Test Flying Memorial
"...and everywhere the
blue sky belongs to them
and is their appointed rest
and their native country"
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
| Date | 12/10/1959 |
|---|---|
| Casualties | Mr William Lewis Alford (NASA), Mr John G. Joyce (Blackburn FTO) |
| Aircraft | Blackburn Buccaneer S Mk 1 XK490 |
| Took off from | Boscombe Down, Wiltshire |
| Purpose of flight | Assessment of aircraft for benefit under US Mutual Defence Aid programme |
| Incident location | Lyndhurst, Hampshire |
| Incident details | NASA pilot exceeded his brief by investigating single-engine flight in low-speed blown condition which had not yet been explored by Blackburn. At 10,000ft aircraft stalled, spun and impacted ground inverted. Crew ejected too late |