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Miles M.20

1940 WORLD WAR 2 X-PLANE

Miles M. 20 Stories

British victory in the early years of World War II (1939-1945) was not guaranteed, prompting the country to invest in many projects to meet emerging wartime needs. One problem is the lack of front-line fighters with modern design capabilities, the current stables include the pre-war Hawker Hurricanes and the Super Sea Spitfire, which are capable aircraft but cannot be guaranteed if war supplies or production are interrupted by the Germans their availability bombers.

In 1938, Frederick George Miles, Engineering Manager at Phillips & Powis Aircraft Ltd (later Miles Aircraft in 1943), designed an inexpensive wooden single-seat single-engine monoplane on his Miles "Master" - Winged Monoplanes - About 3,250 trainers were eventually built for the Royal Air Force and foreign customers. The gull-wing plane is retained in the new design, and power will be provided by a Rolls-Royce "Peregrine I" series inline engine installed. Design work continues up front, now bearing the company model designation "M.

Model sold to the British government preparing for war. The aircraft was inspected in June 1939 before Britain entered World War II, but with little interest, the final design was passed on. [/p ]

During testing, the aircraft exhibited good overall control and stable performance. The compact plane was found to require a fairly long runway to lift off. The diving characteristics were finally confirmed and the spin/stall recovery was as expected. A small problem with the rudder forced the installation of a severed rear of the hull and the vertical tail moved further aft.

During a test flight in February 1941, the prototype's brakes failed, causing the plane to crash on landing, but the pilot survived. In any case, the first prototype was lost and its remains were eventually scrapped (after the war).

The accident did nothing for the M. 20 project, and the British victory in the Battle of Britain began to guarantee the availability of the Spitfire and Hurricanes for the foreseeable future. The RAF's interest in the Miles low-cost fighter waned until it was completely lost elsewhere in the war.

The final effort to maintain the M.20 program is to provide the aircraft as "one-off" fighter jets to merchant ships and naval forces in Fleet Aviation (FAA) service. The fighter can be catapulted, perform the mission normally, and then the pilot will abandon his plane and go into the sea - then he will recover by boat and fight another day.

Specification #1/41 was written in July 1941 to meet this requirement.

Miles engineers developed the concept with a follow-up prototype, the M. 20/4, which made some minor changes to the original design. The landing gear shoes are slightly lighter, and a more aerodynamic spinner has been added to the propeller unit.

Arrester gears will be standard equipment on production models. The Air Force's specifications have been reduced accordingly for this surface fighter, with a top speed of just 300 mph.

Trials of this M. 20 form began in April 1941 and found the controls to be heavy and problems with the engine itself. It was recognized that the large, streamlined legs of the main landing gear could pose a real danger to pilots if the crests of the waves were caught prematurely before they had left the plane.

Despite the warnings, the program was allowed to continue until the start of arms testing in July. For a brief period from February 1942 to March 1942, the aircraft ended up in the hands of the 24th Squadron, but was soon returned to the Myers Company, where it found no further military interest - An improved version of Hurricane Hawk, but "Hurricane" is more popular than M. 20.

This marked the end of Miles' wooden "budget fighter", which was in storage until its dismantling in November 1943.