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Image: IWM (ATP 16196B)

The immediate p/ostwar era saw the UK turn out a range of prototypes designed and built during the later war years. Many of them found little use in their intended role. Fortunately, the 9 Canadian and 82 British Lancastrians, some of them converted Lancaster bombers, were successful in their transport and mail delivery roles, although with quite a high accident rate.

Although initially a transport derivative of the Lancaster, this Lancastrian found another use as a testbed for the early generation of turbojets - its remaining pair of Merlins providing a useful power reserve should anything go wrong with either De Havilland Ghost engine. Two Lancastrians became Ghost testbeds, with a futher 7 aircraft converted to test one or more engines.

The Kellett XR-10 appeared superficially to be a scaled-up version of its earlier sibling, the XR-8. In this case, however, its twin engines were contained in side nacelles, driving its rotors using long driveshafts, and the aircraft was skinned entirely in metal.

The first of two prototypes flew on 24 April 1947. At the time, it was the largest rotorcraft to fly in the United States. Unfortunately, the same problem that had been encountered with the XR-8's rotor system emerged during testing when blades from the two intermeshed rotors collided in flight. Modifications were made and flight testing resumed. However, on 3 October 1949, the first prototype crashed due to a control system failure, killing Kellett's chief test pilot, Dave Driskill. The project was abandoned thereafter.

Both Lord Weir and his brother JG Weir were actively involved in establishing the Cierva Autogiro Co. in 1926. JG Weir became its first Chairman. Early autogyros were built under licence by A.V.Roe but in 1932 G&J Weir obtained the rights to develop autogyros from Cierva patents at their Glasgow factory. By 1939 Weirs had virtually taken over the Cierva company.

G&J Weir designed and built four experimental autogiros numbered W1 to W4 at their Cathcart factory from 1933 to 1937 after which they moved on to produce two twin-rotor helicopters (W5 and W6) before Weir’s helicopter venture was suspended in 1939 for the duration of WW2 as governmental needs lay elsewhere. Lord Weialso pioneered autorotation in 1939, significantly increasing the safety of helicopter operation. Unfortunately

The DG-2 ‘Fraed Naught’ is one of the two principal Gold F1 racers, the other being ‘Limitless’. The plane has had several owners and has progressed through several gestation phases. The plane started with a George Owl-created fuselage but was abandoned as too tight by owner Jon Sharp. New owner Dan Gilbert added a new wing and tail in creating the DG-1 which long-term owner Lowell Statter described as going really fast but failing to turn. While still owned by Dan Gilbert, a new all carbon fibre fuselage was added, followed by a second new wing of laminar-flow carbon fibre from Craig Catto.

Lowell Statter achieved three Gold wins before selling it to Steve Temple. Newest owner John Watson achieved a further Gold win. A highly unique and evolving aircraft.

The Aerophysics Development Corporation, a Curtiss-Wright subsidiary, designed a tandem two-seat "Aerial Platform" for a US Army Transport & Research Command "Flying Jeep" design competition. To prove the design concept, the US Army ordered 2 prototypes of a smaller single-seat demonstrator, the VZ-7, which were delivered to the US Army in mid-1958. The VZ-7 had a fuselage with the pilot's seat, fuel tanks and flight controls. On both sides of the fuselage the four propeller/rotors were attached, unshrouded (the aircraft did originally have shrouds, but these were later removed). The VZ-7 was controlled by changing the thrust of each propeller and was maneuverable and easy to fly.

Unfortunately, the VZ-7AP did not meet the required standard and was returned to the manufacturer.

The Scaled Composites Pond Racer (Scaled Composites Model 158) was a twin-engine, twin-boom racing aircraft developed for Bob Pond by Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites.

Pond commissioned the aircraft in an attempt to develop a modern aircraft capable of competing with vintage warbirds in the Unlimited Class at the Reno air races. With many valuable and historic aircraft crashing at Reno each year, often with the loss of aircraft and pilots, Pond hoped his Racer would offer a fast and spectacular replacement for the vintage fighter aircraft, retaining the thrills but removing the threat of death and destruction.

Unfortunately, on the Pond Racer's two outings at Reno it could be seen that the close-cowled engines were prone to overheating and oil fires. The plane and its pilot survived its first year despite significant problems but both were lost in the second year during a single-engine pancake landing after another oil fire. Sadly (but wisely) this drew the project to a close.

During the Vietnam era, the YO-3A was considered the quietest aircraft ever built, often flying its recce missions at little more than 100 feet without detection.

Note the later 6-bladed propeller and the largely shrouded symmetrical exhaust.

Three companies, Great Lakes, Keystone-Loening and Sikorsky, submitted aircraft to meet U.S. Navy requirements for a versatile amphibian, with their designs designated XSG, XS2L-1 aan XSS-1 respectively. The Loening entry was a conventional biplane with flying boat hull, retractable main gear and a nacelle-enclosed R-895 Wasp Junior on the upper wing. The pilot and observer were seated in a very unusual enclosed cockpit encompassing some of the interplane struts, resulting in a very odd glazing area.

The XS2L-1 was delivered for official trials in February 1933. Despite marginally better performance than its rivals, it offered no considerable advantages over existing floatplanes and so no production order was issued.

Scottish actress Karen Gillan.

Although retired by the Fleet Air Arm, in August 1937 New Zealand ordered an initial batch of 12 Blackburn Baffin ex-torpedo bombers from the Air Ministry to be delivered in November of that year. 17 further FAA Baffins in storage were also purchased and delivered during 1938. These aircraft equipped all 3 RNZAF reserve squadrons based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurh by late 1939 as the NZ government believed that the obsolescence of the Baffin did not preclude its use in maritime reconnaissance. Thus, although previously mostly used as trainers, they were often dispatched on maritime missions. The type was finally replaced by larger American-built Lockheed Hudson just before Pearl Harbour.

The first photograph shows Baffins et al. at the New Zealand Technical School, the second shows an NZ Baffin in transit and the third shows FAA use before the NZ purchase.

The Short Mercury-Maia composite aircraft set a world record flight distance of6,027 miles, taking off from the River Tay at Dundee and landing at the mouth of the Orange River in South Africa. A memorial on the waterfront at Dundee marks the occasion.

A Japanese Gloster - certainly unusual if not a tad weird...

The IJN purchased 50 Sparrowhawks Mks. I-III - Gloster-built derivatives of the Nieuport Nighthawk - and a further 40 Kits of parts for construction in Japan. 30 of the Gloster-built aircraft were Mk. I landplanes, 10 were 2-seat trainers and 10 were shipboard fighters. All 40 kits were completed as Mk.Is.

The shipboard fighters never served aboard the IJNS Hosho, the first Japanese aircraft carrier, rather serving anoard Japanese battleships as turret-launched fighters using the 70-foot ramps installed for this purpose. One of the photographs shows a Mk.III flying-off from the IJNS Yamashiro. The Sparrowhawks served from 1921-28 before being retired to a training role.

The Loire 210 was an improvement of the Loire 46, designed to meet a 1933 French Navy requirement for a single-seat catapult-launched fighter floatplane. The prototype first flew at Saint Nazaire on 21 March 1935. It had a large central float and two underwing auxiliary floats and was powered by a single nose-mounted Hispano-Suiza 9Vbs radial engine.

The prototype was evaluated by the French Navy, receiving an order for 20 aircraft in March 1937. Production aircraft were fitted with four wing-mounted Darne machine guns. However, within 3 months of entering service in August 1939, five aircraft had been lost due to structural failure of the wing. All remaining aircraft were grounded and withdrawn from use.

The Tupolev TB-1P was the floatplane torpedo bomber variant of the TB-1 bomber. It carried the TAN-12 torpedo and a range of other naval stores. It could also be ski-equipped for use on frozen surfaces.

While the TB-1P was far from the pinnacle of aircraft design, it was a pioneer, being derived from one of the first all-metal aircraft in the Soviet Union, the first standardised heavy bomber of the Soviet Union, and the first successful Soviet domestically-built torpedo bomber.

The VZ-3 was an experimental aircraft using blown flaps to achieve a short or near vertical take-off. It was a high-wing monoplane powered by an Avro Lycoming T-53 turboshaft engine located inside the fuselage driving two large-diameter propellers mounted, one on each wing. It had a T-tail and originally a fixed tailwheel. It was later converted to nose wheel configuration.

It had wide-span double retractable trailing-edge flaps, these were extended into the propeller slipstream for takeoff. To enable control while in the hover it had a universally-jointed jet-deflection nozzle at the rear of the aircraft.

It crashed after a lengthy test programme but was rebuilt and has been retired to a US Army Museum.

The Soviet Bratukhin (OKB-3) was an aircraft design bureau created in 1940 to develop helicopters. Headed by Ivan Pavlovich Bratukhin, the bureau built several experimental helicopters over the next decade. Each model had the same basic design of two rotors with separate engines carried on the ends of outriggers to each side of the fuselage. The bureau was dissolved in 1951.

The Wibault 72 C.1 was a "parasol" wing monoplane of metal construction, designed by the Michel Wibault aircraft company.

It served as a single-seat fighter aircraft in the French Air Force, for whom 69 aircraft were built In 1932, the Wibault 72 C.1 equipped 4 squadrons of the 7th Wing based in Dijon.

The first conventional takeoff flight of the prototype XV-4A (62–4503), took place on 7 July 1962, followed by tethered flight tests in late November, with the first free hovering flight on 24 May 1963. The first transition from hovering to forward flight took place on 8 November 1963. Unfortunately, 62–4503 was destroyed in a fatal crash on 10 June 1966.

Lockheed modified the second prototype aircraft between 1966 and 1968 to XV-4B standard. The 2 P&W JTi12 engines were replaced by 6 GE J85 turbojets, of which 4 acted as lift jets. This second prototype also crashed (on 14 March 1969) but fortunately the pilot escaped uninjured by ejecting.

The Ryan XV-5 Vertifan was a jet-powered, experimental VSTOL aircraft of the 1960s. The Ryan VZ-11-RY, which was re-designated XV-5A in 1962 was commissioned by the US Army in 1961, along with its rival, the Lockheed VZ-10 Hummingbird (re-designated XV-4 in 1962).

The Vertifan was flown by 15 test pilots, successfully proved the concept of ducted lift fans.