Herbert John Louis Hinkler, A.F.C., D.S.M. (State Library of Queensland)
22 February 1928: Herbert John Louis Hinkler arrived at Darwin, Northern Territories, Australia, after flying solo from Croydon, London, England. He had departed Croydon on 7 February, flying his Avro 581E Avian, G-EBOV. He had navigated by using a London Times atlas.
The previous record time for the 11,000 miles (18,000 kilometers) had been 28 days. An estimated 10,000 spectators watched his arrival.
The government of Australia awarded Bert Hinkler a prize of £2,000. He was appointed a squadron leader in the Royal Australian Air Force Reserve and awarded the Air Force Cross.
Herbert J. L. Hinkler, D.S.M., with his Avro 581E Avian, G-EBOV, before their departure from England, February 1928. (LIFE Magazine)Petty Officer Herbert J. L. Hinkler, R.N.A.S., with No. 28 Squadron, 1918.
During World War I, Bert Hinkler had served as an aerial gunner in the Royal Naval Air Service. He served in France. He was trained as a pilot, serving in Italy with the Royal Air Force.
After the War, Hinkler went to work for A. V. Roe & Co.,, Ltd., where he was the Chief Test Pilot from 1921 to 1926. He then flew with England’s Schneider Trophy racing team.
Avro 581 Avian G-EBOV had been the prototype Avian. (Production Avians were designated 594.) The airplane had been successfully raced for several years in England before it was modified to the 581E standard for Hinkler’s flight to Australia. The airplane was powered by an 80 horsepower A.D.C. Aircraft Cirrus II engine.
Bert Hinkler was later the first pilot to fly an airplane solo across the South Atlantic Ocean. He was killed 7 January 1933 when he crashed into a mountain in Italy.
Bert Hinkler arriving in Queensland, Australia with his Avro 581E Avian, G-EBOV, 1928.Herbert J. L. Hinkler’s Avro 581E Avian, G-EBOV, in the collection of the Queensland Museum South Bank, Corner of Grey & Melbourne Streets, South Bank, South Brisbane. (Detail from photograph by Peter Lewis)
Hinkler’s airplane, G-EBOV, was the first A. V. Roe and Company, Limited, Avro 581 Avian prototype, c/n 5116. It received its Certificate of Registration 7 July 1926. The prototype was originally equipped with an air-cooled Armstrong Siddely Genet 5 cylinder radial engine. The radial engine was replaced with an A.D.C. Cirrus II inline 4-cylinder engine and the airplane was redesignated 581A.
The Avian was sold to Bert Hinkler and registered to him by the Air Ministry, 4 July 1927. G-EBOV received further modifications, including shortened wings, for Hinkler’s planned long distance flight. It was again redesignated, this time as 581E.
The A.D.C. Cirrus Mark II was an air-cooled, normally-aspirated 304.66-cubic-inch-displacement (4.993 liter) four-cylinder vertical inline engine. This was a right-hand tractor, direct-drive, overhead-valve engine with two valves per cylinder and a compression ratio of 4.9:1. It had a normal power rating of 75 horsepower at 1,800 r.p.m. and a maximum power rating of 80 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. The engine drove a two-bladed, fixed-pitch propeller. The Cirrus Mk.II was 3 feet, 9.3 inches (1.151 meters) long, 1 foot, 7 inches wide (0.483 meters) and 2 feet, 11.6 inches (0.904 meters) high. It weighed 280 pounds (127 kilograms).
Captain Geoffrey de Havilland, O.B.E., in the cockpit of an airplane, circa 1925. (Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
22 February 1925: At the de Havilland Aircraft Company airfield at Stag Lane, Edgware, London, Geoffrey de Havilland, O.B.E., took his new DH.60 Moth, c/n 168 (later registered G-EBKT), for its first flight.
The DH.60 was a light-weight, two-place, single-engine, single-bay biplane. The fuselage was constructed of plywood and the wings and tail surfaces were covered with fabric. The Moth was 23 feet, 5½ inches (7.150 meters) long with a wingspan of 29 feet, 0 inches (8.839 meters) and overall height of 8 feet, 9½ inches (2.680 meters). The airplane was designed so that the wings could be folded parallel to the fuselage, giving it an approximate width of 9 feet (2.7 meters).
The wings had a chord of 4 feet, 3 inches and the lower wing was staggered slightly behind the upper. Their total area was 229.0 square feet (21.3 square meters). The vertical gap between the wings was 4 feet, 10 inches (1.473 meters) and lower wing was staggered 3 inches (7.62 centimeters) behind the upper. Both wings had 3.5° angle of incidence and 3.5° dihedral. There was no sweep.
The DH.60 had an empty weight of 764 pounds (346.6 kilograms) and its gross weight was 1,650 pounds (748 kilograms).
An A.D.C. Cirrus aircraft engine at the Science Museum, London. (Nimbus227)
The Moth was powered by an air-cooled, normally-aspirated 4.503 liter (274.771-cubic-inch-displacement A.D.C. Aircraft Ltd., Cirrus inline 4-cylinder overhead valve engine with two valves per cylinder and a compression ratio of 5.4:1. The direct-drive engine produced 60 horsepower at 1,800 r.p.m., and 65 horsepower at 2,000 r.p.m. The Cirrus was 0.983 meters (3.225 feet) long, 0.908 meters (2.979 feet) high and 0.450 meters (1.476 feet) wide. It weighed 260 pounds (118 kilograms). The A.D.C. Cirrus was designed by Major Frank Bernard Halford, who later designed the de Havilland Gipsy engine, as well as the Goblin and Ghost turbojet engines.
De Havilland built 8 pre-production and 31 production DH.60 Moths. 595 DH.60s of all variants were produced at Stag Lane.
The prototype de Havilland Aircraft Company DH.60 Moth, G-EBKT. (Unattributed)
On 29 May 1925, Alan Cobham flew the prototype from Croydon to Zurich and back in 14 hours, 49 minutes. Cobham also flew the Moth in The Kings Cup Air Race, though weather forced him to land short of the finish. It placed second in a follow-up race.
The G-EBKT was used as a demonstrator for de Havilland for a brief time before being sold to Sophie C. Elliot Lynn, 26 March 1926. She flew the Moth in the Paris Concours d’Avions Economiques in August 1926. (Mrs. Elliott Lynn later became Mary, Lady Heath.)
Sophie Catherine Elliot Lynn with her pale blue de Havilland DH.60 Moth, G-EBKT. (A Fleeting Peace)
In 1927, G-EBKT was sold to the London Aeroplane Club. It crashed at Dennis Lane, Stanmore, Middlesex, 21 August 1927, injuring the pilot and a passenger:
On Sunday afternoon, Pilot Officer Stanley Pritchard-Barrett, flying on D.H. “Moth” G-EBKT with his wife as passenger, crashed in the grounds of the residence of Major Sir Maurice FitzGerald,Bt. He was severely injured about his head, and his wife, who was a passenger, had a leg broken. The machine fell from a height of about 90 ft.
The London Aeroplane Club “Moth” is apparently a complete write-off.
—Flight
G-EBKT’s registration was cancelled 20 January 1928.
Jules Charles Toussaint Védrines (Science Photo Library)
22 February 1912: At 4:06 a.m., at the Aerodrome Deperdussin, Pau, France, Jules Charles Toussaint Védrines took off in the 1912 Société de Production des Aéroplanes Deperdussin (SPAD) Monoplane, and began to fly it around a 5 kilometer (3.1 miles) course, to cover a total distance of 200 kilometers (124.3 miles). The flight was timed by M. Maurice Martin.
Védrines’ time at 50 kilometers (31.07 miles) was 19 minutes, 3-4/5 seconds, for an average speed of 157.37 kilometers per hour (97.79 miles per hour); at 100 kilometers (63.14 miles), 37 minutes 58-2/5 seconds, 159.44 km/h (99.07 miles per hour); 150 kilometers (93.21 miles), 56 minutes, 41-2/5 seconds, 158.76 kilometers per hour (98.65 miles per hour); and 200 kilometers (124.27 miles), 1 hour, 15 minutes, 20-4/5 seconds, 159.26 kilometers per hour (98.96 miles per hour).¹
Various sources (e.g., Wikipedia) credit Jules Védrines with having made the first flight at a speed of 100 miles per hour, although his highest average speed, measured at the 100 kilometer mark, was actually a fraction of a mile per hour less.
The Deperdussin monoplane was 7.0 meters (22 feet, 11.6 inches) long, with a wingspan of 6.25 meters (20 feet 6.1 inches) and height of 2.30 meters (7 feet, 6.6 inches). Its wing area was 9.3 square meters (100.1 square feet).
It was powered by an air-cooled Société des Moteurs Gnôme Lambda Lamda two-row, 14-cylinder rotary engine rated at 140 horsepower, driving a two-bladed Chauvière Hélice Intégrale propeller, with a diameter of 2.50 meters (8 feet, 2.4 inches).
Deperdussin Monoplane. (l’Aerophile, 1 March 2012, at Page 111)
¹ Timing data from l’Aerophile: Revue Technique & Pratique des Locomotions Aériennes, 20ᵐᵉ Année, N° 5, 1 March 1912, Page 112, Column 1.
Project Mercury astronauts with Convair F-106B-75-CO Delta Dart 59-0158. (NASA)
21 February 1961: Final training begins for Mercury 7 astronauts. Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom and John Glenn are selected for the initial flights. Left-to-Right: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.
The aircraft in the photograph is a Convair F-106B-75-CO Delta Dart, 59-0158, a two-place supersonic interceptor trainer.
English Electric Canberra B Mk.2 WD932 (Mary Evans Picture Library)
21 February 1951: A Royal Air Force English Electric Canberra B Mk.2 bomber, WD932, under the command of Squadron Leader Arthur Edward Callard, D.F.C., A.F.C, A.R.Ae.S., took off from RAF Aldergrove, Belfast, Northern Ireland, and flew across the North Atlantic to Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. Also aboard were Flight Lieutenant Edward Arthur Joseph Haskett, navigator, and Flight Lieutenant A.G.R. Robson, radio operator. The crew were assigned to the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, RAF Boscombe Down.
WD932 departed Aldergrove at 12:43 p.m. local time (12:43 UTC), and arrived at Gander at 11:50 Newfoundland Standard Time (17:20 UTC), for an elapsed time of 4 hours, 37 minutes. Flying at altitudes above 40,000 feet (12,192 meters) they encountered head winds of 90 miles per hour (40 meters per second). The average speed of the flight was 444.042 miles per hour (714.616 kilometers per hour/385.862 knots).
For this flight, WD932 was equipped with jettisonable 250 gallon wing tip fuel tanks, giving the Canberra a total fuel capacity of 1,874 Imperial gallons (2,250 U.S. gallons/8,519 liters).
The flight had been delayed to repair an 8-inch (20 centimeters) hole in the leading edge of the right wing, caused when the airplane struck a seagull on takeoff the previous day.
Great Circle route from RAF Aldergrove, Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Gander, Newfoundland: 2,067 statute miles. (Great Circle Mapper)
The RAF had not requested observers from Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom, so no official world record was set by this flight.
British Jet Flys Atlantic in Record 4 Hours 37 Minutes
GANDER, N. F., Feb. 21 (UP) — A twin-jet British Canberra bomber, flying at better than seven miles a minute, set a record of four hour and 37 minutes today on a 2050-mile flight from Ireland to Gander.
The Canberra, piloted by squadron leader Arthur E. Callard, left Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, at 7:43 a.m. E. S. T. and landed here at 12:20 p.m., averaging 444.042 miles an hour despite headwinds of 90 miles an hour.
A crew of two accompanied Callard on the transatlantic flight, which better by two hours the only comparable record of six hours and 40 minutes set in 1947 by a Pan American Constellation flying here from Shannon Airport, Ireland.
“It would be hard for anyone to convince us that they had a more pleasant trip than we,” Callard said as he stepped from the sleek bomber, claimed by the British to be the fastest plane of its type in the world.
He described the trip as “perfect from start to finish.”
Callard, Flight Lt. Edward Haskett, the navigator, and Flight Lt. A. J. Robson, radio operator, agreed that they would have completed the flight sooner had it not been for heavy headwinds.
They declined to give any details of the flight because the performance of the plane is top-secret.
“But we can say it feels grand,” Callard said. “The trip was quiet and one of the things about flying a jet bomber is that‚in this case anyway—there was no vibration like you’d find in an old-type plane.”
The Canberra flew most of the distance at altitudes greater than 40,000 feet. The plane roared into sight of this Newfoundland outpost as 12:16 p.m., touching down on the airport seven minutes later.
The jet bomber will go to Andrews Air Base, Washington, D.C., for tests by the United States Air Force. If the tests are successful, the plane may be mass-produced in the United States for Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Atlantic Army Air Force.
—Boston Evening Globe, Vol. CLIX, No 52, Page 1, Columns 5 and 6, Page 10, Columns 5 and 6
WD932 continued to Andrews AFB where it would be demonstrated to the U.S. Air Force, and to be used as a pattern aircraft for the B-57 Canberra, produced by the Glenn L. Martin Co., Middle River, Maryland. It would be assigned the USAF serial number 51-17387.
English Electric Canberra B Mk.2 WD932 (Mary Evans Picture Library)
On 2 December 1951, WD932 disintegrated in flight during 4.8g maneuver at 10,000 feet, near Middle River. Major Harry M. Lester and Captain Reid Johns Shaw ejected, though Shaw was killed when his parachute failed to open. The accident was believed to have resulted from a problem with fuel management which caused the airplane’s center of gravity to shift aft.
English Electric Canberra B Mk.2 WD932, flown by Wing Commander Roland P. Beamont, during a demonstration flight at Martin Airport, Middle River, Maryland, home of the Glenn L. Martin Company, 11 March 1951. (Mary Evans Picture Library)
WD932 was the fourth production Canberra B Mk.2, with manufacturer’s serial number 71012.
The English Electric Canberra B Mk.2 was the first production variant of a twin-engine, turbojet powered light bomber. The bomber was operated by a pilot, navigator and bombardier. It was designed to operate at very high altitudes. The Canberra B.2 was 65 feet, 6 inches (19.964 meters) long with a wingspan of 64 feet, 0 inches (19.507 meters) and height of 15 feet, 7 inches (4.750 meters). The airplane’s maximum takeoff weight was 46,000 pounds (20,865 kilograms).
The wing used a symmetrical airfoil and had 2° angle of incidence. The leading edges of the outer wing panels were swept back 13° 33′, while the trailing edges swept forward 19°53′. The inner wing had 2° dihedral (+/- 10′), and the outer wing, 4° 21′. The total wing area was 960 square feet (89.2 square meters). The variable-incidence tail plane had 10° dihedral.
The Canberra B.2 was powered by two Rolls-Royce Avon RA.3 Mk. 101 engines. The RA.3 was a single-spool axial-flow turbojet with a 12-stage compressor section and single-stage turbine. It was rated at 6,500-pounds-thrust (28.91 kilonewtons).
The B.2 had a maximum speed of 450 knots (518 miles per hour/833 kilometers per hour). It was restricted to a maximum 0.75 Mach from Sea Level to 15,000 feet (4,572 meters), and 0.79 Mach from 15,000 to 25,000 feet (7.620 meters). Above that altitude the speed was not restricted, but pilots were warned that they could expect compressibility effects at 0.82 Mach or higher.
The Canberra was produced in bomber, intruder, photo reconnaissance, electronic countermeasures and trainer variants by English Electric, Handley Page, A. V. Roe, and Short Brothers and Harland. In the United States, a licensed version, the B-57A Canberra, was built by the Glenn L. Martin Company. The various versions were operated by nearly 20 nations. The Canberra was the United Kingdom’s only jet-powered bomber for four years. The last one in RAF service, a Canberra PR.9, made its final flight on 28 July 2008.
