M52 – Britain’s wartime supersonic project

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• Rod Kirkby, Former Aerodynamics Research/Project Feasibility Engineer, Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Future Projects Department
• Friday 15 March 2013, 18:00-20:00
• Meeting Room G3, Bevan Braithwaithe Building, TWI Ltd, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AL.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Carol Johnston.

Please email Carol Johnston if you plan to attend.

This Presentation will cover the Project’s origins, design formulation, and cancellation in February 1946, only a few months from completion of the First Prototype. The Miles M-52 was an astonishingly advanced aircraft, designed to meet a 1943 Specification calling for an aircraft capable of sustaining 1000 mph in level flight and powered by a similarly advanced Whittle designed afterburning fan jet engine. Later work confirmed the soundness of the design, further supported by rocket propelled models. Official reasons for the cancellation made little sense, and has been debated ever since. The rocket-powered Bell X-1 first broke the ‘sound-barrier’ in October 1947.

This talk is part of the The Eastern Counties Branch of The Welding Institute series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Institution of Mechanical Engineers (Cambridgeshire Area)
• Meeting Room G3, Bevan Braithwaithe Building, TWI Ltd, Granta Park, Great Abington, Cambridge CB21 6AL
• The Eastern Counties Branch of The Welding Institute

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