A great British aviator... no, simply a great aviator, nationality is unimportant .... went to join the great squadron in the sky on Wednesday. Peter Twiss will forever hold a place in avaition history, as the first man to fly at more than 1000 miles an hour in level flight; on his record breaking flight he actually reached 1132 MPH, which was a touch faster than the current record (held by an F-100 Super Sabre) - actually, it was about 300 MPH faster!! In his time with Fairey he flew many unusual aircraft, including the Rotodyne, with which he set a record for rotorcraft! And he was a minor film star, appearing in both "From Russia With Love" and "Sink The Bismarck", where he was flying another Fairey product, the Swordfish.
Mr Twiss, I salute you. :salute:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Twiss
[video]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-14760941[/video]
The aircraft he flew, the Fairey Delta 2 should have been the basis for a family of world beating fighters from Fairey; but this was the time of the infamous Duncan Sandys white paper, so it was not to be. Marcel Dassault himself said "If it were not for the clumsy way in which you tackle things in Britain, you could have made the Mirage yourselves". As it was, the aircraft made a valuable contribution to the design, and testing of design features, of Concorde; the famous drooping nose was a Fairey design feature, adopted on the airliner. Two aircraft were built, and both survive WG777 at Cosford and WG774 (the record breaking aircraft, in it's later, modified form as the BAC 221) at Yeovilton as part of a Concorde exhibition. Both versions are actually available in FS9, the earlier version as Classic Wings and the later version is from the inimitable Kaz Ito.
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Mr Twiss, I salute you. :salute:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Twiss
[video]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-14760941[/video]
The aircraft he flew, the Fairey Delta 2 should have been the basis for a family of world beating fighters from Fairey; but this was the time of the infamous Duncan Sandys white paper, so it was not to be. Marcel Dassault himself said "If it were not for the clumsy way in which you tackle things in Britain, you could have made the Mirage yourselves". As it was, the aircraft made a valuable contribution to the design, and testing of design features, of Concorde; the famous drooping nose was a Fairey design feature, adopted on the airliner. Two aircraft were built, and both survive WG777 at Cosford and WG774 (the record breaking aircraft, in it's later, modified form as the BAC 221) at Yeovilton as part of a Concorde exhibition. Both versions are actually available in FS9, the earlier version as Classic Wings and the later version is from the inimitable Kaz Ito.
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