Showing posts with label Gloster Javelin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gloster Javelin. Show all posts

Wednesday, 26 March 2014

Gloster Javelin XA662


Gloster Javelin XA662

Ian giving some scale to the remaining wreckage , this large part is the exhaust pipe

Tons of wreckage at this crash site , and nobody died in this one thanks to ejector seat technology .

The wreckage is spread in quite a wide arc across the moor . Close to a number of grouse butts, we were quite suprised at the amount remaining at this site with such reletively easy access.
The crash took place on 29th September 1959 .
An engine caught fire close to RAF Leeming and in the 30 miles between here and there ,both engines failed and the two man crew ejected . Survival of this crash would have been unlikely judging by the condition of the wreckage .
The Pilot was
Student pilot F/O C.P. Cowper
the Navigator and trainer
Capt. Robert E. Nietz (USAF)

Its located on East Bolton Moor , above Castle Bolton in the Yorkshire Dales .


In 1942 a Captain Valentine Baker was killed testing a prototype aircraft , his business partner Sir James Martin ,greatly upset by his death , came up with the idea of forcibly removing the pilot from an aircraft doomed to crash . By 1945 static ejections had been achieved . 1946 brought the first in flight trial ejections all of which were successful. The system began being introduced into aircraft from then on . The first real ejection came on the 30th May 1949 . The pilot Jo Lancaster had his life saved . The company ,still going strong today proudly boasts the number of lives saved as being 7439 at the time of me writing this short account . An incredibly large  number !



 Here can be seen one of  the tyres still on site  from XA662 , below can be seen the same section of tyre from the Javelin at Yorkshire Air Museum XH767 .
It doesnt look in a great deal better condition than the one thats been in a crash and out on the moor these past 55 years .


Javelin XH767 at YAM