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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0539.PDF
FLIGHT, 26 April 1957 541 Flown by W/C. R. P. Beamont, O.B.E., D.S.O., D.F.C., manager of flight operations and chief test pilot to the English Electric Co., Ltd., the first P.IB breaks away after a photographic session during its maiden flight—on April 4. PROGRESS WITH THE P.I Britain's Principal Fighter Programme RECENTLY the English Electric Company successfullyflew the first of the P.IB development aircraft which areexpected to lead into the R.A.F.'s next—and, according to the Defence White Paper, final—family of manned fighters. It is appropriate at this time to review the genesis of the design and to recount some of the factors which are affecting its development. No purpose can be served by resurrecting dead issues, but the fact that the P.I is at present the only British supersonic combat aeroplane can be attributed squarely to the 1945 decision that we should not attempt to design a piloted supersonic research aero- plane but should rely on results obtained with air-launched scale models. It was not until 1947 that the Ministry of Supply issued a specification (E.R.103) for a manned supersonic research air- craft. By 1949 such manufacturers as English Electric and Fairey had given the problem a great deal of thought, and both com- panies submitted proposals. Fairey's aeroplane became the record- holding F.D.2, virtually a minimum supersonic envelope for a pilot, engine, and fuel. English Electric proposed a rather larger machine, powered by two turbojets mounted one above the other and fed from a common pitot intake in the nose. Moreover the company's project team differed from-Fairey in electing to use a heavily swept wing of moderate taper, rather than the structurally simpler delta. The basic design project began under Mr. W. E. W. Petter in 1949. When Mr. Petter left English Electric the following year, the pro- gramme advanced under Mr. F. W. Page, who since that time has been chief engineer of the company's Aircraft Division. Basic gathering of data was the first task, and various American agencies were generous in providing information on the stability, control and other problems of such aircraft as the Bell X-l and the North American F-86. One of the latter machines had, incident- ally, been flown at transonic speed in 1948 by Mr. R. P. Beamont, English Electric chief test pilot. Naturally enough, the British company felt that most of the work for which a purely experimental supersonic aeroplane could be built had already been done across the Atlantic. It seemed logical, therefore, to look upon the project By THE TECHNICAL EDITOR as a basis from which could stem a fighter, and the company so designed the aircraft as to permit a certain amount of armament and other military equipment to be incorporated should this become a requirement. English Electric were singularly well equipped to undertake a programme of such a nature. To their 9ft by 7ft slow-speed tunnel the company had, in 1950, added a tunnel capable of transonic operation. Powered by a Nene turbojet this was the first privately owned transonic facility in Britain, and ir was from the start invaluable. To put the programme on an even surer basis the Ministry of Supply sponsored the development of an ad hoc aircraft for research into the low-speed behaviour of the English Electric design. Tunnel evidence had left little room for doubt about how the supersonic machine would fly, but the value of trials at Reynolds numbers appropriate to full-scale experience could not be denied. As is frequently the case, the task of building the research machine fell to Short Brothers and Harland, and they flew the aircraft (the S.B.5, serial WG 768) on December 2, 1952. Over the ensuing years this machine has flown with wings swept at 50, 60 and 69 deg, with a high and low tailplane and with a variety of special equipment. It served to confirm English Electric's chosen configuration of a 60-deg wing and low-mounted horizontal tail, and has since been instrumental in evaluating leading-edge design and other variables. Official interest continued to be focussed principally upon the guided weapon, and it was not until 1953 that it was finally acknowledged that a supersonic fighter would have to be de- veloped. Then, belatedly, the F.23 specification was drawn up. In view of its suitable size and characteristics it was logical to ask English Electric to turn their research aeroplane—which by then was called the P.I*—into a weapon system to meet the requirement. [continued overleaf * The P stands for neither Pursuit, Petter nor Page; if anything itmeans merely "project."
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