love Miles Aircraft but i really wish this silly conspiracy would die i think the biggest factor leading to the cancellation of the M52 was Geoffrey DeHavilland jnr’s fatal crash in the DH swallow a few months before..Bureaucrats are naturally risk adverse and they could probably see it happening again killing another one of Britains top pilots. The M52 was more complicated than the X1 and there was a high likelihood it would have had teething problems and the Americans still might have beat them. finally NACA had managed to develop and operate a supersonic wind tunnel (of which data they shared with the British) in early 1948 thus making both the X1 and M52 somewhat redundant Lockheeds Kelly Johnson was quite dismissive of the whole Xplane program (there were no Lockheed research or X aircraft)…he said while they were playing around with useless research aircraft in the desert his team was already working on what would become the F104 and U2. Finally being first hardly gave Bell Aircraft any great advantage they made one more fixed wing aircraft the X2 and that was it….had they not been involved in rotor wings they would have gone the way of miles aircraft for certain.

Ref Drawings.

I do have a large collection of Falcon and Hawk (Sparrowhawk / Speed Six ) drawing which came from the Factory and PPS.

Civil Aero,
What format are these in ? are they originals? Would be very interested in seeing these! particularly the Falcon Drawings.

Three points. Firstly, I disagree that the stresses imposed on either old musical instruments or furniture are commensurate with those imposed on the glued joints of a flying wooden aeroplane. Secondly, old musical instruments and furniture do not need to fly and have not flown. Thirdly, neither old musical instruments nor furniture need to support human beings whose safety will be imperilled if their glued joints fail in flight. I think your analogy is a rather like chalk and cheese. A wooden aeroplane with casein glued joints is fine in a museum – like old musical instruments and antique furniture – but not acceptable for flight.

with all due respect in structural engineering all that matters is stress, strain and load….the fact that one object flies and the other doesn’t, does not effect the structural mechanics either way. Unless you have done the stress analysis you cant really tell and i think you may be surprised!.

I don’t know much about the world of Stradivarius violins but from the violins i have examined up close it would be very difficult to pull them apart and reglue them without destroying all the wood…and im guessing a Stradivarius that has had the glue and wood replaced is probably not considered a proper Stradivarius any more. Furthermore any minute changes in the structure of these antique instruments would be audible to those who play them for a living probably rendering them unplayable.

I guess im trying to understand by what mechanism does casein cement break down over time? assuming the wood structure is kept bacteria and fungus free at a relatively constant moisture and temperature? I know different size pieces of the same type of wood will expand and contract at different rates depending on how they are cut with respect to the grain and this can cause working of the joint when you have two dissimilar shaped pieces glued together (eg spar web and cap). wouldn’t this be a problem with aerodux as well? what is it exactly that prevents aerodux from breaking down?

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AAT flying around Casey late 90’s

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AAT in the Hangar a few weeks ago

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AAT when it first arrived at Casey in 1977 with former owner (back in the 50’s) Arthur Schutt