Prototype WB771 was originally silver & was painted gloss black with a red cheatline with the fin, tailplane, wings & a section of the belly remaining silver for the Farnboro airshow, it then broke up at Cranfield on a low level high speed run due to fatigue of the single fixing bolt connecting the tailplane to the fin.
WB771 made an appearance at the Farnborough Air Show in 1953, with the aircraft painted in spiffy colors — black fuselage with a red cheatline and silver wings. Trials showed the basic design to be sound, with some corrections needed. Unfortunately, one of the corrections was discovered very much the hard way, when WB771 was lost in a crash on 14 July 1954 while on a low-level run. The tail assembly was weak and tore off, with test pilot Ronald Ecclestone and his crew all killed.
* The second prototype, WB775, which featured a reinforced tail, performed its initial flight on 11 September 1954. It had the same spiffy color scheme that had been applied to the first prototypte, and actually took a joyride to the Farnborough air show during the initial flight. It was fitted with operational kit.
From the Vector site, black fuselage.
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