Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 06:33:45 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Uncommon Aircraft Submission Form

Sent from Mail Form posted at:   http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/8780/contribute.html

(Name)  John Dell
(URL)  http://myspace.virgin.net/john.dell
(Aircraft)  Further info on Blackburn B20 
(Other comments)
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In your page on the Blackburn B20 you state that the loss of the single prototype may have been caused by
failure of one of the Vulture engines. In fact the official report on the crash blamed aileron flutter.
The aircraft had been doing a high speed run (it had clocked up 345 mph!) when  it began to vibrate badly,
throttling back the engines had no effect. The pilot ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft. One of the
crew (Ivan Waller) got stuck when his parachute got entangled in the radio aerial. He reported that suddenly
the aircraft stopped vibrating, he was able to make his way along the top of the aircraft and free his
parachute before jumping to safety. Another crew member got out safely but the pilot left it too late and his
chute did not open fully and he was drowned. The pilot probably stayed with the aircraft to give the last two
memembers of the crew a chance to get out - sadly they did not.
 
The crew of HMS Transylvania (an odd name for a Royal Navy warship! -However it was a converted merchantman)
which picked up the two surviving crew members reported seeing a large rectangular object break off the aircraft.
This was probably the aileron and when it broke off it stopped the vibration it had been causing (giving Ivan
Waller the chance to free his parachute). In all the test flights of the B20 before this the main problem had
been getting the trim of the ailerons right (they had no trim tabs and all alterations to trim had to be done on
the ground). 
 
I feel the poor old Vulture engine is much maligned. Everyone forgets that the Merlin had much the same sort of
problems when it was first introduced on the Fairey Battle, but Rolls-Royce had the time to fix it's problems.
In 1941 there was no such luxury and both the Vulture and the Peregine were abandoned not because of any inherent
unfixable problem but because all the factory space was needed to produce more Merlins. 

John Dell

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(subject)  Uncommon Aircraft Submission Form