The Short Mayo Composite Mail Plane.

A unique solution to the problems of long range airmail delivery, proposed by Major Robert H Mayo, Technical General Manager of Imperial Airways, designed and built by the British company Short Brothers before World War II consisted of a 'piggy-back' arrangement of two aircraft.

Mercury annd Maia at Foynes. Photo; National Library of Ireland

The ensemble consisted of a Short S.21 flying boat "Maia" based on the Empire 'C-Class' type already in service carrying, mounted on a trestle, a smaller Short S.20 four engined floatplane "Mercury". With a full payload of 1000 lbs and a maximum fuel load of 1200 imperial gallons Mercury could not get airbourne under her own power but when carried to her operational altitude by Maia, she was capable of crossing the Atlantic unrefueld. Meanwhile Maia was equipped to carry 18 passengers.

Maia's first flight took place on 27th July 1937 and Mercury's on 5th September the same year, on both occasions being flown by Shorts' Chief Test Pilot John Lankester Parker. The first in-flight separation was accomplished on 6th February 1938 with Parker at the controls of Maia and Harold Piper in Mercury near the company's works on the River Medway near Rochester, Kent.

After completing a successful test program the inaugural commercial flight, a transatlantic crossing to Montreal via Foynes in Eire took place on 21st July 1938 with Mercury becoming the first heavier-than-air craft to make a non-stop east to west crossing of the Atlantic. A further record attempt was made in October with a flight from Dundee, Scotland to Alexander Bay in South Africa.

No other examples of the Mayo Composite were built as new types coming into service rendered the concept obsolete and the outbreak of World War Two in September 1939 put an end to its operations. Maia was destroyed in a bombing raid on Poole Harbour and Mercury served for a while with a Free Dutch maritime reconnaissance unit 320 Sqd Royal Air Force before being scrapped to reuse her aluminium for war production.

The video below is a compilation of Movietone News reports on the development and introduction into service of the Mayo Composite.

Saunders-Roe SR.53

The Saunders-Roe SR.53 was an experimental aircraft with a combination of a jet engine and a rocket motor, respectively an Armstrong Siddeley Viper and a De Havilland Spectre. Its purpose was to develop a mixed power fighter to intercept bombers at high altitude - the specification required it to achieve an altitude of 60,000 ft in 2 minutes 30 seconds. Inspired by the Luftwaffe's World War Two  Messerschmit 163 the addition of a turbojet aimed to overcome the major drawback of a pure rocket design, excessive fuel consumption resulting in limited range and the need to make an unpowered recovery to the airfield.

The surviving first prototype SR.53 XD145 at the RAF Museum, Cosford.

Designed by Maurice Brennan two prototypes were built, serial No.s XD145 and XD151, in response to Air Ministry Operational Requirement O.R.337 with XD145 taking to the air for the first time on 16th May 1957 with Squadron Leader John Booth at the controls.

Tragedy struck on 5th June 1958 when the second prototype XD151 was destroyed in an accident taking off from Boscombe Down on its 12th flight, killing John Booth instantly. Testing continued with XD145 with Lt Cdr Peter Lamb as the test pilot and a total of 56 flights were made between the two aircraft.

However, owing to the complexity of the project, the development program had fallen well behind schedule even before flight testing had commenced and the British Government's 1957 Defence White Paper had been published a month in advance of the type's maiden flight, envisioning the demise of manned fighter aircraft and air defence being taken over by guided missiles (a prediction that has since been proved wrong by history). At the same time, developments in radar and jet engine technology had rendered the SR.53 concept obsolescent and the type was cancelled on 29th July 1960. Fortunately the remaining airframe XD145 was preserved and can now be seen at the Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford.

A larger, better equipped development of the design under the designation SR.177 was studied and a mock-up constructed. The Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Luftwaffe all showed interest in this improved variant, but initial orders for for the RAF were cancelled and the German Air Force controversially went for the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter with subsequent accusations of bribery (See the video below). This left the Royal Navy's small requirement unviable and the project came to nothing.

The video below, from YouTube, with interest interviews with people involved including Eric "Winkle" Brown, has some footage of the SR.53 during its test flights and also covers the SR.177 debacle



Flight magazine's 24th March 1957 edition had an article on the SR.53 which can be downloaded as a PDF by following this link to their archive.

The VC-10's last mission with the RAF

On the 20th of September the RAF flew its last VC-10 mission and the venerable aircraft has now been retired from service.

On board there was a video crew to record the occasion.




Undoubtedly one of the most magnificent aircraft to have graced the skies for half a century the VC-10 holds a spot in the hearts of many aviation enthusiasts and the crackling roar of those engines will be missed by many.

Battle of Britain Day

Today is Battle of Britain Day, 70 years ago the battle reached its height and as it became evident that the Luftwaffe could not destroy Fighter Command, Adolf Hitler was forced abandon his plans to invade Great Britain.

This YouTube video of contemporary newsreel reports is evocative of the period.




Of course the commentary is somewhat slanted and there is a lot that isn't mentioned, but then nobody was going to give away the roll that Radar was playing and how the RAF had developed effective command and control  systems.

Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary Commemorations

The Battle of Britain, according to official records, commenced on the 10th July 1940 making last Saturday the 70th anniversary of the start of the most famous aerial campaign in history.

Inevitably there are many events and activities taking place across Britain to commemorate the battle and honour those who took part. Some of these are being organised by official bodies while others are of a more private or individual nature, not least the Yorkshire farmer who has created a maze on his land which can only really be appreciated from the air as reported by the BBC.


On Sunday a service was held at the Battle of Britain Memorial, Capel-le-Ferne in Kent and a gallery of photographs of the event can be found on the Facebook "Remembering the Few - 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain, 2010  page.


Throughout the summer the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight will be displaying at events around the UK and most airshows.






The Royal Air Force website history section has extensive coverage as well as campaign diaries and photographs from 1940.

60th Anniversary of the Spitfire's First Flight Airshow 1996

The prototype Spitfire made its maiden flight on 5th March 1936 and in May 1996 an airshow was held at Duxford in Cambridgeshire to commemorate the 60th anniversary of this event.

Duxford was a particularly poignant venue as it was, as mentioned in an earlier post, the first  RAF station to operate the Spitfire.On the weekend that the show was held the weather was kind and a great display was put on culminating in a flypast of twenty plus Spitfires.

I took over a hundred photographs on the Sunday with my old Pentax P.30 SLR film camera and recently sorted through them and scanned most into my computer and have now put them together as a slide show on YouTube which you can see here. Not all of the pictures are of the best quality but non-the-less they are are record of the event.



If you would prefer to see these photos at a more leisurely pace and higher resolution they can be viewed as a set on Flickr.

Have you ever wanted to own a Spitfire?

It is certainly and attractive idea for any aviation enthusiast but you would need a very substantial fortune indeed to fulfill such a dream. Last year, April 2009,  an airworthy Spitfire was sold in an auction at the RAF Museum, Hendon by Bonhams auctioneers for over £1.7 million (including fees). The buyer was Steven Brooks a financier and adventurer.


This Spitfire had been salvaged from a scrapyard in South Africa in 1979 by the the South African Air Force and in the subsequent three decades passed through a number of owners being returned to the UK in the early 1980s. Although some initial restoration work was carried out it was the late Paul Portelli, founder of World's End Tiles in London who commissioned Classic Aero Engineering to return aircraft to full flying condition as a two seater, having purchased it in 2002.  



Built at Castle Bromwich in November 1944, serial no. SM520, a Mk.IXe, was first delivered to No. 33 Maintenance Unit at RAF Lyneham for service preparation. In 1948 it was sold to the South African Air Force whose records for the aircraft are incomplete, but it is believed that it operated with the serial number 5563. In 1954 it was sold with several other Spitfires to a scrap metal dealer from whose yard it was subsequently recovered.

The announcement of it sale cause quite a stir in the media and  BBC Television News carried a report on the aircraft just before the auction.

So, assuming you have financial wherewithal, are there any more Spitfires likely to come on the market that you could purchase?

The answer is almost certainly 'Yes', around the world there are many Spitfires in museums and private collections which will, from time to time, become available. Some may not be airworthy but most will have the potential to be restored to flyable condition, after all this one was virtually scrap metal. Currently the Royal Air Force's Battle of Britain Memorial Flight has two Mk.XVIs which it will eventually restore to flying condition. It is most likely that, when completed, one of these will be sold to help finance the flight.

Of course, having acquired your Spitfire the the costs don't stop at the purchase price, it will require maintenance and hangarage, insurance and if it is going to fly it a Certificate of Airworthiness not to mention fuel. Owning a Spitfire, or for that matter any warbird, makes running a Ferrari look like a poor man's pastime.

For a brief history of the Spitfire's development please see my article on Squidoo.




This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.