royal aircraft establishment

HOTOL: Britain’s Spaceplane by Dan Sharp Now available for pre-order here: HOTOL: Britain's Spaceplane Tempest Books ISBN: 9781911704294 Format: Hardback Pages: 300 The start of Space Shuttle operations in 1981 marked a new era in spaceflight – with the five orbiters launching numerous...

What happens if the Bristol T.188 research aircraft doesn't underperform? What happens if it flies upto Mach 2.8 and reaches the thermal limit of the windscreen? We now know that it's underperformance is related to lack of interest and investment in the Gyron Junior engines after the...

Any info or thoughts on the Aeorlite Spitfire, which was an attempt to build a Spitfire fuselage out of Aerolite, which was resin impregnated fiber that was a predecessor to carbon fiber/carbon fiber reinforced plastic. It wasn't mass produced, but was done to see if it could be done if there...

Despite being favoured over Bristol's design, AWA was not able to spare the staff to realise the ER.134T research aircraft requirement, and so Bristol was awarded the contract. As we know Bristol's 188 took a long time and was hampered by the Gyron Junior engines. But what if AWA had staff...

Sad news, John Farley has passed away. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/obituary-john-farley-the-harriers-champion-449661/

True hero sadly departs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-35626854

Model

Pics and drawings Post-1

Here are some summary notes on the Scottish Company Beardmore who's aircraft manufacturing activities began in 1913 and ended in the 1920's. Beardmore-D.F.W. Round Britain Racer In 1913 William Beardmore and Company took over the building rights in Britain for the German Deutsche Flugzeug Werke...

Hi, from the Avro Heritage site,the Avro-746 was Jet flap research aircraft. 1x Bristol BE.53. Span 42.4’,Length 43’, Height 16.5’, AUW 10,876lb.And I am asking that,was this aircraft a competitor to Hunting H.126 for the Spec. ER.189D ?.

Just reading Matthew Uttley's "Westland and the British Helicopter Industry 1945-1960" I stumbled across the Bevan small ramjet helicopter project for Specification E.1/48, initiated in 1948 and cancelled in 1953. Checking all my sources (incl. the WWW) I even cannot find a company with this...

Hi all. I've found a photo of Gloster " Meteor F 4 -RA 490" with F2/4 metrovic Beryl engine. What is know about this plane ? Thanks.

Hi all, can you give a short history of the british aircraft builder Heston? I need also informations about the aircraft(projects?) J.?.2/ J.?.4/ J.?.7 and J.?.8... ...was J.C.9 the last project by Heston? Thanks Servus Maveric

Hi, the General Aircraft Ltd developed the GAL-56 tailless glider,and here is a variant from it. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200018.html?search=tailless+glider

Hi, I'm currently drawing a profile of something called "Cymballine". It vaguely resembles this: http://www.bisbos.com/rocketscience/aircraft/hyper/scheme4.htm But has intakes with half-cone centre bodies right forward under a nose which is, well... shaped like a yacht. It's clearly...

Hi, I spoke before about ER.134T contenders; in ER.134T for Mach 2 research aircraft,the contenders were AW.166, Boulton Paul P.128,Bristol-188,English-Electric P.6 ,Hawker P.1096 and P.1097,Saro P.163 and Vickers-Supermarine-553...

Hi, in ER.110D Spec. for variable wing-sweep research aircraft,the contenders were Armstrong Whitworth AW.59,Blackburn B-90,Boulton Paul P.121,Bristol-183 and Saunders P.149. The Balckburn B-90 was single seat VG aircraft project powered by one Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire turbojet and it had...

http://www.transportarchive.org.uk/ Some interesting stuff

My dear Jemiba, the Cierva W-11T was enlarge version of W-11 with two 1620 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin 502 engines,and W-12 project was to be fitted with Rolls-Royce Dart turboprops .