Flight TestingA forum for test pilots, flight test engineers, observers, telemetry and instrumentation engineers and anybody else involved in the demanding and complex business of testing aeroplanes, helicopters and equipment.
As we know, a clean subsonic jet transport will glide about 3nm/1000'. Suppose a Spit, Hurricane or Hawk lost the donk at 1000' AGL; how far? Just musing on how I'd plan such a flight. My guess is: one of the parks or try to judge the bridges and stick it in the Thames. Unfortunately, lots of people around in either.
I remember an RAF Spitfire en route to/from a BoB display suffering an engine failure some time in the 1950s/60s. The pilot did a splendid wheels up dead-stick into a recreation ground in Bromley, IIRC, and bent it only a little.
That was in September 1959 and was Spitfire XVIE SL 574. It's now in the Aerospace Museum in San Diego. There is a photo of it 'post prang' on the MoD website about the BBMF (not the BBMF website) and a photo of it as it is now on the Demobbed website.
Last edited by DeepestSouth; 7th Jun 2012 at 15:40.
Reason: Missing word
D120A I remember an RAF Spitfire en route to/from a BoB display suffering an engine failure some time in the 1950s/60s. The pilot did a splendid wheels up dead-stick into a recreation ground in Bromley, IIRC, and bent it only a little
Ah yes the Oxo spitfire...we had a wonderful thread on this incident on key a year or so ago to identify the landing field...worth a look just for the wonderful photos
Did not a senior person in the RAF have to make a difficult decision in a vintage Messerschmidt (sp?) highly valued by the Shuttleworth people, and ended up upside down in a field not far from a motorway?
And as I recall the story, refused to be cut free by fire and rescue folks so as not to unduly damage the historic aircraft....anyone know more about this?
You might have noticed that the only single-engined RAF aircraft that take part in Buckingham Palace flypasts are the BBMF fighters and the Red Arrows. They have a specific authorisation to do so, which is partly based on the pilots' status as specially-trained display crews. There are plans for emergency landing / ejection sites at various points along the route.
This is why the "EIIR" and "60" formations were only seen at the Windsor Castle flypast; the Hawks and Tucanos were flown by 'normal' instructor pilots and hence would not be authorised to take part in a city flypast.
When the Harrier was still flying, you wouldn't have seen that in a London flypast (not in the modern safety-conscious era anyway!) but Jaguars, Tornados and Typhoons have all taken part with their twin engines.
I have a lot less than 1850hrs on type (about 10 in a T2 to be precise), but yes, a Jag could stay airborne and controllable on a single engine through use of partial throttle reheat. A surreal design feature introduced for precisely such reasons.
Not for very long, but it could!
Semi-related, I just heard that a friend's son who grew up around our flying club bumming rides in anything he could, then joined the RAF at 18, is scheduled to fly one of the Tornados in the birthday flypast. A small cause for celebration locally.
To add a touch of meat to the bones of Genghis'story there... and before our Lightning Mate with his 1850 hours pops along...
Part Throttle Reheat was added to the Jag to try and smmoth out the thrust difference between Max Dry power and Min Reheat.
This became apparent when the Mighty Shaguar was attempting to refuel. When the probe was selected out, as it sat directly in front of the right hand intake, it was necessary to throttle the engine back to idle to prevent the engine from ingesting any detritus should there be a 'spokes' event. That is to say that the reciever missed the refuellers basket and broke one or more of the spokes with the refuel probe.
Part Throttle Reheat (PTR) over rode the usual speed switches to allow the engine RPM to operate in a part of the usual dry range whilst reheat was still engaged, to bridge the gap between dry power and reheat...
I had many a happy year with the Jaguar, and if you pull up a sandbag before LM gets here, I'll share a story.. ;-D
July 3rd 1999, and the SAOEU as was had spent 4 months in the USA doing amongst other things Maverick trials on Harrier for Kosovo...
..Everything else had gone and we had just seen off the two Jaguars (XX723 and XX725) and piled onto the Herc for the trip home, 3 out of 4 engines had started and all of a sudden they all shut downand the call was made for everyone to disembark. One of them (can't remember which) had suffered from a major surge after take off and had shut the engine down as a precaution. They were on their way back...
After landing, we helped out a very white and sweaty pilot who had just had to inform Nellis tower that should an overshoot be required, he would be having to eject, and had only managed to maintain the glideslope, late morning in the middle of July on one engine in Min Reheat...
Certainly gave me a new level of respect for the aircrew......as well as an extra week in Vegas over the Independance holiday... ;-D
As an aside, no BBMF aircraft in HM Queen's Birthday flypast over the Palace today, commentator citing high winds as an issue. Coningsby has been showing 20 gusting 40, so presumably well outside what will be quite conservative limits for such historic aircraft.
Flypast did include a new addition to the RAF fleet, not sure what it is called, but looks like an Airbus variant...?
