The 1963 BAC One-Eleven test crash was a fatal accident of a

British Aircraft Corporation The British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) was a British aircraft manufacturer formed from the government-pressured merger of English Electric, English Electric Aviation Ltd., Vickers-Armstrongs, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft), the Bristol Aeroplane ...

prototype aircraft on 22 October 1963, near Chicklade in

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, England while it was undertaking a test flight. All seven crew members on board the

BAC One-Eleven The BAC One-Eleven (BAC-111, BAC 1-11) is a retired early jet airliner produced by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Conceived by Hunting Aircraft as a 30-seat jet, before its merger into BAC in 1960, it was launched as an 80-seat airl ...

were killed.

Accident

The accident occurred during a test flight of the first prototype

(registration G-ASHG) which had taken off from Wisley Airfield with seven crew on board, captained by Mike Lithgow. The aircraft was on its fifth test flight to assess stability and handling characteristics during the approach to—and recovery from—a stall with the centre of gravity in varying positions. From an altitude of and with the flaps extended 8°, the aircraft entered a stable stall and descended at a high rate in a horizontal attitude, eventually striking the ground with very little forward speed. The aircraft broke up on impact at Cratt Hill, near Chicklade, a small village in southern

and caught fire, killing all seven crew on board. The aircraft was on its fifth stalling test of the day, and the crash occurred 23 minutes after takeoff from Wisley. The crew were Lt. Cdr. M J Lithgow OBE, Chief Test Pilot; Capt. R Rymer (Test Pilot); B J Prior (Aerodynamicist); C J Webb (Designer); R A F Wright (Senior Observer); G R Poulter (Observer) and D J Clark (Observer).

Cause

The cause of the accident was the aircraft entering a stable stalled condition, recovery from which was impossible due to the wings blocking the airflow over the elevators on the tail. This was the first accident to be attributed to the phenomenon known as deep stall, peculiar to rear engine T-tailed aircraft.

Aftermath

Once the condition of deep stall was recognised, relatively simple preventative measures were introduced, including stick-shakers indicating an approaching stall and stick-pushers which automatically operate the elevators and physically lower the nose before the stall is reached, while the tailplane and pitch controls are still effective.

Memorial

In October 2013 a stone memorial was dedicated at the crash site, listing the seven victims. The ceremony was attended by the CO of the Royal Navy Historic Flight; Lord Margadale (the owner of the land); and families of the crew members.Chris von Patzelt, 'BAC ONE-ELEVEN G-ASHG REMEMBERED', Hindon and Chicklade Parish magazine, December 2013, p. 4. The memorial bears a quotation from the

annotation An annotation is extra information associated with a particular point in a document or other piece of information. It can be a note that includes a comment or explanation. Annotations are sometimes presented Marginalia, in the margin of book page ...

of the 1817 edition of '' The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'', a poem by

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordsworth ...

: '...and everywhere the blue sky belongs to them and is their appointed rest and their native country.'

References

External links

* https://www.baaa-acro.com/sites/default/files/2017-12/G-ASHG.pdf * http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19631022-0 * http://www.planecrashinfo.com/1963/1963-52.htm * https://web.archive.org/web/20120402184556/http://www.baaa-acro.com/photos/BAc111-BAC-Bournemouth.jpg * 1963 Pathe film 'The Price of Progress' of the crash site and BAC 111 prototype G-ASHG in British United livery https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sdw9TcHGTZI {{DEFAULTSORT:BAC One-Eleven test crash Aviation accidents and incidents in 1963 Aviation accidents and incidents in England Accidents and incidents involving the BAC One-Eleven 1963 disasters in the United Kingdom 1963 in England October 1963 in the United Kingdom Airliner accidents and incidents caused by stalls

Accident

Cause

Aftermath

Memorial

See also

References

External links