Originally Posted by
megan
As for Petter designs and their flaws, remember he did design the Canberra,
And the Lysander with its lethal combined automatic slat/flap system. The associated [sudden, unannounced] nose-down pitch trim change of which was bad enough, but when the Westlands Chief Test Pilot took Petter up to demonstrate what it did for an aborted landing* he found the experience so frightening it had a profound effect on him - he never flew in one of his own designs again.
PDR
* With the aeroplane trimmed for approach the sudden application of power killed the descent, but once the aeroplane accelerated ant the AoA dropped the slats/flaps retracted, leaving the aeroplane with a massive nose-up trim that needed a huge stick force (>100lbs) to prevent the aeroplane pitching to the vertical and then falling out of the sky. This characteristic was especially appreciated by those pilots who, when dropping SOE agents into small fields on moonless nights and the suddenly discovering it was the wrong field or it was over-run with german troops...