pagen01The show itself carried on, the de Havilland Venom with reheated Ghost engine was already awaiting its slot and took to the air as soon as the runway was cleared, interestingly this was perhaps the first case of a helicopter being utilised in a civil incident scene, when the attending Bristol 171 surveyed the scene for wreckage and any further possible fatalities. The Avro Vulcan performed its fly through from Boscombe as it had done all week, and Neville Duke performed a sonic boom in the Hunter at the end of the show.
This is possibly quite hard to understand now, but it was seen that by continuing with the flying that the public would remain distracted and calm, this seems to have worked and I am aware of people that attended the show who never knew how catastrophic the crash was until after they had returned home and subsequently heard about the event afterwards.
Such a tragic air show event was unforeseeable at the time, and things that we take for granted at organised events today weren’t catered for then. It showed up poor regard for public safety by allowing aircraft to manoeuvre towards the crowds, disaster planning was also negligible, not withstanding emergency services worked very quickly.
Statements of condolences and sympathy were expressed to bereaved families by the Queen, and officials from the de Havilland Aircraft Co., Society of British Aircraft Constructors, Ministry of Supply as well as from Churchill’s government.
The reaction of the British Red Cross, St John Ambulance Brigade were praised in an SBAC announcement, as were the crowd for remaining calm and some of whom helped out the first aid parties with the aftermath of the event. Perhaps most poignantly it also read, “No tribute could be too high for the man in the street and his wife and family who came to Farnborough that afternoon to watch the great demonstration of British aviation would not be deterred from staying to the end.”
On the following weekend the Queen posthumously awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air to Derry and Richards.
The jury of a Coroner’s inquest held on the 8 September stated that the two flyers had, “died accidentally in the normal course of their duty”, adding “no blame is attached to John Derry”, and the verdict of accidental death was recorded on the spectators that had lost their lives.
On the 13th John Cunnigham flew WG240 from Farnborough back to Hatfield where it was returned to the workshops, this was its 25th flight, both aircraft making over 100 supersonic flights between them, and WG236 had conducted just over 125 flying hours over 133 flights in total.
On Sunday the 14th a memorial service to Derry, Richards, and the thirty members of the public that had died was held in one of the exhibition tents at Farnborough, Rev. Poole officiated and the Bishop of Guildford pronounced the blessing, in front of 1,500 attendees. A formal memorial service to Derry and Richards was held at St Albans Abbey on the 15th, the Bishop of St Albans officiated in front of assembled family, company employees, and invited guests.
The accident was to have major repercussions throughout the industry, on the D.H.110 programme itself, and air show organisation of the future, with that in mind an exhaustive investigation was organised by the Accident Investigation Branch (AIB), Royal Aircraft Establishment structures department (both based at Farnborough), and de Havilland. The accident was obviously well photographed and filmed, but very few of the hundreds of pictures and stills from footage submitted by the public actually caught the precise moment of the beginning of the break up, or revealed what had actually happened. Immediate blame in the popular press pointed at the supersonic aspect of the flight, doubtlessly whipped up by the hype and inaccuracies surrounding the ‘sound barrier’ in general.
It was sometime before investigation tests on a wing panel, prompted by amateur film footage showing the starboard wing coming away first, revealed the breakup to have been caused by a complex structural failure which started in the starboard wing outer leading edge. Sadly WG236 was a weaker aircraft than ‘240 and it was discovered that both aircraft had understressed wings which were found to be much weaker than initially thought, in fact they possessed only 64% of their designed strength in ‘236, weight considerations had resulted in not using outboard forward spars and relying on reinforced ‘D’ section leading edges to build up strength. It appeared that pressure had caused buckling of one of these starboard wing leading edge sections on both the recovered wing sections of WG236 and the test specimen at Hatfield. This was found to be caused by the severe twisting action of the ailerons positions for a tight turn being imposed on the starboard wing structure, the buckled skins coming undone causing the wing to open up and the failure to transfer along the spar into the port wing which then subsequently failed in a similar manner.
pagen01My interest in the acident has been a long one, being interested in the ‘funny looking’ Sea Vixen.
However when my Gran lived in Buckinghamshire for a few years she had two neighbours, one of whom was orphaned by an air show accident at Farnborough in 1952, this prompted me to look into it further.
1952 was one of those outstanding years amongst the golden age of aviation, it seemed that new sleek, dramatically shaped, high performance jet aircraft types were appearing all the time. Boundaries were constantly being broken, and British aviation never looked so good, in the public’s perception at least. Aircraft and test-pilots names were becoming household names, while appearing in the press. Latest movies reflected this mood, most notably David Leans ‘The Sound Barrier’, where actors, aircraft, and real test-pilots got equal billing in the credits, indeed John Derry was amongst the list of test-pilots that gave advice to the actors and had piloted the Mosquito that recorded the air to ground scenes depicted in the D.H.Vampire flight over France.
John Derry was arguably one of the best known test-pilots of the day, born in Cairo on 5th December 1921, he was Oxford educated before joining the RAF as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner with Coastal Command. He retrained as a pilot in Canada in 1943, and after a spell of secondment to the Air Transport Auxiliary he joined 182 squadron flying Hawker Typhoons on close support action, before joining 181 Sqn as a Flight Commander. In March 1945he became Commanding Officer of 182 Sqn which saw heavy action against the last of the German opposition in Holland, for his work and leadership he was awarded the DFC, and later the Bronze Lion of the Netherlands. After war’s end, in October Derry became Commanding Officer of the Day Fighter Leaders School at the Central Fighter Establishment, West Raynham, mainly flying the Hawker Tempest V. After leaving the RAF he joined the firm of Vickers-Supermarine where his flying talent was used as experimental and production test pilot, before leaving them and joining de Havilland in October 1947 as an experimental test pilot. This was daring do and ‘Boys Own’ stuff, but he was also admired by colleagues for his technical and considered approach to test flying, something that would quickly become very important in this new age of jets, swept wings, and supersonics.
He became more publically known for his demonstration flying which was always very dramatic but well thought out, he is credited with coming up with a complex aerobatic manoeuvre whereby the aircraft exits a move in the opposite direction that it entered and indeed since known as the Derry turn.
He also indulged in air racing, he set up a 605.23 mph international closed circuit record in April 1948 with the DH.108, which he was involved with testing at the time, earning himself the Segrave Memorial Trophy, before becoming the first British pilot to officially break the sound barrier on September 6th, again in the 108, and earning him the RAeC Gold Medal aswel as a distinguished place in the British record books. Indeed at the time it hadn’t been formally announced that the American Chuck Yeager had previously broken the barrier in the air dropped rocket propelled Bell X-1. Other accolades included winning the Coupe Montana for flying a Vampire from Paris to Cannes in 45 minutes in the spring of 1949, he was also a bit of a socialite, he wasn’t even 28 at the time.
The public, press, and enthusiasts alike clamoured to see the latest aircraft and the various company test-pilots in action and the yearly showcase for this aerial extravaganza was the renowned SBAC air show held at Farnborough. Against this background the de Havilland 110, which was amongst the highest performance fighters anywhere, and certainly in its class, and Derry were perhaps, along with Falk & the Avro 698 Vulcan bomber, the most highly anticipated duo of the 1952 show.
de Havilland chose WG240 as the display aircraft as it was the lighter and markedly more powerful of the two machines, beside being almost a year newer, it was specially painted in a very dramatic Night Fighter all over gloss black with white ‘de Havilland 110 Day and Night Fighter – Rolls Royce Avons’ script applied to the fuselage sides. Throughout the earlier part of the show week, commencing the 1st of September, the invited press, trade, and technical audience thrilled to the display of this Wellsian looking craft which performed dramatic sequences including the well known ‘Derry turn’, and speeds of up to 700mph. On Monday there was in fact a ban on making sonic booms over the airfield enforced by the display committee, however this was lifted on the Tuesday and the aircraft was shown off in glorious weather to show stopping advantage, although the sonic booms were not produced over the airfield. On the Wednesday the attending crowd heard the twin booms, but this was produced above the horrible low cloud and drizzle conditions while diving from 43,000ft, the same conditions prevailed on the Thursday when two cracks across the airfield preceded an estimated 600-650mph low fly though of the airfield in rain. At the same shows the Vulcan prototype was showing of its impressive delta lines for the first time in public, while Neville Duke was also laying sonic booms over the airfield. ‘Flight’ magazine reported that the Avro 698 (Vulcan) and its pilot ‘Roly’ Falk put on the most significant performance of the week, while the DH.110s’ show was reported as ‘quite inhibited’.
Friday the 5th was the first public day of the show and again the 110 was highly appreciated by the 40,000 attendees, Derry performed a running commentary as he attained height, commenced a shallow dive, and attained “mach point 9 plus”, which was conveyed by radio and relayed over the public address system, immediately before two loud sonic cracks were heard and the aircraft wooshed in from the west.
On the Saturday morning of the 6th a ground run had confirmed that the starboard Avon engine was having problems with overheated bearings and so it was decided to prevent the aircraft from displaying that afternoon. Derry wasn’t one for letting the crowds down and so decided to return to Hatfield in the company Dove and pick up WG236 along with his flight test observer Tony Richards. The show weather was again marginal in the morning, and apart from helicopter demonstrations the flying display didn’t start proper until 14.50. At around 15.50 the 110 announced its arrival to the 130,000 strong crowd, exactly four years to the day since Derry became the first Briton to break the sound barrier, by the sound of two sonic booms followed by the dramatic high-speed run in from left to right in front of the crowd line at 1000-1500 feet. After disappearing from view it flew a 600-650 mph low pass at 400ft in front of the crowd before commencing a left turn, as the turn tightened towards the public enclosures the 110 was seen to suddenly pitch up and as it did so the aircraft came apart. Most were transfixed as the cockpit section smashed to the ground right in front of the crowd line, however, worst of all the jet engines had detached through the bottom of the airframe and had continued their trajectory into the crowd on the hill and a car park area. The fuselage/wing centre section and twin booms, now minus outer wing panels, tailplane, forward fuselage, and powerplants, fluttered down slowly like a Sycamore leaf, before hitting the ground near the parked aircraft area.
John Derry DFC (30) and Tony Richards (24) were killed instantly, twenty nine spectators also lost their lives on that terrible day, another passed away in the following week, while sixty three others were injured, and to this day it remains the worst air show tragedy in British history. The work of the test pilot, and lesser extent flight test observer, was well known to the public through popular culture and media, but in a horrifying instant the unknown dangers they faced on a daily basis was laid out for all to see. Even more tragically, this was the only flight in which Richards had joined Derry throughout the shows demonstrations.
Richards was born on 10th December 1927 in London, and after attending the Paddington Technical Institute he became a long term de Havilland employee, training at the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School as a trade apprentice, before becoming a Technical apprentice and RAeS Graduate Member. He spent time in the aerodynamics department before joining the flight test department in October 1948, in April 1952 he became the first test observer to fly at supersonic speeds. At the time of the accident he engaged to marry, Derry left a Wife, who was at the show, and two young children.
pagen01Well remembered Lee, I was going to try and write something and post this evening when I get home.
We will never forget John Derry, Anthony Richards, and those who lost their lives, or family members, on the ground.
The former represented the often unseen dedication and sacrifice of flight-test crews, and the latter the British enthusiasm for a aviation.
pagen01Agcats’ pictures pretty well confirm AR! I was unaware those hangar types were there I must admit.
I’m sure they would be much appreciated at AIX if you could post them there.
pagen01SW376
My first flight at SMR: 1015 16-Jan-56.
What are the chances of that Mo!
This the only poicture I’ve seen of SW376.
pagen01Well done Richard, you must be chuffed!
pagen01I don’t think AR had curved hangars of that type, the two hangars together are T2s (and the one opposite).
The problem with relying on airfield buildings is that they, and the area around them can constantly evolve, Gaydons tend to have cut outs in their apex to handle V bombers tails, but I think they were added later.
It does look like a 707/C-135 behind.
Just a thought, is it definitely UK Rob?
pagen01I’m thinking Gaydon. The two Gaydon type (named after the station) hangars were inline with each other, but I think the angle of the shot may make them appear next to each other here, measuring off the screen one does seem further back than the other.
Nice shot, looks like the next few seconds could have been interesting!
pagen01I must admit I think Anon & MRPs suggestions are the most likely, especially with the bulge for a CSU or other ancillery of some sort.
pagen01I know discussion is ultimately pointless, but I do think it is sad that the Amiot and Morane Saulnier aircraft are going. As mentioned above, most are happy to see Buchons playing BF109s, yet these French aircraft look even more like the German originals.
I think the way we are looking at it going to Poland is a bit rosy, almost like the IWM are doing the other collection a favour, rather than just clearing space. Two static Ju52s and Storchs (or derivations of) in this country is not over doing it.
The greater problem is where will the disposal process end, as more aircraft will be offered to museums in the future.
In a perfect world there would be a distinct civil aircraft collection, as DAS and the majority of old airliners are already at Duxford, that is the logical place to have it, a new hangar/building dedicated for that use would be great and free up room for the IWM core collection.
pagen01General Service Shed
When they were originally built the airfields were to hold 3 squadrons and each squadron had their own hangar or ‘Coupled General Service Shed’ and the single span ‘Shed’ was a ‘Repair Hangar’ where the squadron aircraft were fixed and serviced.
Thank you Brian, there’s no such thing as a ‘Belfast hangar’, nice to hear the proper title.
Some General Service Sheds had ‘Belfast trusses’ which were attractive due to their strength over span and comparitively lightweight strcture.
I can’t think of any GS Sheds under threat at the moment, and relocating one would be one heck of a job, unlike the steel T2s and Bellmans etc.
BTW, looks like we’ve been here before on the hangar replacement question, 10 years ago! http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=542&highlight=belfast+truss
pagen01Who could not want to see it like that!
Cracking shot, any info on where it was (looks fresh, ready for Odiham)? SW376 flew with the SMR at St Mawgan, coded Y.
pagen012nd episode (airliners) repeated tonight – BBC4 10.00pm
pagen01Ah, so my wish for an all over white, with mid grey upper surfaces finished Lancaster of the SMR Coastal Command won’t be happening then!
pagen01There’s also the FAA issue with Saphire engined L39’s.
A.S. Sapphire engine (7,500 – 10,000 Ib thrust), no wonder they were grounded!
I’m guessing the Viper engine, as in the popular L-29 conversion, is what you mean?
However the L-39 does use a Saphir mini gas turbine engine as an auxilary power unit and starter.
What about the Hunter? Seem to recall several accidents, some fatal, to UK based privately owned aircraft.
I can think of only two fatals, one at Dunsfold air show a few years back.
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