Reverting for a moment to the old fashioned way . . .
("those bloody old vets, when they're out with their pets, still believe in the old fashioned way" - The Lament of the Artificially Inseminated Cow)
. . . . .old mate is planning on building a Wot so as to fly a centenary flight
of the 1921 Bert Hinkler non-stop Mascot-Bundaberg in his Avro Baby.
Any Wots in OZ? Flying or under conconstruction
Wot
Role Single-seat aerobatic Manufacturer Homebuilt Designer J.R.Currie First flight
1937 The
Currie Wot (pronounced as
what) was a 1930s
British single-seat
aerobatic biplane aircraft. Plans were sold for
home building of the aircraft.
Contents
Design and development
The Wot was designed by J R (Joe) Currie, and two examples were built by
Cinque Ports Aviation Limited at
Lympne Aerodrome in 1937. They were both powered by a single 40 hp
Aeronca-JAP J-99 two-cylinder engines, but had minor differences in design. They were designated the
Wot 1 and
Wot 2; the name came about whilst Currie was building the first aircraft and being tired with being asked what he would call it, replied: "Call it Wot you blooming well like". Currie built two aircraft (G-AFCG and G-AFDS), that he offered for sale at £250.
[1] Both were destroyed in 1940 during a
Second World War German
air raid on Lympne. After the war, at the request of Viv Bellamy, then Chief Flying Instructor at the Hampshire Aeroplane Club (HAC) at
Eastleigh, Currie used the same drawings to enable the HAC to build two more examples under the supervision of J O Isaacs. The first aircraft, registered G-APNT, first flew on the 11 September 1958. G-APNT was soon re-engined with a four-cylinder 60 hp
Walter Mikron II engine and was also trialled using floats. With the more powerful Mikron engine it was known as the
Hot Wot and later, with the floats, as the
Wet Wot. The
floatplane version was not a success and they were soon removed.
[1] With the original Aeronca-JAP engine fitted it was delivered on 29 May 1959 as the personal aircraft of
Westland Aircraft test pilot
H J Penrose, who christened the aeroplane 'Airymouse' and wrote a book of the same name about his experiences flying the aircraft.
[2] The second aircraft, registered G-APWT had a number of different engines fitted for trials, including a 60 hp
Rover TP60/1 industrial
gas turbine engine,
[2] before being delivered to
Elstree Aerodrome in 1962.
Aircraft plans were sold to amateur builders and soon examples were being constructed, the first homebuilt aircraft flying in 1963. The most unusual Wots were built in 1967 by
Slingsby Sailplanes Limited. Slingsby built six aircraft modified to represent the
Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5A for film work. They were powered by 115 hp
Lycoming engines with dummy exhausts and other modifications as 0.83 scale replicas. They were delivered to
Ireland and fitted with dummy guns for the film
Darling Lili. Some of the aircraft were also used in the films
I Shot Down Richthofen, I Think, and
Dubious Patriot.