I have a serious problem trying to multi-task on approach
Welcome Tracey
Derek
edit and quote:The accident board's conclusion was that the cause was a G-stall. I find this unconvincing, since no-one knew the aircraft better that the test pilot concerned (Sqn. Ldr. Wally Runciman, AFC DFM)'
Sorry Tracey, the proverbial penny has just dropped..you are obviously related?
Last edited by DelP on 03 Aug 2007, 19:00, edited 1 time in total.
'My Auntie Mabel told me I'd make a great soldier, though I don't know how 30 years working in a biscuit factory had qualified her to make that judgement.....' Eddie Nugent
Showing the assembled crowds at Oshkosh how the Fleet Air Arm fly then?
I think there's another of Ito's a/c fly with the wings folded too, but can't remember which, maybe the Wyvern? I'd still like to know where he got the idea for that tailwheel on the Gannet AEW3. I never have found a reference to it in the real world.
Please tell us more, post in the 'Escorts and Stewards' forum.
Derek
'My Auntie Mabel told me I'd make a great soldier, though I don't know how 30 years working in a biscuit factory had qualified her to make that judgement.....' Eddie Nugent
Thanks for the welcome messages - but my wife would dispute the gender assumption!
Ito may have got the flight characteristics right: there's an article in Aviation News (19 July 1990) by Arthur Pearcy which states that "Early flight tests ... proved all the controls to be overbalanced and badly harmonised, and there was a very pronounced nose-down attitude with the flaps fully down and insufficient power at low speeds to correct it. ... Great attention had been paid to weight control during design, with the aircraft stressed for 325 knots in a dive, but it was found impossible to exceed 250 knots at full power in a vertical dive. ... [Both XA209 and XA216] took part in the 1954 Farnborough SBAC Show, giving an impressive speed-contrast demonstration in which XA209 loitered while XA213 flew past after appearing out of thick overcast sky." "The quick take-off of the Seamew, light wing-loading and great strength made the aircraft well suited for aerobatics, but only Short Brothers' test pilot Wally Runciman seemd able to outwit its vicious tendencies and exploit its latent manoeuvrability to the limit". He describes the accident (at the Shorts air display at Sydenham in 1956) as being caused by a 'g-stall off a fast roll'; the aircraft lost height while inverted and hit the ground during recovery. Perhaps someone can explain to me what a 'g-stall' is. My own active flying experience is limited to Chipmunks (with one flight in a Jet Provost - so simple that I was allowed to land it! - and one exhilarating flight in a Lightning T5(?)).
There is more footage of the Seamew in a collection of newsreels covering "Farnborough - the Golden Years" available on DVD - IMO well worth buying, not just for the sheer variety of British aircraft on display and the scale of the industry in the 1950s but also for the commentaries!
BTW, to confirm what some have suspected: yes, I am related to Wally Runciman - he was my father.
We'd certainly like to hear more about your father's..and your own experiences.
ATB,
Derek
'My Auntie Mabel told me I'd make a great soldier, though I don't know how 30 years working in a biscuit factory had qualified her to make that judgement.....' Eddie Nugent
Hello Tracey, I haven't read the report but essentially the speed at which an aircraft stalls is not a constant value and one of the factors is the g-force which the aircraft is being subjected to at the time. For any set of conditions the higher the g value experienced, the higher the speed at which stall sets in. Doubling the g forces can increase the stall speed by 40% or more.
The inference may have been that your father was caught out by the aircraft stalling at a higher speed than anticipated due to the g forces experienced in whatever manuevres he was carrying out for the display, and that there had not been enough time or height for him to react before the accident happened.
The counter-argument was that he knew the aircraft performance well enough not to be caught out, and that it was a design or construction fault in the manufacture of the prototype that caused the failure.
As you suggest, political expediency can appear to influence findings, just think of the crash of the Chinook on the Mull of Kintyre in '94 and the controversy that has raged ever since.
