On a chilling February day in 1950, fate took a sinister turn near Brickhill, Buckinghamshire, as an ominous “bang” echoed through the air. The ill-fated aircraft met its demise, claiming the life of Squadron Leader Stuart Muller-Rowland. The investigation that ensued unearthed a haunting revelation – the true culprit was a flaw in its oxygen system, rendering the pilot helpless.
As the plane plunged earthward, witnesses in Brickhill were gripped by the eerie symphony of swishing sounds, a macabre melody from the lone-winged aircraft spiraling out of control. The left wing’s catastrophic failure, just above a humble garage, marked the beginning of the tragedy.
The accident left a somber imprint on the desolate woods where the wreckage came to rest, brushing against an oak tree. Even 50 years later, remnants of the impact lingered for the world to find…
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Although the Sea Vixen is one of my favourite aircraft, they were plagued with problems, and were not considered particularly successful.
Rest in Peace, Sirs
The Sea Vixen is an exemplary aircraft only seen today in museums but it impresses with its size and elegance. I was told that it has a smaller radar cross section than any so-called 'stealth' plane of our time. The design apparently causes modern radars to become confused.
BRO that aircraft has a tail
Shoutout to all the test pilots. May they all rest in peace. They paid the ultimate price to further aviation technology.
Commentator sound breathless
Most of the sequences are showing the Messerschmitt 163 in flight and not the DeHavilland.
Interesting video but nothing defies physics.
Yet another proof of that physics cannot be defied
it appears, based on my knowlege of "Frost", he was their version of "Kelly" at skunk works.
see how you stupid friend first makes laws of physics with a fruit and break them whereas you can't do anything with your apple iphones and imac
Technological supremacy….with the technology seized to Germany, and the engineers deported to USA, 'Operation Paperclip', USSR,…
The DH-108, 'Swallow', it had an USA analog, was a remake of Me-163.
Not only in this case, but other accidents came from oxygen mask failures.
Probably, below 2'500 m of height, oxygen Supplements are not Essential.
The DeHavilland 'Vampire' was identical to a German Project in Stage of full size wooden mockup in 1945.
Goblin Jet engine was shiiiiiiiit!
Today, the image you get about UK armed forces is being set for a role GB no longer has in a world that no longer exists.
You better prepare for what is coming: London way down below the Ocean from Sea Level Rise, Ice Thawing, Global Warming.
UK Economy is not viable in the 'solo' condition they wanted with 'Brexit', probably triggered by briton investors and industrials, convinced that EU rules hampered their competitivity.
Domino bankruptcies are coming; in the meanwhile, the desperate UK attempts to get money to pay for things as food are inducing Stress and Strain in others' economies, with potentially destructive global consequences.
You britons better start moving as much as possible of your People and Industry to places as East Germany or Canada.
Please don't go to Zimbabwe!
Looks like inspired by several german late WW2 jet projects from 1944/45
Interesting commentary but terrible video, just random black and white clips reused over and over again
The test pilots of this era of aircraft design were extremely brave men and too many of them paid the ultimate price.
Every technology video following WW2 should start as such: Following the aftermath of WW2 the allies ripped as much tech from the defeated Nazis as fast as they could to get an edge on not only the USSR but one another. "
Without the Nazis humanity would probably be 30 years behind where we are now.
All this was happening while the Russians had provided with the Mig 15s and Mig 17s that you could have high speed jet flight as long as you included a tail. But this was Post War Britain we're talking about, and so why did they still need the Brave Men who had saved England in the Battle of Britain? So they decided to put them in line to all be killed one at a time test flying plane that was obviously intrinsically unstable and dangerous. Who was making these decisions? They must have left England to find work in America with Boeing.
Pretty amazing what they did back then and the test pilots with giant brass.. (yeah, them)… Had they broken the sound barrier.. Witness' would have likely 'heard it.'.. To the editor note: You devalue the content by using inaccurate stock footage.. Ex. Plane going down because of a wing failure and using a plane crashing with both wings looking fully intact
de Havilland Limited were brilliant engineers, there was always cutting edge somewhere in their designs… These planes were intended to be cutting edge test beds in multiple ways, in the same airframe design, and not one of these cutting edge technologies did they have any long experience with. They figured it was worth it. The structural failure of TG306 at Mach 0.9 was a shock heard around the world. There are many who believe, myself included, that the airframe snapped just as it was it reaching the sound barrier. The shockwaves focused back on the wing roots and fuselage, and instead of passing the sound barrier and producing a sonic boom, the airframe pitched up and snapped. Geoffrey de Havilland Jr. was not the only pilot to fly the wings off their planes trying to break the sound barrier.
You don’t defy the laws of physics, you simply discover that you haven’t completely understood some aspects yet. The whole purpose of experimental aircraft is to better understand how those laws shape aerodynamics. While it was understood that wing sweep could avoid some problems of high speed flight, the best configurations for high speed flight were uncertain, so try everything. The tailless configuration was tried to eliminate the problems of downwash on the tail plane.
It was as dangerous to fly as the 163.
There are some clips with the Me-163 in this Video.
As a child I lived about 3 miles from the end of the De Haviland runway – the shrill of early jets climbing above our rooftops was a thrill – mostly I remember twin boom fighters
Was everybody legally blind in 1950? I mean, they had actual lenses and film that presumably wasn't made from mud. Why is the focus so shit?
Keed spills…
great story..glad you found all the available film but the other film material repeated in multiple contexts is distracting…..but fascinating
The plane looks like a modified Lippisch P.15. The engineer worked at that time in the US (Operation paperclip) – maybe they should have asked him for advice after the first failure.