Thunder & Lightnings

Test Flying Memorial

"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge



Date11/09/1944
CasualtiesMr S. Gleave, TP; Mr H. Barnes, Avro Aircraft
AircraftAvro Lancaster Mk III PB579
Took off fromWoodford, Cheshire
Purpose of flightRoutine terminal-velocity dive to 375 m.p.h.
Incident locationAlderley Edge, Lancashire
Incident detailsFuel jettison pipes broke away, hit tailplane and stripped elevator skin. Aircraft dived into ground (one aircraft in ten off the production line was subjected to TV dive. This was the only accident in 400 such dives)


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