Test Flying Memorial
"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
| Date | 18/01/1946 |
|---|---|
| Casualties | Gp Cpt A.F. Hards DSO, OC Experimental Flying, P, RAE Farnborough |
| Aircraft | Dornier 335A-12 AM223 |
| Took off from | Farnborough, Hampshire |
| Purpose of flight | Assessment of enemy aircraft |
| Incident location | Cove, Hampshire |
| Incident details | Twenty five minutes after take-off the aircraft was seen to rejoin the circuit and to begin an approach, wheels down with smoke coming from the belly of the machine in front of the rear engine. An explosion was heard and a fire in the rear fuselage was seen. The aircraft entered a shallow dive in a wide turn to port, finally impacting Cove village school. Six people were injured on the ground. The flying of German aircraft was strictly limited thereafter |