Date:	Monday 30 May 1949
Time:	day
Type:	Armstrong Whitworth AW 52 Flying Wing
Owner/operator:	Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Ltd
Registration:	TS363
MSN:	AW/52/1
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Long Itchington, North-east of Southam, Warwickshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	Baginton, Coventry, Warwickshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Armstrong Whitworth AW.52 "Flying Wing" experimental prototype TS363. Written off (destroyed) 30 May 1949 when crashed at Long Itchington, North-east of Southam, Warwickshire. Pilot ejected safely - the first time a pilot had ejected from an aircraft in flight using a Martin-Baker ejection seat.

The first prototype flew on 13 November 1947 powered by two Rolls-Royce Nene engines of 5,000 lbf (22.2 kN) thrust each. This was followed by the second prototype (TS368) on 1 September 1948 with the lower-powered (3,500 lbf/15.5 kN) Rolls Royce Derwent. Trials were disappointing: laminar flow could not be maintained, so maximum speeds, though respectable, were less than expected. As in any tail-less aircraft, take-off and landing runs were longer than for a conventional aircraft (at similar wing loadings) because at high angles of attack, downward elevon forces were much greater than those of elevators with their large moment.

The first prototype crashed without loss of life on 30 May 1949, making it the first occasion of an emergency ejection by a British pilot. Despite the termination of development, the second prototype remained flying with the Royal Aircraft Establishment until 1954.

On 30 May 1949, while diving the first prototype at 320 mph (515 km/h), test pilot J.O. Lancaster encountered a pitch oscillation believed to be caused by elevon flutter. Starting at two cycles per second, it rapidly increased to incapacitating levels. With structural failure seemingly imminent, Lancaster ejected from the aircraft using its Martin-Baker Mk.1 ejection seat, becoming the first British pilot to use the apparatus in a "live" emergency. It was fortunate that he was alone in the aircraft as the second crew member was not provided with an ejection seat. According to an eyewitness report:

"THE 'FLYING WING' CRASHES
It isn’t often that folk in rural Warwickshire are witness to a plane crash and an event of historical significance but my late parents were. On a sunny Monday morning in May 1949 my father was loading his baker’s van at the windmill in Southam prior to his daily delivery round when he became aware of the rather strange sound of an aircraft overhead. Not the normal sound of a propeller driven aircraft but the quite different sound made by jet engines seldom heard just after the war. He could see that this was no ordinary plane but something the like of which he had never seen before; a prototype, tail-less aircraft which he later learned was known as ‘The Flying Wing’. He called my mother and from their elevated vantage point they watched in amazement as the plane rapidly lost height and crashed a few miles North East of Southam. A parachute floated serenely down and suspended beneath it was what they hoped was the aircraft’s pilot.

It was later reported that an AW-52 experimental aircraft designed and developed by the Armstrong Whitworth company at Baginton in Coventry had crashed on a test flight near Leamington Hastings. The local papers gave few details but reported that the test pilot ‘Jo’ Lancaster had made a safe descent and had landed uninjured in a Long Itchington farmyard.

So what, you may ask, was the historic significance of this event. ‘Jo’ Lancaster owed his life that day to the recently developed Martin Baker ejection seat and this was the very first time that it had been deployed in an actual in-flight emergency. In the ensuing years the Martin Baker ejection seat has saved the lives of over 7,300 aircrew since that summer morning in 1949 when ‘Jo’ Lancaster dropped rather unexpectedly into the Shepherd’s manure heap in Long Itchington."

As luck would have it, the aircraft, left to its own devices, stopped fluttering and glided down to land itself in open country with relatively little damage. Following this incident, and in view of the disappointing results obtained, no further development of the flying-wing formula was undertaken by Armstrong Whitworth, who had now turned their attention to the more conventional A.W. 55 propeller-turbine airliner. The second A.W. 52 (Serial TS368) was handed over to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, where it was used for experimental flying until it was finally disposed of for scrap in June 1954.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_A.W.52#The_accident
2. https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/article/flying-wing-crashes
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AVIA 5/29/W2449: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C6578295
4. Twin Jet A.W.52: Tailless Experimental Airplane with Two Rolls - Royce Nenes: Many Advanced Features". Flight: page 673–679. 19 December 1946
5. Flight January 15th 1948 pages 52 & 54: https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200080.html
6. Flight December 58th 1947 pages 724-725: https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1947/1947%20-%202215.PDF
7. http://leamingtonhistory.co.uk/aw-52/
8. http://tanks45.tripod.com/Jets45/Histories/AW-52/AW-52.htm
9 https://web.archive.org/web/20110929042049/http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/flying%20wings/britain.htm
10. Final Landings - A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat losses 1946-1949 by Colin Cummings p.50
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Itchington

On this date in 1949, 74 years ago, Martin-Baker recorded their first ever life saved 🔻
Jo Lancaster was flying an Armstrong Whitworth AW52 aircraft when he was forced to eject using a pre-Mk1 ejection seat over Southam, Warwickshire. pic.twitter.com/S54Ly9eosH

— Martin-Baker (@MB_EjectEject) May 30, 2023

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
04-Dec-2019 16:21	Dr. John Smith	Added
04-Dec-2019 16:34	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
02-Jun-2023 13:49	Dr. John Smith	Updated [[Location, Source, Narrative]]