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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2814.PDF
864 PLIGHT, 2 December 19bO The first P. 1127, with undercarriage fairings removed in free hovering flight. At the foot of the page it is seen at Dunsfold before its first flight on October 27 IN Flight of August 12 last an account was published of thedevelopment of the Bristol Siddeley BS.53, the first enginein the world designed to provide both thrust and lift directly. Around this engine Hawker Aircraft Ltd, at Kingston-on-Thames,have designed the P. 1127, the world's first vertical-take-off combat aeroplane. In under five weeks the first 1127 has completed itshovering trials, and we are now able to publish illustrations. As was outlined in the issue already referred to, the germ ofthe idea was conceived by Michel Wibault, the eminent French aircraft designer, who early in 1957 approached the technical staffof the Mutual Weapons Development Programme in Paris with a scheme for a lift/ thrust powerplant. His idea was that a largegas turbine should drive through bevel gearboxes to four centri- fugal fans with controllable discharge volutes so that their deliverycould be turned downwards or to the rear. The engine he chose happened to be the BE.25 Orion, and MWDP accordingly passedthe scheme to Bristol Aero-Engines, with the assurance that they would provide financial support covering the greater part of thedevelopment cost. Engineers at Patchway put forward the BE.52 proposal, wherebyan Orpheus would drive through a forwards extension shaft to a large-diameter fan (actually three stages from an Olympus com-pressor), both the cold and hot flows being led to swivelling nozzles. This suggestion seemed little less clumsy, and so thesame rotating components were brought together to form the BE.53 engine—basically a turbofan, similar to those evolved at thesame time by Pratt & Whitney. When Bristol Siddeley Engines P.1127 Hawker's V/STOL Strike Aircraft was formed in April 1959 the engine was rede-signated BS.53, and it has since been one of the new company's most important projects. Not long after Bristol had begun to work onthe engine. Sir Sydney Camm, chief engineer of Hawker Aircraft, talked to their project depart-ment about the possibility of using it in a VTOL combat aircraft. It was apparent that the HawkerP.I 121 was not likely to receive an MoS development contract, and that short-field orVTOL ability, with an eye on NATO require- ments, was the obvious thing to go for. Manyhave demonstrated that if one aims at VTOL ability the resulting aeroplane can do half thejob of competitors who use a runway; but the P.1127 was formulated as a vehicle which could rise vertically if need be,and could also work from a runway with a big overload. It certainly seemed attractive enough to sink a lot of companymoney into it. Essentially what the Kingston team did was to take a BS.53 andwrap round it a minimized airframe which could not only meet the NATO requirement for tactical strike and close support butmight also be adopted by the RAF as a replacement for the Hunter FGA.9. Sir Sydney's team wrote their own specification, just asthe engine designers had done; but their experience, and close liaison with MWDP, ensured that the outcome would be a usablemilitary vehicle. The BS.53 ran in August 1959, and the nozzle and controlsystem have now been brought to the very high degree of reli- ability required. Further impetus to the programme resultedfrom the decision of the Ministry of Aviation last May to award a development contract for a number of prototypes.The first of these was completed at Dunsfold, Surrey, in September, resplendent in a creamy gloss finish. The photographsshow that before hovering started many items (such as the under- carriage doors and outrigger fairings) were removed to saveweight. Initial flight-testing consisted of hovering trials, by A. W. "Bill" Bedford, Hawker's chief test pilot. He first liftedthe 1127 clear of the ground on October 21, and following the tethered programme has completed the free hovering tests niapproximately one month. He sums up this phase by saying,
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