Test Flying Memorial
"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
| Date | 25/05/1946 |
|---|---|
| Casualties | Sqn Ldr E.B. Gale AFC RCAF, Aero Flight RAE Farnborough TP |
| Aircraft | North American Mustang Mk III KH505 |
| Took off from | Farnborough, Hampshire |
| Purpose of flight | Dives from 40,000ft at not more than 450 m.p.h. to provide data for research into behaviour of various wing sections at close to the speed of sound |
| Incident location | Broxbourne, Hertfordshire |
| Incident details | Aircraft was seen diving vertically at extremely high speed before impacting a crop field. Most of the wreckage was so deeply embedded as to be irrecoverable |