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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1421.PDF
JULY 25TH, 1946 FLIGHT 79- Britain's Test Pilots No. 12—HARALD JAMES PENROSE, O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., A.M.I.N.A. CHIEF TEST PILOT OF WEST LAND AIRCRAFT, LTD. IN things aeronautical Penrose has two particularclaims to distinction. The first, of great importancein these days, is that he has more experfence of flying tail-less aircraft than any other pilot in this country—and probably in the world. The second is that he was first airborne in a man-lifting (in his case a child-lifting) kite at Reading in 191Z. The contraption was a three-kites-in- tandem affair with a sort of bosun's chair beneath. About the same time, at the age of eight or nine, he must have been one of the pioneer aero-modellers, and distinctly remembers being spanked for coming home late after going to see Salmet flying^at Woodley, near Reading, from a site very close to the present airfield of Miles Aircraft. His first flight in il ^ower-dr^en macrfine was with i Muir at Reading, in an Avro.^504—tha.t 1idrdj| perennial \ f^which every test pilot appears either- to have flown or | nav6 been flown in. The 504 made its debut in 1912 and was stiir.flying in 1930. It was the Tiger Moth of the 1914-18 war. • , Getting Airborne . In 1922 Penrose went to tlje London University for a four-years' course in general engineering and aeronautics, and spent his leisure time scrounging flights where pos- sible, with odd bits of flying instruction thrown in. He was as poor as most students and things had to be done that way. One of his rather better bits of scrounging was a flight in the prototype D.H. Moth (G—EBKT) with Hubert Broad. During his course Harald spent six months at Handley- Page, Ltd., where he did very little flying but picked up a lot of aerodynamic knowledge while working on the wind tunnel, and a further six months at Westlands. Here he worked in the shops getting practical experience, and did quite a lot of flying as a technical observer with Openshaw (who was then Westland's test pilot and was killed in an air collision while racing a Westland Widgeon at ournemouth in 1927). of this flying was one in the Y e o v i I bomber, the Westland Limousine, the Widgeon I and the D.H.9A Trainer. Having successfully completed his University course in 1926, Penrose joined Westlands. At first he worked in the Flying the Peregrine-engined Westland Whirl- wind. Although designedas a fighter the Whirl- wind went into service asa ground attack aircraft. H. J. Penrose, O.B.E., and an airstudy of him flying the Westland/Hill Pterodactyl Mk V. The Mark V hada 700 h.p. Rolls-Royce Goshawk steam-cooled engine. shops as a fitter at the munificent wage of £3 per week, but after six months of this he became a design draughtsman on Capt. G.T. R. Hill's (the brother of Air Marshal Sir Roderic Hill) staff, who were pro- ducing the first Hill Ptero- dactyl. At the same time Harald Reserve and did his ab iniLio training under Papa Uwins at the Bristol School of Flying. If I remember right, he would at that time be flying the Lucifer engined Bristol P.T.M., which had more built-in vibration than any other aircraft before or since. About this time Penrose began to get some reward for his labours and was appointed manager of Westlands Civil Aircraft Department—himself and ten men!—which dealt with the production of the Widgeon ami later the Wessex. From this it was but a step to testing them as well as making them, and finally to demonstrating them at week- end meetings all over the country. Never content with the job in hand he then drifted into flying Westland Wapitis and Wessexes. More flying time was also put in by doing 100-hour flying tests of Bristol's engines, equipment and airscrews. He also helped with sales and general liaison with R.A.F. squadrons under Louis Paget, who was then Westland's chief test pilot. After a short course on a seaplane Mongoose-Avro at Hamble in 1931, he took a Wapiti landplane and seaplane to Buenos Aires for a demonstration visit. _ On the day
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