Turnhouse accident 50's

[mustpost]

I'm trying to pin down the date and circumstances surrounding an accident to a Meteor belonging to Ferranti at Turnhouse Edinburgh some time in the late 50's. From a distance (2 miles or so) I saw the aircraft disappear over a hill and a plume of smoke after. As I was only 6 or 7 (I think) at the time I can't pin the date down and can't google anything at all - one of our neighbours worked for Ferranti and I was dispatched to tell him there had been a crash. Would be good to find out what really happened.

[KeMac]

To my knowledge, there was no crash involving a Ferranti Meteor at Turnhouse or anywhere else during the 35 year history of the unit. A Sea Fury T20 (VX283) belonging to the unit crashed whilst performing aerobatics near Longniddry killing both occupants. However this was earlier than you have mentioned - on the 26th September 1953. A non fatal crash landing involving a Ferranti Dove maybe the one you might thinking of as this aircraft came down in a field at Wester Hailes. This was, as I say, a Ferranti Aircraft but not assigned to the FFU.
It may have been an RAF Meteor but again during my research of Turnhouse. I did not come across anything involving a Meteor crash. Equally, Len Houston the former Chief Test Pilot of the FFU who kindly wrote the section on the FFU for my book on Edinburgh Airport did not mention it and he was based there at the time.

[mustpost]

Hmm..Thanks for that - will check further.
M

[Porrohman]

I remember chatting to one of the Ferranti flight trials pilots many years ago. I worked alongside him for many years during the 1970's.

During the Buccaneer radar flight trials, Ferranti had the use of various early model Buccs. The wing and horizontal stabiliser of the Buccaneer are "blown" by bleeding compressor gas from the engine through surface vents. This significantly increases lift and reduces the stalling speed of the aircraft. Because the flight trial aircraft were early production / prototype models, they differed from each other. In most of the aircraft Ferranti used, the wing "blowing" required the control to be set in one position but in one of the aircraft it was the opposite way round. I'm sure you can see what's coming next...

On one of the test flights the aircraft was slower than usual to lift off but the runway was plenty long enough and the pilot wasn't overly concerned. After take off, as is normal practice, the wing blowing control was switched off (or so the pilot thought). Of course, by the time it is switched off, airspeed will have increased significantly so the effect of switching it on at this speed was not particularly noticeable to the pilot. The test flight continued uneventfully with the wing blowing switched on throughout.

At the end of the test flight, on approach to runway 31 at EDI, the pilot switched on the wing blowing (or so he thought) and the subsequent loss of lift when it was switched off almost resulted in an unscheduled landing in Edinburgh's western suburbs.

If seen from a distance, this incident might have appeared like a crash but contact with the ground was narrowly avoided. The Bucc first flew in April '58 and entered service with 700Z Sqdn in March '60. I'm not sure when the incident I describe above happened though. I wonder if this was the incident you saw?

[Porrohman]

When developing the AI23 radar for the Lightning there would have been a requirement for target aircraft to fly profiles to test the radar's capabilities. I think the radar was installed in modified Canberras IIRC. Certainly the FFU used a number of Canberras over the years. I wonder whether the RAF provided the target aircraft for these trials? Perhaps Meteors? I've lost touch with the FFU staff over the past 20 years so I'm not able to check.

[mustpost]

Great stories - thanks a lot - makes me think it wasn't Ferranti...
Definitely crash with smoke - not burning tyres etc.
Altho' Canberra rang a distant bell
Trying the ouija board with Dad but no success :O
Thanks guys

[Porrohman]

Where exactly was the accident and what was the approximate date?

Here are the details of the Sea Fury accident that KeMac mentioned which I found on this web site; http://www.davidsiddall.com/testflyingmemorial/1946-70.htm

DATE: September 26, 1953
TAKE-OFF POINT: Turnhouse, Edinburgh (Midlothian)
CRASH LOCATION: Tranent, East Lothian
AIRCRAFT TYPE & SERIAL: Hawker Sea Fury T Mk 20 VX283
CREW FATALITIES: Mr H.D. Shaw; Mr J. McCaig, Ferranti Flying Unit TPs
PURPOSE OF TEST FLIGHT: Gyro gun sight trials
ACCIDENT DETAIL: Trial abandoned owing to cloud over firing ranges. Later seen performing barrel roll at 1,000ft but nose dropped and aircraft dived into ground

I found another website that has some interesting photos of EDI, mainly from the the 60's, including some of the Ferranti aircraft; http://www.clourie.co.uk/turnhouse/