FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1939.PDF
BASIC REACTION . . . The Jet Provost formating on a photographic air craft during its first flight, thus demonstrating some thing of the confidence which Mr. "Dick" Whel- don must already have felt in the machine. FROM ALL QUARTERS Jet Provost Flies THE first prototype of the Hunting Percival P.84 Jet Provost ••• made its initial flight at Luton on June 26th in the hands of the company's chief test pilot, Mr. R. G. "Dick" Wheldon. The new aircraft, serial-numbered XD 674, has been developed from a p.v. design, and has been constructed in vei*y good time. It consists of standard Provost T.Mk.l wings and empennage, suitably strengthened and matched with a fuselage housing an Armstrong Siddeley Viper ASV.5 (1,640 lb thrust) in its rear section; the standard Provost side-by-side cockpit is retained for ward of the leading edge. So far the machine has not been painted, and temperature-sensing probe arid control-position indicators are in evidence. The undercarriage is of nose-wheel type and of long travel to allow for the tai^-down landing attitude. In service the Jet Provost Would carry the same equipment as its piston-engined counterpart, but would, for the first time, allow pupils to be trained entirely on jet aircraft. The Service- trial batch of Jet PrpyOsts was ordered in March, 1953. It is noteworthy jriat during the three days after its first flight the Jet Provost tprjk the air no fewer than seven times, and the pilot reported po serious troubles. Though obviously not being flown to the limits, the take-off was—as we ourselves observed it— quite short, and the rate of climb good. The Viper sounds not unlike a small Sapphire. A. V. Goes Back TT was hard to convince oneself that the spruce, alert gentleman *- with whom one was talking Avro 504s by the old Brooklands track last Monday had been there some 46 years ago as the young A. V. Roe, and was then experimenting widi his towed gliders and his 24 h.p. biplarie. But he was indeed; and the story of his efforts—long since written into aeronautical history—was recalled on die same occasion by Mr. T. Gammon, director and general manager of Vickers-Armstrongs, Ltd. (Air craft Division). At Mr. Gammon's invitation, Sir Alliott unveiled a plaque commemorating Ms early efforts—and they were efforts in the true sense, though one would judge from what Sir Alliott told us that they nurtured much of the humour still bright in his eye. Mr. Gammon described Sir Alliott as a man whose exploits will live in history long after those who once considered him a nuisance will be forgotten. He it was who experimented with the flying-scale-model technique which is bearing fruit today; and he, too, was the first man to design and construct a power- driven aircraft in Britain. The first tests of the Antoinette-Avro biplanes were made on June 8th, 1908, down the finishing straight at Brooklands, and it was considered by some that during these early tests "A.V." became the first Englishman to be airborne in this country, though this distinction is not officially recognized. The outcome of his first full-scale experiments led him to design a successful tandem triplane, and from this stemmed other triplanes which accomplished some delicate manoeuvres. With his brother H. V. Roe, he founded the great aircraft firm which still does honour to the family name. In the same year an Avro seaplane —the first British-designed aircraft of its type—was tested, and in 1912 there followed the first enclosed cabin machine. There after came the Type 500 and—one of the very greatest aircraft of all time—the 504 (Sir Alliott was interested to hear that this type will be the subject of a forthcoming detailed description in Flight). In 1928 he acquired an interest in S. E. Saunders, Ltd., and later founded Saunders-Roe, Ltd., of which company he is still president. He was knighted in 1929. At Mr. Gammon's invitation—and with no suggestion of the simpering false modesty which can spoil such occasions— Sir Alliott mounted to the base of the plinth to unveil a plaque which reads: ,- From this area on various dates in 1907-8 A. V. Roe made a series of towing flights and flight trials with an aircraft of his own design and construction, powered in the later trials by an 18/24 h.p. Antoinette engine. These trials were made along the finishing straight of the motor-racing track on this site. A. V. Roe thtfs became the first of the long line of famous pioneers and pilots of many nations who made air history on this flying field of Brooklands. This tablef was placed here in June 19S4 by Vickers-Armstrongs Aircraft Division and was unveiled by Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe then in his 78th-year. In a brief address Sir Alliott recalled how, as a third engineer voyaging off the South African coast in 1902, he was impressed by the gliding powers of the albatross, and became convinced that he could build an aeroplane driven by a propeller. Some of his early experiments, he said, entailed taking a clothes-basket- full of models to the top room of the house and launching them into the garden. He persevered with his experiments on Lea REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST: (Left) Sir Alliott Verdon-Roe unveils the memorial plaque to his early exploits at Brooklands (0s described on this page) at the invitation of Mr. T. Gammon (right). The second picture shows Sir Alliott installed in a B.E.A. Bell helicopter with First Officer John Reid, while Capt. O. P. Jones, Senior Pilot of B.O.A.C., gives the pair a benign send-off, "Flight" photographs
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
