ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 29964
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| Date: | Sunday 24 February 1929 |
| Time: | |
| Type: | Parnall Pipit |
| Owner/operator: | Parnall Aircraft Ltd |
| Registration: | N233 |
| MSN: | 2 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Yate Airfield, Gloucestershire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | Yate Airfield, Gloucestershire |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
The Parnall Pipit was a single-engined, single-seat naval fighter designed to Air Ministry specification 21/26 in 1927 which called for a single seat ship-borne fighter. Two prototypes were built but both destroyed by tail flutter.
The second prototype Parnall Pipit, N233, suffered failure of tail unit in flight, this time losing both fin and rudder, and crashed on 24 February 1929. Martlesham test pilot Squadron Leader Sydney Leo Gregory Pope (DFC, AFC) bailed out at under 1,000 feet over the Parnall airfield at Yate, Gloucestershire, successfully parachuting down. The test flight was part of the Pipit's acceptance trials before delivery to the RAE at Farnborough, which then crashed into a railway embankment near Yate airfield.
The cause of the crash was attributed to flutter of the rudder, due to a heavy tail lamp in its trailing edge, which both counteracted the large horn balance as well as substantially increasing the moment of inertia about an unsupported hinge tube, exacerbated by a lack of rigidity in the rear fuselage. The Air Ministry regarded the Pipit as wholly unacceptable, and this represented the Parnall firm's last attempt to produce an effective fighter design.
Sources:
1. Air Enthusiast 44
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Aviation/Anniversaries/February_24
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parnall_Pipit
4. http://www.aviastar.org/air/england/parnall_pipit.php
5. http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Pope_SLG.htm
6. http://1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/EwingBill/10860.htm
7. http://www.chew76.fsnet.co.uk/parnall/chap4.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Sep-2008 01:00 | ASN archive | Added |
| 11-Dec-2013 22:08 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Cn, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |
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