ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 203762
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| Date: | Thursday 15 August 1940 |
| Time: | 18:25 LT |
| Type: | De Bruyne Snark |
| Owner/operator: | Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) |
| Registration: | L6103 |
| MSN: | DB.2 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Croydon Aiport, Croydon, Surrey, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Standing |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Croydon Airport, Surrey (EGCR) |
The de Bruyne DB-2 Snark was a British experimental four-seat cabin monoplane designed by Norman Adrian deBruyne and built by Aero Research Limited (ARL) of Cambridgeshire. It was built to test low weight, bakelite-bonded plywood, stressed skin wing and fuselage structures.
Apart from the structure the Snark was a conventional looking low-wing four-seat cabin monoplane, powered by a nose-mounted 130 hp (97 kW) de Havilland Gipsy Major piston engine. Registered G-ADDL on 12.3.35 (C of R 5658), the Snark first flew from Cambridge on 16.12.34 flown by Norman Adrian de Bruyne. C of A 4793 issued in March 1935
Though stressed plywood skinned aircraft had been built before, it was claimed at the time that the Snark was the first to have been designed with full stress calculations, including loads carried by both wing and fuselage skins. This led to a high loaded/unloaded weight ratio of 1.82; the similarly engined, almost exactly contemporary 3/4 seat Miles Falcon had achieved 1.62.
In May 1936 the Snark was transferred to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough for research into the aerodynamics of thick wing monoplanes, with serial number L6103. (The civil rrgistration G-ADDL was cancelled 2.5.36, oddly "due to destruction or permanent withdrawl from use of aircraft" (sic))
The aircraft was sold by the RAE on 8.6.38 but was destroyed by German bombing at Croydon Airport on 15.8.40. On 15.8.40, Croydon Airport was attacked in the first major air raid on the London area. At around 6.20 pm, 22 Bf 110 and Bf 109 fighter-bombers of Erpr. Gr. 210 mounted a final raid of the day, intended for RAF Kenley nearby, but attacked Croydon (four miles further north) in error. The armoury was destroyed, the civilian airport terminal building was badly damaged, and a hangar was damaged by cannon fire and blast. Another hangar (containing the Snark) and about forty training aircraft in it went up in flames.
Sources:
1. http://afleetingpeace.org/index.php/15-aeroplanes/78-register-gb-g-ad
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Bruyne_Snark
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_de_Bruyne
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon_Airport#Battle_of_Britain
5. https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/HistoricalMaterial/G-ADDL.pdf
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A6.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 03-Jan-2018 20:29 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 03-Jan-2018 20:30 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 15-Jan-2020 11:10 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Operator] |
| 15-May-2023 10:08 | Nepa | Updated [[Operator, Departure airport, Operator]] |
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