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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0599.PDF
r MARCH 3- FLIGHT. 209 SECOND PARTING Short-Mayo Compo- site Separated "In Public" A SECOND big moment for Mr.Lankester Parker and Mr. H. L.Piper (and also, of course, forMajor Mayo and all those connected with the Short-Mayo composite aircraft)passed successfully and uneventfully on Wednesday, February 23. The first—the impromptu separation of Mercury and Maia—had been accomplished on aSunday afternoon with no critical spec- tators watching every move. The secondoccasion, before a battery of cameras and Pressmen, both flying and earth-bound, demanded prearranged separation at a given position and at a low altitude.In the original Mayo scheme parting at 10,oooft. or more is- visualised, sothat Wednesday's demonstration was purely a spectacular proof of the spon-sors' trust in the scheme. All eight engines, Bristols and Napiers,started without hesitation. As Mr. j. Lankester Parker taxied Maia-Mercurypast Short Brothers' Rochester Works, accompanied in the control cabin byCapt. A. S. Wilcockson (pilot of Cale- donia on her first and several subsequentAtlantic crossings) cine cameras began to whirr. For a moment it seemed likelythat a slow-moving tug towing a cluster of barges would hold up the take-off,but before its wash had caught the less wary spectators off their guard, eightairscrews whirled into misty discs and the composite was accelerating towardsthe big crowd outside the works. .- •••--•,;•• .-• Off •;v-;---_ After making a wide circuit with thephotographer-crammed Empire boat Corinna in close company, the compositeheaded towards the works again. Then, just short of the river, and at Coo-7ooft.,Mercury popped off Maia's back with quite astounding suddenness. Oneblinked and doubted one's visual im- pression of the previous moment. Hadthe now separate machines really been one? As soon as they were apart Mer-cury seemed to rise vertically, with her nose perhaps a little up, while Maiadropped away nose-down, neither gaining a noticeable lead until they were fully50ft. apart, when Mercury went ahead. Maia came in at once, landing ele-gantly and taxied away to her moorings across the water; Mercury, perhaps touse a little petrol, or more probably to await her turn to alight, made severalrapid, low-altitude circuits at well over 200 m.p.h., with the four Rapiers whin-ing characteristically. Mr. Lankester Parker said that thefirst indication that Mercury was free was the loud click as the third hook re-leased. He summed up the separation in the words "I think the chief thingwe discovered was that it wasn't a fluke the first time." Mercury's excess liftnt the moment of parting was something like 7,ooolb. These extracts from the " British Movietone " slow-motion film of the separation tell the story vividly ; especially do they show the steadiness of attitude in both units after separa- tion. These pictures are not a con- tinuous extract; they are selected from some eight feet of film.
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