Date:	Friday 24 August 1956
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Javelin FAW.4
Owner/operator:	Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd
Registration:	XA644
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Nailsworth, Gloucestershire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	Moreton Valence, Gloucestershire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Hunter F.4 XF980 of RAF Central Flying School, collided with Javelin XA644 of Gloster Aircraft Ltd, over Nailsworth, Gloucestershire. The Javelin, which was on a test flight from Moreton Valence, crashed immediately, but the Hunter crashed at Wotton-Under-Edge.

The Hunter was climbing at full throttle and collided at 10,000ft over Nailsworth, Gloucestershire with the Javelin, which was making a rapid descent. The closing speed of the two aircraft was 920 knots, and the tail of the Hunter sliced through the front fuselage of the Javelin, ejecting both of the Javelin's crew. The pilot of the Javelin - Gloster Test Pilot E.B. Smith - had his parachute chord severed and he fell to the ground at Tetbury, Gloucestershire. The other crew member Flt. Lt. R. E. Jeffries ejected safely, and survived.

There is an excellent account of the crash, written by the Hunter pilot, in the equally excellent book Jet Jockeys, by Peter Caygill, page 153 (ISBN 1 84037 313 X - Airlife Publishing)

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.182 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft XA100-XZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 2001 p 7)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.208
4. http://web.archive.org/web/20170723045955/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/PROJECT/YEAR_Pages/1956.htm#aug
5. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1956.htm
6. http://simviation.com//lair/casualty1956.htm
7. http://80.177.209.52/nailydiscussion/get_topicv2.asp?topic=Aircraft_Collision!&start=1&ref=2590
8. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=XA

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-Mar-2013 13:52	Dr. John Smith	Added
09-Jul-2020 18:09	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source]
07-May-2021 19:37	Trigger39	Updated [Aircraft type]