Date:	Thursday 16 May 1929
Time:
Type:	Vickers 170 Vanguard
Owner/operator:	Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd
Registration:	G-EBCP
MSN:	170/1
Year of manufacture:	1923
Engine model:	Rolls-Royce Condor III
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Shepperton -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	Brooklands Airport (EGLB)
Destination airport:	Brooklands Airport (EGLB)

Narrative:
The Vickers 170 Vanguard was a 22-passenger twin-engined biplane. When it was handed over to Imperial Airways in 1925 it was described as the World's largest passenger aeroplane. The aircraft was withdrawn from its airline duties in October 1928 for modifications, probably to the tail. The airplane had been fitted with a new tail unit from a Vickers Virginia Mk X in an effort to eliminate control problems.
On 16 May 1929 the aircraft crashed and burned at Shepperton on the shores of the River Thames. Vickers Test Pilot Flight Lieutenant Edward Rodolph Clement "Tiny" Scholefield DCM, AFC, and his Mechanic S.W. Sherratt were killed. They were test flying the Vanguard airliner from Brooklands Aerodrome when control was lost and the aircraft nose-dived from 2000 feet into the ground. The tail unit apparently failed as a result of excessive rudder force.

Well-Known Pilot's Death. Fatal Test Flight". News. The Times (45205). London. 17 May 1929. col E, p. 12.
Test Flying Memorial website
Flight, May 23, 1929

photo (c) L'Aéronautique; 1926

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