I was at Rolls Royce in Filton last week where I took the opportunity to look through the flight log books of two of the Bristol Aeroplane Company test pilots, Cyril Uwins and Bill Pegg. During the 1930s Uwins was Chief Test Pilot and Pegg his deputy (he later became Chief Test Pilot himself). Unfortunately Younghusband’s log book is not known to exist.

What I found is that Uwins and Pegg between them made 64 test flights and two taxy runs in the Hawker PV4 (K6926) between 4th February 1937 and 17th August 1938. After that date there is no further mention of the aircraft. The crash which is the subject of this thread occurred on 25th August 1938, just eight days later. Most flights had no passenger but sometimes the pilot was accompanied (names given were Warren, Edgecombe, Bailey and Staniland). On 6th September 1937, Pegg flew with Uwins for 35 minutes after which Uwins flew with Pegg for 45 minutes). Interestingly the PV4 is more often referred to as DB6926 in the log books, i.e. “Dive Bomber 6926”, though K6926 is used sometimes.

Regarding the Gladiator possibilities, there is only evidence of two Gladiators being used by BAC at Filton, K5200 (the prototype) and K7922 which was used to test the Fairey three-bladed propeller during 1937. Both of these aircraft survived past 25th August 1938.

I also found out that Younghusband obviously went back to Bristol for a while at least after his very long stay in hospital as he made the following flights as a passenger:
– 20th March 1939 – with Bill Pegg in Blenheim IV, L4871 for a 15 minute flight.
– 12th April 1939 – with Bill Pegg in Blenheim I, K7109 for a 35 minute flight.
– 27th June 1939 – with Cyril Uwins in Bombay, L5809 for a 60 minute test flight.
– 4th July 1939 – with Cyril Uwins in Bombay, L5809 for a 40 minute test flight.
– 1st August 1939 – with Cyril Uwins in Beaufort, L4443 for a 50 minute flight.
– 13th August 1939 – with Bill Pegg in Blenheim I, L6594 for a 20 minute flight.

Younghusband also appears in the BAC pilots’ superannuation scheme accounts in 1941 so he definitely worked for BAC.

If you are going to the Bristol section of the Heritage Trust, can you find out whether there is any detailed engineering information on the Bristol Jupiter engine while you are there please.:)

There is a lot of technical information at the RRHT in Bristol, though the indexing is not as good as it might be. I have no doubt that there is technical information on the Jupiter, along with most other Bristol engines. There are also examples of each engine on display.