Mystery British WWII prototype.

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24 years 2 months

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I was shuffling through some prints last night, from the estate of a departed friend, and was quite surprised at the attached. I had never seen this or anything like it before.

A single engined 'Hurricanesque' British proto with what looks like a Messier undercarriage. It must be 150% scale of comparable period fighters and seems to have a crew window.

Only when I had scanned the print for the forum and wound up the magnification could I even see the vestige of a serial and judge the digits.

In fact as of ten minutes ago I now know what it is but I am posting it anyway for comment.

Those with a Putnam persuasion will I am sure be able to tell us more.

Mark

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v634/Mark12/MysteryPrototype-01-001.jpg

Original post

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24 years 2 months

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A single engined 'Hurricanesque' British proto with what looks like a Messier undercarriage. It must be 150% scale of comparable period fighters and seems to have a crew window.

It's a Folland 43/37 engine testbed. The company built 12 of them for in-flight testing of big engines, mainly the Napier Sabre and Bristol Centaurus. The Bristol Hercules was used for ferrying flights.

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20 years 6 months

Posts: 8,195

Nice one.

Often called the "Folland Frightful" and one of the aircraft the following quote from the test pilot is attributed to: "Getting into this aircraft is difficult. I reccomend it is made impossible."

PS No Putnams were hurt in the researching of these conjectures.

Not seen that particular pic before though.

Cheers!

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19 years 7 months

Posts: 77

Juging by the height of the landing gear.........the prop must have been huge....

Must have been a handfull on takeoff :))

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24 years 2 months

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Yes. P1783, a Folland 43/37 flying engine test bed.

Testing the Hercules XI and in this case more probably testing the propeller that goes with it as I suspect this image has its origins in Dowty Rotol by association with other prints in the pile.

The full frame of this shot shows in the background a Halifax and one of those high altitude pressurised Wellingtons with the lower 2/3 of the fuselage in either white of yellow.

Mark

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19 years 5 months

Posts: 1,358

Very interesting!

Looks like this is one of those planes where the following quote would be applicable:
"If it looks good, it flies good. This plane couldn't do either".

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24 years 2 months

Posts: 3,183

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

Good grief! That's the first picture I've ever seen of one with some sort of scale - it's HUGE!

Didn't one break up in mid-air very nearly taking an eminent test pilot (Michael Daunt?) with it? Or am I getting it muddled with rather a lot of other planes?

Adrian

Member for

20 years 1 month

Posts: 65

Folland

I remember as a lad always riding on the top deck of the bus from Gloucester to Cheltenham as I could see over the hedge at Staverton as we went past the Rotol flight shed. Apart from the Folland I remember seeing a Baker Martin MB5, Wellington Mark 6(?) - the pressurised version, and the Westland Welkin. There was a large dispersal area on the south side full of Typhoons that were waiting for delivery from Glosters and there was also a rank of Albemarles also awaiting delivery.