RAE Farnborough - steeped in history

[VP959]

Good point about the law of unintended consequences and wind tunnels. I once did some work in the 11.5 x 8.5 on a novel ram air inflated retarder I'd designed. I was trying to visualise the complex flow around the thing when inflated, which needed the tunnel to operate at the nominal store terminal velocity of around 30 m/S (about 70mph).

To do this, I stood inside the working section, wearing a retaining strap fixed to the upstream side of the balance arm on which the model and test item was mounted. Flow visualisation was by oil spray via a wand, which worked very well indeed. The problem is that one can get carried away with curiosity, so I spent much longer than planned exploring the complex flow around the thing, as it was absolutely fascinating seeing how well theory tied up with reality.

It wasn't until we shut down and I walked back into the control room that I realised one inherent disadvantage with a closed loop tunnel - you tend to get your own back, so to speak. I'd foolishly gone into the tunnel wearing normal work clothes, that were now thoroughly soaked in the vegetable oil used to create the wand mist..........................

Oh happy days!

[Tim Mills]

A fascinating thread; grandchildren in bed, glass of good Oz red at hand, and at last time to give it the attention it deserves.

No way can I compete with the likes of Milt, John Farley, Lomcevac, Ghengis, and all, but I do have fond memories of Farnborough, mainly from SBAC Display visits. From the tragic John Derry accident, Neville Dukes sonic boom in the Hunter a few minutes later, Bill Bedfords Hunter 7 spin, 22 turns was it, the stately flypasts of the Brabazon and Princess flying boat, 74 Squadron stream take off and vertical climb in the early Lightnings, and so on until 15 or so years ago. And in 74 actually flying in the display as a member of the Rothmans team, when they allowed little chaps like us to take part. And on a couple of occasions we was able to watch the display from the TPS Mess lawn, courtesy of mates, the most civilised of vantage points.

I did attend an interview for the ETPS course in 1958, or thereabouts, largely, if I remember, to try and escape a looming ground tour. Not the best of reasons, and they of course very soon saw through me. I was disappointed at the time, but in retrospect, and having read the contributions by the afore mentioned gentlemen, I know I would never have made a good TP, not nearly analytical enough, and too fond of 'boring holes in the sky', I'm afraid.

Just returning to the remarks on the Hunter by JF and others, I only managed about 20 hours on the Mk4, found it delightful, and actually achieved my highest ever score on the flag in one. So I have always wished I had been able to do more, and, as I said on another thread, become a fairly fast jet pilot rather than a pretty slow jet one!

[Milt]

Snippets of Farnborough History.
Great stuff.

How about someone from the National Gas Turbine Establishment telling us what went on over there.

JF did you ever visit that place? Is it still there?

[Genghis the Engineer]

I visited it a few times, but never worked there (it was just called RAE Pyestock when I was there). Give me a day or two, I'll see if I've got any notes about what I saw in my apprentice visits there.

G

[John Farley]

[IMG][/IMG]

Milt

I never worked in what was NGTE but we called Pystock (as G said) Today I believe there is very little of it left in terms of active test cells.

My NGTE time was spent with their flight section on the airfield. This rather poor pic shows the Lincoln they used for reheat trials using a Derwent as a gas generator. My job was moving from front to rear changing paper in various recorders. It would go very high and had special Merlins modded for 40k plus. Not surprisingly I had a touch of the bends a couple of times due to exertions on a walk about O2 bottle.

One mad bugger, not our normal pilot, when on the way home used to insist on lighting the reheat and descending to low level over the Channel and leaving a wake when the sea was calm.

My apprentice master at the time - a boffin by the name of Ray Holl - was one of the original powerjets mafia and went on to be a senior player for the MOD PE on the engine side and in the 70's I used to work with him in that capacity over Pegasus issues. Small world.

JF

[Milt]

JF

Any more pearls like that one ? and complete with fascinating picture.

What was the pitch up like when reheat lit up?

And was this the first airborne trial with reheat in the UK ?

I'm surprised the "mad bugger" pilot didn't try a loop what with uprated Merlins and reheat down under.

Flew Lincolns a bit when at RAAF CFS and tried a few unusual attitudes on poor unsuspecting pilots being instrument rated.. Yes we had elementary dual controlls.

One attitude only used twice was to pull up very nose high with lots of power on and with speed decaying past about 90 Kts pull power on an outer then "handing over". Neither pilot was quick enough to return to normal and the Lincoln would soon be upside down wanting to progress into a spin.
Recovery was to pull the other outer, let the nose drop as one continued the roll with full aileron around to right side up again whilst taking care to keep a little positive g on during the recovery. A very untidy barrel roll. The Lincoln felt to be "comfortable" throughout but I became wary lest the "poor bugger" under the hood should do something to cause the Lincoln to go too far into the incipient stages.

[farnboroughspotter]

A great read guys, please keep it up.
Just to give you a update the former 'RAF No1 officers mess' is sadly almost no more. About half having been demolished so far to make way for a hotel. Sad considering some of these buildings date from c1918.
The nightbird Bucc VX344 is the 'RAE' or what ever its called this week, gate guard. Although you can not see it as its hidden in a garden within the labs built around 1997. The nightbird Hunter is now with the FAST museum on site by The Swan.
The NGTE is still active, the newish Pyestock bypass cuts through it. You can still here a jet fire up on the site a few times a week. Giving the impression of a low level Tornado coming from the Cove direction!

[Milt]

jf

Is there a way I can download a copy of the Lincoln Photo ?

There was a Lincoln at Woomera with two Pythons which may have been installed by NGTE ? Have photo.

[John Farley]

Milt

Check your PMs

JF

[warden305]

Very interesting thread. Any annecdotes re: Michael Brian Hawkins, ETPS then trials at Farnborough prior to Ottawa in mid 60's, then Boscombe Down, would be gratefully accepted. It's been just over 30 years since Mike was killed, but his grandchildren are beginning to ask questions about what it was he did for a living. I have some film of a Beverly doing an ULLA drop which helps put things in to context, but any stories that could help flesh out his log books would be great. A PM would be fine, Anders Hawkins

[Milt]

Farnborough History

Just happened to be at Farnborough during the year of its 50th anniversary.

A booklet produced for the occasion summarises the history and is well worth repeating here.

The Farnborough Story

Few of the millions for whom Farnborough now means something will know that the telegraphic address of the R.A.E. is "Ballooning, Farnborough". This amusing vestige is a key to its history. The family tree of British official aviation shows that Farnborough was conceived when the War Office opened a Balloon Fquipment Store at Woolwich in 1878; it was born in 1905 when their balloons were first parked on Farnborough Common. In the next decade the pioneers of heavier-than-air flight began to mingle with the balloonists the first aeroplanes began to stagger into the air ; and it was then that the War Office realised rather tardily that there might be a future for these odd and unpredictable contraptions. The nekt significant date is 1909, when the family tree divides. One branch begins with the Balloon Section, R.F., soon to become the Farnborough Air Battalion and later the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Air Force; it soon left
home. The other branch, growing up through H.M. Balloon Factory, the Army Aircraft Factory, the Royal Aircraft Factory and the Royal Aircraft Establishment, has always stayed at home.

The next keynote in Farnborough's history is the word "Factory". In those early days, before World War I, to design, build and fly an aeroplane was certainly a dangerous adventure ; it was perhaps an art ; it was not yet a science. But when the war came, and with it the stunning fact that war itself could grow wings, the pioneers had to be very quickly organised and expanded.

The brave and brilliant group of Farnborough men who got the BF2C and its successors into the air and coaxed them to stay there were aeroplane fanciers ; it was natural and right that Farnborough should build what they fancied. But they had to reckon with the aeroplane industry, a turbulent infant howling for its sustenance, and they lost their battle. In 1916 it was decided that the men of Farnborough would have quite enough to do in amassing knowledge on how aeroplanes should be designed and flown; others would in future build them. If the men who made this at-the-time debatable decision could have had a preview of the next forty years they would have been much fortified.

The Course is Set

The course of Farnborough was thenceforward set under successive Government Departments : Air Ministry, Ministry of Aircraft Production, Ministry of Supply. It was to be Research and Development. The sharp outline of this time-honoured phrase has been almost rubbed away by official usage. How does it fall out at Farnborough? It is simplest, perhaps, to watch a scientist or a technician at work there. He is seen to be kept, if not on the run, then in a state of healthy motion, by the presence of three persistent clients who will not leave him alone. One is always jogging his studious elbow: "Hurry ; we want to get that to work". Another is always eager for prescient conversation: "Open your lips and your files ; we badly need your advice". And the third, with his eyes permanently fixed on the horizon, vibrates with a vast impatience : "That will be old stuff soon. Now here is a real problem for you". In consequence, no one who has worked at Farnborough is able to place it in any of the usual institutional categories. It has for him an undefinable but familiar shape, a peculiar but unmistakable dynamic. A rum place, he might say, but a very stimulating one ; he would not really have it otherwise.

When the Balloon Factory moved from Aldershot to Farnborough fifty years ago much pioneering work had already been done; Col. Templer (Superintendent 1878-1906), Col. Capper (Superintendent 1906-9), J. W. Dunne and S. F. Cody in particular were ready to give Farnborough a good start. The balloon and man-lifting kite work was continued and a beginning was made on airships, motor-driven kites and aeroplanes. An appropriate starting-point of Farnborough's experimental equipment was the erection of a 5 ft. by 5 ft. wind tunnel. In 1907 British Military Airship No.1 (Nulli Secundus) made a record flight of 31/2 hours. This was the first of a line, all of which made valuable contributions to development and operational experience. At the same time (and in at least one case using the same engine for both types of craft) the work on aeroplanes was gaining momentum under Cody and Dunne. A year later Cody's Biplane No.1 made the first official British flight 496 yards at a height of 50-60 feet. Dunne's work suffered from the bane of early aircraft designers-lack of a suitable engine.

In spite of the clear success of Cody and the less exciting but valuable contribution of Dunne, the War Office considered that work on aeroplanes was too expensive and Cody and Dunne were "released" from the Factory early in 1909. Compensation came later, however, with the decision to separate the Balloon Factory from the Balloon School. Colonel Capper took over command of the School and Mervyn O'Gorman was appointed Superintendent of the Factory. The coming of O'Gorman inaugurated the use of scientific methods in aeronautical development. The Factory, working closely with the newly formed Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the National Physical Laboratory, soon became the chief centre of experimental aviation with full-scale craft. O'Gorman's appointment was immediately followed by the arrival of F. M. Green from the Daimler Co., on the recommendation of that great pioneer of aerodynamics, Dr. F. W. Lanchester. As "Engineer in Charge of Design" Green was responsible not only for the final types in the airship series, most of the aircraft in the famous "Factory series" and all the early Factory engines, but also for the pioneer work on stressing, testing, airworthiness and inspection. In addition he obtained for the Factory the D.H.2, complete with its designer, Geoffrey de Havilland. With such a team Farnborough was well placed to start a profitable period of research, development, design and manufacture that was to come to fruition in the war.

To be continued.

[Milt]

Farnborough History Continued.

When war broke out in 1914 Farnborough had for the first and only time a fourfold function; to combine the main supply of aeronautical information with the conduct of official tests, with design, and with manufacture of prototype engines. The period of official neglect swung suddenly to its opposite, a scramble to create the first breed of fighting aeroplane. This had to be done initially through Farnborough. It was well that a man of O'Gorman's calibre was in charge; it was well, too, that he could command recruits from the universities. His bag of young men was a mixed one, of those committed to aviation and those who were not mathematicians, physicists, engineers, biologists, professional and amateur pilots. They had to invent not only aeroplanes which could stay a few hours in the air, but also a number of instruments with which they could be navigated and could fight. This is the legendary period of great improvisation which is recollected later in these pages by some of those who shared it. It was, perhaps, only muddling through. The list of vital jobs that somehow got done is a ragged one. But at the end of it stands S.E.5, a war winner.

The spirit of efficient team work was shared by all who worked at Farnborough; it sprang from a sense of being the leaders in a new field of science and engineering. As the importance of air warfare increased, so did the Factory's consciousness of being a corps d'elite in the country's war effort.

In spite of these achievements the criticism which had originated in 1912, that Farnborough was a Government monopoly detrimental to private enterprise, increased in scope so that by the end of 1915 it had become sharply recriminatory. It led to the change of policy mentioned previously. This change was accompanied by a change of leader: Henry Fowler took over from O'Gorman in 1916 when the latter completed his seven years' contract. Many of the senior staff of Farnborough were directed to Industry on the score of national economy. This was perhaps an anticlimax for Farnborough but not for aviation as a whole. Of the O'Gorman period Sir Roy Fedden wrote: "There is no doubt that history has shown that this was a unique place, and you can hardly turn anywhere in British aviation without finding that the good things that were done on aircraft between the two wars stem almost entirely from engineers who had been at this remarkable place and who were inspired by an outstanding leader"

But Air War I was, with all its triumphs, only an initial sortie into the air when viewed in a scientific perspective, and the men of Farnborough were now released to get to more leisurely work.

Farnborough's experience in the years after World War I was no exception to the general trend of retrenchment due to industrial depressions and national stringency. War is the spur of aeronautics ; the curves of expenditure and manpower at Farnborough fall on an ebb tide from the flood of 1918 and rise on a second flood as 1939 approaches.

Sydney Smith, who had succeeded Henry Fowler as Superintendent in 1918, proceeded to adjust the internal organisation. to meet the new era, and the Royal Aircraft Establishment's family tree began to assume a familiar shape. The Aerodynamics, Engine Experimental, Physics and Instruments, Metallurgical, Mechanical Test and Chemical and Fabrics Departments were re-established or brought into being. In 1922 the Wireless and Photographic Departments arrived from Biggin Hill and Airworthiness and Contracts from the Air Ministry. This organisation was not materially changed in 1928 when A. H. Hall became Chief Superintendent, to steer the R.A.E. through the worst period of the economic depression and later to deal with the slow and then rapid expansions of the rearmament period. Throughout the inter-war years Farnborough's co-operation with the aircraft industry grew until it was an established practice for aircraft firms to evolve and develop their designs with the help of the accumulated experience and facilities at Farnborough. In the aircraft equipment field material advances were made in bombsighting and navigational instruments. The work on pilotless, radio-controlled aircraft (particularly the LARYNX of 1927-30) laid the basis for aircraft automatic pilot control and led steadily towards the possibilities of guided weapons.

The lean years were however, big with the beginnings of two revolutions, in both of which Farnborough played some part. The angular biplanes of 1918 had the air of not belonging to the medium which suffered them. A long period of development based on Melvill Jones's classic work on drag reduction was to change all that and lead to the beautiful fitness of the streamlined monoplane.

This spectacular decrease in drag was to be matched by an equally spectacular increase in propulsive thrust. In this period, many of the ideas which were later to triumph in Whittle's jet engine were germinating.

In this period, too, the Farnborough radio engineers were preparing a contribution to the shape of things to come by the design of short range pilot operated radio-telephone equipment working on very high frequencies. Without this means of learning quickly and continuously what our radar system knew of the whereabouts of the approaching bombers, our pilots would have been in poor shape for the Battle of Britain. Throughout the war this VHF communication system was used in all allied air forces. It now forms the basis of systems for operational control of fighter aircraft and for the approach and landing control of all types of military and civil aircraft.

Next - World War 2.

[WG774]

Having followed this thread since it started, I feel obliged to convey gratitude to all contributors for what must be one of the finest threads I’ve ever read

From what I can gather, documentation in the public domain relating to the Air Accident Investigation department at Farnborough seems to be fairly thin on the ground, and I was wondering if any of the contributors here might be able to supply background information relating to its initial inception and projects over the years? Obviously, the Comet investigation brought this department into the public spotlight, but when exactly did RAE first establish an accident investigation dept, and what events precipitated this?

Cheers!

[Milt]

Continuing with Farnborough’s early history

At the outbreak of WW 2, in contrast to that of WW1, aviation, and with it the R.A.E., were mature organisations and ready to meet the emergencies ahead. One valuable resemblance to WW1 was that Farnborough again received its share of the country's leading scientists from the universities. From this source came its main war-time leader, W. S. Farren, one of the scientist-pilots of Farnborough's team in World War I, who took over from A. H. Hall in 1941 after a period as Director of Technical Development in the Ministry of Aircraft Production. Under his direction the scientific and technical effort of Farnborough was as versatile as it was effective in its object of helping to win the war. The specialist departments were backed by the all-out efforts of the test pilots, whose skill and devotion ensured efficient and rapid flight experiments; one of Farnborough's vital activities whose work covered not only the multiplicity of allied aircraft but tests on captured enemy equipment. Behind the scientific, technical and piloting effort was the essential team of craftsmen producing models and instrumental equipment and maintaining aircraft. Thus Farnborough was capable of carrying out the research, development, design and testing effort that helped the aircraft industry to produce aircraft like the Spitfire and Lancaster, and also helped the expanding aircraft instrument industry to produce a formidable range of vital operational equipment; navigation and photographic gear, radio, gunsights and bombsights. The specialised requirements of the Navy and Army received due attention; intensive development took place on the take-off and landing problems of naval aircraft; and for the Army Farnborough participated in making the Airborne Forces effective.

This is a bald enough summary of what was really a pretty sustained effort. Towards the end of the war Sir Stafford Cripps coined a phrase for it : "the nerve centre of our efforts in the air". This may have been too kind, but it does express succinctly what Farnborough was trying to do and what it felt like to be working there then.

The pattern for the ten years after World War II was being set at the close of the War by the coming of the atomic warhead, guided weapons and the new forms of propulsion (gas turbine and rockets) with the consequent entry into a new era of high-speed flight. These developments were reflected in the functions and organisation. In dealing with them, W. G. A. Perring succeeded Farren as Director in 1946, and, after his untimely death in 1951, was followed by A. A. Hall.

Work on gas turbines had been concentrated in a specially built outstation adjoining the R.A.E. in 1942; this was taken over by Messrs. Power Jets (Research and Development) Ltd., in 1944 and has since become a companion organisation, the National Gas Turbine Establishment. Its close proximity (which includes use of the Farnborough airfield) ensures a continued and close collaboration.

A co-ordinated effort on guided weapons in the R.A.E. was begun in 1946 by the formation of what is now (1955) the Guided Weapons Department. The pioneer work of this department, in relation to the fast-growing guided weapons industry, raises by its vigour, its vicissitudes and its improvisations, many of the problems which faced the Royal Aircraft Factory vis-a-vis the aircraft industry at the beginning of WW1. A further step was taken in 1947 when the rocket work of the existing Guided Projectile Establishment (Westcott) for land weapons was brought into Farnborough's orbit. This Establishment became the Rocket Propulsion Department of the R.A.E.

No major change has taken place in the Ministry's organisation with regard to airborne radar. This is the responsibility of a sister Establishment at Malvern (the wartime T.R.E. and now the Radar Research Establishment).

The present (1955) function of the R.A.E. can thus be summarised as that of fostering scientific investigation likely to lead to advance in all aspects of aeronautics other than those connected with turbine engines and radar.

An important section of Farnborough's work, and one which indicates the hot pace at which aeronautics is now moving, is labelled laconically " Projects" or" Assessments". In this activity the Establishment becomes in effect The Critics, bringing to bear the whole of its resources in making independent estimates of the value of new designs in aircraft, guided weapons and their equipment, while they are still in the problematical stage.

Farnborough clearly had to have increased elbow room in which to undertake its extended functions and organisation. Toward the end of the war the idea of an additional site to house extensive laboratory and flight facilities was worked out; this extension of Farnborough would be a natural off-shoot specialising in the ever-increasing aerodynamic and structural problems. Bedford, the chosen site, is still building, but is now (1955) partially operating. Its group of high-speed tunnels includes a 3 ft. by 3 ft. transonic-supersonic tunnel which has been working since 1952, and an 8 ft. by 8 ft. subsonic and supersonic tunnel now nearing completion. It has extensive full-scale flying facilities and provision for Naval Aircraft work.

Tunnel building has also proceeded on the Farnborough site at Ball Hill, where 1951 saw the completion of a group of intermittent-type supersonic tunnels and the 18-in. continuous supersonic tunnel. The laboratories for structural research and testing have been largely extended and the urgent necessity for the fatigue testing of complete structures has led to the provision of full-scale equipment.

An interesting development of Farnborough's activities resulting from the need to study high subsonic, transonic and supersonic flight has been the use of the rocket-powered models, launched into free flight. The exploitation of this technique has led to the provision of facilities at a firing range at Larkhill, while the need to study guided weapons in flight has been met by establishing a laboratory at Aberporth, where there is a sea range.

As a result of other considerations Farnborough also possesses laboratories at Martlesham, Orford and Cardington. Thus the small "Factory " that left Aldershot for the greater spaces of Farnborough Common and Laffan's Plain fifty years ago has not only spread over most of that area but has now several offspring, some of them larger than the original parent body.

Completes history to 1955 which was Farnboroughs 50th anniversary.

[Heliport]

One of the most fascinating threads ever on the forum.
Enjoyable and educational.

Hope more will be added.

[John Farley]

Fans of this thread may like to know that Hugh Warren who was a boffin at RAE 1940 - 1978 will be talking about his time there at the Holiday Inn Farnborough (formerly known as the Queens Hotel) 6 April at 19.30. I have heard Hugh speak before on this topic and you can be sure I will be there to listen again...

The evening is being arranged by FAST (Farnborough Air Sciences Trust)

JF

[PPRuNe Pop]

I will certainly be there. A rare opportunity to see one let alone hear one.

PPP

[Genghis the Engineer]

Damnit, I'd love to have heard that but will be giving a talk at the other side of the country that evening

G

[Milt]

JF

Perhaps Hugh Warren will have his presentation in 'computer speak' in which case we who cannot join for a reunion at the Queen's might have the opportunity to appreciate an important slice of aviation history on this thread.

[PPRuNe Pop]

Milt, be sure if it is available I will see what can be done. John F knows him well so at least we can approach him.