TEST FLYING MEMORIAL

WHO WILL QUALIFY FOR INCLUSION IN THE ROLL OF HONOUR?

PROPOSED CRITERIA:

• Members of flight-test crews on flights in experimental or prototype aircraft, and in other aircraft undertaking trials of new powerplants, propellers, control systems, armaments, communication systems and radars, as well as in the proving of ground-based systems such as ground-controlled approach and other landing aids, catapults and deck-landing equipment.

• "Members of flight-test crews" are defined as pilots, navigators and operators of navigational equipment, radio and radar operators, flight test observers, armament specialists and crafts-men undertaking specific tasks on structures, systems, or equipment. They will include members of the armed services, of British-owned airlines and aircraft manufacturing or equipment companies, of the scientific civil service, or of regulatory authorities and other recognised aviation agencies.

• Test flying is taken to mean participating in official test programmes with the objective of proving experimental or prototype aircraft, engines, propellers and any ancillary equipment. It will also include trials of production aircraft before customer acceptance, to fulfil either standard airworthiness requirements or specific test objectives and investigations within a defined programme.

• In the context of this proposition a flight-test accident is one occurring in an aircraft of British manufacture, or one of other national origin under test while the subject of actual or possible acquisition by the British armed services, or by British airlines. The same qualification will apply to the testing of engines, propellers or ancillary equipment of non-British origin. Official programmes covering the testing and evaluation of enemy aircraft are also within the terms of this proposal. Accidents occurring during display flying will not be included unless an experimental or prototype aircraft flying within its test programme is involved.

THINK OF THE RISKS...

...faced by generations of test pilots and other flight-test aircrew in furthering the cause of aviation: some 400 of them died on test-flying duties in Britain alone. No national UK memorial exists to mark their sacrifice — an omission which Aeroplane magazine and the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust is aiming to rectify.

Painstaking research has so far enabled online publication of data covering the period 1939-1945 for open public scrutiny and correction - we want to make sure that the Roll is as accurate and complete as possible. Information covering other eras will be added in due course.

LATEST ADDITION TO THIS WEBSITE (June 2008)

ABOUT THE TEST FLYING MEMORIAL PROJECT...

If the proposed Test Flying Memorial (TFM), to be sited with a hand-inscribed Roll of Honour at Farnborough, Hampshire, evokes even a fraction of the enthusiasm once generated by British aviation, we will have done well. So far the indications are good, but with the unveiling of a memorial, and the completion of the Roll, targeted for the centenary of the first powered flight by a British-built aeroplane, made on October 16, 1908, time is clearly of the essence.

With the project firmly launched, the early response to the need for funding has certainly been encouraging. We are not proposing lavish expenditure, but simply a professionally produced Roll of Honour housed in an appropriate display case at the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) Museum. If it is financially possible, we also propose a memorial overlooking the airfield, against the distant background of Laffan's Plain. Our photo shows a recent view of Farnborough Airfield from the Farnborough Air Sciences Museum, looking over the famous "Black Sheds" and down the runway to Laffan's Plain at the far end. The sky above echoes with almost a century of test flying. (Brian Luff/FAST)

Donations have been coming in since the first announcement in Aeroplane in early 2006 (see Think of the Risks . . ., March 2006 Aeroplane), and the fund has shown a healthy growth rate since then.

We have also been delighted to receive excellent proposals to help generate further funds. The principal one so far is the offer of first-time prints of a delightful original painting by Roy Nockolds. This has always been privately owned, and depicts an early production Hawker Hurricane Mk I up from Brooklands on test with Hawker test pilot Ken Seth-Smith at the controls. Ken's son, Richard, who was three years old at the time of his father's death in a Typhoon accident in August 1942, has generously had a limited and unique run of prints made for sale, with all profits going to the TFM. They are available from the FAST Museum at Farnborough for £95 each (inc p&p in UK) - see www.airsciences.org.uk for contact details.

Several other items are being auctioned in aid of the TFM - see Aeroplane magazine and www.aeroplanemonthly.com for latest details.

The Roll of Honour is in the process of completion by author and historian John Maynard, and its content is being published on the internet as each timespan (1908-14, 1914-18, 1918-39, etc) is completed. Comments, corrections or additions to the listing are invited, in order to make it complete and accurate before the permanent inscribed version is produced.

John has drawn heavily on the works of the late Derek Collier Webb and the late Harald Penrose in establishing an initial listing, and is receiving valuable assistance from Tim Mason in respect of the inter-war period and from Terry Heffernan, who has a profound knowledge of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down.

John is most concerned, however, about the 1914-18 period. Although the company histories published by Putnam are hugely helpful in identifying test flying accidents, they are not necessarily comprehensive. During the First World War the industry grew exponentially, and subcontractors prospered, building and flying aeroplanes only to vanish after the Armistice. Any reader with knowledge of flight-test accidents during the First World War should contact the TFM project, giving details. Do not worry about duplicating information which might already be known to us. Such duplication is often a source of comforting confirmation!

Inevitably, any roll of honour is a harrowing document, but loss of life in a flying accident imposes its own sad dimension of awe. Whether it involves the death of a brilliant young pilot/aerodynamicist when the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c he was testing was transformed into a fireball by a small fuel leak, or of the crew of a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress which broke up at altitude while engaged on aviation medical research, one can only wonder at the courage of those who put themselves at such risk. They shared some common passion for aviation, but their backgrounds, their skills, and their often lonely deaths could hardly have been more diverse. It is surely fitting that they, and their great endeavours, should be remembered together for all time.

THE WORST EVER FLIGHT TEST ACCIDENT?

On June 7, 1942, Handley Page Halifax II V9977 of the Telecommunications Flying Unit took off from its home airfield at Defford, in Worcestershire. The aircraft was being used in the most secret trial of a prototype radar ground-mapping and bombing aid which would help to confer war-winning potential upon Bomber Command's strategic bombing offensive against Germany. On board was an RAF flight crew of five, a senior Bomber Command scientific liaison officer, an officer of the H2S development flight, three vital employees of manufacturer EMI, including the H2S project leader, and a civilian flight test observer. These 11 men shared the Halifax with a valuable prototype radar set and all its associated scanning equipment.

Shortly after the aircraft left Defford a tappet locking nut detached in the starboard outer engine and caused a fatigue fracture. This resulted in an outbreak of fire in the flame trap, which ignited the induction charge. In no time at all a fierce blaze occurred in the supercharger induction casing. This spread to adjacent fuel tanks, burning through the outboard wing structure, which soon broke away. The resulting crash at Welsh Bicknor from 500ft, inverted, was not survivable, and all on board were killed instantly in what was probably the worst aeroplane flight-test accident of all time.