pilot.
‘K’ Flight left the East African
theatre for Palestine and 94 re-
equipped with Hurricanes, numerous
Gladiators passing to No 3 Squadron,
SAAF. Though the biplanes played a
reduced part in the subsequent East
African fighting, as Allied ground forces
advanced into Italian territory 3 was
employed on ground support. The
unit suffered several accidents, perhaps
partly the result of flying such venerable
and well-used aircraft.
Though their aerial strength had
dwindled, Italian resistance on the
ground continued almost throughout
1941. The Gladiators’ time had all but
passed, but on 24 October Lt Lancelot
Hope of No 3 Squadron, SAAF based
at Dabat, Ethiopia, attacked a CR42
reconnoitring near Ambazzo, north of
Gondar, closing to just 20 yards. The
Fiat caught fire, spun into the ground
and exploded, the last enemy aircraft
shot down in the East African theatre.
The remaining Italian forces
surrendered on 27 November 1941.
During a campaign fought in harsh
conditions, far from home with little
support, the small band of Allied pilots
and their Gladiators had acquitted
themselves more than capably
against their Regia Aeronautica
adversaries.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 REUNION OF GIANTS DVD
The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum
is pleased to present REUNION OF
GIANTS – The Official Lancaster UK Tour
Documentary! It has been 50 years since
two Avro Lancaster bombers flew side by
side. The Canadian Warplane Heritage
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counterpart, Thumper – the only other
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in the world – the RAF Battle of Britain
Memorial Flight’s (BBMF) Lancaster in
England. Region-free DVD, 83 minutes.
B-17G REFERENCE BOOK
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and Medal of Honor awards, as well as
missions flown by the RAF and USAAF’s
numbered air forces. Softback book, 84
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FlyPast magazine presents a unique This 100-page special Enter the cockpit of the iconic British
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 meets
DR ROBERT
PLEMING
The chief executive of the Vulcan to the
Sky Trust reflects on the highs and lows
of XH558’s remarkable return to flight –
and on what the future holds for this most
famous ‘V-bomber’
I
t remains one of the
greatest stories in aircraft
preservation: how a
four-engined jet bomber,
long retired by the RAF and thought
grounded for good, flew again in
civilian hands and spent eight very
successful seasons as the airshow
circuit’s biggest attraction. Yet it
happened, and it was memorable.
When Avro Vulcan B2 XH558 took
to the air from Bruntingthorpe on 18
October 2007, one man among those
watching did so with particular pride,
and not a small degree of apprehension.
With much vision and energy, Dr
Robert Pleming, chief executive of
the Vulcan to the Sky Trust (VTST),
had been instrumental in making the
whole thing happen. The maiden flight
demonstrated that what many had
thought impossible could, in fact, be
done. Yet the challenges — financial,
technical and many more — were far
from over. By the time XH558 ended
up being grounded in October 2015, it
is estimated that the whole project had
consumed more than £26 million, all of
it from the public.
Today the aircraft’s flying days are
over. It sits in taxiable retirement at
Doncaster Sheffield Airport, the former
RAF Finningley, itself an ex-Vulcan
base of much renown. But VTST’s
ambitions for the future run further.
To that end, Robert travels regularly
from his home in Hampshire to
WORDS: BEN DUNNELL
48 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
XH558’s South Yorkshire base, and it
was during one of these trips that we
met. Given part of his background,
it seemed appropriate to choose a
suitably academic venue, so just before
Christmas we talked over a very relaxed
lunch at the University of Sheffield’s
excellent Inox Dine restaurant.
“We lived under the flightpath of
RAF Northolt”, Robert says of his
childhood, “and I constantly saw
Dakotas and similar flying overhead.
So, aviation is in the blood, but there
are probably genes involved in it as
well. My mother was in the WAAF met
section during the war, and she has my
undying jealousy for having a flight in
a Mosquito during 1946, before she
was demobbed”. Robert himself got
his gliding wings at RAF Halton on a
Slingsby Sedbergh, and at the age of 17
was awarded an RAF flying scholarship.
In 1968 he went solo on a Cessna
152, “but I never actually got my
PPL, because going through A-levels,
university and so on there was never any
time, or indeed any money, to do it.
“I was lucky enough to get a
scholarship to St John’s, Oxford, and
did my BA in physics. I did better
than I was expecting — better than
everybody was expecting — and I
was invited to do a DPhil, which is
what Oxford calls a doctorate, at the
nuclear physics lab. We were designing
an experiment to go on the sharp end
of what was then the Super Proton
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 ABOVE: Dr Robert Pleming in 2016, when the Vulcan to the Sky Trust bought Canberra WK163. PA IMAGES ð

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 49

 meets DR RO BE RT P LEM I NG
Synchrotron at CERN [the European
Organization for Nuclear Research
in Geneva], which was pretty much
leading-edge at the time, 40 years ago.
“It became very obvious that if I
was going to carry on in the academic
world, I would be ‘middle-rating’,
as it were. I thought I didn’t want to
middle at something; I wanted to be
top. I was involved in a lot of work
with computers, and I decided to go
into the world of computing — I
applied to IBM, and I joined them
in January 1977. I got to some quite
senior positions in the end, and then
in 1994 I was headhunted by Cisco
Systems. They wanted a mature and
experienced manager to take over as
technical director in the UK. This was
the start of the internet explosion, and
it was a real ride. The business just took
off. When I joined we were about a
$50-million business in the UK. By the
time I finished it was something like
$1.5 billion. That was over six years.”
However, it was time for a change.
“By then I was 49, a European-level
director, and frankly burnt-out”. As
an enthusiast, Robert had seen Vulcan
XH558 flying at many airshows during
its time with the RAF’s Vulcan Display
Flight, and loved it. He signed the
petition organised in 1992 to try and
keep the aircraft flying in RAF hands.
This, of course, proved unsuccessful.
“As an engineer, my gut feeling was
that this aircraft could be kept flying. I
actually took my son out of school on
23 March 1993 and we watched from
RAF Benson, which was the initial
point for its final tour of the UK. I
remember saying to myself, ‘This is
wrong. I’m going to get it flying again’.
Hostage to fortune…”
That flight ended at Bruntingthorpe,
XH558 having been bought by the
Walton family with a view to an
eventual return to the air. “It wasn’t
until 1996”, Robert recalls, “that I
took the first step of talking to David
Walton and asking, ‘Where are you
on this?’ I knew they’d bought all the
spares and the rest of it. He said that
the CAA was telling them that they
needed a corporate response, which
was interpreted as needing British
Aerospace on board. I thought that the
‘A low point was when we came to the
conclusion that commercial sponsorship
wasn’t going to work for the restoration’
key was clearly getting BAe convinced
that there was a credible project that
could result in a safe aircraft.
“David had been talking to a number
of people who were able to offer
expertise. I basically formed a project
team in 1997, and for a couple of
years we focused on all the issues that
we needed to get right for a credible
project to come together. Eventually, in
50 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
the spring of 1999, we got to version
18 of the project plan. I’d formed a
good relationship with a guy called Jeff
Fellows, who was the corporate-level
technical planning director for BAe.
He provided a lot of really helpful
advice, and he took our plan in to the
committee that would need to take the
decision.
“In May 1999 I got the call — I was
at Brussels Airport, I seem to remember
— when he said, ‘Robert, you’ve done
it’. At the top, we’d got the support
from [BAe chief executive] John Weston
and [chairman] Dick Evans. There were
some conditions, like ‘no money’. I’d
found a way of solving the key problem,
which was that to provide this support
required technical input from the design
engineers within BAe, and they had no
spare resource to do that. The solution
I came up with, which everybody
bought into, was that the design office
at Marshall Aerospace would do the
technical work, and then it would
receive what was entitled ‘no technical
objection’ from BAe. So, BAe” — BAE
Systems from later in 1999 — “had a
relatively lightweight task of looking at
the output from Marshalls’ work.
❖ fundraising to be stepped up. ACM Sir
“Something we realised in hindsight
was that all the companies that needed
to be involved like Dunlop, Smiths
and so on thought, ‘Oh, they’ll never
do it’. There was obviously a lot of
gulping in their throats when they
realised, ‘They might’! We ended up
basically doing a type certification for a
complex-category ex-military aircraft.
We had absolutely superb support
from BAE, Marshalls, Rolls-Royce and
all of the OEMs [original equipment
manufacturers]. Some of it we had to
pay for, some of it was for free.
“One of the big conclusions I’ve
come to in the last few years was that
the power of the vision of getting this
very significant aircraft back to flight
was a vision that people bought into.
They could see it happening and they
could see the value. If it had been the
only Vulcan in existence, I would have
been the first to say, ‘Don’t even try’,
but because there remain a number of
Vulcans around the country, some of
them under cover, it was worth doing.
“We trotted down the path of
starting to do things, but of course the
major challenge was raising the money.
The estimates for the project went up
from £2 million to £3.75 million
when we did the lottery bid, and the
actual end number when we got the
permit to fly was about £7 million.
“In 2000, we thought that, as long
as we got the funding, we could get
the aircraft back to flight in a couple of
years. I remember thinking when I left
Cisco [in 2000] to pick up the role full-
time — unpaid, at the time — that I’d
give it a couple of years and see where
we got to. Well, life changes. Once you
start down the path on something like
this, you can’t give it up.
“We realised by the end of 2000
that the fundraising campaign wasn’t
getting the traction it needed to. That
was when Felicity Irwin came on board
and put a huge amount of effort in to
moving the whole of the fundraising
and PR side forward, with great success.
Up until that time, the Waltons were
funding the activity, but they decided
they could no longer be involved.
As with all of these things, though,
everybody’s made a contribution. It
really is a case of ‘success has many
fathers’. We couldn’t have achieved
what we achieved if the Waltons hadn’t
decided to buy the aircraft, purchase
the spares and take the first few steps
towards discovering what was needed to
return the aircraft to flight.”
VTST was formed as a registered
charity in 2002, allowing public
Michael Knight was its first chairman.
Robert remembers, “When we started
fundraising, we didn’t have charitable
status. Our friends down at Southend,
the Vulcan Restoration Trust, accepted
the donations… Within their objectives
as a charity, they funded the work on
the aircraft that we were carrying out
then, the so-called ‘soft start’ — taking
things off it, preparing them to be
overhauled — in response to receipts
we could give them, because they were
allowed to support any Vulcan. That
worked really well.
“A low point was when we came
to the conclusion that commercial
sponsorship wasn’t going to work
for the restoration, for a number of
reasons. Probably the primary reason
was that we could not demonstrate a
return on the sponsorship in the sort
of timescales that work for commercial
companies. If they gave us a million
quid, they would want to see a million’s
worth of value within about six
months. We couldn’t do that. Also, the
various schemes we had for collecting
donations were collecting at a relatively
slow rate. It became very obvious that
we needed a major injection of funds,
and that’s when we considered applying
for a lottery grant.
“Felicity had noted that the Tank
Museum at Bovington had got a grant
to bring back to running condition a
German tank. Why couldn’t we do this
with an aircraft? In the Heritage Lottery
Fund’s terms and conditions there was
a statement saying they didn’t fund
projects whose aim was the restoration
of aircraft to flight. However, lower
down, it said, ‘We will entertain
requests for exceptions to our policies’.
That’s the route we went down.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 “The first HLF application, in
hindsight, was weak. We hadn’t really
hit their requirements for things like
access, interpretation and education on
anything like the level required. That
was rejected in November-December
2002. But the response the HLF
had from the public to that decision
was huge, and it turned round their
attitude. They provided some very
helpful guidance on what would be a
successful application, and I basically
sat down for three or four months in
the early part of 2003 writing 110,000
words for an all-singing, all-dancing
HLF application.
“That went in, and was considered
by an HLF board of trustees meeting
in December 2003. At the same
meeting they were also considering the
lottery funding for the National Cold
War Exhibition [at the RAF Museum
Cosford]… of course, there was an
aviation theme in the world with the
centenary of the Wright brothers’ first
flight, and the last flight of Concorde.
For a short time I’d had to go and get a
different job for another IT company,
and I received the call there saying that
we’d got the first-stage approval, which
is the key one. I resigned from the
company I worked for the following
month, and we set off down the road.”
At that stage the grant was for £2.5
million, though the HLF ended up
contributing a total of £2.7 million.
As Robert recounts, “There was a lot
of work to be done between then and
actually getting the money in. It wasn’t
until February 2005 that we purchased
the aircraft from the Waltons. It was
so important to keep linkage in to the
OEMs over that time, so I personally
paid for our logistics manager to stay
on in his role, making sure that we still
had those connections. That’s the sort
of thing you have to do, though.
“The way the HLF works is that they
know the total project costs, — £3.75
million at the time — and they give
you a percentage of that. In our case it
was about 65 per cent, but you’re not
allowed to start until you can show
you’ve got the [remaining] funds. We
had to raise £1 million, and Felicity
got on with it. Such was the
enthusiasm for getting the aircraft
back to flying condition that we did it.
“Before starting work we needed to
recruit a technical team, not only for
ourselves within the Vulcan Operating
Company [then the operating arm of
VTST] but also Marshalls, who had to
get technicians on board and get their
design office engineers up to speed.
What’s not widely known is that we
paid for and developed a 13-week
technical training course on the Vulcan,
covering all of the necessary topics. It
wasn’t until August 2005 that work
began, but there were various problems
along the way.
“The initial project plan looked
like a 14-month restoration. It ended
up being 26 months. We discovered
huge amounts of corrosion in the
space above the undercarriage bay […]
caused by water thrown up from the
wheels. Things basically took an awful
lot longer than we expected. The CAA
wanted the design office to do virtually
a complete safety case for the aircraft;
I think 45 systems were removed
from the aircraft, and Marshalls had
to do a safety case for each one of
those removals, a tremendous amount
of work. That’s where costs started

ABOVE: With XH558 in the Bruntingthorpe hangar

during March 2005, when the aircraft had just been
bought from the Walton family. PETER R. MARCH
RIGHT: Work on the Vulcan only started in earnest
once the Heritage Lottery Fund grant had been
confirmed. PETER R. MARCH

ABOVE: Robert Pleming with the crew members behind

the successful maiden flight: from left to right, pilots
Al McDicken and David Thomas, air electronics officer
Barry Masefield and crew chief ‘Taff’ Stone.
PETER R. MARCH

LEFT: At the roll-out in August 2006, the VTST team and

XH558 were saluted by the BBMF’s Lancaster. PETER R. MARCH
ð

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 51

 meets DR RO BE RT P LEM I NG
escalating through the roof. There were
some difficult times with Marshalls
over that period about the continuing,
month-on-month escalation of the cost
estimates.
‘We’d covered everything and I was very
happy that the first flight would be OK...
In the end, it was an absolute success’
“Then we had the famous roll-out
in August 2006. We projected running
out of money at the end of August, and
the whole team was put on one month’s
notice on 31 July. That triggered the
most amazing fundraising effort,
which in that month raised about £1.3
million. Sir Jack Hayward put half a
million towards that, and it enabled
us to carry on. But as we approached
the first test flight, Marshalls ended up
being incredibly generous in terms of
accepting that we weren’t going to pay
them because we hadn’t got the money.
Hats off to them — we couldn’t have
carried on. It was £1.3 million that they
basically wrote off. But we did it!”
They did. 18 October 2007 was a
day no-one involved with the Vulcan
will ever forget. “I had to sit back and
watch as everybody did what they
needed to do”, says Robert. “It was
down to the engineers, it was down to
the aircrew. Everything seemed to go
so smoothly. There was a high degree
of expectation, and an incredible
atmosphere. We had about 200 or 300
people there on the airfield, but around
the airfield several thousand people
eventually turned out. I was hoping
that there would be no problems and
expecting that it would all go smoothly.
ABOVE: She flies! The Vulcan gets air under its wheels again at Bruntingthorpe on 18 October 2007. VTST
52 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
We’d covered everything and I was very
happy that it would be OK, but at the
back of your mind is always, ‘What
happens if…?’ In the end, it was an
absolute success.”
It was. Pilots Al McDicken and
David Thomas, accompanied by Barry
Masefield as air electronics officer,
conducted a trouble-free test flight that
sunny afternoon — the Vulcan’s first
since March 1993. Understandably,
Robert wouldn’t let himself celebrate
too soon. “One of the guys who was
there was a very good friend of mine,
Angus Laird, who used to fly Vulcans in
the RAF. He’d told me I’d never do it.
After it took off, he offered me a glass of
champagne. I told him, ‘Angus, no —
wait ’til she’s back on the ground…’”
❖ gave some problems, but the most
After half an hour, she was. “There
was laughter, there was clapping, there
were some tears — there was relief.
We’d done it. It really was a huge team
effort; I was only lucky enough to be
the leader”. The likes of engineering
director Andrew Edmondson and
business development director Michael
Trotter, both long-time VTST
mainstays, were crucial to success, but
there were many more.
With XH558 flying, Robert now
hoped that a commercial sponsor
might be found. “But in 2008 we went
into the global banking crisis and the
recession. We ended up sitting just in
the wrong place”. Airbus came forward
with support; so did aerospace software
firm Aerobytes thanks to the enthusiasm
of its boss Eddie Forrester, and there
were other backers from industry such
as fuel companies supplying lubricants,
but there would be no main sponsor.
“When we got to board level with
sponsorship discussions, they cited three
things: that it was a nuclear bomber,
that airshows are unsafe, and that the
environmental impacts were horrible
— it was noisy, pumping out vast
quantities of CO2. We never seemed
able to get past those things.”
Between the maiden flight and the
debut display, a test-flying programme
needed completing. “We also had to
sort out the substantial debt that we’d
run up with Marshalls, and to generate
funds to keep going. We had some
substantial donations from supporters.”
Back in the air in the spring of 2008,
a priority was to check out XH558’s
new avionics fit, the only substantial
change compared with the aircraft’s
configuration in its RAF days. This
worrying moment was when the aircraft
had to position into Cottesmore for a
compass swing. “That’s when we got
the mayday, because they had a fire
indication from the AAPP [auxiliary
airborne power plant]. I was driving up
to Cottesmore when I got the ’phone
call telling me. You have no idea what
that feels like! There have been two
horrible occasions I never want to go
through again. There was that one, and
the other was the nosewheel hang-up
at Prestwick [in September 2015]. You
go through the worst-case scenarios in
Continued on page 57
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Avro Vulcan B2 XH558/G-VLCN
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Continued from page 52
your head, but luckily they both ended
up satisfactorily.”
Things weren’t ready for the aircraft
to join the display circuit at the start of
the 2008 season, but the CAA issued
the Vulcan’s permit to fly just in time
for the RAF Waddington International
Air Show in early July. Where better
to debut than at a former Vulcan base?
Before an enthralled sell-out audience,
XH558 was the showstopper to end
them all, flying both solo and in an
Avro formation with the Battle of
Britain Memorial Flight’s Lancaster.
Robert had just been through major
surgery to resolve a problem with
his neck, but he wasn’t about to miss
it. “I can still hear it in my head.
The only thing you could hear was
the four Merlins. The crowd was so
good, because it was obviously a very
significant moment for them as well.”
Even such proof of the Vulcan’s
popularity failed to ease VTST’s
financial situation. Only with the
support from Aerobytes augmenting
public donations did XH558 make
it to the summer’s big events. Bad
weather, an undercarriage problem and
an enforced engine change cancelled
several of 2008’s appearances, and
at the end of the season there was a
minor crisis when, after taking part in
a flypast over Farnborough to mark
the centenary of Samuel Cody’s first
powered flight in the UK, a brake
system issue grounded the aircraft at
the Farnborough airfield. All of these
things ate further into the trust’s funds,
and the need to appeal to the public’s
generosity would never go away.
❖ for tax reasons, we’d like to donate to
“We’ve been to the brink several
times. Every year we had to put her
through a more-or-less significant
winter service. We devised a pledge
mechanic, whereby we knew how much
it was going to cost and said what the
target was. We’d only start the work
when we’d got to the target; we didn’t
call in the pledges until we’d reached
it. That was really successful, year on
year. It ranged from £400,000 to about
£800,000. Over time we also had to
modify the aircraft to install fatigue life
extension mods, one of which, in about
2010, had never been done before and
was designed especially for us.
“We had some hugely lucky breaks.
At one of those moments when we
were thinking, ‘Crikey, we’re not going
to make it’, I got an e-mail one Friday
evening from somebody asking me to
give them a call because they wanted
to donate some money. It was the
most extraordinary conversation: ‘My
mother’s left a portfolio of shares that,
the Vulcan to the Sky Trust’… I said,
‘Oh, that’s very kind of you. Thanks
very much for letting me know.
What do we need to do?’ He said it
was rather a lot of money, and that
we’d need to involve solicitors. How
much? £435,000. You think there’s
someone up there looking after us. This
happened more than once…”

ABOVE: XH558
arrives at
Waddington for
its first show
appearance in
VTST’s hands,
affording a chance
to capture it with
the airfield’s
resident Vulcan,
Falklands veteran
XM607.
DENIS J. CALVERT

ABOVE LEFT: One

of the Vulcan’s
many formations
with the Red
Arrows, this one
mounted during
the aircraft’s last
Royal International
Air Tattoo
appearance in
2015. BEN DUNNELL

LEFT: What a way

to make a debut.
The remarkable
Avro formation at
Waddington’s 2008
show, Vulcan led
by Lancaster.
KEITH BLINCOW/
AIRTEAMIMAGES.COM

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 57

 meets DR RO BE RT P LEM I NG
Once XH558 was flying, it needed
to move base as Bruntingthorpe
was not especially practical as an
operating location. “We went down
to RAF Lyneham, who were very
accommodating and had a hangar. We
managed to get some limited public
access at weekends for tours and the
like, but it wasn’t anything like what we
wanted to do. We used Brize Norton
as an operating base for a time as
well. The RAF were absolutely super.
They did as much as they could do
without spending money. But it was
clear to me that we needed to be on a
commercial airfield, so we could deliver
on our public access — interpretation,
education — objectives. We started
talking to Robin Hood Airport [now
Doncaster Sheffield Airport] in 2007,
and it’s been brilliant there for the last
five years.”
As time went on, the Vulcan’s
popularity never seemed to wane. There
were many memorable appearances,
many unique formations — too
numerous to mention here. But Robert
also remembers the moments that
didn’t go so well. “In 2012, for the
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we were
invited to open the Thames Pageant.
A few days before we managed to
blow two engines”. This happened
on take-off from Doncaster, caused
by the ingestion of silica gel desiccant
bags that had been left in one of the
intakes. “It was a classic example of
the Swiss cheese effect: a combination
of distraction, a checklist not being
updated to reflect a procedure that
Rolls-Royce had asked us to do, time
pressure. My relief was palpable when it
turned out that the engines were two of
our oldest.
“That was another subject of
consternation, in that Rolls-Royce did
apply some constraints on the use of
the engines. We had to measure usage
with a device that measured the N1
[low-pressure compressor stage] rpm,
and there was an algorithm to change
that into cycle usage, a measure of
how the life of the engine was being
consumed. The net effect of that was,
basically, to take their lives down
from 1,200 hours TBO [time before
overhaul] to about 200 hours per
‘Companies are more risk-averse now.
If we tried to do what we did with the
Vulcan, we would not get off the ground’
engine. We reckoned that, with the
engine life management process that
we had in place in 2014-15, we had
enough available to go on for 2016-17
and do the 10 years. But, sadly, that
wasn’t going to happen.
“Our commitment to the HLF
was 250 flying hours, notionally 25
hours a year for 10 years. We ended
up flying considerably in excess of
58 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
that, about 345 or so. We always knew
that ’558 was the fleet leader in terms
of structural fatigue life, and that it
was inching up towards the ultimate
limit. Again, we could have flown on
for about two more years. But at that
point there was absolutely no question:
full stop. There was no engineering
data which would allow us to carry on
beyond that.”
Unfortunately, the aircraft’s three
technical authorities — Marshalls,
Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems —
brought things to a close. They took
the collective decision to cease their
support at the end of 2015, even
though the aircraft could have carried
on. According to Robert, “They cited
‘lack of technical competence’, which
even now I find difficult to believe.
We fought it for four months or so,
trying everything we could. We lined
Cranfield Aerospace up to be the
engineering authority, but then the
manufacturers came back saying that
they wouldn’t release the technical data
to Cranfield. If they don’t have the
technical data they can’t do the job.
❖ along the way: that the running of
“I think the real reason, in my view,
is that these companies are a lot more
risk-averse now than they ever were
before. I have to say, if we tried to do
now what we did with the Vulcan, we
would not get off the ground. When
we started off there was a degree of
enthusiasm about flying heritage
aircraft that doesn’t seem to exist in
the manufacturers now, especially
post-Shoreham. They probably thought
to themselves, ‘What’s the upside to
this? Where’s the shareholder value?’
It’s probably the decision I would have
taken had I been so risk-averse. But life
isn’t fun without taking managed risks.”
The end came in October 2015.
Quite apart from a full season of
displays around the UK, including
that electrifying performance on the
Saturday of the Royal International Air
Tattoo in the hands of Kev Rumens,
there were several national tours.
The aim was to take the aircraft to as
many people, not least its supporters,
as possible. During June, XH558
overflew the locations of all the other
‘V-bombers’ in the UK — including
the RAF Museum London, something
about which Robert was particularly
pleased. Then in October were mounted
two final celebratory tours, one in the
north, the other in the south.
Just before that, reports emerged
of photos showing the aircraft being
barrel-rolled at height during a transit,
aerobatics being prohibited under the
terms of its permit to fly. The CAA
investigated, but came to the decision
that it would take no action. Nor was
the aircraft in any way harmed.
All was clear, then, for XH558
to embark on its last public hurrah.
Over two days it covered much of the
mainland UK, large crowds turning out
to see it. As Robert explains, there were
concerns on the part of the Doncaster
Sheffield Airport management about
the numbers of people turning up to
watch from the airfield’s boundaries,
to the extent that the tour could easily
have been called off. “It required some
negotiation”, he says.
For that reason, the date and time
of the aircraft’s very last flight were
only confirmed at short notice. It
happened on 28 October. The timing
wasn’t right for Robert, who couldn’t be
there. “I was about to have a new aortic
heart valve”, he remembers. With Bill
Ramsey and chief pilot Martin Withers
at the controls, the sortie was a short
affair, but very significant. Never again
will a Vulcan fly.
Of course there has been criticism
VTST itself was too expensive, that
the Vulcan took up money that could
have gone to other airshow bookings or
other aviation heritage causes. Robert
responds, “The team that did all this
was actually really small, bearing in
mind what is needed to keep an aircraft
of this size and complexity going. You
couldn’t do it on a voluntary basis. For
example, our fundraising had to reach
levels of professionalism that we could
only get to with help. I know I’ve been
criticised for being paid, but my salary
is similar to that of other charity chief
executives.
“For air displays, for what we were
charging you could probably get five or
six Spitfire displays. However, the draw
of having the Vulcan on a programme
was huge, so that sort of balanced
it out. The spectators wanted us. As
for taking money away from other
activities, I think we might be guilty of
that, but thousands of supporters just
wanted to see the Vulcan fly, so may
not have donated to other aircraft. We
always knew we were not going to go
on forever. In my head it made sense to
do as much as we could do in the time
that we had, and I hope people agree
with that.”
Now XH558 is firmly ensconced
at Doncaster Sheffield. Is this the best
place for it, some have wondered?
After all, while public hangar access
and taxi runs are possible, Doncaster
isn’t exactly on the tourist trail.
Robert responds, “As an operational
commercial airport, it is a destination,
and it’s got a huge catchment area. The
heritage connection is obvious”. VTST
considered both Elvington, given the
regular fast taxi runs staged there, and
Cranfield because of the potential
link to the university, but Doncaster
remained the location of choice.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 “We took the decision on the basis
that, given all of the factors, it was
the right place to be — especially our
desire to develop what we call the Etna
Project. Doncaster Sheffield Airport
has a 30-year plan to develop an Aero
Centre, with a whole lot of different
activities around the airport. They’ve
bought up huge amounts of land. We’ve
been talking to them for some time
about our desire to build a new type
of visitor and inspirational activity, to
inspire youngsters into engineering and
aviation. It’s based around the concept
of the Eden Project in Cornwall. That
gets people up-front and close to the
biosphere; we want to do the same with
aviation and engineering. The reason
it’s called Etna is because Etna was the
location of the workshop of the god
Vulcan.
“The airport has allocated 30,000
square metres of space where we could
build this facility. At £18-20 million,
it’s a big investment. What we want
to do is migrate what we’re doing now
into Etna, but it will take a number
of years. We probably couldn’t do this
elsewhere. There’s the Enterprise Zone
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
status, there’s the catchment area,
there’s the very real need within the
South Yorkshire region for fourth-
quartile educational attainment and
inspiration. The whole thing came
together, and it’s the right place.”
Part of these future plans is Canberra
B2/6 WK163, acquired by VTST for
restoration to airworthiness in June
2016. The former Scorpion-powered
world altitude record-breaker has not
so far elicited the hoped-for funding
support, so it may not be ready
as planned for the RAF centenary
celebrations in 2018. The Canberra
Restoration Project will now be ‘spun
off’ as a separate entity, and there is the
possibility of a bid to the HLF. Being
required to move to a smaller hangar
is bringing its own pressures, not least
— in the short term — when it comes
to public access. But with the Vulcan,
Canberra and the recent loan of static
Swift F4 WK275, this is an important
collection of British Cold War jets.
Robert is not someone afraid
of taking on new challenges and
commitments. He is chairman of
the British Aviation Preservation
Council, an august organisation with
some major issues to tackle — the
need to involve new generations in
aircraft conservation, aeroplanes sitting
outdoors in all weathers, museums
coming to the end of their leases and
many more. He has had the idea of
establishing an All-Party Parliamentary
Group on aviation heritage, soon to be
formed, and he is a trustee of Young
Engineers, helping encourage children
of school age into careers in engineering
and aerospace. As he says, “I’m a
problem-solver, and that’s what we need
to teach the young to do.”
Looking back on the XH558 story,
Robert stresses the team element. “I’m
so proud that we did it. The only way
you can achieve something like this
is as a team. We’ve done something
that an awful lot of people said was
impossible”. But even after all the ups
and downs of the past 20 years, one
emotion overrides all the others.
“It’s been so much fun”, he says.
“It’s been a blast.”
For more information and to donate,
visit www.vulcantothesky.org
LEFT: A dramatic
air-to-air from
XH558’s final
weeks of flight.
GAVIN CONROY
BELOW LEFT:
Bill Ramsey and
Martin Withers
get airborne with
a plume of spray
for the Vulcan’s
last ever flight.
STEVEN COMBER
BELOW: The
Vulcan and
Canberra B2/6
hangared at
Doncaster
Sheffield. VTST
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 59
MOSS MA1 A ND MA 2

Like a
The history of inter-war British aviation
is littered with light aeroplanes that
showed potential, but never achieved
commercial success. The Moss MA1 and

rolling
MA2 were two of the many
WORDS: BEN DUNNELL

F
stone
ive brothers, all of them
pilots. Aviation certainly
ran in the Moss family
from Chorley, Lancashire.
Even so, it was a brave and rather
unusual decision by Brian, Geoffrey,
Richard, Ronald and William to set up
their own firm, its stated aim to design,
manufacture and repair “aircraft of all
kinds”. And they did build their own
aircraft, even if series production proved
out of reach. Pretty good they were, too.
The previous Moss family business
was in a somewhat different field. At
a Chorley works, H. S. Moss and Co
manufactured and supplied paints and
varnishes. Without huge fanfare, Moss
Brothers Aircraft Ltd was established as
a private company on 1 January 1936.
On this The Aeroplane later reported,
“The firm is no relation to the sartorial
Friend of all the World in general
and of our brethren from overseas in
particular [a reference to Moss Bros,
the gentlemen’s outfitters] but we may
justly hope that it may become as
popular and as prosperous.”
It adopted a sensible approach. There
were no grand promises, no claims that
could go unfulfilled. The press knew
that Moss Brothers was designing a
new light aeroplane, “from which”,
Flight stated, “an exceptional range of
performance was expected”. But that
was about all.
By the time the press published
preliminary details of the Moss MA1
in May 1937, it had already flown.
Registered that January, G-AEST was
a tandem two-seat, low-wing cabin
monoplane, fairly conventional-looking
but attractive. The chosen engine was a
Pobjoy Niagara III seven-cylinder air-
cooled radial of 95hp, enough to give
the MA1 a cruising speed estimated as
“rather better than 120mph”, though
Flight pointed out that full performance
figures were still unavailable. Moss, the
journal said, had aimed to produce an
aircraft “at a reasonable price which
would cruise at something well over
100mph, yet land very slowly and
provide as good a view for the pilot as
is possible in a tractor machine. Initial
trials have shown that the ideals have
been largely achieved.”
In an age when the biplane still held
sway, the MA1 looked well-placed.
There were few comparable offerings
from British manufacturers, the Miles
Whitney Straight — flown the previous
May — being one. A two-seater, albeit
of side-by-side configuration, it boasted
‘In an age when the biplane still held
sway, the Moss MA1 looked well-placed’
generally similar performance. When
launched, Miles sold the Whitney
Straight for £985. Moss foresaw the
MA1 costing just £750.
In coming up with their new
machine, the Moss brothers took
into account their own prior flying
experience. William was the oldest (at BELOW: Geoffrey
36) and most seasoned. As of 1937 he Moss with the
had been a pilot for nine years, and held MA1 in open
Argentinean and US licences alongside configuration
his British one. He also owned a at Hanworth in
September 1938.
Cirrus III-engined DH60 Moth. Three ALL PHOTOS AEROPLANE
of the brothers had commissions in
the Reserve of Air Force Officers,
and two possessed commercial and
instructors’ licences, one having held an
instructorship with the Flying Club of
Northern Rhodesia, and the other being
honorary instructor to the Lancashire
Aero Club. The youngest pair were
members of the Oxford University Air
Squadron. In a tortuous metaphor, The
Aeroplane wrote, “So although rolling
stones may gather no moss, apparently
Mosses may become rolling stones and
gather valuable knowledge.”
ð
 MOSS MA1 A ND MA 2

TOP: The original That piece went on, “One may G-AEKL, the Moss machine remained The journal’s correspondent was
cabin MA1 was — reasonably expect the Moss Bros to have ground-bound. Its certificate of clearly much taken with the MA1’s
like the Mosscraft some ideas about flying and they have. airworthiness had been issued by the performance in operating from the
that followed They have set out to produce their ideal Air Registration Board (ARB) a few Chorley site: “The field is very small
— an aircraft of
conventional two-seat light aeroplane…” It stressed days earlier, but The Aeroplane reported and rough, has a steep slope in two
construction, all- the desire for maximum visibility from that G-AEST “arrived just too late to directions, and is partially surrounded
wood with plywood the front cockpit, from which the compete.” by trees”, he wrote. However, “the
covering except for MA1 was to be flown. “[The] pilot sits more serious test work” was done at
the fabric-covered
ailerons, elevator
in front of the wing. He can thus see
almost vertically downwards. The long ❖ Blackpool’s Squires Gate airport. The
piece noted that, “With a momentarily
and rudder. windows behind the pilot should give a Returning home to the airstrip next dying interest in such types it is pleasant
view backwards to either side”. Behind to the Moss plant in Chorley, the MA1 to see progress with one more attempt
ABOVE: The ‘sports the passenger was “plenty of space for — now being dubbed the Mosscraft — to produce a practical and inexpensive
model’ MA1
originally had baggage and a locker for golf clubs.” was subject to various detail changes. ideal — though the brothers may
hinged decking The MA1’s public debut was A modified cowling, increased elevator eventually decide that the market does
covering its twin scheduled for a very high-profile stage: movement and a fully trimmed, not warrant the effort and expense of
cockpits, which the 1937 King’s Cup Air Race, held soundproofed cockpit with enhanced production… Certainly it appears to be
could be opened at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, on 10-11 instruments were among them. In a little too useful (the cruising speed is
to ease ingress and September. Its nominated pilot was October 1937, Flight said admiringly 120mph and the landing speed about
egress. William Moss, for what Flight in its how it had “given perfect satisfaction 40mph) to become merely the product
pre-race preview called “his first serious from the moment of its first flight”. The of a private owner’s hobby…”
ABOVE RIGHT: A essay at racing in this country”. But as elevator modification, it continued, “is This and other contemporary reports
good view of how Charles Gardner streaked to victory being provided as a luxury rather than confirmed that an open-cockpit, dual-
far forward the
front seat of the in red-and-gold Percival Mew Gull because it is quite necessary.” control variant was scheduled to appear
Mosscraft was. the following year. Flight likened it to
The racing number the Miles Mohawk. In a March 1938
31 was applied
to the cabin MA1
Mosscraft specifications edition, it said, “The original version
of the machine was arranged with full
for its abortive MA1 (cabin) MA1 (open, pre-war) MA2 (open) cockpit enclosure, but later versions may
participation in the be of the more conventional separate-
Engine Pobjoy Niagara III, Pobjoy Niagara III, Blackburn Cirrus
1937 King’s Cup. 95hp 95hp Minor, 90hp cockpit design, according to the wishes
Length 23ft 3in 23ft 3in 23ft 3in of the purchaser.”
Span 34ft 34ft 34ft The open Mosscraft broke cover in
All-up weight 1,400lb 1,400lb 1,400lb September 1938. Its unveiling followed
Max speed 130mph 135mph 120mph
Cruising speed 120mph 122mph 105mph demonstration flights for the press
Stalling speed 37mph 37mph 37mph at Hanworth’s London Air Park, the
Price £750 £695 £690 aircraft having again just missed the
King’s Cup. Flight called it a “two-

62 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

seater sports model”, its dual controls
rendering it suitable for Civil Air
Guard use. Although it had the same
dimensions in span and overall length
as its cabin predecessor — and again
used the Niagara engine — this was,
to all intents and purposes, a different
machine.
Why, one might ask, did the much-
modified open MA1 carry the same
registration as the enclosed type? The
relevant ARB papers in the National
Archives fail to help here. One file is
missing and the other offers no clues.
The Moss Brothers Aircraft archives
are presumably long-gone. Even
bearing in mind the more laissez-faire
attitudes to paperwork that prevailed
at the time, this is a strange case. If it
was the cabin MA1 rebuilt with a new
fuselage, something not clear from
period magazine accounts or G-AEST’s
registration documents, one might still
have expected it to be re-registered.
As for the “sports model” itself,
“Flying round the congested
neighbourhood of Hanworth and
Heston”, The Aeroplane said after a trip
with Geoffrey Moss, “the uninterrupted
view all round gave one a feeling of
security, which is definitely lacking
in the older types of biplane trainer.
The visibility from the Mosscraft is
particularly good when gliding in
to land with flaps down and motor
off. The nose is a long way below the
horizon, the approach steep and the
control excellent.”
A more extensive assessment was
undertaken by Flight’s H. A. Taylor. Its
flying characteristics, he opined, were
“markedly pleasant from all points of
view, and show that real stability and
safety can be combined with adequate
manoeuvrability”. There was “little
change of trim when the machine is
flown solo or two-up”, and “absolute
stability in all axes”. Stalls proved
benign, and Taylor again praised the
take-off and landing performance,
especially given the “microscopic
and far-from-level field” in Chorley
from which the Mosscraft habitually
operated.
The split, mechanically actuated
trailing-edge flaps were substantial
in size for an aircraft in the MA1’s
class. For the era, they were also quite
uncommon. “With the flaps in the
fully down position”, Taylor wrote,
‘The uninterrupted view all round gave
one a feeling of security, which is lacking
in the older types of biplane trainer’
“the approach is extraordinarily
steep”. Considering a future trainer
version, reported as being “in course
of construction”, he considered that
“it might be advisable for instructors
to discourage their full use until the
more advanced solo stages”. There was
the odd criticism, including “a chilling
draught which arrives from behind” in
the rear cockpit and a lack of feel from
the rudder pedals, but otherwise the
open Mosscraft met with approval.
❖ had evaporated. In Flight’s words,
With the growing threat of war,
this was not the best time for a small
manufacturer to develop a new private
aircraft, or ab initio trainer, and expect
much in the way of sales success.
Civilian flying would clearly be much
curtailed by hostilities, and large-scale
orders to meet military requirements
placed for established designs from
bigger companies. Nonetheless, Moss
Brothers pressed ahead with the third
member of their aircraft family.
The MA2 was registered as G-AFMS
on 2 January 1939, and made its
maiden flight on 14 May that year. This
was the open-cockpit trainer version,
powered by a four-cylinder, 90hp
Blackburn Cirrus Minor in-line piston
engine. It was possible to abbreviate
official flight trials because of the
aircraft’s similarity to its predecessor.
Compared to the Pobjoy-powered
MA1, the MA2 had a slightly slower
maximum speed and probably a little
less take-off performance, but it was a
more practical trainer. “An interesting
little point”, Flight wrote, “is that, in
order to offer easy entrance with close
fitting, and consequently comfortable,
cockpit openings, the entire decking
over the two separate seats hinges over
sideways with the screens.”
The MA1 was also subject to
alteration that year. The aircraft’s ARB
paperwork lists, “Modifications to
engine cowling, instrument board,
engine installation, dual control, tail
skid repairs, engine mounting, fin
attachment and top decking.”
As of November 1939, any hopes
of major Mosscraft manufacture
“Production of the type is at present
being confined to a batch laid down
before the war”. Registrations were
reserved for second examples of both
the MA1 and MA2, G-AFHA and
G-AFJV respectively, but neither
was completed. Still in open-cockpit
configuration, G-AEST was stored for
the duration. What had happened to its
original cabin fuselage since the ‘change’
into the open sports model is unknown.
Might a clue be provided by
what happened to G-AFMS? On BELOW: The
9 December 1940, this MA2 was MA1 was always
removed from the British register. It had intended to be
flown from the
been given an enclosed cabin fuselage, front cockpit,
ready to be flown in Canada. It remains whether in closed
unconfirmed to what extent use was or open form.
made of G-AEST’s former fuselage,
if any. There are visual similarities,
ð
 MOSS MA1 A ND MA 2
but noticeable differences, such as the
extent of the cockpit glazing.
The 8 January 1942 edition of
Flight told readers, “A Mosscraft has
been demonstrated at Toronto by
Ronald Moss”. It went on to say that
two of the other Moss brothers “are
testing Lockheed aircraft in England”.
Re-registered CF-BUB, the MA2
made a successful flight over the
Rocky Mountains from Vancouver to
Toronto — quite a feat for such a small
aeroplane — and continued on to
New York.
‘Flight called William Moss “one of the
too-few men with the knowledge and
ability to manufacture light aircraft”’
Both Mosscraft were revived post-
war. Following its North American
sojourn, G-AFMS came back to Britain
in 1947 and was restored to the UK
register on 17 August 1948, its listed
owner William Moss. Overhauled at
the Chorley works, G-AEST became
a single-seater with its rear cockpit
covered over, a modification denoted
in its new certificate of airworthiness.
The MA1 kept the Niagara engine,
while the MA2 retained its Cirrus
Minor.
Both aircraft were entered into
the 1949 King’s Cup, part of the
National Air Races meeting at Elmdon,
Birmingham, on 30 July-1 August.
Again there was a last-minute panic
when, according to Flight, the MA2’s
C of A document was “mislaid”. Poor
weather in the north prevented the
MA1 from flying up to collect it, “so
arrangements were made to send it
down by road”. This time, however,
both Mosscraft would have a chance
BELOW: With a to make up for their pre-war racing
Welsh dragon disappointments.
emblem on its tail, The King’s Cup format involved
the MA2 takes off three heats and a final. Ronald Moss
from its Fairwood
Common base in flew the MA2 to seventh place in heat
1954. two, at an average speed of 120mph.
The third heat saw a notable result for
William and the MA1, a 126.5mph
64 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
average — third-slowest in the
13-aircraft race — being no barrier to
a fifth-place finish, and qualification
for the final. G-AEST finished it only
10th, the winner being ‘Nat’ Somers in
a Miles Gemini.
Undaunted, the Mosscraft were back
for 1950. William was to fly the MA1
and future Hawker chief production
test pilot Frank Bullen the MA2, the
latter described as an ‘MA4’ in Flight’s
King’s Cup entry list and report. This
may have had something to do with
a modification made earlier that year,
whereby the rear seat was removed and
a 10.5-gallon overload fuel tank fitted
in its place. However, all paperwork still
refers to the MA2.
On Saturday 17 June, both
aeroplanes took the start at
Wolverhampton Airport. Moss was the
oldest competitor in the race. During
the second lap, tragedy befell him. The
MA1, according to Flight’s description,
“lost height during a low, tight turn
and broke up on striking the ground
near the Newport pylon, the pilot being
killed”. Moss was 49. Flight called
him “one of the too-few men with the
knowledge and ability to manufacture
light aircraft.”
❖ was declared a write-off.
Moss Brothers Aircraft carried on for
a while in the wake of this tragedy. The
company kept the MA2 until January
1953, when it was sold to Tom Hayhow
of Bagshot, Surrey. The boss of a marine
salvage company, he was a serial setter
of capital-to-capital flying records,
holding 28 in all. Hayhow thought of
using the newly acquired Mosscraft
for a London-Belgrade record attempt
in April 1953, but took his Auster
Aiglet, G-AMOS, instead. In this he
went missing in the Austrian Alps, the
aircraft being found on a mountain
south of Salzburg several weeks later.
That his body was located elsewhere
indicates that Hayhow survived the
crash but died of exposure.
A group of Swansea-based owners,
later formalised as the Fairwood Group
of the Popular Flying Association,
bought G-AFMS after Hayhow’s death.
They too were keen air racers. The
MA2 took part in such events as the
1954 Welsh Air Derby at its Fairwood
Common base, though it failed to
score a top-six position in the three-lap
contest around the Gower peninsula.
More successful was an outing in a spot
landing competition staged as part of
an Anglo-French air rally at Swansea
in 1956, co-owner John Eynon being
judged the winner.
Unfortunately, the MA2 also fell
victim to an accident, albeit a non-fatal
one. On the evening of 7 July 1958, the
machine was flying between Lympne,
Kent, and Fairwood Common when
it crashed near Brecon. Apparently,
the ARB file relates, G-AFMS was
off-course. “It would appear that the
pilot attempted to land, and opened
up to circle for another approach when
the engine cut, due it is assumed to
fuel starvation when the aircraft was
climbed at a steep angle. Following the
engine failure the aircraft went into a
spin to the left, the port wing tip being
the first part of the aircraft to hit the
ground. It then cartwheeled over, when
the engine became detached and the
wreckage finished up in a vertical tail-
up position”. Not surprisingly, the MA2
That was the last time a Mosscraft
flew. How sad that two aeroplanes
that showed such promise should end
up both being lost. But that was not
quite the end. For fully 50 years, since
February 1967, both MA1 G-AFHA
and MA2 G-AFJV have been registered
to Carl Butler of Coventry. It has not
proved possible to ascertain the status of
these airframes, in spite of reports that
the MA2, at least, was being worked on.
Looking into the Mosscraft story,
one cannot help but feel that
greater recognition is deserved.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 CA F COBRA S
COBRA
BITES
The Commemorative Air Force’s two Bell fighters, the P-39Q Airacobra
and P-63F Kingcobra, fly together again
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: LUIGINO CALIARO
A
mong the many
warbirds operated by the
Commemorative Air Force,
the distinctive mid-engine
Bell fighters occupy a special place.
Its P-39 Airacobra is one of just two
currently flyable, while only two other
P-63 Kingcobras remain airworthy
apart from the CAF’s example.
Seldom, sadly, has it proved possible
to fly them as a pair in recent years.
Separate incidents required the Cobras
to undergo quite lengthy periods out of
action, but now all that has changed.
During the recent Wings over Houston
airshow, the CAF was able to display
the two fighters together, and Aeroplane
arranged an exclusive photo sortie with
these rare birds.
P-39Q-5-BE 42-19597/N6968
is operated by the CAF’s Central
Texas Wing, based in San Marcos. It
returned to the skies during 2015 after
a rebuild that lasted almost five years.
The aircraft suffered a crash on 3 July
2010, when its pilot landed short of
the runway at Tyler-Pounds Regional
Airport, Texas, and the port wing
hit the approach lights. Damage was
significant, involving about three-
quarters of the wing leading edge,
the port main undercarriage door,
the centreline drop tank and both
wing flaps, amongst other things. The
Airacobra was nonetheless flown back
to San Marcos with the landing gear
locked down.
The repair process involved
great efforts on the part of the
CAF’s engineers and volunteers.
Numerous technical problems delayed
completion. Finally the P-39 made
its first post-rebuild flight on 15
March 2015.
66 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
The Centex Wing’s example was
the second P-39Q-5 built by the Bell
factory. It was officially delivered to
the Army Air Force on 25 May 1943
but was on loan to Bell at Buffalo,
New York, until that July. On 29
December 1943 the aircraft was flown
to Cincinnati, Ohio, before being
transferred to Laredo, Texas in January
1944. By June of the same year it had
gone to Harlingen, Texas to support
gunnery training.
No longer useful to the AAF,
42-19597 was making a cross-country
flight to the Reconstruction Finance
Corporation scrapyard to be disposed
of when the engine failed. The pilot
landed at a crop-dusting strip in
Hobbs, New Mexico, where the aircraft
was abandoned. It was later moved to
a schoolyard display at Capitan High
School in Lincoln, west of Roswell.
❖ restoration of a BT-13 Valiant. All
The Airacobra was bought by
Hobbs-based Joe Brown, who donated
the hulk to the Confederate Air Force
in 1962. At that time the aircraft
had only 392 recorded flying hours.
It was dismantled and trucked to
Harlingen where, in 1968, Don Hull
of Sugarland, Texas began to restore the
fighter to flying condition. It flew again
on 21 October 1974. John Stokes,
founder and first leader of the Centex
Wing, bought the P-39 and again
donated it to the CAF.
Several years on static display
ensued, but the Airacobra returned to
flight once more on 9 June 2001. For
some years it flew in a Soviet Air Force
scheme before being painted in the
livery of Miss Connie, a P-39 used by
the 350th Fighter Group that flew in
North Africa and Italy.
A minor landing incident occurred
at Gillespie County Airport in
Fredericksburg, Texas on 18 April
2005, when the Airacobra’s CAF pilot
had to divert due to bad weather. The
aircraft left the runway and rolled into
a fence, resulting in slight damage to
the propeller and the leading edge of
one wing. Repaired, it was given the
livery of the P-39N used by 2nd Lt
Bill Fiedler of the 347th Fighter Group
based at Guadalcanal, the only pilot to
gain ‘ace’ status on the Bell type with
five kills of Japanese aircraft — three
A6M Zero-sen fighters and two D3A
‘Val’ dive-bombers — between January
and June 1943.
Apart from the Airacobra, the
Centex Wing also supports B-25J
Mitchell Yellow Rose, a beautiful
Beech C-45, an AT-6 Texan and the
these aircraft, and several others that
are privately owned by CAF members,
can be seen at the wing’s hangars at San
Marcos, which are open on Mondays,
Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
The CAF’s P-63F Kingcobra
43-11719/N6763, meanwhile, is
maintained by the P-63F Sponsor
Group based in Pearland, Texas. It
is among the rarest warbirds flying
today, as one of only two P-63Fs ever
manufactured. This version was based
on the P-63E, but was powered by the
Allison V-1710-135 engine rated at
1,425hp. The most distinctive external
difference was the F-model’s higher
tail and enlarged carburettor air intake
scoop.
This Kingcobra was accepted by
the Army Air Force on 13 September
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
EXCLUSIVE AIR-TO-AIRS

The
Commemorative
Air Force’s P-39Q
Airacobra and
P-63F Kingcobra
in formation near
Houston, Texas.

ð
 C AF CO BR A S

1945, the only other P-63F having
been delivered to the AAF
AAA that April.
Neither saw much in the way of
service, particularly 43-11719. In
1946, with just in excess of 24 hours
on the clock, it was sold into civilian
hands. The machine was bought by
one H. L. Pemberton, who used it
to compete in the 1946 Thompson
Trophy race in Cleveland, Ohio —
won, incidentally, by future Boeing test
pilot ‘Tex’ Johnston aboard a P-39Q.
However, the P-63F was never heavily
modified for racing.
Several changes of hands followed,
43-11719 moving from Indiana to
Florida, and then Georgia. On one
occasion it was flown by that most
famous American flying display
showman, R. A. ‘Bob’ Hoover — he
demonstrated it at an event in Alton,
Illinois, on 30 May 1971. And still the
Kingcobra hadn’t seen its last race, as
it flew at Reno in 1976, owned at the
time by Jack Flaherty from Hollister,
California.
❖
It was the P-63F’s subsequent
owners, Bill and Don Whittington of
Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who decided
to donate it to the Confederate Air
Force. The aircraft joined the CAF

ABOVE: The
markings on the
P-39Q are those
of the N-model
flown by 347th
FG Airacobra ace
2nd Lt Bill Fiedler.
He lost his life
on 30 June 1943 ‘No longer useful to the Army Air
when his aircraft
idling at the end of
the Guadalcanal
ft,
t
Force, the P-39 was being flown to a
runway, was hit
by a P-38 that had scrapyard to be disposed of when the
suff
ffered
f an engine
failure during its
take-off
fff run.
engine failed’

68 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

fleet in 1981. It soon became apparent
that some quite significant airframe
work was required, N6763 undergoing
major structural repairs to the
starboard wing spar and, later, the door
framework.
While the Kingcobra was airworthy
again by August 1983, a greater
degree of sponsorship was required
for its continued operation. This was
provided as the years went on by CAF
Colonels John Kohlhaus, Mike Collier,
Scott Rozzell and John Stofer. For
several years the aircraft was painted in
Soviet colours, but after some further
restoration work was completed it
re-appeared in the original silver livery

ABOVE: The
Kingcobra shows
off
fff the somewhat
unorthodox
method of crew
entry favoured by
the Bell designers.

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 69

 CA F COBRA S
ABOVE PICTURES: used when it was in service with the
The cockpits of the AAF.
two Cobras — P-63 On 15 October 2013, the P-63
on the left, P-39 suffered a mishap. The pilot was forced
at right — reveal
the addition of to make a gear-up emergency landing
some modern at Sky West Airport in southern
navigational aids Midland County, Texas, due to an
for practicality’s inoperative fuel selector. After the
sake alongside the crash the airframe sat dismantled
traditional round in its hangar for almost 18 months,
instruments. its fate uncertain. Luckily, within a
few months, a new P-63F Sponsor
Group was formed. Funds were
raised, and restoration work began in
the spring of 2015. The main efforts
were concentrated on the engine,
propeller and reduction gearbox. As
‘The Airacobra is agile and quick.
The Kingcobra is fast, but has heavy
controls in roll, especially at high speed’
forced landings go, the aircraft had not
suffered too much structural damage.
Just over a year later, it was airborne
again. On 14 April 2016, it took off
from its new home base at Pearland
Regional Airport near Houston. Mark
Allen, one of the P-63F Sponsor
70 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
Group pilots and leader of the CAF
‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’ display, was at the
controls. He reported: “The first flight
was performed after two high-speed
runs down the runway. The flight was
20 minutes long, circling over Pearland
airport at 2,000ft. This time was spent
checking the systems, specifically
the fuel system and the landing gear,
including a gear-down flyby. Engine
pressures and temperatures were
monitored very closely. Some minor
squawks were found and fixed before
the next flight the following day.”
After the recent photo sortie, the
author had the opportunity to talk
with the Sponsor Group’s other pilot,
Craig Hutain, who has the good
fortune to currently fly both of the
Bell fighters. Craig has in excess of
31,000 flying hours as a commercial
airline and warbird pilot. He flies the
P-51 Mustang, T-6 and BT-13, and
has spent six years as a regular airshow
performer in the ‘Tora! Tora! Tora!’
group. He is the right person to ask
about the differences between the
Airacobra and Kingcobra.
“I first flew the P-39 in March
2015”, says Craig, “after its last repair.
I now have more than 30 hours in it.
I flew the P-63 for the first time in
May 2016 and I have more than 20
hours in that type. I find the Airacobra
to be agile and quick. It has good
slow-speed manoeuvrability due to
the shape of the wing airfoil. The
P-63 is fast, but has heavy controls in
roll — especially at high speed — and
nice elevators. Handling it requires
a little more attention because of
the laminar-flow airfoil. Low-speed
manoeuvring can be a bit tricky. The
Kingcobra also accelerates very quickly
going downhill. We are investigating
the addition of aileron servo tabs as a
means of making it more comfortable
in roll.
“I find that both airplanes are
marginally quieter than the Mustang.
Having the engine and the stacks BELOW: The P-63F
behind the pilot makes them a bit is now immaculate
less noisy. Neither airplane has a again after repairs
particularly good air vent system, but following its 2013
with the exhaust heat behind the pilot wheels-up landing.
they are both comfortable temperature-
wise as well.
“The lack of nosewheel steering on
both makes for somewhat challenging
taxiing. The brakes on the P-39 are
pretty old-school, so it is a bit more
difficult. Also, the P-39 tends to get
hot on the ground very quickly. The
ð
 C AF CO BR A S

RIGHT: A good view

of the P-39’s small
frontal area, which
certainly improves
its outright
performance.

BELOW: Both
of the CAF’s Bell
fighters were star
performers at the
Wings over Houston
airshow this past
autumn.

P-63 has a wider main gear, and thus is
a bit easier to handle on the ground.
“In my opinion, both are awesome
airplanes. For example, while doing
‘I think the P-39 and P-63 are awesome
found out, much to my surprise, that
the P-39 is a rocket compared to the
P-40. Apparently, the lack of frontal
area really makes a huge difference.
“I think both are highly
misrepresented among the fighters
from the US inventory due to the
lack of a two-stage supercharger. If we
had the opportunity to get an honest,
open account of the Bell fighters’
performance in Russia and the Eastern

airplanes, and highly misrepresented’ Front, I believe that they would

have a much better reputation.”

an airshow earlier this year, I had
the opportunity to fly the P-39 in
formation with a P-40 and a P-51. I
was a bit worried that I would have
a hard time keeping up with them. I
Also, the sound of both the P-39 and
P-63 is amazing. The exhaust stacks are
just different enough from the P-40
that they really growl. Great-sounding
airplanes!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: The
author thanks Mark Allen, Craig
Hutain, the P-63F Sponsor Group
and warbirdnews.com for their
assistance.

72 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

 NE
Commemorating the men and machines of the RAF’s strategic force W

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 ROL L S-ROYC E E XP ER IMENTA L
POWER
HOUSE
In pursuit of continued engine development,
Rolls-Royce’s experimental department at Hucknall,
Nottinghamshire, operated a rich variety of types —
as were captured by The Aeroplane’s photographer in
1937. Their activities at that time offer a snapshot of
a crucial period in powerplant progress
WORDS: BEN DUNNELL
E
ighty years ago, Rolls-
Royce found itself in the
vanguard of aeronautical
change. The RAF was
about to set course on its great
transition from biplanes to monoplanes
— delivery of the first Battles and
Hurricanes was but months away, the
Spitfire’s flight test programme had
begun. And key to all, of course, was
the Rolls-Royce Merlin. First run as the
PV12 on 15 October 1933, at which
time it developed some 740hp, this
OPPOSITE: An private-venture 27-litre liquid-cooled
impressive array V12 unit needed some perfecting, but
of Rolls-Royce’s by 1937 was producing more than
Hucknall-based 1,000hp in Merlin II form.
aircraft during
1937. In the The engine’s subsequent success can
foreground is be put down to many organisations
Hawker Hart K3036 and individuals, but the efforts of the
with under-nose Rolls-Royce experimental department
radiator and were key. After initial use of a
three-bladed company-owned DH9A, serial J8110,
propeller; then operated by de Havilland at Stag
comes Hart K2969 Lane, Rolls-Royce decided to set up
with pressure an in-house flight test establishment.
cooling, Goshawk
III-engined Hawker Its first location was at Tollerton near
High-Speed Fury Nottingham, then home of National
K3586, Heinkel Flying Services’ flying school. A fleet
He 70G-1 G-ADZF, of trials aircraft began arriving there in
Miles Whitney September 1931, starting with Hawker
Straight G-AEUZ, Horsley J8001, followed by Fairey
Hawker Horsley IIIF J9173, Hawker Hart K2969 and
S1436 with Merlin Gloster Gnatsnapper II N227. Tests of
power and, in the
far distance, Fairey different cooling systems were a major
Battle I K7572. focus.
ALL PHOTOS AEROPLANE For various reasons, the facilities at
Tollerton were less than ideal for Rolls-
Royce’s work. It sought somewhere
74 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
further from potentially prying eyes.
During December 1934 a move was
made to Hucknall, north-west of
Nottingham, where two hangars were
available. The Gnatsnapper and Hart
were transferred, along with a small
number of personnel. Capt Ronald T.
Shepherd was chief test pilot, assisted
by Ronald W. Harker. Ray Dorey
soon took over as the site’s flight test
manager. In 1935 several more Hawker
biplanes joined the fleet: Harts K1102
and K3036, the latter powered for
a time by a PV12, and High-Speed
Fury K3586 with a Goshawk III.
Hawker Horsleys S1436 and J8611
both received Merlins to bolster that
powerplant’s development programme.
But while all these aircraft were
useful, as biplanes their relevance in
relation to the engines and equipment
under test was necessarily limited.
As the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust’s
Hucknall historian Dave Birch has
written, “Any increase in performance
gained from the installation of the
many new innovations, concerning
such things as radiators, oil coolers,
exhaust systems […] was immediately
cancelled out by the rise in drag from
such things as open cockpits, two
wings and their bracing wires, fixed
undercarriages…” The obvious answer
was a modern, fast monoplane, but
which? Suitable machines from British
manufacturers were in extremely short
supply, so Rolls-Royce looked abroad.
To the surprise of many, it went to
Germany and bought a Heinkel He 70.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 ð

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 75

 ROL L S-ROYC E E XP ER IMENTA L

ABOVE: For This very sleek aircraft, intended Heinkel installed a Rolls-Royce Kestrel The Heinkel and the various
the benefit of as a rapid mail-carrier for Deutsche V engine instead of the type’s regular Hawkers formed the backbone of the
The Aeroplane’s Lufthansa but adapted for various BMW VI, and its test pilot Otto Hucknall test fleet into 1937, the year
photographer, the other roles, would allow the company Cuno made the aircraft’s maiden flight when The Aeroplane’s photographer
Hucknall testers put
up this formation to make better assessments of the on 16 January 1936. Following a visited the Nottinghamshire aerodrome
of High-Speed Fury, effects of its technical developments on short test-flying programme from the to capture Rolls-Royce’s activities
He 70 and Battle. a current monoplane design. Rolls- manufacturer’s Rostock factory airfield, there. The resulting images, which
The Heinkel was Royce paid £13,000 for a He 70G-1 Cuno delivered it — re-registered accompany this feature, offer an
grounded when model, originally completed with as G-ADZF — via Amsterdam and indication of how varied the aircraft
war broke out, and the German registration D-UBOF. Croydon to Hucknall on 27 March. inventory was — and provide us with
never flew again,
being scrapped in
1945.

RIGHT: A group
of Hucknall test
pilots and engineers
standing in front
of Battle K7572.
Among them are
chief test pilot
Ronald Shepherd, in
the white overalls in
the front row; next
to him, on his left,
is fellow test pilot
Ronald Harker, and
behind stands the
third flying member
of the team,
Harvey Heyworth.
Alongside Harker
is the Hucknall
facility’s manager
Ray Dorey, and
third from right
chief powerplant
engineer C. L.
Cowdrey, who later
went to Napier.

76 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017


an opportunity to look at what those
aircraft, and Hucknall’s circa 50 staff,
were doing 80 years ago.
A good deal of it was to do with
cooling. “There is”, Flight wrote in
September 1937, “not the slightest
doubt that in our own Rolls-Royce
engines we have the most highly
developed liquid-cooled power plants
in the world”. From basic liquid-
cooling using water, which necessitated
a large radiator with resulting penalties
in terms of drag, designs moved on
considerably. Using high-temperature
coolants, especially ethylene glycol with
a boiling point of 197°C, permitted
radiators with much smaller surface
area. Some use was also made by Rolls-
Royce of so-called composite or semi-
evaporative cooling, a combination of
water and steam.
Research done by Messrs F. W.
Meredith and R. S. Capon of the Royal
Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough
offered a breakthrough. This was the
ducted radiator, which reduced the
speed of the airflow before it reached
the radiator itself. To quote Flight’s
examination, “as the cooling effect is
roughly proportional to the square
of the speed, it is necessary to obtain
low-speed cooling if excessive drag is
to be avoided”. This was done by way
of a cowl, or duct, and permitted the
radiator to be larger without an adverse
effect on drag. “The stream of air
passing comparatively slowly through
the radiator gives efficient cooling, but
it becomes necessary to speed it up so
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
that it joins the main air stream at a
speed not less than that of the aircraft,
so the air passage is contracted.”
And that wasn’t all. “The additional
heat energy from the radiator causes
the system to act as a kind of heat
engine and may be considered as giving
a jet propulsion effect. The propulsive
efficiency becomes greater as the speed
of the aircraft rises. Drag may be
reduced to zero at 300mph.”
❖ a Rolls-Royce radiator with glycol
Leading on from this, Rolls-Royce
began to experiment with a system
known as pressure cooling. Keeping a
pressure of 25-30lb per square inch in
the water system, Dave Birch wrote,
allowed the water temperature at
altitude to be brought up “to almost
glycol operating temperature without
boiling. As every schoolboy knows,
the boiling point of water decreases as
altitude increases due to the lessening
of atmospheric pressure. Therefore,
if a suitable pressure above that of
atmospheric can be maintained in the
cooling system, the boiling point can
‘Using ejector exhausts made for useful
improvements in top speed and the height
at which full throttle could be used’
be kept high”. And, in that way, the
radiator size could again be reduced.
Flight tests of Hawker Audax
K2000 with its Kestrel XV engine so
modified began on 3 February 1937.
Once the problem of achieving the
correct pressure within the cooling
system had been resolved successfully,
K2000 went to RAE Farnborough
for trials that May, hence its absence
from the accompanying photos. In
its place, Hart K2969 was given the
LEFT: Hart K3036
with its large
ventral radiator
and three-bladed
propeller. The
aircraft had earlier
been fitted with
a PV12 engine
for trials, but had
now reverted to a
Kestrel.
relevant modifications and carried the
programme on at Hucknall.
By now equipped with a Kestrel
XVI, the He 70 proved its worth
throughout 1937, both at the Rolls-
Royce facility and at Farnborough.
There were programmes of work to
calculate the drag created by different
radiator and exhaust systems, the
Heinkel’s fine qualities as a test
platform shining through. Evaluation
of radiator configurations revealed
coolant to offer the least draggy
arrangement, slightly better than the
same with water coolant; both were
a little way ahead of a retractable
ventral radiator using glycol. Regarding
exhausts, replacing the more traditional
manifold arrangement with an ejector
exhaust, sending the gases straight
back out behind the aircraft, made for
useful improvements in top speed and
the height at which full throttle could
be used.
Despite their advanced years, the
Horsleys (see also the Database in
last month’s issue) were perhaps most
notable for their involvement in testing
different Merlin variants. S1436
notched up several ‘firsts’ during 1937,
finishing off a 101-hour endurance
test of the Merlin III over just six
days in June, and on 7 September
making the maiden flight of the new
Merlin X. This was the first of the
line to be equipped with a two-speed
supercharger, the engine generating
some 1,130hp.
J8611 was detached to Farnborough,
where the RAE conducted a 200-
ð
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 77
 ROL L S-ROYC E E XP ER IMENTA L

ABOVE AND hour endurance test of a Merlin I.

ABOVE RIGHT: Afterwards, the engine was removed
Development and taken back to the Hucknall facility
Merlins mounted for a strip-down and full inspection.
on Hucknall’s Early problems with the coolant
external and temperature thermostats were rectified,
internal test rigs.
The former allowed while two separate horn-pipe joint
engines to be failings led to “the loss of considerable though, performance was judged been received. This was Battle I K7572,
tested in conditions quantities of coolant, though “satisfactory”. delivered to Hucknall on 23 August
simulating different immediate forced landings prevented When it came to propeller trials, 1937. It duly took on the brunt of
attitudes of flight. any damage to the engine”. As for signs the ageing Horsley S1436 again came constant-speed airscrew testing, and
of engine deterioration, the only real briefly to the forefront. It was given revealed a wide range of performance
problem was with cracks found in the a constant-speed propeller with the benefits. No wonder such propellers
cylinder heads, “which would limit Merlin X installation, but by now a started to see more widespread use on
the useful life of the engine”. Overall, newer and more suitable platform had production Merlin-engined aircraft.

78 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

Other early jobs for the Battle included The trusty He 70 was re-engined with team was. As Flight said, it was
fuel management trials. a Peregrine I, which went on to equip “continually evolving installation
Miles Aircraft’s new M9 Kestrel just one operational type, the Westland improvements and offering suggestions
monoplane advanced trainer arrived Whirlwind. That particular programme to manufacturers who wish to make
for a brief August stay. G-AEOC may not have been as successful as the most of the excellent qualities of
(at this time carrying temporary B hoped, but, no doubt about it, the the modern liquid-cooled powerplant”.
Conditions marking U5) was the sole Heinkel was 13 grand very well spent. Without the contribution of
example ever built, fitted with a Kestrel Its contribution in all sorts of areas was Hucknall, its growing band of staff and
XVI using glycol cooling. Very sleek in invaluable. “How ironic”, opined Dave its motley assemblage of aeroplanes,
appearance, the design of the cowling Birch, “that the very aircraft that had the course of the air war when
and radiator installation owed much to been chiefly instrumental in achieving hostilities did eventually break out BELOW: Merlin
the sort of practice furthered by Rolls- this knowledge was from the country could have been very different. II-engined Horsley
Royce’s work on the He 70. Outright that was to become the enemy!” And 1937 had been an important S1436 comes in to
land. This aircraft
performance proved outstanding. All that lay in the future when The year in ensuring that. flew for two-and-
While the M9 never entered series Aeroplane visited Hucknall 80 years a-half years at
production, it did lead on to the M9A ago. Even so, no-one ‘in the know’ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: With Hucknall, amassing
Master, built for the RAF in MkI form would have doubted how vital the many thanks to Dave Birch of the 884 flying hours in
with Kestrel power before the Bristol work of the Rolls-Royce experimental Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust. the process.
Mercury radial-engined MkII took
over. Here was yet another example
of the transition from biplane to
monoplane.
It was not the only Miles machine
on the airfield, for the experimental
department had Whitney Straight
G-AEUZ on strength as a
communications and liaison platform.
The pretty two-seat trainer and tourer
also proved useful for continuation
training purposes.
Into 1938, Rolls-Royce’s
experimental team took on new
projects and new aircraft. Two more
Battles, a Spitfire I and four Hurricane
Is were received to increase Hucknall’s
own monoplane fleet, while Armstrong
Whitworth Whitley IV K7208 arrived
for modification to Merlin II power
and several years of employment as
the resident multi-engined test ship.

ABOVE: Another
view of the Hucknall
line-up, this time
from the other
end. Rolls-Royce
carried on using the
Nottinghamshire
airfield for
experimental flight
test purposes until
1972.

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 79

Tours
Tours
Mike Hooks began his aviation photography career in
1945 with a simple box camera, moving on to an Ensign
folding camera in about 1948, and later to a Voigtlander
Vito B. He converted to colour in the 1950s, and went
on to build one of the UK’s most extensive archives of
Kodachrome transparencies
WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: MIKE HOOKS

2 3

4 5

80 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

 LOCKHEED CLASSICS
This month we look at some Lockheed types — the most recent illustration is 37 years old!

MAIN PICTURE: US Navy P2V-7 Neptune BuNo 135570 of patrol

squadron VP-21 was a visitor to West Malling on 6 August 1960. The
USN operated 148 Neptunes of this variant, the final production 6
model with two 3,500hp R-3350 turbo-compound engines plus two
3,400lb-thrust J34 turbojets.

2: Lockheed off
ffered
f the JetStar in diff
fferent
f models with two or
four engines, the latt
tter
t proving most popular. Seen at Gatwick,
EP-VRP was an L-1329 JetStar 8 supplied to the Shah of Persia as a
VIP transport. It remains extant — in good condition — at Mehrabad
Airport, Tehran, with Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force serial
5-9001, though it has not flown for some years.

3: L-188 Electra N405GN of Great Northern being loaded with

freight at Anchorage, Alaska, in April 1980. At least 57 Electras were
converted to freighters, Lockheed modify fying
y 40 with reinforced
flooring and cargo doors on the port side. This example was broken
up in June 1993.

4: TWA L-1649 Starliner N7306C at Paris-Orly on 17 June 1959.
Lockheed built 44 Starliners and TWA was the largest operator with
29. Some were converted to freighters with the introduction of
Boeing 707s on passenger routes. This one was scrapped in the
early 1970s.
6: Two Lockheeds for the price of one — 12A Electra Junior N228M
poses in front of Eastern Air Lines L-1011 TriStar N305EA during
Transpo ’72. The 12A was re-registered N10PB in August 1972 and
crashed the following year.

5: P-38L Lightning 44-53095, with its registration N9005 in tiny

characters on the lower fin, was at the Transpo ’72 event at Dulles
International Airport in Washington. Then owned by William
Ross of Illinois, it later passed to the Lone Star Flight Museum at
Galveston, Texas, and Tom Blair at Kissimmee, Florida. Today it flies
as Thoughts of Midnite with Comanche Fighters.

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 81

 1917: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
This 132-page special from the team behind Britain at War magazine, A SPECIAL
tells the story of the fourth year of the Great War.

Despite victories at the Somme and Verdun,

the fourth year of the Great War saw no
relaxation of Allied efforts.The war of
attrition that had seen the incremental
weakening of the German Army, and the
German nation, had to be maintained,
even accelerated, throughout 1917.

Features include:

The Zimmermann Telegram

With Germany increasingly being forced onto the defensive,
the German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmermann,
advocated a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare.

The US Enters the War

On 2 April, President Wilson delivered a speech to the joint
houses of Congress, in which he stated that the US had
some ‘very serious’ decisions to make. These decisions
related to the conduct of Imperial Germany, following its
announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare

The Third Battle of Ypres

The Germans were demoralised and exhausted after
suffering a catastrophic defeat at Messines, and the British
artillery continued to hammer at the German positions to
the south and east of Ypres.

The Battle of Cambrai

The Passchendaele offensive had ground on for months

JUST *
with no sign of a breakthrough. Casualties had amounted
to around 200,000 men and all that had been gained

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was a few hundred yards of ground. It was against this
background that Colonel J.F.C. Fuller, proposed ‘a tank
raid south of Cambrai’.

Rationing Begins
The actions of the German U-boats and the enormous
demands the war imposed upon Britain’s merchant
fleet, meant that food supplies in the UK came under
increasing pressure in 1917.
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1263 1917 Special fp.indd 83 08/12/2016 11:04

DATABASE SOPWITH TRIPLANE WORDS: PETE LONDON

| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights

ABOVE: No 1 (Naval) Squadron’s Triplanes at Bailleul in October 1917. Nearest is N5454, formerly Hilda
of No 8 (Naval) Squadron; behind are N5473 and white-finned N5472. AEROPLANE
15
IN-DEPTH
IN DEPTH
Page 84 THE FIRST TRIPLANE FIGHTER PAGES

Page 87 BUILDING ON SUCCESS

Page 90 THE ‘TRIPE’ ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Page 96 FROM THE COCKPIT
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 83
 Developpment
Sopwith’s 1916
B
y the summer of
1915, Allied aircrew
reports from war-torn
design pioneered France were noting a
new enemy fighting aircraft fitted
the triplane with a revolutionary weapon: a
fixed machine gun firing forward
through its propeller arc. With
fighter this armament the Fokker E.III
‘Eindecker’ enjoyed a notorious
period of success: the so-called
‘Fokker scourge’.
Similarly-equipped Allied types
gradually appeared, including
the Sopwith Aviation Company’s
Pup single-seater, which entered
service in the autumn of 1916.
By then another Sopwith design
was emerging, and in the race for
advantage the company had taken
a drastic step. Its new scout was a
triplane.
From the earliest attempts at
aviation, use of the multiplane
layout had been considered only
occasionally. As far back as 1843
Victorian pioneer Sir George Cayley
had pondered the triplane form,
having examined engineer William
Henson’s newly created Aerial Steam
Carriage design. Cayley feared
BELOW: The first Triplane, N500, at Chingford during the summer of 1916. Its single Vickers machine
gun has been fitted. AEROPLANE
for the structural integrity of the
Carriage’s high-aspect ratio wings:
“Would it not be more likely to
answer the purpose to compact it
into the form of a three decker,
each deck being 8 or 10 feet from
the other, to give free room for the
passage of the air between them?”
He turned theory to practice with
his triplane ‘boy-carrier’ glider built
in 1849, which “was floated off the
ground for several yards” down the
side of a hill.
In 1866 engineer Frederick
Wenham read his paper ‘On Aerial
Locomotion’ to the newly formed
Aeronautical Society of Great
Britain. Today Wenham’s paper is
seen as a classic, embodying some
of flight’s first principles. Among
his ideas was a glider with five
superposed wings, though there’s
no evidence he built it. Two years
later, Henson’s former partner
in the Aerial Steam Carriage,
John Stringfellow, constructed
a small steam-powered triplane
model which generated lift while
propelling itself along a wire.
But it was 1909 before a
successful powered, manned triplane
flew. That July, A. V. Roe (later Sir
Alliott Verdon-Roe) took to the air
in a small triplane he’d designed and
built. Between 1909 and 1911 Roe
constructed further triplanes, and
a handful of other such machines
emerged prior to the First World
War.
The war focussed attention on
developing aeroplanes as weapons,
but arming early aircraft wasn’t
straightforward. Use of the pusher
engine layout allowed forward-firing
machine-guns with a clear field of
fire, a further need being sufficient
stability to provide an adequate
gun and observation platform.
Though pushers were generally
slower than tractor types, tractors
were harder to arm effectively. But
with its interrupter gear Fokker’s
tractor E.III was a leap ahead, and
manoeuvrability of fighting aircraft
when attacking each other became a
vital requirement.
Sopwith’s new type was the
first triplane to go into combat
action. Its wing form was chosen
particularly to heighten agility
in the air, but also to allow the
pilot the best possible view of his
 SOPWITH TRIPLANE DATABASE
surroundings. The central wing was

| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights

positioned level with the eye-line,
restricting vision only slightly. All
three wings were of narrow chord,
the top and bottom wings thereby
limiting the view less than the
broader wings of a comparable
biplane.
The narrow chord served
to enhance manoeuvrability,
minimising shifts in the wing’s
centre of pressure with variations
of incidence. In turn a relatively
short fuselage could be adopted and
moments of inertia in the horizontal
plane reduced, so increasing agility.
Sharing the wing area across three
sets of wings rather than the usual
two or one led to a relatively short
span, giving a good rate of roll.
Designed by Sopwith’s chief
engineer Herbert Smith, the
prototype Triplane was built at the
company’s Kingston-upon-Thames
premises under Admiralty contract
CP117520/16. Work began in
mid-April 1916, and efforts must
have been extraordinary; the firm’s
experimental department passed the
aircraft for flight-testing on 28 May.
Sent by lorry to Brooklands ABOVE: N500 under construction at Kingston, its wings and engine in place. VIA PETE LONDON
aerodrome, two days later the
Triplane took to the air powered structure of the machine will until its gun jammed. On 28 July ‘Clerget Triplane’ (N5420 to
by a 110hp Clerget 9Z engine. enable it to stand more bullets and N500 was damaged by flak and N5494) on 1 September. Numerous
The flight was made by Sopwith’s shrapnel without collapse than the returned to Sopwith, but once examples in fact used the 110hp
brilliant young test pilot, Australian ordinary types. repaired, at the end of September engine. The following day, six
Harry Hawker. It seems he had few “The machines could be Dallas and his Triplane claimed an further 130hp aircraft were ordered
doubts over his novel mount — improved upon in the following unidentified scout destroyed. from Clayton & Shuttleworth.
watched by the company’s founder points: a) the petrol system should During mid-July, the assessors in These were allocated experimental
T. O. M. ‘Tommy’ Sopwith, within be duplicated and tanks for at France had received a brusque wire serials N533 to N538 and would be
minutes of taking off he’d looped it least two hours’ supply should be from the office of the Admiralty’s equipped with two machine guns.
three times. Flt Lt Leslie Hardstaff fitted. b) seat adjustable over 3 or Director of Air Services, ordering A third manufacturer, Ilford
of the Royal Naval Air Service 4 inches fore and aft for different the Triplane’s trials reports, the Aero Works (Oakley) Ltd, received
(RNAS) also evaluated the machine. sized pilots. It is suggested that a hold-up of which was “delaying orders in December 1916 to supply
Quickly, on 16 June Sopwith batch of these machines be turned decisions on aircraft orders for the 25 twin-gun Triplanes (N5910 to
released its Triplane to the RNAS. out immediately without alteration current quarter”. Having evaluated N5934). The following month,
Serialled N500, it was delivered to and the design with one or two them, on 23 July the Admiralty Sopwith was awarded a contract for
Hendon, and thence Royal Naval suggested improvements proceeded ordered 40 Triplanes (serials N5350 a further 20 Clerget 9B-powered
Air Station Chingford. By 22 June it with for the second batch.” to N5389), powered by the 130hp examples (N6290 to N6309).
had arrived in France for trials with N500’s evaluation was Clerget 9B. These would be built by At least 10 more may have been
A Squadron, No 1 Wing RNAS, punctuated by combat. Piloted Clayton & Shuttleworth of Lincoln, delivered as spares.
flying from Dunkerque and nearby by Australian Flt Sub-Lt Roderic an agricultural machinery and Oakley was a shop-fitting firm,
Furnes on the Belgian border. Dallas, on 1 July the Triplane steam engine concern that had been like Clayton & Shuttleworth
By then it had received a Vickers engaged two enemy biplanes near pressed into war work. without previous experience of
machine gun and synchronising La Panne on the Flemish coast, Sopwith received a production aircraft manufacture, but it didn’t
equipment. Guy Leather, a pilot hitting one (an Aviatik C-Type) order for 75 examples of the 130hp take well to the new work. In
with A Squadron, commented: “It June 1917 it was reported: “…
is almost half as fast again as the the position at Oakley’s was very
Nieuport and climbs twice as fast.
We shall hope to do great things
Serial allocations bad, and they were very much
behind”. By November the firm had
with it”. In France N500 was PROTOTYPES: N500, N504 built but three Triplanes and the
christened Brown Bread. following month its contracts were
Sqn Cdr Alec Ogilvie headed FOR RNAS: Sopwith production: N524, N5420-N5494; N6290-N6309. terminated, N5913 to N5934 being
Dunkerque’s aeroplane depot. N5550-N5559 allocated but not built (contract cancelled) cancelled.
Of the Triplane he noted: “This Clayton & Shuttleworth production: N5350-N5389; N533-N538 In the meantime, on 2 July
machine is undoubtedly far in (twin-gun) 1916 Harry Hawker may have
advance of any fighting machines Ilford Aero Works (Oakley) Ltd production: N5910-N5934 ordered, of test-flown the second prototype
possessed by ourselves or the which N5913-N5934 cancelled Triplane, N504, from Brooklands
Germans as regards performance to Chingford and back. If so, it
and fighting qualities. From the FOR FRANCE: New-build, Sopwith identities: F.1-F.10 was fitted with a 110hp Clerget
way it has been flown and handled Attrition replacements ex-RNAS allocation: F.11-F.15 while Sopwith awaited delivery of
by different pilots it is quite Ex-French examples which returned to serve with the RNAS: N541, a 130hp example of the engine. It
N542, N543, N5384, N5386 and N5387
evident that it is strong enough. flew from Brooklands to Hendon
It is considered that the peculiar on 26 August, and the next day

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 85

DATABASE SOPWITH TRIPLANE
ABOVE: N5420, Sopwith’s first production example, was delivered to Dunkerque in November 1916.
The following month, in the hands of No 1 Naval Squadron, it crashed at St-Omer and was damaged
beyond repair. VIA PETE LONDON
visited the Royal Flying Corps at
Farnborough.
Flt Lt Hardstaff’s trials of N504
at RNAS Chingford generally
mirrored the positive reports
of N500, though he suggested
improvements. “Loaded with 20
galls of petrol and 4 galls of oil, a
180lb pilot, 45lb Vickers gun and
33lb of ammunition; corrected
speeds at heights up to 6,500ft,
[speed] range between 113mph
BELOW: More than one nose-over was suffered by N500 during its eventful
life. This incident probably occurred during 1916. VIA PETE LONDON
86 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
and 118mph with 106mph at
10,000ft (engine speed around
1,200rpm).
“Climb to 3,000ft is 2 mins 45
secs, to 6,500ft 7 mins 40 secs and
10,000ft 13 mins 5 secs. Stability is
very good, landing speed 45 knots.
Engine is English-built by Gwynne.
More movement of empennage
is required, the machine being
tail heavy full-out on level and on
climb.”
as a Flight Commander; Flt Lt
Jackson also flew it. The assessment
concluded N504’s tail should be
strengthened.
Sopwith had completed its first
and second production Triplanes,
N5420 and N5421, by the end
of September. Both travelled to
Brooklands for trials. By October
Guy Leather had climbed prototype
N504 to an (unofficial) height in
excess of 22,000ft, and its rate of
climb had been found outstanding.
Delivery of N5420 had been
promised to the Admiralty by
30 September, but the machine
finally arrived at Dunkerque on 8
November. The following day it
joined A Squadron, No 1 Wing
RNAS at Furnes, alongside Dallas’s
N500. Flt Cdr Busteed flew N504
from Eastchurch to Dunkerque
on 15 November, ready to join A
Squadron on the 23rd. N5421 had
moved to Clayton & Shuttleworth
as a pattern aircraft, to assist
production start-up.
The Germans’ official critique of
the Triplane, published following
its appearance on the Western
Front, was disdainful: it was, they
For most of the year N504 stayed claimed, liable to break up during
in Britain under test, receiving a violent manoeuvres, and avoided
130hp Clerget during September. dogfights. In fact the aircraft became
In October it was evaluated greatly respected by the enemy’s
for RNAS Eastchurch’s pilots, while a rash of different
Design Flight by a German and Austrian triplane
prominent pre-war scouts followed the Sopwith’s
pilot, Australian appearance, rather as if the Central
Harry Busteed, Powers were striving to find the
who by then qualities embodied in
was with the revolutionary
the service little aeroplane.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 Technical Details
ABOVE: A Sopwith Triplane head-on, revealing a marked absence of struttery. VIA COLIN OWERS
T
he Triplane
The Triplane incorporated many
lines comparable
built on the with those of its Pup
stablemate. Initially, power came
from a 110hp Clerget 9Z nine-
success of the cylinder rotary engine attached
to an overhung mounting, and
earlier Pup enclosed within a circular open-
fronted cowling. The cowling
was merged into the fuselage’s
flat sides using tapered fairings,
which were created from spruce
stringers attached to formers.
Many production aircraft received
the more powerful 130hp Clerget
9B unit.
Petrol and oil tanks were
positioned between the upper
longerons, just aft of the
powerplant. A synchronised,
belt-fed Vickers .303in machine
gun was mounted centrally on
the fuselage decking ahead of the
cockpit, firing forward through
the propeller arc. The cockpit
featured a spade-grip control
column, and a padded screen
intended to provide the pilot’s
face with some protection from
the machine gun’s breech in the
event of a crash-landing.
Fuselage construction was
similar to the Pup’s, with spruce
longerons and spacers cross-
braced with wire to form a light
but strong box girder. An ash
diagonal on each side of the
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
leading bay, immediately aft
of the engine, gave additional
strength. Behind the cockpit, the
fuselage upper surface consisted
of a rounded decking along its
entire length.
The leading fuselage bay was
covered with aluminium sheet,
and inspection doors were let
into the sides. Mounted on the
inner starboard interplane strut
was a wind-driven Rotherham
fuel pump. The decking around
the cockpit was reinforced with
plywood, the remainder of the
machine’s fuselage being fabric-
covered.
The Triplane’s tail assembly
followed closely that of the Pup,
in construction and profile. The
adjustable tailplane employed a
long leading edge with inward-
raked tips; incidence range was
between -2° and +2°, the usual
position being +1.5°. Tail surfaces
were of mixed construction and
fabric-covered, and the fin and
rudder structure of steel tube.
The main undercarriage
arrangements consisted of two
streamlined-section steel-tube vee
struts, joined by two steel-tube
spreader bars, between which
were located two half-axles. The
half-axles were pivoted on the
aircraft centreline, their vertical
movement limited by rubber cord
which bound them to the apex of
| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights
each vee. Palmer Cord Aero tyres
of 700 x 75mm were employed.
At 26ft 6in, the Triplane’s
span was the same as the Pup’s.
The wings featured dihedral of
2.5°, with incidence of 2°; chord
was 3ft 3in, and gaps 3ft each.
Adopting a prominent forward
stagger, the wings were each built
around two main spars of spruce
placed unusually close together,
their centrelines no more than
15in apart. The upper wing spars
were solid; the middle and lower
pairs were taken around the
compression struts.
Production aircraft featured
normal fabric covering on their
top centre-sections rather than
the transparent material of the
prototype. Ailerons were fitted
on all six wings, hinged to the
rear spars. The aileron control
cables from the cockpit operated
the lower ailerons; in turn,
cables linked the three ailerons
on each side. The middle wings’
roots featured trailing-edge
cut-outs, allowing a useful view
downwards.
The main interplane structure
consisted of a single broad-chord
strut on each side, continuous
from upper to lower wing, and
taken through an aperture in
the middle wing compression
strut in line with its passage.
The two centre-section struts
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 87
DATABASE SOPWITH TRIPLANE
were also continuous, attached
to the fuselage longerons and
streamlined over their exposed
portions. The middle wings were
attached to the centre-section
struts by means of long rods
inserted into stub fittings.
Interplane bracing was
straightforward, each side with
a single landing wire and double
flying wires, the middle wing
receiving additional drag wires. In
mid-1917 a temporary delivery
and repair bottleneck arose due to
a shortage of streamline-section
flying wires. This was aggravated
by some Clayton & Shuttleworth
aircraft appearing with flying
wires of smaller than prescribed
cross-section.
Changes to the design were
few. In December 1916 Triplane
N5423 was tested with its chord
increased to 3ft 6in and area from
231 square feet to 257 square
feet, but the modification wasn’t
introduced to other aircraft. Trials
were conducted using a 110hp
Le Rhône 9J rotary engine, but
88 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
LEFT: A look inside the Sopwith
Triplane’s minimalist ‘office’.
Visible in this image are the
spade grip control column
and the protective padding aft
of the Vickers breech; on the
starboard strut, meanwhile,
is the Rotherham fuel pump.
The aircraft’s centre wings
terminated just short of the
fuselage, their cutaways
usefully augmenting the pilot’s
downward view. VIA PETE LONDON
again the change wasn’t taken up.
No 8 (Naval) Squadron machines
featured enlarged inspection
panels aft of the cowling, this
being a field adaptation, while
Triplane N5445 received two
Vickers guns and an enlarged
rudder.
A significant modification was
the replacement of the original
tailplane and elevators by units
with smaller surfaces. With
an area of 23 square feet, the
Triplane’s first tailplane spanned
10ft 1in, while the elevators’ area
was 11.8 square feet. The smaller
tailplane had a span of 8ft with a
14-square foot area, the elevators
reduced to 9.6 square feet. The
new tailplane’s tips featured
an outward rake toward the
elevators.
It’s said that the change was
suggested by Harry Hawker, but
it may have come about after a
comparative trial at Dunkerque
between a Nieuport Scout and
a Triplane, both employing the
130hp Clerget. The Triplane
was faster at 15,000ft, but the
Nieuport could dive vertically
at nearly twice the speed of the
Sopwith Triplane specifications Sopwith.
A Triplane that had been given
POWERPLANT the smaller tail was evaluated by
One Clerget 9Z rotary, 110hp or Clerget 9B rotary, 130hp the Eastchurch Design Flight,
(Le Rhône 9J rotary, 110hp, trialled) which subsequently reported:
“The decrease in horizontal tail
DIMENSIONS
area has resulted in making the
Span: 26ft 6in machine much more handy.
Length: 18ft 10in The fore and aft stability is not
Height: 10ft 6in so good but there is sufficient
Wing areas: Upper 84 square feet; middle 72 control to get the machine out
square feet; lower 75 square feet of any position possible whilst
(total 231 square feet) fighting… it is considered that
WEIGHTS the alteration has improved the
Empty: 1,101lb (130hp Clerget) machine from a war point of
Loaded: 1,541lb (military load 80lb, view.”
pilot 180lb, fuel and oil 180lb) Notification of the revised
tailplane’s introduction appeared
PERFORMANCE (130hp Clerget) in February 1917. Maintenance
Maximum speed at 5,000ft: 117mph crews were instructed to modify
Service ceiling; 20,500ft the machines in their charge as
Endurance: 2hr 45min the new surfaces were delivered,
and to return the withdrawn
ARMAMENT
tailplanes and elevators to
One Vickers machine gun (six Clayton & Shuttleworth examples, three Sopwith. The change served
Oakley examples and Sopwith-built N5445 had two Vickers guns; to improve control response,
N5431 had Lewis gun in addition to Vickers) together with the Triplane’s
diving and looping qualities.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 SOPWITH TRIPLANE DATABASE

| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 89

 In Service
S
opwith’s aircraft was
often referred to
as the ‘Tripe’, and
sometimes the more
exotic ‘Tripehound’. Remembered
particularly for its rate of climb,
ceiling and impressive top speed,
Raymond Collishaw wasn’t alone
in feeling the ‘Tripe’s’ single gun
The impact of was a weakness but, despite that, in
service it made a startling impact.
Sopwith’s new
Four RNAS squadrons received it
in quantity: Nos 1, 8, 9 and 10.
Two further squadrons, 11 and 12,
fighter was included the type on their strengths.
By the end of 1916, the RNAS’s
significant
A Squadron had become known
as No 1 Squadron — and later,
to avoid confusion with RFC
nomenclature, No 1 (Naval)
Squadron. Led by Sqn Cdr
F. K. Haskins, in February 1917
the unit moved to Chipilly near
Amiens (and later, to Bellevue),
becoming all-Triplane from the
start of the year. By then several
naval squadrons had been tasked
90 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
with assisting the hard-pressed RFC
along the Western Front.
Roderic Dallas flew with No
1 (Naval) Squadron, and on 1
February destroyed an LVG C two-
seater with N5436. Flying the same
‘Tripe’, on 5 April he shot down an
Albatros D.III. The following day
1 (Naval)’s pilots despatched three
more Albatros aircraft, of which
Dallas downed one.
As the battle of Arras raged, April
1917 witnessed appalling losses for
the RFC in France: the so-called
‘Bloody April’. Continuing to
support that service, 1 (Naval)’s
victors included Dallas, Flt Sub-Lt
Thomas Culling, Flt Cdr Teddy
Gerrard and Flt Sub-Lt Richard
Minifie. Minifie was its highest
Triplane scorer with 17 kills, five
while flying N5446, 10 with
N5454 and two with N6303. He
won three DSCs and, at 19, became
Australia’s youngest ace of the war.
It seems Dallas’ size — he was a
large man at 6ft 2in and 16 stone
Sopwith Triplane N5459
No 9 (Naval) Squadron, RNAS
CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY
— didn’t affect his fighting ability:
he notched up 16 victories on the
type. Gerrard claimed eight ‘Tripe’
kills, while 20-year-old Culling’s
career was vivid but brief. His six
victories with Triplane N5444 were
made between 6 April and 20 May,
before he was shot down and died
on 8 June flying N5491.
Over the summer 1 (Naval)’s
pilots continued scoring. The
early morning of 4 June saw an
engagement between 10 ‘Tripes’
and a large group of German
aircraft including Albatros scouts.
A number of Nieuports and SE5s
joined the fray. N5440 and Gerrard
destroyed one enemy aircraft and
shared the demise of a second with
a Nieuport, though the Triplane
was badly damaged by German fire.
Altogether, 10 Triplane pilots
from No 1 (Naval) Squadron
became aces. The unit was truly
multi-national and, as well as
Canadians, included South African
Capt Samuel Kinkead (six Triplane
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

victories, all with N5465) and New
Zealander Capt Forster Maynard
(also six kills). Between January
and November 1917 the unit’s
‘Tripes’ accounted for well over 100
enemy aircraft destroyed or sent
plummeting out of control.
No 8 (Naval) Squadron formed
in October 1916 and received
BELOW: Australian Roderic Dallas was the first pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft with the ‘Tripe’. Here he stands with a new example
in France during late 1916. VIA PETE LONDON
SOPWITH TRIPLANE DATABASE
Flt Cdr Robert Compston
| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights
opened his ‘Tripe’ account on 5
April, claiming a Halberstadt with
N5471. All told he achieved 25
victories, nine with the Triplane; he
received the DSC with two bars,
and the DFC. Flt Lt Reginald Soar
gained 12 victories, eight on the
Sopwith machine. In August 1917
he too was awarded the DSC, “For
courage and skill as a scout pilot.
On 23 May […] he attacked a
two-seater artillery machine, and
as the result of a well thought out
attack brought the machine down
out of control. On 12 June […] he
brought down two enemy machines
[Aviatik Cs] out of control.”
A victory on 29 June was
followed by two more. “On 3 July
[…] whilst leading an offensive
patrol […] seven Albatros scouts
[were] engaged and he brought
down one, out of control. On 13
July […] in company with Flt
Lt Little, he attacked and drove
down out of control one two-seater
ABOVE: No 8 (Naval) Squadron’s N5468 Angel. The pilot is Flt Sub-Lt machine, following it down to
Charles Jenner-Parson. VIA PETE LONDON within 1,000 feet of the ground.”
LEFT: No 1 (Naval) Squadron Triplanes and pilots line up for their Robert Little’s victories, too,
photograph at Bailleul in July 1917. VIA G. STUART LESLIE had accumulated. Typical of
his earlier actions was a solitary
Triplanes the following February. strict disciplinarian, of Maj Booker’s engagement while flying ‘Tripe’
Under Sqn Cdr Geoffrey Bromet, 29 victories 21 were on the Triplane N5469, as reported by a British
from March the unit flew firstly and 17 with N5482 Maud. Fellow Army anti-aircraft unit. “At 6.45
from Auchel, near Béthune, and 8 (Naval) pilot Edward Crundall pm on April 7, 1917, a Sopwith
later from St-Eloi close to Arras. wrote of him: “He hopes the war Triplane, working alone, attacked
Everyone was kept busy, not least will go on forever because he loves eleven hostile machines, almost
armament officer Flt Lt Harry air fighting, and if the war were all Albatros Scouts, NE of Arras.
O’Hagan who devised a metal to end he is afraid he might not He completely outclassed the
ammunition link system to replace be able to find a suitable job”. whole patrol of hostile machines,
the canvas type, which when damp Later, on 13 August 1918, flying diving through them and climbing
froze at high altitudes. Camel D9642 Booker claimed above them… The officers who
The squadron’s leading aces were three Fokker D.VIIs destroyed but witnessed the combat report that
Charles Booker, Robert Compston, succumbed to wounds received the manoeuvring of the Sopwith
Robert Little and Reginald Soar. A during that combat. Triplane completely outclassed that
DATABASE SOPWITH TRIPLANE
ABOVE: N6306 flew with No 10 (Naval) Squadron from May 1917, but on 24 June that year it was shot
down. Flt Sub-Lt A. B. Holcroft somehow survived the crash and was interned in Holzminden PoW
camp in the German state of Lower Saxony. VIA PETE LONDON
of the Albatros Scout”. During the
exchange Little drove down out of
control a Halberstadt D, or possibly
an Albatros.
On 30 April, Little’s citation for
the bar to his DSC tells us, “with
three other machines he went up
after hostile machines and saw a
big fight going on between fighter
escorts and hostile aircraft. Flt Lt
Little attacked one at fifty yards
range, and brought it down out
of control. A few minutes later
he attacked a red scout with a
ABOVE: Canadian Raymond
Collishaw commanded No 10
(Naval) Squadron’s Black Flight
and became the leading Triplane
ace, with 34 victories on the
type. VIA PETE LONDON
92 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
larger machine than the rest. This
machine was handled with great
skill, but by clever manoeuvring Flt
Lt Little got into a good position
and shot it down out of control.”
All told, with 47 victories (24 on
the Triplane) Capt Bob Little —
featured in Aeroplane September
2015 — became Australia’s
highest-scoring First World War
ace. Moving on to Camels, sadly
on 27 May 1918 he died, crash-
landing in a field near Nœux after
pursuing a Gotha bomber. Little
ABOVE: Coded 15, Clayton & Shuttleworth-built N5387 flew with No 1 (Naval) Squadron and was
named Peggy. Behind is N5425, coded 16. VIA PETE LONDON
left a widow, Vera, and a baby son
whom he’d nicknamed ‘Blymp’. His
Triplane, N5493, was named after
the boy.
Formed in February 1917 under
Sqn Cdr H. Fawcett, rather than
travelling to the front No 9 (Naval)
Squadron stayed mostly on the
coast. Its ‘Tripes’ began arriving
in April and by May the unit was
at Furnes, also flying Pups. One
of its leading pilots was American
Capt Oliver LeBoutillier — four
of his 10 victories were on the
Triplane, three with N5459. Later,
flying a Camel, LeBoutillier would
be involved in the combat that
led to the death of Manfred von
Richthofen.
The unit moved in mid-June,
arriving firstly at Flez near St
Quentin. There were then stays at
Bray Downs and Leffrinckhoucke.
On 17 July Flt Sub-Lt Edmund
Pierce destroyed an Albatros D.V,
while a week later an ex-8 (Naval)
pilot, Australian Flt Cdr George
Simpson, bagged a foe with N5462.
Flt Sub-Lt Francis Mellersh and
N5377 claimed another scalp, and
on 29 July Canadian Flt Lt Arthur
Whealy despatched two Albatros
scouts in under an hour.
9 (Naval) kept its Triplanes only
briefly. By August Camels had
arrived. Several pilots had achieved
kills with the ‘Tripe’ and only one
had been lost: Flt Sub-Lt Thomas
Shearer spun out of control into the
ground on 13 June 1917.
Established in February 1917
at St-Pol, and led initially by Sqn
Cdr Charles Breese, No 10 (Naval)
Squadron began receiving Triplanes
in May before moving to Droglandt
airfield near Ypres. By then Sqn
Cdr Bertram Bell had assumed
command. In a short time 10’s B
Flight, led by Raymond Collishaw,
gained a considerable reputation.
To help with identification, each
flight’s aircraft received individual
colours: A Flight’s mounts were
picked out in red, B Flight’s in
black, and C Flight’s in blue.
Soon after Collishaw arrived, B
Flight pilots began naming their
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 SOPWITH TRIPLANE DATABASE
THE FRENCH NAVY ’S TRIPLANES

| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights

In August 1916 the French Naval Air Department ordered 10 Sopwith In turn, during their time with the Escadrille the ‘Tripes’ claimed two
Triplanes. These were purchased for use by the St-Pol-based Escadrille kills, two probables, two aircraft forced to land and one damaged.
de Chasse Terrestre du Centre d’Aviation Maritime de Dunkerque During the autumn of 1917 the unit began conversion to SPADs. Its
(more succinctly, the Escadrille), which used land-based scouts to Sopwiths were withdrawn, six survivors taking up RNAS service.
protect both the Dunkerque station and French bombers operating in
the area.
The Triplanes were built at Kingston and powered by 130hp Clergets
issued for free by the French. Though fitted with gun mountings they
were delivered minus weaponry, each airframe priced at £1,000.
French cockades and rudder stripes were applied, Sopwith allotting
temporary identifiers F.1 to F.10, the ‘F’ indicating France.
Deliveries began in December 1916, the French Navy installing
the armament. During June and July 1917 France acquired five more
Triplanes as attrition replacements; these came from the Admiralty
and bore RNAS serials. Acquiring temporary marks F.11 to F.15 and all
built by Clayton & Shuttleworth, the aircraft concerned were ex-N5384
to N5388.
In French service, after an initial mistake in the issuing of identities
the first batch of Triplanes was allocated serials SP.9 to SP.17 (SP
standing for St-Pol), F.4 having been written off in a crash. They
were painted with just the numbers, applied to fuselage sides and
decking. The five later aircraft were coded using identities of struck-off
examples, though N5388 may not have had its new number physically
applied. ABOVE: French Triplane F.5 wearing its initial, incorrect code
Numerous French Triplanes were involved in accidents. The type (SP) 3, pictured in January 1917. VIA PETE LONDON
wasn’t well-liked by its pilots, who felt it was delicate, and skittish on
the controls. On 14 January 1917 F.4 suffered a mishap when its tail
rose too high while taking off, causing the propeller to smash into the
grass. After an uncontrolled hop F.4 came down hard, destroying its
undercarriage. Only the engine was salvaged.
During April two more were lost. Both SP.9 and SP.12 veered while
landing in strong winds, and smashed their undercarriages. On 27
June, DH4 N5981 of No 2 Squadron RNAS crashed during take-off,
landing on top of Triplane SP.17. Both aircraft were wrecked.
A fatal accident occurred on 13 July, when the second aircraft to
sport the identity SP.12 (ex-N5385) attempted a turn to port shortly
after take-off. Spinning in from around 250ft, the machine caught
fire. Its pilot, deputy Escadrille commander Lt de Vaisseau Georges
Barbier, was killed. Four days later, SP.13 suffered fuel pressure failure
and crashed just short of Coudekerque airfield, being written off after
turning over.
Triplane F.15 (ex-N5388) flown by Quartier-Maître Henri Jean le ABOVE: A line-up of Triplanes from the French Escadrille at St-
Garrec was shot down near Dixmude, Belgium on 3 September 1917 Pol, near Dunkerque: from the left are 12, 16, 14, 11 and three
after a fight over the North Sea with aircraft of Jasta 35; the pilot died. anonymous examples. VIA PETE LONDON

Triplanes in line with their colour.
So appeared Collishaw’s succession
of ‘Tripes’ christened Black Maria
(N5490, N5492 and N533), joined
by Black Death, Black Prince, Black
Roger and Black Sheep. Predictably
the group became known as the
Black Flight.
Collishaw wrote of his opening
Tripe engagement with B Flight:
“…my first real scrap came [on] 1
June [1917] when I led B Flight
in full strength — Reid, Sharman,
Nash and Alexander [all Canadians]
were the others — on a distant
offensive patrol that took us over
the Menin area. The Jastas [German
Jagdstaffeln, fighter squadrons]
seemed to be out in force, and we
encountered enemy machines on
three separate occasions… One
of the formations we ran into was
over Menin, three Albatros D.IIIs,
and they were at about 14,000ft, a
couple of thousand feet below us.
I pushed my stick forward and the
rest of B Flight followed as we dived
on them in formation. I singled one
of them out but was thwarted when
my gun jammed.”
Clearing his errant weapon,
Collishaw rejoined the fight. “I
managed to get into position again
for a shot at another of the enemy,
and closed to 30 yards or so before
firing… As I fired I saw my tracers
go right into him and he went
down out of control, bursting into
flames as he did so… Gerry Nash
sent one down in the same scrap.
He saw his tracers hit and the
Albatros went down in a spin.
“On the return we encountered
three more of the enemy [one a
two-seater Albatros]… I was again
baulked by gun trouble. Ellis Reid,
however, got away a short burst at
long range and one of his tracers
went right into the head of the
gunner in the rear cockpit. Ellis
pulled up and then dived again, and
this time his fire went straight into
the neck of the pilot. The last we
saw of the two-seater, it was going
down in a near-vertical dive, and I
think there was very little chance
that it ever pulled out.”
His memoirs may have been
colourful but Raymond Collishaw
became the Triplane’s greatest
exponent. Of his eventual 60
claims, 34 were made on the type.
Fighting over the summer, B
Flight’s victories grew. Flt Sub-Lt
Ellis Reid claimed nine aircraft
shot down in June 1917 and 10 in
July, 17 of them with N5483 Black
Roger. His DSC citation reads: “On
6 June 1917, he attacked and drove
down one of four hostile scouts.
This machine dived nose first into
the ground and was destroyed. On
the afternoon of 15 June […] he
was leading a patrol of three scouts
and encountered a formation of ten
enemy machines… he forced one
machine down completely out of
control. Next he attacked at a range
of about 30 yards another hostile
scout. The pilot of this machine was
killed, and it went down completely
out of control.”
Flt Lt William Alexander
mostly flew N5487 Black Prince.
He claimed 11 victories on the
Triplane. Typical of his engagements
was that of 16 August, when he
attacked two German scouts at
about 3,000ft and one fell out of
control. Four days later he came
across three enemy scouts, pursuing
until they turned to fight. One he
shot down and the remaining two
dived away. On 21 August he drove
down out of control a German
scout which had attacked another
aircraft in his group.
Flt Lt Gerald Nash and Flt Cdr
John Sharman also became aces,
with six and seven ‘Tripe’ claims

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 93

DATABASE SOPWITH TRIPLANE
conditions. N5431 joined No 2
Wing’s E Flight, serving as part of
the response to German air attacks
on Salonika. It was flown by Flt Lt
John Alcock, later of trans-Atlantic
flight fame. On 26 March, though,
Alcock overran Mikra Bay airfield.
N5431 tumbled into a shallow
ditch, overturned and was badly
damaged.
Shipped back to Mudros, the
‘Tripe’ was rebuilt and returned
to service, joining No 2 Wing’s B
Squadron, and later C Squadron.
At some time in its career it was
fitted with a Lewis gun in addition
to the Vickers, mounted on the
port side of the cockpit and firing
outside the propeller disc. Flown by
Flt Sub-Lt Harold Mellings, on 30
September it shot down an Albatros
W.IV floatplane, one of three
enemy aircraft caught approaching
ABOVE: The sole Aegean-based Triplane N5431 at Mudros. In addition to the usual Vickers machine gun Mudros.
it has been fitted with a Lewis gun on the cockpit’s port side. VIA COLIN OWERS All told, Mellings and N5431
despatched four or perhaps five
respectively, though Sharman had aircraft simply folded up. Six days Triplane victories (two shared) foes, the last (an Albatros D.III) on
soon left to lead 10’s C Flight. But later, Ellis Reid in Black Roger lost with N5389, N5458 and N5466. 29 November 1917. The Triplane
the Canadians’ losses mounted. On his life to anti-aircraft guns. FitzGibbon flew with B Flight later hit a wall while landing and
25 June 1917, Nash was shot down Victories by pilots from 10 as well, eventually leading it and was written off. Harold Mellings
east of Messines in N5376 Black (Naval)’s A and C Flights were far surviving the war. So did Raymond went on to fly on the Western
Sheep, landing behind enemy lines. fewer. However, over June and July Collishaw, who rose to become an Front, but on 22 June 1918 he was
Captured, he spent the rest of the C Flight’s Canadian Flt Lt John Air Vice Marshal. shot down and killed over Ostend.
war as a PoW. Page claimed seven enemy aircraft, Meanwhile, in the Aegean theatre As well as the four principal
Sharman was lost on 22 July, one shared. The day Sharman of war a solitary Triplane served. units, a handful of ‘Tripes’ flew
possibly to anti-aircraft fire, though died, Page (who was flying nearby) This was N5431, which in January with the short-lived No 11 (Naval)
there’s a disconnect between his also failed to return. Another 1917 arrived with No 2 Wing Squadron, which existed in France
‘Tripe’s’ reported position at the possibility regarding Sharman’s loss RNAS at the port of Mudros, on between March and August
time and German claims for the is that the two collided. C Flight’s the island of Lemnos. Possibly 1917. A few were used by No 12
day. To confuse matters, it has also Flt Lt Desmond FitzGibbon, it was sent to assess the ‘Tripe’s’ (Naval) Squadron during its time
been suggested that Sharman’s an Englishman, claimed five suitability for service in Aegean as a training outfit, and by RNAS

THE ‘ TRIPE’ WITH THE RFC

The Royal Flying Corps was quick to show interest in the Triplane,
though records of its plans to acquire the type are somewhat
inscrutable. By June 1916, as the prototype appeared, an order for 50
examples was under consideration. Later, serials A9000 to A9099 were
set aside for Triplanes, to be built by Clayton & Shuttleworth. Although
the draft contract seems to have been from the Admiralty, these were
non-RNAS serials.
Serials A9813 to A9918 were also allocated to Triplanes, again to
be built by the Lincoln company. No mention was made of Admiralty
involvement; the machines could have been intended for the RFC.
Also, high-level planning of resources identified the Triplane for use by
No 65 Squadron, RFC.
However, following debate and ill-feeling over resources between
the Admiralty and the Air Board during the autumn of 1916 — and as
part of a reshuffle of equipment stemming from the critical situation in
France — in February 1917 it was agreed that an entire order of SPAD
VII scouts originally earmarked for the RNAS would be re-assigned to ABOVE: N5430 was the only Triplane ever to fly with the RFC.
the RFC. In return, the RFC passed its Triplane allocation to the RNAS. VIA PETE LONDON
It’s very unlikely any real transfer of Triplanes took place between
the services. The quantity of aircraft acquired by the RNAS was too Long after it was decided not to issue Triplanes to the RFC, N5430
small to have included machines planned for RFC operation, and remained. On 7 July 1917, leaving Orfordness piloted by Capt (later
just one example flew with that arm. This was the 130hp Clerget- Air Cdre Sir) Vernon Brown, it was flown over London on an anti-
powered N5430, acquired for evaluation. By November 1916 it had Gotha patrol, but Brown’s machine gun malfunctioned. The Triplane
been transferred to the Testing Squadron at Martlesham Heath. In flew five sorties against four German bombing raids. In October 1918
January 1917 it travelled to the Central Flying School at Upavon before N5430 visited the Royal Aircraft Establishment; it survived the war,
returning to Martlesham, moving in June to the Experimental Station spending its final days flying from Sutton’s Farm airfield in Essex, later
at Orfordness for armament trials. to become RAF Hornchurch. It was finally struck off in August 1919.

94 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

 SOPWITH TRIPLANE DATABASE

| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights

TRIPLANE MARKINGS

Sopwith Triplane N5492 Black Maria

B Flight, No 10 (Naval) Squadron, RNAS
CHRIS SANDHAM-BAILEY

No 1 (Naval) Squadron’s Triplanes generally carried individual unit
numbers in white, these being applied to the fuselage sides. Fuselage
cockades were frequently omitted. From autumn 1917 the unit took as
its squadron identifier two white vertical bars, which were applied just
aft of the unit number. Both red and white tail fins were occasionally
adopted, as well as white or off-white wheel covers, and sometimes
the aircraft had names including N5387 Peggy. Flown by Roderic
Dallas, N5436 carried a large white ‘C’ on the fuselage together with a
cockade.
Aircraft of No 8 (Naval) Squadron wore no dedicated unit marking,
but some included white or off-white wheel covers and fins. Various
examples carried individual names painted in white beneath the
cockpit or along the fuselage. These included N5439 Whitfield (this
name was later deleted), N5449 Binky III, N5454 Hilda, N5464 Doris,
N5468 Angel, N5482 Maud, N5493 Blymp, N6292 Lily, N6301 Dusty II
and N6290 Dixie. Maud was given red, white and blue zig-zag fuselage
bands, sometime varied as straight verticals; Blymp, Dixie and Dusty II
all wore narrower bands.
Among No 9 (Naval) Squadron’s Triplanes was N5459, with a
narrow red and white band diagonally across the fuselage terminating
at the cockpit coaming, and a wider white fuselage band further aft.
Another example displayed a large letter ‘M’ beneath its cockpit.
The machines of No 10 (Naval) Squadron received colours
according to their flights. Cowlings of A Flight aircraft were painted
red, as were their metal panels forward of the cockpit. Fins and wheel
covers were similarly coloured. B Flight’s Triplanes were likewise
coloured black, and C Flight’s examples blue. Some B Flight aircraft
were identified further by single letters applied in white to their
fuselages indicating the pilot, for example ‘C’ (Collishaw) and ‘S’
(Sharman). B Flight’s machines wore individual names reflecting their
identifying colour.
French Triplanes were marked with their nation’s cockades and
rudder stripes. The temporary Sopwith ‘F’ identities of the first 10
aircraft were indicated in small characters on the forward part of
the fin. Individual Escadrille numbers were carried in white on the
fuselage sides and decking.

Home Defence elements. On 22 Aviatik C being forced down out of

July 1917 the Manston War Flight’s control south-east of Nieuport.
N5424, in the hands of Flt Sub-Lt Just 13 ‘Tripes’ were with the
G. K. Cooper, went up against a RNAS by April 1918, including
German daylight aeroplane raid, four at Chingford, four at
but evidently its synchronising Eastchurch, and the three Oakley
gear was faulty. Cooper’s shooting machines at Manston. N5445
damaged his own propeller and was under test at Grain with its
he made a forced landing near experimental two-gun installation,
Chatham. while N5431 was in the
As Sopwith’s twin-gunned Camel Aegean. N5386 was selected
began to join front-line squadrons for preservation, but that plan
over the summer of 1917, the went awry and it was scrapped.
Triplane’s days became numbered.
That said, No 1 (Naval) Squadron LEFT: A captured Triplane at
Adlershof airfield in Berlin. It
retained the type until November. has been fitted with a non-
Its final victory came on 13 standard fin, while the rudder
November in the hands of Flt Cdr still bears its British marking.
Herbert Rowley with N5472, an VIA PETE LONDON

AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 95

 Insigghts
ABOVE: N6295 joined No 8 (Naval) Squadron in May 1917, coded B, before moving to 10 (Naval)
in July. With this aircraft Flt Lt H. J. T. Saint claimed an Albatros C and a D.V during August 1917.
Pilots
D
uring the First World
War, Maj Oliver Stewart
MC AFC served with
revelled in the Royal Flying Corps,
gaining five victories with No 54
the Triplane’s
Squadron. Post-war he became
aeronautical correspondent of the
Morning Post, and wrote widely on
agility aviation matters. In his book ‘The
Clouds Remember’, Stewart recalled
the Triplane with affection.
“It would be difficult to analyse
the feature […] that made it so
attractive to fly. It seemed light
and elegant yet wiry. And there
was the visual effect of the triplane
arrangement which made the pilot
feel that he had unlimited quantities
of lift available. The response
to the controls was not of that
lightning quickness exemplified by
the Sopwith Camel, but it was by
no means sluggish. At first it was
thought that the Triplane could
not be looped and flick-rolled with
safety, but later it was made to do all
the aerobatics of its time, and it did
them well.
“The Triplane spun rather
slowly, and its flick roll was also
rather slow compared with other
machines of the time; but what it
lacked in quickness it made up in
the smoothness and grace of its
movements. A Triplane looping
looked like no other machine and
gave the loops an individual quality.
Irreverent pilots said it looked, when
doing aerobatics, like an intoxicated
flight of stairs.”
Stewart also denied rumours that
the Triplane had suffered from a
“habit of twisting one of its planes
96 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
N6295 ended its career with No 12 (Naval) Squadron. VIA PETE LONDON
about the front spar so that control
and stability were lost”. In fact, he
remembered, “none of these faults
was demonstrated to be inherent
in the aeroplane, and as pilots got
to know it better they got to like it
better until, when it was superseded,
it was allowed to go with regret.”
Like Oliver Stewart, Capt Cecil
Lewis had flown with the RFC.
During May and June 1917 he
gained eight victories. In his book
‘Farewell to Wings’, Lewis wrote:
“The Triplane was a little beauty.
The rotary engine, tank and pilot
were all bunched close together
so it could turn sideways or head
over heels like a tumbler pigeon.
Its three main planes carried all the
area necessary for the load in such
a small span that you could throw
the Triplane from side to side like
a leaf.”
However, the aircraft wasn’t
entirely without shortcomings. “The
Triplane had one weakness — it
couldn’t really dive and, it was
alleged, the wings came off if it was
pointed at the ground with engine
full on. But nobody, as far as I
know, had tried this to the limit.”
In any case, Lewis liked the type:
“[The Triplane] was so well balanced
that it would fly hands off on the
tail-trimmer, which other aircraft
boasted they could do, but didn’t.
It could do more than this: set the
engine at three-quarter throttle
and wind the tail well back and the
‘Tripe’ would loop indefinitely. I
once did 21 loops in a row!”
In his seminal ‘Sagittarius Rising’,
Lewis added more praise. “[Of ]
all machines, the Triplane remains
in my memory as the best — for
the actual pleasure of flying —
that I ever took up. It was […] so
well-mannered, so feather-light on
the stick, and so comfortable and
warm… for its docility, for the lack
of all effort needed to fly it, and
yet its instantaneous response to
the lightest touch, it remains my
favourite.”
How did the Triplane perform
in action? Flt Cdr Raymond
Collishaw led B Flight, No 10
(Naval) Squadron, and was the
highest-scoring of the Triplane aces.
He wrote: “The Triplane I found
to be a delightful machine — in
my estimation much preferable
to the Pup… Apart from its
manoeuvrability and its rate of
climb, which was very good for
its day, the Triplane’s main virtue
was the extreme altitude that it
could attain, and its performance
at these heights”. This rate of climb
in particular enabled the Sopwith
repeatedly to gain tactical advantage
over its foes.
Collishaw continued: “The
Triplane had its weaknesses… it
could not match a machine such as
the Albatros D.III in a dive… its
main failing though, by comparison
with the enemy fighters it faced, was
its armament… it had but a single
Vickers. The German fighters it
was pitted against during 1917 had
twin machine guns, and given […]
comparable performance, it is hard
to find a substitute for firepower.
“Six experimental [Triplanes] were
in fact fitted with twin Vickers, and
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
 SOPWITH TRIPLANE
I was fortunate enough to obtain and Alfred Carter] considered the
one [in fact, Collishaw suffered extra firepower would be more
with machine gun trouble on this than offset by a reduction in its
example, N533]… Some of the performance at height as a result
pilots [including William Alexander of the added weight of the second
ORIGINAL TRIPLANE SURVIVORS
Over the years numerous reproduction Triplanes have appeared
— among them the Shuttleworth Collection’s superb Northern
Aeroplane Workshops-built example ‘N6290’/G-BOCK, declared
a ‘late production’ machine by Sir T. O. M. Sopwith himself — but
just two originals survive. N5912 was the last of Oakley & Co’s three
‘Tripes’, delivered in October 1917. Briefly with Manston’s War
School, in spring 1918 it joined No 2 School of Aerial Fighting and
Gunnery (later renamed No 2 Fighting School) at Marske, where it
was coded 94.
Post-war it was kept at the Science Museum before a move in
around 1932 to the Royal Airship Works at Cardington, where it was
located in 1936 on the dump there. It was restored sufficiently to take
part in that year’s Hendon Pageant, and that of the following year.
Stored during the war, N5912 spent some time with No 5
Maintenance Unit at Kemble. Passing in 1950 to No 39 MU at
Colerne for another refurbishment, in September N5912 appeared
at Farnborough’s SBAC show. The following year it was displayed
at Hendon, before joining the Historic Aircraft Store at Fulbeck. A
further restoration by Hawker Siddeley at Dunsfold followed in 1961;
three years later, the ‘Tripe’ appeared at the Fleet Air Arm Museum.
ABOVE: A visiting US Navy officer inspects Triplane N5912 on static
display at the Fifty Years of Flying event at Hendon in July 1951.
AEROPLANE
ABOVE: N5912 on display in the RAF Museum London’s Grahame-
White Factory building. BEN DUNNELL
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
DATABASE
machine gun and its ammunition. that although there was a definite
| Development | Technical Details | In Service | Insights
Others, including myself, felt loss […] over 10,000 feet, it was
that a certain loss of performance relatively slight, and having twice
would be acceptable in exchange the firepower at my command
for the extra gun. I found, in fact, […] made a big difference.”
During October 1971 it moved to the RAF Museum at Hendon, its
present keepers.
The other survivor, N5486, was delivered in April 1917 to White
City’s Central Supply Depot before being shipped to Russia for
evaluation in May. For some time the aircraft retained its original
markings, and was fitted with a ski undercarriage. Flying with the
Imperial Russian Air Service, in the hands of Bolshevik forces after
the October Revolution it acquired red star markings.
For much of its life following shipment the Triplane seems to have
been unarmed. There are reports of combats, but these have not
been substantiated, and N5486 may have been used as a trainer or
for reconnaissance. It’s also possible that the aircraft was attached
to a unit known as the Bolshevik Special Purpose Air Group, serving
during 1919 as the Russian Civil War raged.
But without much proper support and based in a ravaged country
of climatic extremes, it’s hard to believe N5486 stayed serviceable
for long. Miraculously, though, it survived, and today can be seen at
Monino’s Central Air Force Museum. That said, the ‘restoration’ is a
sorry effort. The aircraft is painted a vivid overall blue, while it wears
an alien cowling and a set of absurdly small wheels.
ABOVE: For some time in Russia, Triplane N5486 retained its
original markings, and was fitted with a form of ski undercarriage.
VIA PETE LONDON
ABOVE: The unarmed Triplane, ex-N5486, at Monino’s Central Air
Force Museum. STUART CARR
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 97
Books Black Box Canberras
Book of the Month by Dave Forster
published by Hikoki Publications
Reviews
Given the English Electric Canberra’s
Rating
Britain’s Space Shuttle extensive use by British military test and
trials organisations between 1951 and
1994, it is perhaps surprising that no ★★★★★
book on the subject has emerged until Outstanding
by Dan Sharp now. The result, however, is well worth
published by Crécy Publishing the wait. ★★★★★
Dave Forster’s extensive research has Excellent
led to a volume of great quality, very
well produced in traditional Hikoki ★★★★★
fashion. Each chapter covers a different Good
trials area, the overriding impression
being the sheer range of programmes ★★★★★
on which Canberras were used and the Flawed
contribution the type made to new
capabilities in a wide variety of fields. ★★★★★
Especially interesting is the section on Mediocre
early ‘stealth’ experiments using radar-
absorbent material on the Royal Aircraft
Establishment’s Canberra B2 WK161, Enough said
this following earlier efforts that
employed, of all things, a Boulton Paul
Balliol. And the work done with
Canberras continues to pay dividends
even more than 20 years after the last
example in trials use was pensioned off.
After all, the ASTOR (Airborne Stand-
Off Radar) system that has proved so
The days when Britain thought of developing its own spacecraft now valuable in the RAF’s Bombardier
seem far-off indeed. The last major effort was British Aerospace’s HOTOL Sentinel R1 fleet during numerous
(Horizontal Take-off and Landing) project of the 1980s, eventually overseas operations was first tested
cancelled when the Thatcher government pulled its support. An earlier aboard Canberra B(I)8 WT327 in the
administration had ensured a similar fate for the British Aircraft 1980s and ’90s.
Corporation’s attempt to develop a reusable spaceplane, one that went The text is well-written and
under a less-than-hard-hitting acronym: MUSTARD (Multi-Unit Space readable, if rather lacking in first-hand
Transport and Recovery Device). accounts, while the selection of
This is the ‘Space Shuttle’ in the title of an absolutely outstanding new book archive images — both colour and
by Dan Sharp, who has left few stones unturned in his quest to document black-and-white — is quite
the MUSTARD programme and what led to it. In this context, the volume — outstanding. Reproduction is good,
number five in Crécy’s ‘British Secret Projects’ series — will interest those too. The only real flaw I could identify is
more into aviation than spaceflight, for there is an extensive section on the somewhat limited index, rendering
English Electric’s stillborn P42 that presaged MUSTARD. It produced more what is otherwise a very useful reference
than 20 designs, among them enormous ramjet-powered deltas, much volume less practical than it might be. ‘Worthy of a
smaller spaceplanes and a great deal in between. Offshoots, also discussed That aside, ‘Black Box Canberras’ shows place in the
here, included potential Mach 4-capable TSR2 successors. what can be done by a dedicated author library of
Moving on to MUSTARD itself, Sharp lays bare the very high-end research and a publisher that understands the anyone
carried out at BAC’s Warton facility, aided by extensive study of archive need for quality. It’s worthy of a place in
documents and interviews with several of the men involved. He outlines the library of anyone interested in post- interested in
rival schemes drawn up by other manufacturers, both British and mainland war British service aviation. Ben Dunnell post-war
European, and discusses each of BAC’s many different MUSTARD concepts. British service
Absolutely fascinating is the examination of how BAC may have contributed ISBN 978-1-90210-953-4; 12 x 8.75in aviation’
to NASA’s eventual Space Shuttle programme, but didn’t. In any case, Sharp hardback; 256 pages, illustrated;
opines, MUSTARD was “a Space Shuttle in waiting”, which “deserves to be £29.95
remembered as a high point of British technological innovation during the
20th century.” ★★★★★
Everything about this title sets a high standard. The first-rate text is
accompanied by a splendid range of imagery, period drawings and
illustrations appearing alongside some very fine new digital artworks. The All the Fine
design is smart and attractive (despite the odd slip, like the single line of text Young Eagles
on page 51), the paper nice, and the reproduction praiseworthy. All in all, a by David L. Bashow
most impressive work. Ben Dunnell published by Douglas & McIntyre
ISBN 978-1-91080-902-0; 11.5 x 8.75in hardback; When Great Britain declared war on
264 pages, illustrated; £27.50 Germany on 3 September 1939, there
★★★★★ were more than 1,000 Canadian aircrew
serving on active duty with the Royal Air
Force. These were the CANRAFS,

98 www.aeroplanemonthly.com AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017

Canadians in RAF service. Canadian
fighter pilots served across numerous
RAF squadrons, in No 242 Squadron —
set up on 30 October 1939 to bring
together suitable Canadian personnel —
and later in specific RCAF units,
numbered 400 and upwards. This is
their story, from 242’s ill-fated excursion
into France with its Hurricanes as part of
the British Expeditionary Force in early
1940, through the Battle of Britain and
right up to the end of the war. It is told
in detail, with clarity, with a degree of
humour and an understanding of the
life of a fighter pilot that could only be
supplied by another fighter pilot (author
Bashow flew RCAF Starfighters for 10
years and wrote ‘Starfighter: A Loving
Retrospective of the CF-104 Era in
Canadian Fighter Aviation, 1961-1986 —
Fortress Publications, 1991).
This is a paperback book, but a
substantial one. It is illustrated, if not
extensively, with decently reproduced
black-and-white images. The familiar
Canadian names are all here, including
George ‘Buzz’ Beurling, Russ Bannock
and Willie McKnight. Where this title
excels is in relating the little episodes in
these pilots’ lives as well as the details of
their air combats. Beurling was a loner
and not one who happily accepted the
heavy hand of authority. While he
proved an excellent shot in combat with
an uncanny skill in deflection shooting,
he had an unconventional and
unpredictable streak. The story is told of
his using two bullets from his Webley
pistol to shoot the tail feathers off a pet
duck before being dissuaded from
taking a third shot only by the threat of
physical violence. “I wasn’t going to hurt
it”, he protested and, in fact, he had not.
That same skill would take him through
the war and to a total of 31 kills, but he
lost his life in an air crash in 1948,
having been recruited to fly for the
Israeli Air Force. Denis J. Calvert
ISBN 978-1-77162-135-9; 9 x 6in
softback; 577 pages, illustrated;
CAN$28.95
★★★★★
SBAC Farnborough:
A History
by Peter G. Dancey
published by Fonthill Media
The idea is a good one — the story of
SBAC airshows, starting with Hendon
(1932-35), Hatfield (1936-37) and
Radlett (1946-47) but concentrating on
those held at Farnborough from 1948.
Each event is reviewed, with the major
developments, notable newcomers and
the most memorable display routines
detailed and commented upon.
This is not the definitive account of
Farnborough shows over the years but
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
nor, I suspect, was it ever intended to
be. For that John Blake and Mike
Hooks’ ‘40 Years at Farnborough’
(Haynes, 1990) remains the bible,
although this new book does bring the
story up to 2008. There is a good
selection of photographs, all in black-
and-white and passably reproduced,
although few were taken at
Farnborough. Many are identifiably
from shows at le Bourget, Fairford and
Zhukovsky, while others are simply
‘nice’ air-to-airs. For a book with
‘Farnborough’ in the title, the reader
might reasonably expect the majority
to have been shot there. Some captions
raise an eyebrow. One example is the
‘A story told photo on page 149 of an F-117A which
in detail, with reads, “Despite its futuristic appearance
clarity and a and stealth qualities, under its skin, the
degree of Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk was
basically an F/A-18; the Nighthawk
humour’ used many Hornet components”.
It is in its attention to detail, though,
that this volume really falls down badly.
There are references to “Hawkers [sic]
chief test pilot Bill Dedford”, “the
Hawker Snidely Hawk” and the “Britten-
Norman Trislande”, along with some
strange aircraft designations such as
“Lockheed-Martin f-16NG”. Worse, the
columns of a three-page table detailing
post-war British civil aircraft have
become so muddled that the Scottish
Aviation Twin Pioneer is credited with
seating 59 passengers and the Bristol
170 Freighter 214, but the BAC Super
VC10 just 15. These are all errors that a
competent proof-reader with
appropriate subject knowledge should
— and would — have picked up and
corrected. Denis J. Calvert
‘Falls down
ISBN 978-1-78155-238-4; 9.2 x 6.2in
badly in its softback; 176 pages, illustrated;
attention to £16.99
detail’
★★★★★
Preservation
Pioneers:
Newark Air Museum
1963-2015
by Colin Savill
published by Newark Air Museum
The Newark Air Museum, located on
the old RAF Winthorpe airfield site, has
long been a benchmark when it comes
to volunteer-managed aviation
museums. It was also something of a
pioneer, as this useful and very
worthwhile book recalls. It begins with
‘Tells the the efforts of the museum’s founders,
who in 1963 identified the remains of
NAM’s story Westland Wallace K6038 — the restored
well’ fuselage of which is now with the RAF
Museum at Hendon — as their first
acquisition. Year-by-year from the
public opening in 1973, it looks back at
significant events in the NAM’s history.
It’s not all about the aircraft, of course,
but each addition is chronicled here, the
arrival in 1983 of Vulcan XM594 (which
landed on what remained of the
Winthorpe runway) being given a
chapter to itself. Also interesting is the
appendix listing those airframes that
have left over the years, and a number
of potential accessions that were not
proceeded with — an F-14 Tomcat and a
Nimrod R1 among them.
Not everything about the volume’s
execution is perfect. I could have done
without the potted histories of aircraft
types — greater background on the
individual examples to be found at
Newark would have been more
worthwhile. Apostrophe misuse is a
common feature, there are some
questionably styled aircraft designations,
and the entire text could have done with
an extra edit. But I have no wish to
appear over-critical, for the NAM’s story
deserves telling, and this book does it
well. Ben Dunnell
ISBN 978-0-9500341-8-8; 9.75 x 6.75in
softback; 148 pages, illustrated; £12
★★★★★
Training the Right
Stuff — revisited
In the November issue, we reviewed
‘Training the Right Stuff ’ by Mark A.
Frankel and Tommy H. Thomason,
published by Schiffer — a weighty
tome on the aircraft used to train US
military jet pilots. While generally
praising the text, we did remark on
the low-resolution images used
throughout the book. Since then,
Schiffer has kindly advised us that a
number of copies sent out for review
purposes suffered from a production
problem. Receipt of a replacement
copy demonstrates that, in fact, the
photographic content is first-rate in
terms of extent and quality. So, three
stars rather than the two we gave
before. Useful, recommended — if
still pricey. Ben Dunnell
ISBN 978-0-7643-5030-6;
8.5 x 11in hardback; 352 pages,
illustrated; £60.50
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 99
BAY OF PIG S

I FLEW FOR
★ FIDEL
The death on 25 November of Fidel Castro brought to mind
★
memories of 1961’s Bay of Pigs fiasco, the failed effort to invade
Cuba by CIA-backed exiles. One of the last surviving pilots
to have taken part recalls his role in the operations

WORDS: SANTIAGO RIVAS

W
hen in 1959 the Cuban
revolution overthrew the
dictatorship of Fulgencio
Batista, Rafael del Pino
was a lieutenant in the 26th of July
Movement commanded by Fidel
Castro. He wanted to be a pilot for
the Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria
(FAR), the new name of the Cuban
Air Force. Aged 13 he had received
some flight instruction from a pilot
with whom he became friendly — he
even made a solo flight, but he had
no licence.
The period after the revolution
was chaotic, and the FAR was no
exception. It lost most of its pilots
and technicians as a result of their
arrest by Castro, who accused
them of bombing the rebels. Just
a few pilots from the old air force
remained, including Enrique Carreras
Rolas, Álvaro Prendes and Douglas
Rudd. The first two had been arrested
by Batista and the third was a
deserter from the former regime.
A dozen new pilots started
training, but, as Rafael del Pino
recalls today, “It was very erratic,
without a proper method. Half
of them were killed in accidents;
we lost 50 per cent, until Carreras
and Prendes said that professional
training must be organised. They
established an advanced course
for those who were going to fly
the T-33. We started the course in
January 1960 and we ended up with
a group of more than 20 pilots who
completed the main stages: aerobatic
flying, air combat and air strikes.
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
“But then came the second
purge. In May the political police
came and arrested almost all of the
pilots — except Carreras, Prendes,
Gustavo Bourzac, Alberto Fernández,
Luis Silva, Carlos Ulloa from
Nicaragua and me — saying they
were criticising the revolution. The
revolution came from the middle
class. All the participants were
middle-class, including Fidel and
Raúl Castro, but then they became
allied with the Soviets and the old
Communist party and some pilots
started to criticise that, so they were
arrested. Only eight pilots were
left, and even we were humiliated
when Raúl Castro sent his driver to
become the commander of [our base
at] San Antonio de los Baños.”
One day, Fidel visited the base
to inspect some weapons that had
arrived for distribution to Army
‘Only eight pilots were left, and we were
humiliated when Raúl Castro sent his
driver to become our base commander’
units. del Pino took the opportunity
to ask him about the MiGs they had
been promised, whereupon Castro
replied, “You pilots are conceited.
You think you are better than
anyone. When the first bomb falls
you will run away and no-one will
take off”. del Pino replied, “You are
wrong. We will take off. On the day
of the attack, those who are still alive
will take off”. Castro acknowledged OPPOSITE: Fidel
that he had been rude, explaining Castro around the
that he only made the comment to time of the Bay of
strengthen the unit’s resolve. Pigs invasion.
On 15 April 1961, the CIA-
backed Brigade 2506, made up of
Cuban exiles, began its offensive
against the Castro regime. Eight
Douglas B-26B Invaders — painted
in ‘false flag’ Cuban markings and
flown from an operating base at
Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua, by
Cuban exiles — bombed a variety
of targets: three of them attacked
the FAR headquarters at Ciudad
Libertad, two hit Santiago de Cuba,
and three struck the base at San
Antonio de los Baños.
Rafael del Pino recalls: “Carreras
and I ran to the T-33 serialled 715,
which was on alert. The others were
dispersed all over the base — we left
visible the F-47s and AT-6s, which
had been retired. A B-26 came and
destroyed it with a salvo of rockets.
In the meantime, Fernández and
Bourzac were able to take off, the
former in a T-33 and the latter in a
Sea Fury, but they couldn’t intercept
[the B-26s] because of the time it
took to get airborne and because we
didn’t have radars. At midday, Fidel
came [to the base] and I said to him,
Lockheed T-33A 711
Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria
LUCA CANOSSA
www.aeroplanemonthly.com 101
 BAY OF PIG S
ABOVE: Rafael del Pino some years after the Bay of Pigs
actions, in front of one of the T-33s — serial 711 — used during
the conflict. VIA SANTIAGO RIVAS
ABOVE RIGHT: An unmarked FAR Sea Fury prior to the
attempted invasion. Cuba had bought 17 refurbished FB11s
from Hawker in 1959. Two were lost in the course of the
operations, one on the ground during the initial B-26 attacks,
the other in a crash. VIA SANTIAGO RIVAS
ABOVE: B-26B ‘Do you now realise that we were
serial 935 (formerly right when we said we would take
43-22455) was off?’”
flown by the so- When the invasion started on the
called Fuerza Aérea
de Liberación, the 17th, Castro did not fly in any of the
invading forces’ air aircraft involved. Instead, he merely
arm. In the hands of called the base and talked to Carreras,
Matías Farías, it was ordering him to sink the ships and
shot down by a T-33 shoot down the aerial attackers.
on 17 April while “We thought they were going to
attempting to land land in Trinidad or further away, but
at Girón airfield. not the Bay of Pigs”, says del Pino.
Note the fake ‘FAR’ “When we saw they were landing
titles on the fin.
VIA SANTIAGO RIVAS
there we said, ‘They’re f****d’. The
radius of action of our aircraft wasn’t
enough to reach Trinidad. The pilots
started to scramble. I was the least
‘We thought they were going to land in
Trinidad or further away, but not the Bay
of Pigs. When we saw they were landing
there, we said, ‘They’re f****d’’
experienced, with 30 hours on the
T-33. My instructor, Martin Klein
— who was shot down by mistake
shortly before the invasion — had
explained to me, ‘What you have
to do is approach until you see the
102 www.aeroplanemonthly.com
BELOW: In the colour scheme used during the operations, this Sea Fury of
the FAR has been armed with rockets. VIA SANTIAGO RIVAS
pilot’s helmet. When you see it, you
push the trigger’. And it happened
just like that.
“My first mission was at 14.00hrs.
During the early sorties, Carreras
[flying a Sea Fury] and Fernández
[in a T-33] shot down a B-26 each,
and [the Sea Fury of ] Ulloa was
shot down. I took off with Silva
[in an Invader] and Bourzac, and
found a B-26. Silva was heading east,
between Cienfuegos and the Bay of
Pigs, and this B-26 was coming in
the opposite direction. I told Silva
I could see an aircraft and he said it
wasn’t him, but it was painted in the
same colours. When I approached,
I realised it had two blue stripes on
the wings. It was an enemy aircraft,
and when I got in close and saw the
helmet of the pilot I fired”. Feeling
an impact on his aircraft, del Pino
thought he had been hit, but in fact
it was a piece falling away from the
stricken B-26.
The Invader was the example flown
by Osvaldo ‘Chirrino’ Piedra and Joe
Fernández. It crashed and both crew
members were killed.
After destroying the B-26, del Pino
headed towards the aircraft of Silva
and Bourzac and stayed above them
for cover. “Bourzac” — nicknamed
‘Grandpa’ — “was to the right of
Silva. I saw Silva was too low, very
close to the water, and Bourzac alerted
him. I shouted ‘Grandpa, you’re too
low!’ He didn’t reply, and Bourzac
shouted, ‘Grandpa, climb a bit!’
“Then he opened fire at long
distance — the bullets could be
seen impacting the water in front
of the ship. He should have gone
after the transport ships, but he
went to attack the Blagar [an LCI,
or landing craft infantry, being used
as a command post], which was a
‘hedgehog’, full of guns. One impact
from the ship’s artillery tore a wing
off the aeroplane. It passed over the
ship and crashed on the other side.
Some said that part of the tail fell
onto the deck. It was a big blow for
us: it wasn’t just Silva, but also the
mechanic, the navigator and the rear
gunner. We were about 10 or 15
AEROPLANE FEBRUARY 2017
miles from the Bay of Pigs, and the
ships were in a convoy, moving away.
“I still had my rockets. The
instructions were to get rid of them
in order to manoeuvre if we entered
a dogfight, but it all happened so
fast. I fired the rockets at the Blagar,
but I didn’t see the results. Bourzac
also attacked the ship.”
After returning from this mission,
del Pino departed on another. Álvaro
Prendes was the leader in a T-33,
while Douglas Rudd was flying a
Sea Fury. “We caught two B-26s
and Prendes attacked the leader”,
recalls del Pino. “I was behind and
saw when he opened fire. The B-26
caught fire and began to shed parts.
Then I saw someone jump from the
bomb bay; a parachute opened and
fell into the sea. It was a miracle that
he survived. It was the co-pilot, who
I later found out was rescued by a
US destroyer. The pilot went down
with the aircraft.
“Prendes said, ‘Attack the other
one’. I did as I had done in the
other combat. I approached until
I was very close, the enemy started
to turn hard — pulling a lot of about 4-5km from there to Girón; bombed by the Brigade’s B-26s and ABO OVE: The
g — and I opened fire, hitting one everything you find on the road you completely destroyed. “The pollitical Hou uston (right)
of his engines. I was faster and I must destroy’. Fernández and me commissar of the armed forcces later wass among four
overtook him. When I started to went first; Douglas Rudd came later. removed that part from myy book trannsport ships in
the invasion fleet.
look for him I couldn’t find him, and And we caused many casualties.” about the war, because he said that Folloowing rocket
Douglas said, ‘I got it too’. He dived In fact, those casualties were from everyone must keep thhinking that attaacks by an FAR
and started to fire at the B-26, but Battalion 123 of the Revolutionary those martyrs had beeen caused by the T-333 and Sea Fury, it
two A-4s [actually stiill desiignated Militia. The unit had been sent enemy, but it was a mistake by the is se
een burning near
as A4D-1s at the time, operated urgently to Girón, where it realised command”, explaains del Pino. Playya Larga, one of
by US Navy squadron VA-34 th
hat the invading Brigade 2506 On the morn ning of the 19th, two o main landing
from the USS Essex] appearred, put forces hadd retreated from Playa Larga Carrera and Prendes — flying sitess — the other
themselves between the Sea Fury and to Girón. Battalion n 123 was later also T-33s — shhot down a Brigade 2506 beinng Playa Girón.
VIA SA
ANTIAGO RIVAS
the Invader, and stopped Dougglas
from continuing to fire. I think that LEFTT: Enrique
[B-26] was the one flown by Cresp po, Carrreras Rolas in
which crashed into the sea. fron
nt of his T-33,
while the mechanics
❖ prep
pare it for a
misssion. Serial 703
wass put back into
“On the morning of the second serv
vice during the
day, me and Prendes took off in Bay of Pigs actions.
a T-33. As we couldn’t see any VIA SANTIAGO RIVAS
enemy aircraft, we started to
attack the ground troops. The
afternoon there was a ‘friendly fire’
incident, as a result of a mission
that Fidel passed to Curbelo [the
communications minister, who
provided liaison between the FAR
and the government] by ’phone.
Curbelo said, ‘At Playa Larga —
where you will see smoke — is a
line of howitzers. The front line is

CUBA’S REVOLUTIONARY AIR FORCE

According to Rafael del Pino, by 15 April 1961 the Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria had a fixed-wing force consisting
of five Sea Fury FB11s, six B-26C Invaders (for which there were only three pilots, Capt Silva Tablada, Capt
Jackes Lagas from Chile and 1st Lt Álvaro Galo from Nicaragua), five T-33s (serials 703, 707, 709, 711 and 715),
seven AT-6 Texans, one T-28 Trojan, two C-47 Skytrains, one C-46 Commando, one PBY Catalina and one C-54
Skymaster. Ten F-47 Thunderbolts and two F-51 Mustangs were out of service. On the rotary-wing side there
were three Bell 47s and a single Westland Whirlwind. Almost all the aircraft were in very poor condition, and the
T-33 serialled 703 was under repair at the start of the Bay of Pigs campaign.

AEROPLANE FEBR
RUARY 2017 www.aeroplanem
monthly.com 103
BAY OF PIG S
B-26, while another was downed
by artillery. Both were flown by
American pilots from the Alabama
Air National Guard, who had been
permitted to take part in operations
as CIA contractors; the co-pilot of
one was also from Alabama, and the
other a Cuban.
‘I had a Skyhawk to my side, very close.
If he’d wanted to shoot me down, he could
have. It was due to my inexperience’
BELOW: Fidel The FAR performed strike missions
Castro inspects the that afternoon, adding a second
wreckage of the Sea Fury that had been repaired.
downed FAL B-26 “We spent the whole day bombing
near the airfield at and attacking troops”, del Pino
Girón. BOB HENRIQUES/
MAGNUM PHOTOS
remembers. “There was confusion
when a US destroyer approached very
close to the coast and we saw some
landing craft. I thought they were
making another landing.
“When we finished we were
cautious not to attack the destroyer,
only the landing craft. On getting
back to base I said that a new
landing was taking place. Curbelo
removed the commander of the air
base and made direct contact with
the pilots. Then he called Fidel to tell
him what I had seen, and Fidel said,
‘They are leaving, they are boarding
the ships’. We went to prepare the
aircraft again, and by the time we
arrived over the bay the destroyer
had already left, so we kept bombing
Hawker Sea Fury FB11 541
Fuerza Aérea Revolucionaria
LUCA CANOSSA
the beach. Soon afterwards, our
troops occupied it.”
During the 20th, Fernández
and del Pino took off for an area
reconnaissance. Some US ships were
recovering survivors from the Brigade
and the FAR pilots had orders not to
attack them. At one point, del Pino
says, “I had a Skyhawk to my side,
very close. They had removed all the
markings. If he’d wanted to shoot
me down, he could have, as I was
distracted. It was my mistake because
of my lack of experience. Girón had
already fallen and we were watching
the ships. I informed Fernández and
we decided to return to base.
“Immediately afterwards, Fidel
ordered the use of a Bristol Britannia
from the airline Cubana for
reconnaissance, as the enemy would
not shoot it down. That was the
last flight by our side during the
period of the invasion.”
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In next month’s The March 2017 issue of Aeroplane goes on

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AEROPLANE

JUST JANE
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 HISTORY • REFERENCE PHOTOS • COLOUR PROFILES
Key Publishing’s first reference book
in the new Combat Machines
series is a detailed 84-page study
of the famous B-17G bomber,
timed perfectly for the release of
Airfix’s new 1/72 kit of the type.

Written by Malcolm V Lowe, the

development and history of the B-17G,
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commissioned colour profiles, a two-page
cutaway drawing and walk-round images of
a restored aircraft.
This is a vital research and reference tool
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and seeks to correct erroneous information
published in other books. Besides offering
useful material about the aircraft itself,
Combat Machines B-17G also explores the
flight crews, their clothing and Medal of
Honor awards, as well as missions flown by
NEW the RAF and USAAF’s numbered air forces.

SERIES 84 PAGES, SOFTBACK

Available NOW from and all other leading newsagents

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1105 B17G Airfix Special fp.indd 50 09/11/2016 14:59