Peter Caygill - Flying to the Limit Testing World War II Single-engined Fighter Aircraft

W hen the aeroplane first went to war in 1914, it did so without any clear duties, other than endowing the ability to see over the nearest hill. Performance was also marginal due to the heavy, under-powered and often temperamental engines of the day. By the end of the First World War, however, it had become one of the dominant weapons and all its various tactical roles had been clearly defined. In the post-war period the pace of military aircraft development came to a virtual standstill and over the next fifteen years performance levels increased at a relatively modest rate. The RAFs biplane fighters finally made it over 200 mph with the Hawker Fury in June 1931, but the standard bomber of the day, the Vickers Virginia, could only just stagger above 100 mph and had even been known to travel backwards when faced with a stiff headwind.

Improvements in metal aircraft structures, in particular the introduction of stressed skin construction, and the development of more powerful engines for air racing and commercial use, gave the prospect of significantly increased capability, however, it was only the worsening political situation in Europe in the mid 1930s that finally released the Governmental shackles that had been inhibiting the progress of military projects in Britain in particular. The sudden prospect of large orders for fighter aircraft spurred the likes of Sydney Camm at Hawker and Reginald Mitchell at Supermarine to formulate advanced ideas which would eventually become the Hurricane and Spitfire. These aircraft and others, notably the Messerschmitt Bf 109, eclipsed everything that had gone before, offering increases in top speed of around 100 mph, greatly improved rates of climb and much heavier armament.

With the coming of the Second World War the impetus was maintained with the development of new engines of up to 2000 hp, all this just a few years after power outputs of a quarter of that amount had been deemed acceptable. Rapid technological advances and the desperate need for large numbers of aircraft put great strain on the various test establishments whose job it was to clear each machine as a weapon of war so that any nineteen-year-old could fly it in reasonable safety. In Britain the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE), together with the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) and the Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU) were entrusted with this work. This book looks at some of the more notable single-engined fighter aircraft through the performance and handling trials that were carried out by these units, a task that became more and more complex as the conflict went on and as the boundaries were pushed to the absolute limit, in terms of structures, engines and aerodynamics.