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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0581.PDF
APRIL 17TH, 1947 FLIGHT 3*3 .BRITAIN'S TEST PILOTS career; that of flying the upper component of the Short Mayo composite. The basic idea was to test the possibility of mounting a heavily loaded aircraft on top of a lightly- loaded machine, and to launch the heavily loaded aircraft at height. The Mayo was first flown as an eight-engined biplane and this flight nearly became the first parting, because Parker, who controlled the whole machine from the bottom half, thought the controls felt very strange. The first part- ing was intended to be carried out at a height of some 7,oooft just in'case either machine played tricks after separa- tion. Actually it happened at about'700ft. Pip's recollec- tion of the parting was hearing Parker's voice over the inter-comm. telling him of the intention to let go, at which Piper did a very Jarge swallow and said O.K. Parting forces were in excess of 5,000 lb, and the momen- tary acceleration was somewhat disturbing, but the most frightening part, however, was that neither pilot could find the other for nearly a quarter of a minute, each being in the other's blind spot. An interesting sidelight on the Mayo is that the excellent inter-comm. fitted to all opera- tional aircraft during the war was the direct development of the instruments especially designed by the R.A.E. at Farnborough for Parker and Piper to talk to one another clearly enough not to mishear instructions. During the war Short and Harlands were busy on a variety of aircraft types. Repairs and# alterations were made to Hurricanes, Battles, Lysanders, *Ansons, Spitfires, and they are now on a batch of Lincolns. Production lines of Sttrlings and Sunderlands were laid down and Piper was responsible for testing over 800 Stirling? and about 100 Sunderlands. One Fine Day In common with all the other test pilots, Pip claims to have had an uneventful career. There was one day, how- ever, which even he admits was somewhat out of the ordinary. In^he morning of this particular day there was a Stirling, a Lysander and a Battle all due for flight testing. Deciding to start with the Lysander, he got in to run up the engine and got out again when it stopped because the plugs were not fitted properly, the engine having been inhibited. Getting into the Battle next, he got to the point of starting to taxy out when the tail tyre burst. Changing over to the Stirling he got that into the air, but after a few minutes flying the supercharger impeilor of the port outer engine burst, and bits flew in all directions. Flames shot from the engine cowling, but luckily no fire resulted. Arriving home on three engines he retired to lunch. Starting again in the afternoon he tried the Battle. During the run-up the glycol temperature went up a bit fcigh but went down again. Just after take-off, however, when he had got to some 500ft, the radiator thermometer hand suddenly went right round the clock. Piper turned away from the city and in a few seconds he could not see a thing because of a douche of scalding glycol. At the same time his flight engineer/observer, Mr. Harryman, pushed a dripping hand through from the rear cockpit to show what was happening in case Piper had not noticed it. By this time Pip was standing on the seat, bending down to the stick and yelling at Harryman to get overboard. The rear cockpit was closed, however, and his observer heard not a word. There was nothing else for it then but to get back into the cockpit and pull off the best landing possible—a perfectly good one, dead across wind and mostly by feel, as he could only see dim outlines. All that was caused by the header tank relief valve becoming stuck ; the pressure built up and the tank burst. Curiously enough, most test pilots have had one or more aileronless flights, and Piper is no exception On one occasion he flew a Stirling which had been standing tail to wind in half a gale. Just after take-off he hit some bumps ON THE SEASHORE : The forced landing at W. Baronga, near Akyab, which held up Piper's England-Australia flightfor nearly three weeks. and aileron control faded out completely. After telling the crew to stand by to jump if necessary, he found he was able to make gentle turns with the rudder only, and finished up intact after a crosswind landing. Inspection revealed that the whipping of the ailerons in the wind had broken the control pulleys. An unusual "incident" was the failure in Uigh.t ot a joint in the starboard flap of a Stirling. During the approach the port flap gave the necessary indication and Piper could not understand why he had to keep giving more and more port aileron to get the starboard wing up. Finally he had the wheel hard over on the stops and the wing still dropping. Only large bursts of power from the starboard outer engine saved him a perfect thm-point landing on one wheel, tail and starboard wing-tip. Apart from flying, Pip's other passions in life are duck- shooting, guns and boats. He has a considerable armoury, which is the despair of his tidy-minded wife, and the boats on which he spends many hours waiting in the reeds for wily duck are built bv his own hands. The pictures which adorn the walls of his house betray his devotion to these interests. Every one depicts either" aircraft or wildfowl. To date Piper has just over 4,100 hours flying to his credit and his log books show 77 different types of aircraft flown. J Y- 'Better get » practice homhjg Joe."
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