THE1950s
0102 The Empire Test Pilots School
The heart of Farnborough was, and still is today, the aerodrome with its excellent runway. Then it was used above all, to test fly new planes. The people who flew these were the chosen few – then members of the 'Empire Test Pilots School'. The risks they experienced were quite significant. This was evidenced by the fact that at the end of the runway was a suite of operating rooms; to deal immediately with anyone who was injured! Just prior to my getting there, one of the bombers taking off, a Vulcan, managed to shed its undercarriage doors over the main entrance to the labs; which was at the end of the runway. These doors, weighing a ton or more each, bounced along the road; fortunately bouncing in the gaps between the workers who were coming in to work!
Indeed, the expectation was sooner or later planes would explode, for one reason or another. Accordingly, most testing was done at high altitude - so the scientists and crew could have plenty of time to bail out! The ultimate in dangerous living at the RAE was a plane they called the Astley. The history of this plane was that it had once been a piston-engined plane, called the Tudor, which had a disastrous safety record; blowing up a number of times at altitude. When these were grounded, the RAE had acquired one and had then proceeded to replace the piston-engines with jets.
What was worse, they had then slung a test version of the new Rolls-Royce Gyron engine -- later to be used on Concorde -- under the belly of the aircraft; and took it up to more than 40,000 feet to test the engine. Those who took part in the flights said it was scary enough getting up to 40,000 feet under the power of the plane's own jets but - when they switched the Gyron on - the plane used to surge forward and the wings began to flap backwards and forwards. It was assumed that this plane, at least, would explode in the near future, so everyone who went on that plane had to go through the explosive decompression for which my roommate did the tests!
My own adventure with them was rather less dangerous. I was desperate to fly with these people, but all I could get was a flight as an observer on an old Halifax transport plane, which they were using to test their electronic equipment. This equipment was a detector for the radio beacon they were planning to fit to rockets. At the time it was embarrassing when, having fired these, they couldn't find them -- they could land hundreds of miles away!. The flight path I was on was, therefore, along a straight path for a couple hundred miles, with a tight turn in the middle over where the beacon was supposed to have landed.
I was immensely impressed, for we stayed at the end of the runway, for perhaps three-quarters of an hour, while the pilots did their pre-flight checks. I could hear them checking every bit of the plane -- I had headphones which were connected to the links between them and the scientists on board. I was less impressed, however, when we got to something over 10,000 feet and we were told to plug in oxygen lines – as this was an unpressurised plane. As I tried to plug in my oxygen mask, which had been issued to me at the stores on the way to plane, I discovered that the plug didn't fit the supply line! So much for all the safety checks! I passed this information to the pilots who said, in a quite laid back fashion, we're only going up to 20,000 feet; so you may be alright. If you pass out we will get a portable oxygen bottle for you. I hadn't expected to be living quite so dangerously as that. In fact I was perfectly alright, we only went up to about 16,000 feet and that didn't prove a problem.
We went down the test course a number of times. Each time, the turn in the centre was tightened until we were eventually doing what was a tight G turn. This was quite exciting, especially in an old freighter like the Halifax. When I got off I was talking to the navigator, who looked rather pale, when he told me that - when the chief scientists had said for the last time “pull it tighter” - the pilot had replied “if I do so I will pull the wings off”. This was not just an expression. According to the navigator the pilot apparently had really meant that! Not long before a similar command had been issued, when the pilot was flying much lower; and he had unfortunately succeeded in pulling the wings off. All on board were killed!
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