34-660: The Short SB.5 ( serial WG768 ) was a "highly unorthodox, adjustable wing" British research aircraft designed by Short Brothers in response to the UK Air Ministry requirement ER.100 ; to provide input for the design of the English Electric P.1 (prototype of the English Electric Lightning) by testing the low speed flight characteristics of various configurations of wing-sweep required for supersonic flight. The tailplane could be mounted either on top of
68-559: A Blackburn -built Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2c aircraft in 1916. By 1916 , the first sequence had reached 10000, and it was decided to start an alpha-numeric system, from A1 (allocated to a Royal Aircraft Factory BE.2d) to A9999, then starting again at B1. The letters A, B, C, D, E, F, H, and J were allocated to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and N1 to N9999 and S1 to S9999 to the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). When
102-527: A '/G' suffix added to the end of the registration number, the 'G' signifying 'Guard', denoting that the aircraft was to have an armed guard at all times while on the ground, examples include: W4041/G, the prototype Gloster E.28/39 jet powered by the Whittle jet engine ; LZ548/G, the prototype de Havilland Vampire jet fighter; or ML926/G, a de Havilland Mosquito XVI experimentally fitted with H2S radar . As of 2009 , registration number allocations have reached
136-591: A numeric part in the previously-unused 001 to 099 range. Some aircraft are given registrations as an acknowledgement to their civilian type; specifically, the first Airbus Voyager multi-role tanker transport is registered ZZ330 as a nod to the Airbus A330 from which it is derived (with the remainder of the Voyager fleet in series to ZZ343). Distinct registration numbering systems are used to identify non-flying airframes, typically used for ground training. The RAF have used
170-626: A numeric sequence with an 'M' suffix, sometimes referred to as the 'Maintenance' series. Known allocations, made between 1921 and 2000, ranged from 540M to 9344M, when this sequence was terminated. The main series of single letter registration numbers did not use 'M' to avoid confusion with the suffix 'M'. The Fleet Air Arm use an 'A'-prefixed sequence (e.g. A2606), and the Army Air Corps issue 'TAD' numbers to their instructional airframes (e.g. TAD015). The registration numbers are normally carried in up to four places on each aircraft; on either side of
204-901: Is a specific aircraft registration scheme used to identify individual military aircraft belonging to the United Kingdom (UK). All UK military aircraft display a unique serial number, allocated from a unified registration number system, maintained by the Air Section of the Ministry of Defence (MoD Air). The same unified registration system is used for aircraft operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), and Army Air Corps (AAC). Military aircraft operated by government agencies and civilian contractors (for example QinetiQ , AirTanker Services , Babcock International ) are sometimes also assigned registration numbers from this system. When
238-475: Is entered by the pilot after every flight, thus giving a complete record of the pilot's flying activities and which individual aircraft have been flown. The first military aircraft registrations were a series from 1 to 10000, with blocks allocated to each service. The first actual registration number was allocated to a Short S.34 for the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), with the number 10000 going to
272-602: Is some 10,500 ft long, and some 300 ft wide and as of June 2011 is used by a number of car storage companies. Naval Air Department and the BEA Helicopters Experimental Unit was here at some point. The airfield was decommissioned in February 1994 after a lengthy study determined that flight operations should be centralised at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire . Due to the cost and impracticality of relocating
306-532: The Harrier was done here, one early version became known as the ' Flying Bedstead '. Also Thurleigh had a catapult runway and it was here that the ' ski jump ' later fitted to some aircraft carriers was also developed. One local road was put in a cutting for a runway to be put above it, linking the Airfield site to the wind-tunnel site about a mile and a half away, although ultimately this was never carried out. The runway
340-683: The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed in 1912, its aircraft were identified by a letter/number system related to the manufacturer. The prefix 'A' was allocated to balloons of No.1 Company, Air Battalion , Royal Engineers , the prefix 'B' to fixed-wing aeroplanes of No.2 Company, and the prefix 'F' to aeroplanes of the Central Flying School (CFS). The Naval Wing used the prefix 'H' for seaplanes ('Hydroaeroplanes' as they were then known), 'M' for monoplanes , and 'T' for aeroplanes with engines mounted in tractor configuration . Before
374-556: The Advanced Flight Simulator system the site retains some of its development work (under the banner of QinetiQ from mid-2001 onwards). As of early 2007, QinetiQ have sold their remaining stake in the Bedford Airfield site (as well as the nearby 'Wind Tunnel' site) and are planning to relocate the remaining staff to Farnborough in early 2008, finally ending the site's long association with military aviation. The airfield
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#1732891787234408-573: The SB5 with 60 degrees of sweep and the tailplane in the lower position summarised the design criteria: "At the time of the initial conception of the Short SB5 research aircraft (1949), it was recognised that the trend towards higher angles of sweepback was likely to continue, and this was emphasised by the existence of a design for an operational fighter aircraft, the English Electric P1 (Lightning), which
442-598: The ZKnnn range. However since about the year 2000, registration numbers have increasingly been allocated out-of-sequence. For example, the first Royal Air Force Boeing C-17 Globemaster III was given the registration number ZZ171 in 2001, and a batch of Britten-Norman Defenders for the Army Air Corps (AAC) were given registration numbers in the ZGnnn range in 2003 (the last ZG serial being allocated more than 14 years previously). Also, some recent registration number allocations have had
476-410: The aircraft (typically its fuselage ) on a vertical surface, and on the underside of each wing . The under-wing registration numbers, originally specified so that in case of unauthorised low flying , affected personnel could report the offending aircraft to the local police force, have not been displayed since the 1960s, as by then jet aircraft speeds at low level had made the likelihood of a person on
510-484: The end of the first year, a unified aircraft registration number system was introduced for both Army and Naval ( Royal Naval Air Service ) aircraft. The registration numbers are allocated at the time the contract for supply is placed with the aircraft manufacturer or supplier. In an RAF or FAA pilot's personal service log book , the registration number of any aircraft flown, along with any other particulars, such as aircraft type, flight duration, purpose of flight, etc.,
544-559: The fin ("T-tail") or below the fuselage. The tests ultimately confirmed that the original P.1/Lightning design was an effective configuration for high speed flight. A technical dispute arose between the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the English Electric Company (EEC) as to the optimum configuration for the company's proposed supersonic fighter. A single-seat, mid-winged research machine was built to investigate
578-563: The finest research and development establishment outside the U.S.A." Starting in 1946, construction work began to turn the wartime RAF airfield into what became known as the Royal Aeronautical Establishment, Bedford. The runway was extended in the post-war period to accommodate the Bristol Brabazon aircraft, which required a very long runway but which never went into production. A lot of the development for what became
612-449: The first test flights were carried out with the wing-sweep set to the intermediate angle of 60° and with the "T-tail." Testing with the lower tailplane position commenced in January 1954, so that flight-test feedback could be made available prior to the first flight of the P.1. It was eventually determined that the "T-tail" configuration was unsatisfactory. Testing in the 60° sweep configuration
646-499: The ground being able to read, and thus report them, increasingly remote. The registration number on each side is usually on the rear fuselage, but this can vary depending on the aircraft type, for instance the delta winged Gloster Javelin had the registration number on the forward engine nacelle, and the Avro Vulcan had the registration number on its tail fin . Helicopters have only carried registration numbers on each side, either on
680-549: The last three digits of its US Navy Bureau Number 124097. Recently, past unassigned registration numbers, including those having numerals 001-099, have been assigned. Some letters have not been used to avoid confusion: C could be confused with G, I confused with 1, O and Q confused with 0, U confused with V, and Y confused with X. During the Second World War , RAF aircraft carrying secret equipment, or that were in themselves secret, such as certain military prototypes , had
714-498: The low speed handling of the possible configurations. The same basic configuration of the P.1 was incorporated into a simpler testbed that had a fixed undercarriage. Since the SB5 was to test the low-speed flight characteristics, there was no requirement for the undercarriage to be retractable. The contract was awarded to Short Brothers and Harland Ltd of Belfast on 2 August 1950. The machine was designed to allow three different wing sweep angles (50°, 60° and 69°). The sweep adjustment of
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#1732891787234748-473: The registration number Z9978 had been allocated to a Bristol Blenheim , and it was decided to restart the sequence with a two-letter prefix, starting at AA100. This sequence is still in use today. Until the 1990s, this two-letter, three-numeral registration number sequence, had numbers in the range 100 to 999. An exception to this rule was a Douglas Skyraider AEW1 which received the UK serial WT097, which incorporated
782-608: The sequence reached the prefix K, it was decided to start at K1000 for all subsequent letters instead of K1. Although the N and S series had earlier been used by RNAS aircraft, the sequence N1000 to N9999 was again used by the Air Ministry for both RAF and RN aircraft. The 'Naval' S sequence had reached only S1865, a Fairey IIIF , but when R9999 was reached in 1939 , the next serial allocations did not run on from that point, but instead commenced at T1000. From 1937 , not all aircraft registration numbers were allocated, in order to hide
816-560: The tail-boom or rear fuselage. RAE Bedford RAE Bedford was a research site of the Royal Aircraft Establishment between 1946 and 1994. It was located near the village of Thurleigh , north of the town of Bedford in England and was the site of aircraft experimental development work. In the book "A Short Illustrated History of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford" , author Arthur Pearcy writes: "(RAE Bedford is)
850-534: The true number of aircraft in production and service. Gaps in the serial number sequence were sometimes referred to as 'blackout blocks'. The first example of this practice was an early 1937 order for two-hundred Avro Manchester bombers; which were allotted the registration numbers L7276-7325, L7373-7402, L7415-7434, L7453-7497, L7515-7549, and L7565-7584, covering a range of 309 possible serial registration numbers, and thus making it difficult for an enemy to estimate true British military aircraft strength. By 1940 ,
884-521: The vertical wind tunnel, previously the Vertical Spinning Tunnel (VST) for indoor skydiving. The VST was converted in 2005 by Bodyflight to be the first indoor skydiving wind tunnel in the UK, and at 16.4 ft in diameter remains the largest. On 1 March 2019, Historic England listed the VST as Grade 2 due to its historic and architectural interest. The rest of the building was converted in 2007 and
918-405: The wings was made when the aircraft was on the ground. Two different tail plane positions (a) low on the rear fuselage and (b) on top of the fin, were also tested. "The complete rear fuselage, just aft of the engine, was detachable and two alternative rear fuselages were available, one with the tailplane set on top of the fin and the other with the tailplane set below the fuselage. The tailplane angle
952-531: The world. The experience gained with the SB5 validated the wing-sweep and low tailplane configuration adopted for the P.1, which was to become the English Electric Lightning. Over eleven months, the tests with 50° and 60° sweep were concluded with the high tail configuration. In January 1954, the low tail rear fuselage was fitted and tests continued for a further two years and proved that the EEC configuration
986-427: Was adjustable in flight, being electrically actuated." The wings were made "of plywood, except for light alloy sheeting at the leading and trailing edges," which restricted the maximimum speed to a modest 350 knots (403 mph; 649 km/h). "Two 20 feet [6.1 m] circumference brake parachutes and one 20 feet [6.1 m] anti-spin parachute ... housed in the rear fuselage above the jet pipe." The flight test report of
1020-673: Was closed officially in March 1994 and sold in 1996 with the RAE having become the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). DERA consolidated its experimental flying operations at Boscombe Down , moving aircraft from Farnborough as well as Bedford. The wind tunnel site is now the Twinwoods Business Park and some of the buildings are in commercial use. Red Bull Racing use the remaining horizontal wind tunnel and Twinwoods Adventure use
1054-529: Was completed in April 1958. Before evaluating the final wing sweep configuration of 69°, a Martin-Baker ejection seat was fitted for the first time and the Rolls-Royce Derwent engine was changed for a Bristol Orpheus of greater thrust. The first flight, with the final sweep setting of 69° was made by Denis Tayler on 18 October 1960 at RAE Bedford ; this was, at the time, the greatest degree of wing-sweep in
Short SB.5 - Misplaced Pages Continue
1088-541: Was conducted with increasing degrees of sweep and with the tailplane in both of its two possible positions. The first flight, with the sweep set to 50°, was made from Boscombe Down by the Chief Test Pilot of Shorts, Tom Brooke-Smith on 2 December 1952. In 1953, he gave an impressive display of the SB5's maneuverability and speed at the Society of British Aircraft Constructors Air Display at Farnborough . In July 1953 ,
1122-921: Was correct. After completion of its test programme, the SB5 eventually joined the fleet of the Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS) at Farnborough in 1967, as is evidenced by the ETPS 25th Anniversary brochure in 1968. The Empire Test Pilots School flew the machine to give students experience in flight-testing "slender" aircraft. The SB.5 is now on display in the RAF Museum , Cosford in Shropshire (with both of its tails). Data from Jane's . General characteristics Performance Related development: Comparable aircraft: United Kingdom military aircraft serials United Kingdom military aircraft registration number , known as its serial number , or tail code
1156-528: Was to have a sweepback of 60°. There was then no flight experience with wings of this amount of sweepback. The SB5 was designed to allow a gradual approach to this configuration, flying initially with 50° sweepback before conversion to 60° when it would resemble, aerodynamically, a seven-eighths scale model of the Lightning. To increase its usefulness as a research vehicle, the aircraft was capable of further modification to operate with 69° of wing sweepback." Testing
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