Miles M.52
1942 British supersonic jet project / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Miles M.52 was a turbojet-powered supersonic research aircraft project designed in the United Kingdom in the mid-1940s. In October 1943, Miles Aircraft was issued with a contract to produce the aircraft in accordance with Air Ministry Specification E.24/43. The programme was highly ambitious for its time, aiming to produce an aircraft capable of a speed of at least 1,000 miles per hour (1,600 km/h) during level flight, and involved a very high proportion of cutting-edge aerodynamic research and innovative design work.
Miles M.52 | |
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Artist's impression of the Miles M.52 | |
Role | Experimental supersonic aircraft |
National origin | United Kingdom |
Manufacturer | Miles Aircraft |
Designer | Don L. Brown |
Status | Cancelled |
Number built | 0 |
Until 1945 all work on the project was undertaken with a high level of secrecy. In February 1946, the programme was terminated by the new Labour government of Clement Attlee, seemingly due to budgetary reasons as well as the disbelief of some ministry officials regarding the practicality of supersonic aircraft. In September 1946 the existence of the M.52 project was revealed to the general public, leading to criticism of the decision and calls for an official explanation of why the project had been terminated. The Ministry of Supply controversially decided to investigate the design with six different configurations of wing and control surfaces, but as a series of unmanned rocket-powered 30 per cent scale models instead of a manned full-scale aircraft. The contract was awarded to Vickers rather than Miles. The models were air-launched from a modified de Havilland Mosquito mother ship.
A model with the M52 configuration of wing and control surfaces achieved Mach 1.38 in controlled transonic and supersonic level flight, a unique achievement at that time and which provided "some validation of the aerodynamics of the M.52 upon which the model was based".[1] Prior to the flight the decision had already been made to terminate the programme. Work on the afterburning version of the Power Jets W.B.2/700 turbojet was also cancelled, and Power Jets was incorporated into the National Gas Turbine Establishment. According to senior figures at Miles, the design and the research gained from the M.52 was shared with the American company Bell Aircraft, and that this was applied to their own Bell X-1, the experimental aircraft which broke the sound barrier.