Test Flying Memorial
"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
| Date | 12/02/1948 |
|---|---|
| Casualties | Sqn Ldr R.S. Kronfeld AFC, General Aircraft CTP |
| Aircraft | General Aircraft GAL. 56/01 TS507 |
| Took off from | Lasham, Hampshire |
| Purpose of flight | Stalling trials of tailless research glider |
| Incident location | Lower Froyle, Alton, Hampshire |
| Incident details | Towed to 10,000ft by Halifax tug. After second stall glider entered stable stall with trim set nose-down to reduce stick loads. The glider defied the pilot's efforts to unstall it until he raised the flaps and put the nose down into a dive, which proved impossible to recover owing to the trim set. The glider bunted at -5g, and the FTO baled out. The pilot failed to do so before aircraft hit the ground inverted |