The Zurabatic Cartwheel
 

Legend has it that Meteor pilots would prove their skill on the type by attempting the famous aerobatic manoeuvre created by Janusz Zurakowski. Do we have anyone who actually tried it ?

"Start with a vertical climb to 4,000 ft by which point the Meteor has slowed to around 80 mph. Cut the power of one engine causing the aircraft to pivot. When the nose is pointing downwards, throttle the second engine back and the aircraft will continue to rotate through a further 360 degrees on momentum alone having lost nearly all vertical velocity. Carrying out the cartwheel and recovering from it without entering an inverted spin (which the Meteor could not be brought out of) requires great skill."

Oh for a video of that.

See Highlights Of Farnborough 1951 - British Pathé from 2:14 or thereabouts.

The manoeuvre was only possible with the private venture aircraft he used, it was not possible in a standard Meteor F Mk 8.

Nice vid Beagle. That looks a bit cramped in the cockpit of the Sea Venom at 4:18.

Unlikely to be repeated in squadron service as the external stores were loaded asymmetrically so that the weight difference helped the gyrations.

The subsequent video clip, with a symmetric load of rockets was for sales promotion taken at a different time.

Fantastic nostalgia trip, many thanks for the video ............ stopped me in my tracks!

Also read somewhere (possibly John Kents autobiography) that repeated attempts at this manouvre led to wrinkles down one side of the airframe.

Never dared to try it, but can see how it might work with those two great bob-weights out on the wings.

External stores ? Forget it !

D.

Flown with wingtip tanks and 24 rockets

https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightP...=1&view=FitH,0

http://cdn-live.warthunder.com/uploa...per_Meteor.jpg

https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...ubB10Q6AEIHTAA

I have no idea how this wonderful manoeuvre was performed but I remember being there at the age of ten having managed to exhaust my poor old Mum with my blandishments (my Dad was RAF and was killed early in the war) and persuade her to take me. This was my first exposure to an air show and led to a lifelong delight in elderly aircraft (well, they're elderly now).

It seems almost impossible to me now but I actually saw the Avro 707 series and the BP 111 in the air plus all the other wonderful aircraft shown in that film such as the Sperrin.

I'm in danger of weeping on my keyboard, at the age of 75, when I compare what we saw then with the state of our aircraft industry now.

But watching that short film has been absolutely great and I think I'll have an extra glass of wine this evening, to celebrate what once was world leading.

Thanks BEagle - you deliver the goods as usual, that cartwheel looked positively dangerous - but I suppose that was the point.

That video makes me weep, and not entirely for reasons that are aviation related - my father would have been a young man in the Royal Signals in 1951 and before he died he told me that he honestly believed that he was lucky enough to enjoy Britain in her best years.

A simply wonderful time.

Cartwheel with asymmetric loading
 

"Unlikely to be repeated in squadron service as the external stores were loaded asymmetrically so that the weight difference helped the gyrations." (Safetypee #4)

This does not ring true. The detailed descriptions conclude with the aircraft entering a spin, although I am not sure why that was necessary and I wonder if we would have called it an incipient spin in my time.

I would have thought that, as has been mentioned already, the wingtip tanks were important and the racks of RP were useful to maximise the moment of inertia - no point in stinting on those loads.

But to have the wings loaded asymmetrically when committed to a spin would be looking for unnecessary trouble, even if you are Zuracowski.

L9172 - what is the significance of your user name ?

Is that your father's aircraft serial number ?

Arc

Might be worth a revisit; http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...urakowski.html

It never ceases to amaze me how a truly gifted pilot can make an aircraft do things that others cannot. I am inevitably reminded of Werner Voss.

Those test pilots in the immediate post-war era really were something - Roly Falk, John Cunningham, Roland Beaumont, John Derry, and of course Zurakowski.

Yes Arclite01, L9172 was my father's Blenheim IV. From 17 OTU at Upwood it broke up over South Wales on 12th June 1940. My father was the Observer and he and the WOp/AG were killed while the pilot survived. The pilot went on to fly Beaufighters, was shot down and made POW and died in the crash of a Dakota in France in 1946.

I go every year on the anniversary to a memorial to my father and the WOp/AG in the village where they crashed and I have met the WOp/AG's sister and the pilot's son. I shall be there on 12th June this year and for as many years as I can manage.

L9172 - all respect to you for that.

I flew into Upwood last year - I doubt that your Father would recognise much of what is left nowadays, although a few bits remain..................

My local station (Watton) was also a Blenheim base but sadly has suffered from the ravages of time and developers also.

Blenheim Boy by Richard Passmore is worth a read if you can get a copy second hand (Amazon maybe)

Regards

Arc

**Quick Amazon check shows several second hand from £1.54 - or the audio cassette version but that is £25.00***

I was at Watton 66-69, and then was invalided. Got a VR(T) commission with Ely ATC, to find my CO, Bob Browne, had been an observer on Blenheims at Watton. Must have been a pretty exceptional "survivor". nice guy too. There is a poster on here was Cadet WO at the time and will remember him.

Thank you Arclite01. I have not been to Upwood since I was a schoolboy in the RAF Cadets, but I visited the local churchyard a few years ago to pay my respects to the Blenheim boys lying there. I did know Richard Passmore (and have read his book) and worked with him on Blenheim research. I seem to recall that he had a stroke and lost a lot of his capabilities a few years before he died. He was a teacher in the area in which I lived but at a different school from mine.

Wander00. I have not come across Bob Browne although in my researches I have collected several thousand names of people who served in Blenheims, many of whom of course did not survive the experience.

Just picked up on this thread after a little while away & somewhat luckily I have an almost mint copy of the flying program for the 1951 airshow - anyone care to give an estimate of it's value (no I'm not selling - just interested)
R2

Watching that video I caught sight of the Brabazon.
I was lucky enough to see it land at Filton.