Originally Posted by
BEagle
Tengah Type, I don't think that dummies were dropped. The buffeting experienced whilst flying with the chute extended was considered to present excessive risk, we were told.
I cannot point to a primary source (will keep an eye out for one) but Scott Henderson's books about the VC10 refer to dummies (multiple) having been dropped over Lark Hill on Salisbury Plain from ZA143. I know that he talked to a lot of people while doing research for his books and with the specific info about the location, I have no reason to doubt that at least one dummy was dropped. There may well be a bit of truth in both sides of the story. I don't doubt that the buffeting was severe and that the results from the test were not what was hoped. The project was well advanced seeing as all the K2s and K3s received the escape chute and they probably needed a bit of convincing to throw away the investment.