It isn’t often that folk in rural Warwickshire are witness to a plane crash and an event of historical significance but my late parents were. On a sunny Monday morning in May 1949 my father was loading his baker’s van at the windmill in Southam prior to his daily delivery round when he became aware of the rather strange sound of an aircraft overhead. Not the normal sound of a propeller driven aircraft but the quite different sound made by jet engines seldom heard just after the war. He could see that this was no ordinary plane but something the like of which he had never seen before; a prototype, tail-less aircraft which he later learned was known as ‘The Flying Wing’. He called my mother and from their elevated vantage point they watched in amazement as the plane rapidly lost height and crashed a few miles North East of Southam. A parachute floated serenely down and suspended beneath it was what they hoped was the aircraft’s pilot.
It was later reported that an AW52 experimental aircraft designed and developed by the Armstrong Whitworth company at Baginton in Coventry had crashed on a test flight near Leamington Hastings. The local papers gave few details but reported that the test pilot ‘Jo’ Lancaster had made a safe descent and had landed uninjured in a Long Itchington farmyard. So what, you may ask, was the historic significance of this event. ‘Jo’ Lancaster owed his life that day to the recently developed Martin Baker ejection seat and this was the very first time that it had been deployed in an actual in-flight emergency. In the ensuing years the Martin Baker ejection seat has saved the lives of over 7,300 aircrew since that Summer morning in 1949 when ‘Jo’ Lancaster dropped rather unexpectedly into the Shepherd’s manure heap in Long Itchington.
Comments
I am correct in remembering that for a time in the 1960s a Flying Wing aircraft was displayed at the then factory gates at the top of Siskin Drive, Baginton?
There was a flying wing displayed outside the main offices near to the gatehouse. It was the glider version built to test the concept. It was known as the AW52G. It was made of wood and was destroyed when it became rotten
Can anyone confirm the exact crash site?
Amazing co-incidence! I was well aware of the AW52 crash, having a great interest in aviation history still after 42 years as an aviation professional….but I wonder if Alan Griffin remembers a young lad who used to regularly come in to his Mill shop to buy loose potatoes in the 1960s?
Hello Bob
Great to hear from you after all these years and reassuring to know that you are still interested in the local history of my home town. If you take a look at the Leamington History Group website at http://www.leamingtonhistory.co.uk and check out the Noticeboard page you will find my current email address. We have a lot of catching up to do. All best wishes. Alan Griffin.
Alan Griffin is a serious historian who will have submitted an accurate account of the loss of the Flying Wing.
In addition, his brother Bill Griffin had a long career with AW at Baginton so inside information may have been available via him also.
I remember the plane flying over Southam from my days as a schoolboy here.
If you read the book “Eject, Eject” by John Nichol it states that the pilot landed behind the Cuttle inn, so I assume that means he landed on the farm next to the pub. The pilot used his wartime training skills to manipulate the parachute the prevent him landing in the canal! Apparently the metal seat shot down past him and could have caused a serious injury had it hit him. As it was, his broken shoulder was tended to with a cup of tea from the farmers wife.
I read that it crash landed un-manned but intact, so I guess no evidence of the crash site / wreckage
When Mother was a girl living in Broadwell she clearly remembers it crashing just outside the village in a field by the small road that goes to Stockton and Napton.
Add a comment about this page