Flying experience included training in Mesa Arizona on Stearmans with completion in U.K and RAF wings.
A year with 50 Squadron on Lancasters and then a wonderful chance to ferry a Brigand to Singapore at the end of 1949 and join 45 Squadron, with whom I made many strikes in the Malayan jungle (to scare the big brown bats) and even three weeks on patrol with a detachment of Ghurkas to see what it was like "down below"
After a pleasant stay with 1301 Met Flight in Ceylon and a year as 1st Officer with Skyways as a civil pilot I joined the industry.
Helicopter experience began as a weight engineer on the Percival P74 helicopter which had two Napier Oryx gas generaters in the fuselage feeding tip ejecters through snake like triple ducts to the three bladed rotor, each blade of which had triple ducts Phew!
A mix-up (using K instead of CL for the lift) by an aero consultant left the rotor unable to lift the helicopter, even with a few gallons of fuel only. The president Gouge, inventor of the gouge flap, ordered the P74 towed across the airfield until it was out of sight.
The project was abandoned, a great shame.
While with Percival I designed my first personal aircraft - see Tailsitter link.
Next experience was the Canadair CL84 tiltwing and as part of weights did some work and later in Flight Sciences spent 7 years on the CL227 (now the Guardian).
Mysterious loss of control on occasion aroused my interest in vortex ring phenomena.
Finally a year with Paramax on the Canadian EH 101 helicopter before it was cancelled as a political election stunt.
There are some miscellaneous sites listed here
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