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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1263.PDF
JULY 31ST, 1947 FLIGHT T17 far the very early flight-refuelling experiments and also made a demonstration tour of India with an Airspeed Ccurier and Envoy. . At the end of the 1935 season the Cobham show closed down and Geoffrey joined Sam Brown and Bill Thorn in the Avro test-flying team. Avros were then producing the Avro 652 (which later became the Anson and is now the Avro XXIX), Tutor, Trainer, Hawker Audax and Cierva Autogiro under licence. The Flying Petrol Station . In 1937, however, there were approaches from Flight Refuelling on the subject of rejoining their flying staff, with a suggestion that perhaps there was a refuelling base; ^nanagership in the offing if things went well. Geoffrey, •hth much regret, left Avros and went back to refuelling. His "handkerchief picking-up " practice stood him in good stead, because in those days contact between the tanker and tankee was made by catching a trailing weight or bag of shot in a hook on the wing-tip. The slightest mis- calculation meant that either the trailing rope got mixed up in the airscrew or the weight swung back violently and gave the underside of the wing an almighty clout. They also tried the Atcherley method, in which the two machines, —an Overstrand and a Vickers 150—took off tied together. The fuel was then pumped across while the aircraft flew in line abreast. F^r the fiist Atlantic refuelling experiments in 1939 the Short boats Cabot and Caribou were used. Tyson re- fuelled from Foynes and Johnson from Newfoundland. A lull programme had been arranged for 1940 but both boats were lbst off Norway, and refuelling was off. Geoffrey then joined Piper and Morton in Lankester Parker's test team at Short Bros. For the rest of the war he did development flying and production-testing of Stirlings and Sunderlands, and to see how the aircraft behaved on operations he went with W/C Gilmour, D.S.O., D.F.C., on a bomber raid to Cassel. Seven months ago a loyalty within a loyalty led him to leave Shorts and rejoin Arthur Gouge at Saunders-Roe, where he is now in the throes of testing the SR/Ai jet fly- ing-boat fighter, in addition to passing-out Sea Otters and doing development work on seaplane floats. At the moment Saros are busy on floats for a rather larger Auster and for the Heston Aircraft Co.'s reconnaissance machine. The boat fighter has characteristics all its own. It goes through the various water conditions very fast and, in the short periods while it angles back during the take-off and landing, great clouds of steam appear and a terrific beating is set up by the jets being directed down on to the water. When in the air Tyson found only the same high-pitched whine as is experienced on any jet fighter. Sometime in 1950 the big S.R.45 will be ready for flying and Tyson is looking forward to the day. To keep his hand in, however, he intends going as supeniumary crew D STAR PERFORMER; The position in which his Stttton harness safety pin fell THE END OF A SISKIN : After the fire had died out 50 golhns of unhurnt t>etrol remained in the tank. on the transatlantic service for regular once-a-month trips before the big boat comes out of the hangar. Geoffrey stoutly denies that anything very exciting has happened to him, but these things are relative. I happen to know, for instance, that while flying Grebes with No. 25 squadron he knocked his undercarriage completely off while playing at landing off stalled turns. For that he had a session on the mat in front of Brooke-Popham and was confined to camp for a month. While flying at 500ft on a two-seater Siskin at Upavon, a petrol pipe broke between the carburettor and the filter, and the machine burst into flames. A very hurried land- ing was made. The man in the front seat jumped just before the Siskin touched-down and Geoffrey dismounted while the aircraft was still doing about 40 m.p.h. (there were no brakes on the Siskin). Picking himself up he ran back to put the other chap's clothes out. On another occasion, at Limerick, while joy-riding the Fox Moth in Cobham's circus, a Moth struck the machine from below and knocked the undercarriage off completely. Geoffrey landed safely but both occupants of the Moth lost their lives. It was while aerobating for the Air Circus that he had his narrowest shave. He always finished his performance by a straight, low inverted fly-past, but while doing this at Tunbridge Wells the pin fastener worked out of his Sutton harness. As he fell from his seat he instinctively hung on to the spade grip of his joy-stick, this pulled the elevators right up, and he was thrown back into the cock- pit with his knees on the floor and chin on the stick. At this stage he gave up mentally ; everything was very calm, but this, he thought, was the end. On looking up, however, he found he was flying right-side-up at approxi- mately 10ft off the ground ; gathering his wits he took control and landed. What had happened was that the violent downward half-loop from the inverted position had taken place over a deep valley, and the extra few feet had provided sufficient clearance Geoffrey Tyson has 5,500 flying hours to his credit, and his log books record 149 different types of aircnift flown. j y-
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