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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0941.PDF
8 July 1955 •-•m- the selector switch on "No. 1." There was a wild rush for shelter; and when I landed, expecting hearty laughter, I was nearly lynched. I hurried back to Norwich to tell my story to B. and P. before the official report got in. It was through B. and P. that I got really into the seaplanebusiness, which has been my greatest aviation interest ever since. One of their jobs was the building of hulls for the big F.3 and F.5flying-boats and they made a most beautiful job of it. In mid-1918 they were commissioned by the Government to set up a NationalSeaplane factory and I was assigned to assist in surveying various possibilities for a suitable site on one of the Norfolk Broads. Ihad little seaplane experience at the time so it was decided that I should undergo an intensive refresher course at the nearby Yar-mouth air station. There, under such masters of the seaplane arts as Cadbury and Lecky, I was checked out on all sorts of craftfrom the little Sopwith Schneiders to the big F-boats. The National Factory project was abandoned through the ending ofthe war but the experience I had obtained led to my getting an expanding series of seaplane test jobs in the post-war period. After the war, when I was demobilized, I continued my workon the development of B. and P. aircraft as a civilian on a consult- ing basis (so that, in fact, I was never actually on their staff).During this period I handled several experimental aircraft of great interest, including the Bolton, the first of the high-tensile-steeljobs, and the Bodmin, which had two engines in the fuselage driving four propellers through shafts and gears. Curiously enough,after the numerous transmission troubles had been corrected in ground-running, this complex aircraft gave singularly little troublein flight. I learned a great deal from all this work. I had only one crash,which occurred on a type known as the Atlantic. This was a son of modified Bourges, with two (then very powerful) Napier Lionengines, which the directors, with their usual sportsmanship and enterprise, had agreed to build for the immediate post-war DailyMail transatlantic prize. In fact, they even went to the extent of building two aircraft in case something happened to one of them. The design contained a number of very interesting and advancedfeatures, but time was against us. In the haste to get flight tests done as soon as possible, I ran up the two engines separately, thusfailing to discover a defect in the fuel system which prevented a sufficient supply to both engines together. One engine cut out justas I took off and the machine went into a yawing dive before I could correct the situation. The cockpit was an interesting integralstructure which just broke off with me in it, and I wasn't hurt. Alcock and Brown got across the Atlantic before anythingmore could be done, but I later flew the second machine, which performed very well. (Incidentally, some nine years were to passbefore I attempted the Atlantic—this time on a Dornier, again with two Napier engines. I fell into the middle; and, althoughI ferried dozens of aircraft over the Pacific during the last war, I still haven't flown the Atlantic.) The relationship at that time between the firm's directors andthe strictly aviation people was a rather curious one. With the exception of Capt. J. D. Paul, I don't think any of the directorsknew, or pretended to know, anything whatever about aviation as such. They did know, however, that it was highly importantto the current war effort and that, somehow or other, it had a great future. Consequently they paid close and earnest attention to thequality of their products, and no aircraft were better or more carefully built than those of B. and P., a fact which was deeplyappreciated by those of us who had to fly in them. However, actual flying was not for them (I believe I did once entice Mr.Howes up for a short flight) and they apparently considered people like myself as noble heroes in a dangerous but necessary business,so that we constituted a mutual admiration society which is pleasant to remember. I retain vivid memories of Charlie Brown, my mechanic on theBourges, leaning casually out of the front cockpit whilst we were rolling or spinning; of Martin, the inspector, busily tending themechanisms in the "engine room" of the Bodmin whilst, low on Frank Courtney looping the Bourges I over Hendon. fuel, I was trying to get back into Mousehold in a thunderstorm;of Odgers and Sayers in uproarious aerodynamic arguments; of "Old Man ffiske" striding up and down at a Board meeting withriding breeches and crop. It is hard to believe that all that was so long ago. After several years the wcrk of Boulton and Paul reached a pointwhere they were able to engage a full-time pilot, and when C. A. Rea joined them my work for them came to an end. UnfortunatelyI have not maintained direct contact, especially since they moved to Wolverhampton; but my very pleasant recollections of thoseearlier days still remain and I am always running into someone who says: "Of course, I remember you when you were withBoulton and Paul." One such is Bill Nicholls, formerly of B. and P., who is now with me in Convair's engineering department. There was one event at B. and P. which I tend to remember:one 1918 day I was driving from the Rose Lane works at Norwich to the Riverside factory when one of the telephone operators askedme to give her a lift to Riverside. She never quite got rid of me after that and, at this moment, she is in the next room buildinga Dry Martini—with which I think we should drink to the continued prosperity of Boulton Paul. 1926-1935 by S/L. C. A. REA, A.F.C., A.M.I.Mech.E., A.F.R.Ae.S. TOWARDS the completion of my R.A.F. service my CO.at the M.A.E.E., Felixstowe (the late G/C. Maycock), put me in touch with the London Office of Boulton and Paul, Ltd.The manager (the late Mr. Guy ffiske) had asked him if he knew of a pilot of some experience who, in addition to test-flying,could assist the technical staff from the Service standpoint. Up till that time the firm had employed free-lance pilots, like FrankCourtney, but now proposed to have their own test pilot and Service representative. I wrote to Mr. ffiske and he arrangedfor me to meet him and Mr. J. D. North. I joined the Company in July, 1926. My first meeting with Mr. North impressed on me his keensense of humour and during subsequent years, when we had the usual wordy arguments which generally arise between test pilotsand the design staff, this characteristic of his tided over many more-or-less difficult situations. I distinctly recollect a fierceargument between Mr. North, the late H. A. Hughes (who was responsible for detail design) and me, when I endeavoured toput over what I thought was the Service view on some question of design. This was not acceptable, and I left the conferencehurriedly in a "take it or leave it" mood, feeling I had rather upset Mr. Hughes. A few minutes later Mr. North followed meand to my surprise said, "Let us have some more of these argu- ments; the staff can learn a lot from them." With this sonof spirit in the firm good results were bound to accrue. On arrival at the Norwich works I was shown the prototypeSidestrand, fitted with two Jupiter VI engines, and at once felt that in it we had a most promising aircraft. It was to be ready forflight shortly and I looked forward to my first test for the firm with pleasurable anticipation. I was told that a small two-seater—the P.9— was availablefor my personal use and for visits to R.A.F. units and other aircraft firms when necessary. I also raced it successfully at theill-fated Bournemouth flying meeting in 1927 when I won two first prizes and one second and missed another first by passing onthe wrong side of the finishing pylon rather than fly too close to another competitor. This was the meeting at which S/L. Longtonand Major Openshaw collided with fatal results to both. Shortly after the meeting a gold cigarette case, suitably in-scribed, reached me at Norwich, together with a eulogy on the flying qualities of the P.9 and its pilot. I was very surprised tofind that the sender was a well-known bookmaker who apparently had done well out of the performance of the "dark-horse" P.9.Many years later I was able to give some slight assistance to this sportsman when he was trying to get his son into the R.A.F. About six P.9s were made and I often thought developmentshould have been continued as the type had a good turn of speed and was, in many ways, ahead of its time. It had, for instance,two suitcases fitted into the top of the fuselage behind the passenger's seat; these were shaped to the fuselage contour andcould be removed in a matter of moments. Powered with a 90 h.p. Raf engine, driving a four-bladed airscrew, it could dowell over 100 m.pJi., was easy to fly and quite reliable, provided one did not run the engine at full throttle for too long. Minewas finally written off by a pilot who borrowed it, when the engine failed from this cause. The first flight of the Sidestrand was marred by a slight acci-dent after landing, when one of the wings struck a hockey goal- post at a corner of Mousehold aerodrome. For some time I had
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