I am busy cataloguing my photos and have arrived at the 2nd prototype Bristol “Flaming Pencil” XF926 on display at Cosford. My Putnam book states a first flight date for this aircraft as 29 April 1963, but a detailed quote on the web states 26 April 1963. I would like to know which is correct, and also whether the pilot on this occasion was Godfrey Auty or someone else.
Thank you in advance!
By: Papa Lima - 11th November 2007 at 13:50
Thanks, Wieesso, that’s where I got the 29th from (and also that date is quoted in Ray Sturtivant’s “British Prototype Aircraft”). I hope someone can provide the correct date from an unimpeachable primary source! I am too far away from Cosford to go there and ask!
By: wieesso - 11th November 2007 at 13:44
‘XF923 undertook the first taxiing trials on 26 April 1961 but the first flight from Filton – with 41 year old Chief Test Pilot Godfrey L. Auty at the controls – was not until 14 April 1962. XF923 made its public debut at the SBAC Farnborough Air Show in September 1962 while XF926 had its first flight – escorted by a Hawker Hunter T7 – on 26 April 1963.
Only two other men – fellow Bristol test pilot J. Williamson and Lt Cdr P. Millet of the Royal Aeronautical Establishment – were ever to fly the Bristol 188.’
http://glostransporthistory.visit-gloucestershire.co.uk/JetAgeRMCbristol.htm
By: Nashio966 - 11th November 2007 at 13:36
just had a flick through my encyclopedia of aircraft,
XF923 First Flight – 14th April 1962
XF926 First Flight – 26th April 1963
…i think, unsure about the pilot of the second
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November 11, 2007 at 1:21 pm