“Barrier Of Sound” Destroys Tail-less Experimental Plane
NZPA—Copyright Rec. 8 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 16. The “ whistling boomerang,” an experimental tail-less jet plane which disintegrated over Brickhill, Buckinghamshire, killing the pilot, yesterday, is believed to have crashed against the “ barrier of sound ” in a high dive above the clouds, says the Daily Express. The machine, which was piloted by Squadron Leader John Rowland, D. 5.0., D.F.C., developed stresses that were too much for it when it ran into a “barrier” of disintegrating forces as it approached the speed of sound—about 760 miles an hour.
These stresses are relaxed when a plane has passed the speed of sound. There was no explosion and the cockpit and engine were found intact. Disintegration came only 20 minutes after the plane took off. A machine had actually got through the barrier of sound in September, 1948—the only time the feat has been performed in Britain.
The plane was built three years ago and used in research for the 36-seater comet jet airliner. The plane was one of two experimental machines owned by the Ministry of Supply. The other one also exploded in mid.-air —over the Thames Estuary last September, when the famous test pilot, Geoffrey de Havilland, was killed.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 27317, 17 February 1950, Page 5
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204“Barrier Of Sound” Destroys Tail-less Experimental Plane Otago Daily Times, Issue 27317, 17 February 1950, Page 5
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