1930s Racing Planes - Miles Hawk Speed Six & Percival Mew Gull скачать в хорошем качестве

1930s Racing Planes - Miles Hawk Speed Six & Percival Mew Gull

A pair of beautiful racing aircraft from the 1930's - the only surviving Miles Hawk Speed Six and a Percival Mew Gull - displaying at Old Warden during the Shuttleworth Family Airshow 2018. 1935 MILES HAWK SPEED SIX The Miles Hawk Speed Six was designed as a racing development of the already popular Miles Hawk series of sports and towing aircraft. Three Hawk Speed Six aircraft were built by Phillips and Powis during 1934 and 1935. The prototype G-ACTE fist flew in 1934 having been built for Sir Charles Rose. It was raced in Kings Cup races from 1934 – 1936. Two further Hawk Speed Six’s were built, the M2U, G-ADOD, and the M2L G-ADGP. These were built for siblings Luis and Ruth Fontes. Both were raced extensively in 1933 and 1936 until G-ADOD was written off on 1st October 1936 following engine failure. This left G-ADGP as the sole surviving Speed Six. It was progressively modified both before and after Word War 2 in order to obtain faster speeds, coming 2nd in 4 out of 13 Kings Cup races from 1948 to 1960. By 1971, G-ADGP had been modified so much that it was almost unrecognisable, and its importance as a historic aircraft was becoming obvious. In 1986 it was sold to Tom Buffaloe who had it rebuilt to 1937 specification. It spent most of the next 10 years based at Old Warden, while still owned by Tom Buffaloe. In 1997 she was sold to Concorde captain Roger Mills and kept at Fairoaks, appearing at Shuttleworth air displays on several occasions. In 2018 Roger decided to sell G-ADGP and she was purchased by the Shuttleworth Collection. Following a thorough inspection it appeared at numerous airshows in the 2018 season and fits in well with the other racing aircraft of the 1930’s, the DH88 Comet, and Percival Mew Gull. 1936 PERCIVAL MEW GULL Originally registered ZS-AHM, named ‘The Golden City’ and flown by Major A M Miller, this was one of three Mew Gulls intended to take part in the Schlesinger Race from Portsmouth to Johannesburg in 1936. It is the only surviving original Mew Gull and there is a replica also on the UK register. Having run out of fuel just before the first control at Belgrade and being unable to obtain a suitable grade of spirit for refuelling, Miller retired and returned to England. Here, in 1937, the Mew Gull was sold to Alex Henshaw and re-registered G-AEXF. Henshaw won the 1937 Folkestone Trophy at 210 mph with his new mount but suffered engine failure and force landed during that year’s King’s Cup. For the 1938 racing season G-AEXF was modified by Essex Aero at Gravesend. They fitted a Gipsy Six R engine in place of the former standard Gipsy Six and a Ratier variable pitch propeller taken from the Comet racer G-ACSS. Soon the Ratier was replaced by a de Havilland constant speed propeller and the fuselage was remodelled above the top longerons to give a lower profile – with the pilot seated on the floor. With these modifications Henshaw won the 1938 King’s Cup at 236.25 mph. G-AEXF then returned to Gravesend where a Gipsy Six series II engine, radio and long-range fuel tanks were fitted in preparation for Alex Henshaw’s out-and-home Cape record flight. He took off on February 5th 1939 and returned from Cape Town 4 days 10 hours 16 minutes later, a record that stood for over 70 years! G-AEXF spent WWII hidden in France and was returned to England, refurbished and overhauled in time to win the 1955 King’s Cup. After suffering various vicissitudes, G-AEXF was bought in 1985 by Desmond Penrose who had the aircraft returned to its original 1939 configuration by AJD engineering – after which it was based at Old Warden. In 1991 it suffered a forced landing in a barley field, due probably to carburettor icing, in which it was severely damaged due to the crop jamming the wheels in the spats. It was again restored and later, in 2002, sold to the Real Aeroplane Company at Breighton in Yorkshire. It was then purchased by the Shuttleworth Collection and arrived back at Old Warden on 6th October 2013. Video and Audio content is Copyright © 2019 S Keeler This video and audio material may not be reproduced in any form (except as the videos Youtube embedded video option on any other website), without written permission.