News
Testing Fast Jets 1962-1988
On 11th April Group Captain Ron Burrows gave us a
fascinating presentation of his years as an RAF pilot under the
heading “Testing Fast Jets 1962 – 1988.” He emphasised that his talk
was largely about his experience of the historic RAF, rather than an
account of how it operates today.
Ron first served as a pilot in Aden; there he
trained for many hours on a variety of jet planes. There the British
had a presence striving to prevent the ingress of insurgents from
surrounding Arab States. Once trained, he joined the squadrons on
round the clock duty supporting the British Army. At that time the
airport in Aden was one of the busiest in the world. With no modern
satellite devices, the pilots had to find targets marked by
personnel on the ground who laid day glo strips or created smoke
indicators.
Ron remained in Aden for 2 years and then
returned to the UK where he spent time as an instructor before
progressing to his main role as a test pilot, at first with the
United States Navy and then in England at Boscombe Down. The main
aim was to make sure that the aircraft produced by designated
suppliers matched the claims of those suppliers and, also met the
needs of the Military Services.
If a plane was designed to perform in very low
temperatures then it was put through icing tests to see it performed
satisfactorily. Cold temperatures for instance can cause problems
with the hydraulics on an aircraft. Similarly tests were devised to
test the performance of aircraft in very hot and very dusty
environments.
Obviously a test pilot flying a new design of
aircraft with no simulators available to prepare him and only a few
hours in which to study the instruction manual, ran risks and often
there were unexpected outcomes; noses that suddenly rose or dropped,
landing procedures that didn’t quite go as planned. Ron had a few
narrow escapes and admits he was lucky.
As well as testing the flight of aircraft the
Base at Boscombe Down was responsible for testing ejector seats and
conducting trials on missiles to discover the best way to launch
them from aircraft like the Jaguar that could be carrying a load as
heavy as a World War 2 Lancaster bomber.
Eventually Ron retired, largely unscathed and
had time to present talks like the one given to us. It was
fascinating and members thanked Ron for giving time to share the
obvious enthusiasm he still has for the subject.
