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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 2234.PDF
5O2 FLIGHT NOVEMBER JTU, 1946 BRITAIN'S TEST PILOTS movement together jerked it out at less than 1, oooft. Afterlanding, his story was politely disbelieved, and he looked even sillier when, later, he tried to reproduce it in the airand failed. His vindication came six mqnths afterwards, when Poppy Popie had it happen to him at Martlesham.At the R.A.E. there was a light plane club—of which George '' Bulman was the original pilot and chairman—and Thorn in 1929 flew the club's Avian Q.N. to many of the week-end meetings held at that time. It was at oneof these meetings that he met Capt. T. Neville Stack, R.F.C. (now a Commander in the Royal Navy with twosons 111 the R.A.F.) who was the chief test pilot of Aircraft Disposals Company (the company responsible for sellingthe surplus aircraft left over after the 1914-18 war and the forerunner of Cirrus Engines). Stack told Thorn that hewas leaving A.D.C., and Bill took over in his place, and remained there until the company ceased to operate. For a short while after this he became an instructor atShoreham, where F. G. Miles—now the head of the big Miles Aircraft concern—ran a small flying school, built acouple of aircraft of his own design, taught his wife to fly, and lived in a caravan on the airfield. The next two years or so he spent as sales manager andinstructor with Brooklands Aviation, Ltd., running the Northampton Club for some part of this time. Later hejoined Birkett and Brian Allen. As a charter pilot in those days he had a number ofexciting trips, of which two are outstanding. The first was a Puss Moth charter to Belgium with an eccentric butrich man as his passenger. He gave Bill £180 to spend on himself for the first evening and then, when most peoplewere going to bed, told Thorn that they must start at once • for Cairo. When Bill told him you couldn't start just likethat, he started a fight in the bar. This was exceedingly foolish because among Thorn's many accomplishments hehad won the Wakefield Officers' Middleweight Champion- ship, the Officers' Open Championship, and the Officers'Open Light-Heavyweight Championship. On his pas- senger's recumbent form the bartender expended most ofa siphon of soda water to bring him round. Later, on the way home, "whilst circling Calais before setting outacross the Channel, this passenger (in the back seat) put his arms round Bill's neck and tried to throttle him. ThePuss Moth was left to its own devices while Thorn turned round and laid his passenger out a second time. Fog and Darkness Another Puss Moth charter gave him the closest shave he had had in 21 years' flying. He had flown a couple to the Channel Islands and landed on the beach at St. Aubins at low tide. Aircraft cannot be left on the beach with the water coming in, so despite the lateness of the hour and the absence of any night-flying equipment or other aids, he started back for England. In failing light the bad weather-forced him down to within 50ft of the water, and there was no alternative but to climb up through the muck and go on by dead reckoning. By the time he surmised he was over the coast it was quite dark and his descent through thick cloud with no blind-flying panel was no small feat of pilotage. Spotting a line of lights, he circled them, only to find it was a liner going up Channel. Turning north for ten minutes, a coast town showed up, but Bill was unable to identify it, and he went on in the hope of being able to pick up the lights of London reflected in the cloud base. In this, however, he was defeated by fog, and back again he went to the coast town—-.still unidentified. Petrol had now become low and a landing had to be made with no Holt flares nor landing lights to help him. No selection of area was pos- sible, just a straight blind flop into an abyss. Thorn is not what one would call a religious man, but as he made his approach he recited the Lord's Prayer out loud. After a short run and a couple of hefty bumps, the Puss Moth stopped and the light of a match showed every- thing intact. Daylight revealed that he had got down in a field 180 yards long, that he had bounced over one irriga- tion ditch and stopped two yards before another. Appar- ently, quite unbeknown to Thorn, there had been a freak wind of 35 m.p.h. above the clouds, and calm conditions at ground level. Had it been a little stronger he would have been blown off his course so much that he would have missed England completely and run out of fuel over the North Sea. The unidentified town was Eastbourne. In his A.D.C. days Thorn had met Roy (now Sir Roy) Dobson of Avros, and in 1934, when he wanted a change, he asked if he could come on the test-piloting staff. H, ("Sam") Brown, who was then the chief test pilot, a who did all the first Avro prototype flights up to and in- cluding the Lincoln, was away in S. America; J. B. Tompkins was holding the fort. Thorn came in as third dicky to help finish-off the production-testing of the Tutor, Avro 641, Cabin Cadet, Commodore and C.30 Autogiro. In 1935 he spent much of his time demonstrating Avro aircraft on the Continent, notably in Greece, Denmark and Turkey, and then late in the year, when Tompkins left Avros, he stepped up to assistant chief test pilot. At this time the AVro Anson was being produced. It was one of those aircraft which came out almost perfect right from the beginning. Its only trouble was a tail vibration which tended to build up. It was cured by putting streamline wires from the fin to the tailplane. Over 7,600 Ansons have been produced since then and given wonderful service. Sam Brown did the initial flight tests on the Man- chester, Lancaster, York and Lincoln, but an enormous amount of development flying had to be done on these types, and Thorn put in a very large share. On the Man- chester he had five forced landings through main tear- ings failing in Vulture engines. Now, with Jimmy Orrell as second pilot, he is putting Tudor Is and Us through their paces and waiting for some very interesting types which are not yet at the flying stage. In 21 years' flying Bill Thorn has piled up some 5,500 hours' flying, on no types. He has test-flown and cleared over 3,000 aircraft himself. In the whole of his career he has smashed only one machine. This was a Desoutter with Hermes engine. A flat-spot in the carburation caused him to undershoot, and he finished up with his face in the valve rockers. In addition to his boxing prowess mentioned earlier, he won the Aldershot Command £-mile in 1921 and was second in the British Army f-mile. He is also an artist at water polo, as Boscombe Down realized this year.—J. Y. GERMAN TECHNICIANS FOR BRITAIN '"TEN German technicians are being brought to this country-L this month for employment at the Ministry of Supply Guided Projectiles Establishment, Westcott. Several moretechnicians will join the team later. The employment of these men is in accordance with a scheme outlined in May by Mr.Arthur Woodburn, M.P., Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Supply, when he announced that German scientistswere to be employed at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough. The ten Germans coming to Westcott, like all others, hav'isigned contracts on^. voluntary basis and are keen to work in this country, says the Ministry of Supply. Full provision forthe safeguarding of security precautions will be taken and restrictions will be enforced similar to those affecting enemyaliens. They are Johannes Schmidt, engineer; Herman Treutler, physicist; Jurgen Diedrichen, chemist; GustavFiedler, designer draughtsman; Johannes Frauenberger, designer draughtsman; Heinz Walder, experimental engineer;Carl Meier, experimental engineer; Walter Kolterman, foreman fitter; Walter Mueller, designer draughtsman; and FriedrichJessen, experimental engineer. At present 26 German scientists are working at Farn boroughon aerodynamics, jet propulsion, metallurgy, helicopter de- velopment, thermodynamics, autopilots and gyros. Negotia-tions are in progress for the employment of fifteen more Germans, including four radio experts, at Farnborough. Alsoin this country are five turbine scientists employed by C. and A. Parsons, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
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