Britain's Forgotten Flying Wing - Armstrong Whitworth A.W. 52 | Aircraft History #2

My grandad was the test pilot for this plane. He always said that he ejected because flutter meant that he was completely disoriented and couldn't read the controls. He blacked out after ejection but regained consciousness after a few moments in free fall, and he landed in a thorn bush on his shoulder, near a pub where he got a drink waiting for a pick up but he was back to work after 2 months of recovery.

I recall seeing this Flying Wing, over Kenilworth about 4 miles from Bagington Aerodrome Coventry circa 1947-48 ….I was 10 yrs old at the time.

I remember seeing this thing back in the secret weapons expansion of BF1942....Never knew anything about it until now. Thanks

2:08 "..........takeoff weight of 20,000lbs or 90,000kg." Hmm, I would be rechecking those figures. Perhaps 9,000kg would be more correct.

Well considering the safe landing, I kind of wish that there HAD been a passenger to helplessly watch Rex eject... only to confront him a few hours later on the ground. It's a little surprising that they didn't follow on this design, considering that the fluttering plane basically stabilized itself and landed on its own. That seems like fertile ground for improvement.

Glad that I've just found your channel, sir... you've got another loyal follower! Retired USAF/Alaska Air National Guard senior NCO here, from a mil family, and have always cherished aviation museums as much as airshows; especially now, when airshow venues and access are uncertain. Your delivery and narration are notably the hook here, as I'm partial to such class acts and over with aviation subject videos or channels with obnoxious hosts.

Interesting. There was another early British flying wing design, actually a biplane flying wing with no tail, built during WW1. The following is from a footnote in a book called A World War 1 Adventure, The Life and Times of RNAS Bomber Pilot Donald E. Harkness: The Burgess-Dunne D.8 was an unusual single-engine pusher biplane with severely sweptback wings of equal size and no empennage of any kind. This particular plane was [probably] built by the French Nieuport Company under franchise from W. Starling Burgess, an American yachtsman who built them in the USA after he’d acquired the manufacturing rights from their designer, John William Dunne, who was forced to retire in 1913 due to ill health. Dunne, an Anglo-Irish former army officer and a visionary aircraft designer, experimented with and built tailless aircraft during aviation’s formative years before the war. They possessed a remarkable inherent stability that made them possibly valuable as civilian aircraft but lacked the maneuverability needed for military operations. Consequently, not many of these aircraft were built. When a fire destroyed Burgess’ factory a few days before the end of the war, he sold his holdings and went back to designing yachts. The planes were odd looking; like huge double arrowheads without the arrow shaft and feathers, however, they were the first successful, sweptback, tailless, flying-wings the world had ever seen, making them an aeronautical marvel for their day. My grandfather (the subject of the book) witnessed a crash of one of these aircraft into the side of a Grahame-White shed at Hendon Aerodrome on Nov 21, 1915 while he was taking flying lessons at the Ruffy-Baumann School of Flying. At the time, Burgess was trying to sell his design to the Allied flying forces for use in reconnaissance but they quickly determined that the planes were too stable for military operations. Without the ability to maneuver they'd have been sitting ducks for any enemy aircraft in the area. This inherent stability probably explains why the Armstrong Whitworth A.W. 52 was able to land itself without a pilot once the speed dropped to below the point that initiated flutter.

In Finland had happened same landing without crew. They tested the skis on the landing gear of the Blenheim bomber and skis get stuck in the wrong position. The crew parachuted into a wide field where the abandoned plane landed without damage after large circle. One crew member injured his ankle when he fell on the roof of the barn.

Terrific. Thank you for your video. 👍🏻🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The Rolls Royce Nene, is named after the river NENE (neene) not Naynay, the Rolls Royce Derwent is named after the river Derwent (Darwent). Most of the Rolls Royce early jet engines were named after british rivers, Avon, Trent, Derwent; Dart, Tyne, Spey, and Nene. The Pennine was the last of the piston engines.

Thanks again, to your team, for sharing with us, it's a fantastic historical creation! Bravo 👏👏 to your site! Looking for you!👏👏👏

Really enjoyable, thanks!

Awesome thanks for the great work Sir

New to the channel; subbed. Great stuff!

Great video!

That pilot must have have endured merciless piss-taking from his mates. "She flew fine once you took your hands off the stick, didn't she?" Such a pity what happened to the excellent British aerospace industry with amalgamation.

What amazing videos Rex! Thanks for your time and effort to put it on for the everybody's knowledge! 5*

That painting at 2:20 is really cool!

A great thanks for the quality of this video. I heard this from my father, and I even had an image of it an encyclopedia of 1948 (!). Great work, great research.

Excellent content and video.