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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 0087.PDF
•LIGHT, 20 January 1961 87 Buccaneering on the Moor Developing Blackburn's Strike Aircraft By HUMPHREY WYNN "Flight" photograph IN the chief test pilot's office at Holme-on-Spalding Moor, theBlackburn Aircraft development airfield, a softly chimingclock melodiously tells the hours. Adjoining the office is aroom armed with desks and telephones, its facilities shared by rie pilots and flight test observers. Above these offices is theontrol tower, its flat roof decorated by UHF aerials (looking, ^ud one visitor, "like upturned ashtrays"; or according to another,•like leftover Festival of Britain decorations"). From this roof he whole of the airfield is visible : three runways which came into^e for Bomber Command operations in 1941 and from which oetween then and 1945) Wellingtons, Lancasters and HalifaxesHew for attacks on enemy territory. Behind the control tower ire two hangars, with the space between tower and hangars justwide enough to low-fly a Buccaneer with sensational aplomb, when .he test pilots wish to display the aircraft's low-flying charac-ristics at really close quarters. Inside the hangars are Buccaneers in different states of readiness, s variously equipped according tothe type of development flying each has to undergo. Most of the technicians working on them are civilian employees of BlackburnAircraft, but there is also a fair admixture of Naval personnel. Around the airfield stretch the long acres of flat East Ridingcountryside, sprinkled with names like Bunny Hill, Snake Hall, Ladies Parlour, Cleaving Grange, and the Land of Nod Inn. Blackburn Aircraft moved their development flying activitiesout to Holme with the advent of the de Havilland Gyron Junior- powered NA.39 (Buccaneer-to-be) in 1958, for there was insuffi-cient runway length on the factory airfield at Brough to handle the new type of aircraft. The Buccaneers are built ac Brough,then taken out by road to Holme—a distance of 16 to 18 miles —on their own wheels with wings folded (an advantage accruingfrom the Naval design), and almost ready to fly. Flying operations at Holme-on-Spalding Moor under its Black-burn ownership are controlled by the flight test manager, Mr J. T. Stamper, the programme being determined by two factors : resultsof tests at the airfield, involving manufacturers of ancillary equip- ment as well as Blackburn and de Havilland, and requirementsemanating from the factory at Brough. To carry out the develop- ment work, there is a flying staff of five pilots and seven flighttest observers. The former are headed by the chief test pilot, D. J. Whitehead, who took the NA.39 on its maiden flight inApril 1958. He is assisted by G. R. I. ("Sailor") Parker, J. G. ("Bobby") Burns, Lt Cdr E. R. Anson (on loan from theRoyal Navy, and shortly leaving to join the Buccaneer intensive flying trials unit at RNAS Lossiemouth) and R. J. Chandler.Chandler and D. Lockspeiser (the latter on loan from Hawker Aircraft) both converted to Buccaneers last year, at BoscombeDown. The flight test observers are E. J. Solman, M. R. Bailey, G. R. C. Copeman, T. D. Dunn, J. B. Pearson, T. Jackson, E. J. D.Nightingale and N. Graham. Although Holme-on-Spalding Moor, with its black hangars andthree runways, presents superficially much the same son of appear- ance it must have had as a wartime airfield, there are severaldifferences in its present set-up. One is that the main 6,000ft runway (the only one used by the Buccaneers) has had two arrestergear installations, which can be used either on landing or to prevent overshooting. One of these worked on the "nylon pack" principle;once it had been used, and the nylon cable unwound, it took a considerable time to set up again for further employment. Thelatest gear, a product of John Curran Ltd of Cardiff (who aptly carry on their advertising brochure a Buccaneer silhouette), workson the "water squeeze" principle and is the first installation of its kind in this country. Retarding effect is produced by pulling twopistons through water-loaded arrester tubes on either side of the runway. This equipment, it is stated, can take aircraft "at engagingvelocities up to 130kt." An arrester cable is stretched across the runway, 4Jin above its surface, supported at intervals by rubberbobbins which allow the aircraft wheels to run over the cable but hold it high enough to engage the hook. The equipment allowsa maximum run of 960ft in either direction. Another feature which marks Holme-on-Spalding Moor out asan airfield where Naval aircraft are being tested is its mirror land- ing aid. This is not automatic, like those now used on carriers,but has to be set up manually; it is not aligned for landing into the arrester gear but is used to keep the pilots in practice only.Like other aircraft manufacturers' test airfields, Holme has Cossor 21 surveillance radar with facilities for talk-down, givingthe controller (Mr H. N. Smith) and his assistants the range and azimuth of a homing aircraft but not its elevation. In addition tothis aid, and UHF, the Blackburn pilots have a useful topographical "homer." This is a canal which runs from the Humber almost upto the airfield, leaving the north bank of the river at a point almost opposite where the Trent enters it from the south.Normally, test-flying of Buccaneers is done towards the north or north-east; but low-level tests are carried out southwards,in the designated low-flying areas of Lincolnshire, which are joined by link-routes specifically for the use of military aircraft.Higher flying imposes the greater problems, because of RAF and civil traffic in the vicinity of Holme. Some eight miles to thesouth is the northern edge of Green Two Airway, which extends eastwards and westwards from 3,000 up to 11,000ft. To the north- Sinewy p'rate: in the heading picture, J. G. ("Bobby") Burns inverts a Blackburn Buccaneer for the benefit of "Flight's" photographer. Below, a Buccaneer preparing to refuel from a Canberra during trials from the Tarrant Rushton, Dorset, airfield of Flight Refuelling Ltd
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