One-Eleven crashes
With regard to the tragic loss of G-ASHG at Cratt Hill near Chicklade on Oct 22, 1963 the aircraft was definitely written off. It descended from 18,000 feet in 80 seconds and was destroyed. The accident was caused by a deep stall, the remedy for which was the replacement of servo-tab activated elevators by fully-powered elevators, an alteration to the wing leading edge and the installation of a stick pusher. The alteration to the shape of the nose radome was a separate issue.
G-ASJB’s crash at Wisley on March 18, 1964 was caused by pilot error. This One-Eleven was also written off and the fuselage was sent to Hurn. BAC for a long time maintained the fiction that it was being rebuilt as a BAC owned demonstrator G-ASVT (c/n 095) but it never appeared.
G-ASJD was specially modified with the new powered elevator and modified wing leading edge to take on the stalling tests. In order that the aircraft could recover in the event of a deep stall it was also fitted with a large tail parachute and the reverse thrust actuators were altered so that they could provide upward thrust in the air and thus provide a nose down pitch.
On Aug 20, 1964 while in engaged in stalling trials the pilot Peter Baker concluded that ‘SJD was in a deep stall and deployed the parachute, also using the specially adapted reverse thrust. However the aircraft’s pitch did not drastically change and as the aircraft was being dragged down by the pull of the parchute, the pilot engaged full flap and full power which allowed a wheels-up landing near Tilshead. The reason that the parachute and the “reverse” did not alter the pitch was because the One-Eleven was not stalled. Had the parachute been jettisoned it could have flown back to Wisley. The pilot had obtained a false impression of the One-Eleven being in a stall. G-ASJD was dismantled and taken back to Hurn where it was re-assembled and flew again.
Formal Crash Reports exist for G-ASHG and G-ASJD, but ‘SJB is only mentioned in a digest of 1964 incidents. Those wishing to see photos of the crashes might wish to look at the book I wrote on the BAC One-Eleven.