Date:	Tuesday 12 February 1946
Time:	day
Type:	Piper L-4B Cub
Owner/operator:	A&AEE Boscombe Down
Registration:	VM286
MSN:	9491
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Test
Departure airport:	Boscombe Down, Wiltshire (EGDM)
Destination airport:	Boscombe Down, Wiltshire (EGDM)
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Piper L-4B Grasshopper Ex-USAAF 43-630 (MSN 9491) and delivered to the 8th Air Force in England; issued to the 1st Strategic Air Depot, Troston, Honington; damaged landing at Honington, Suffolk 29 May 1945; transferred to RAF as VM286 for evaluation by Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) 23 August 1945

Piper L-4B VM286 was intended for use in conducting trials with an American-made device called the Brodie Runway Apparatus. This apparatus was an air-dropped assembly, to be used to launch aircraft in places where a suitable airstrip was not available.

One successful 'arrested' landing had been carried out, and Group Captain Sammy Wroath AFC, Officer Commanding (Flying) at A&AEE Boscombe Down, was tasked with the first launch from the Brodie Runway Apparatus using Piper VM286 as the test subject. The launch took place on 12 February 1946.

However, the equipment did not operate correctly, due to a restriction in a cable bogie, with the result that the aircraft did not achieve minimum flying speed upon release from the apparatus. The Piper therefore stalled, crashed, and dived into the ground, severely damaging the undercarriage.

The Brodie Runway Apparatus was therefore judged to be a failure, and too cumbersome for practical use. The RAF instead decided that it would be more effective for them to air-drop a bulldozer, which could then be used to carve out a runway from the location it was air-dropped. The fact that the accident took place in February 1946, some eight months after the end of WWII, also removed the urgency and need for the Brodie Apparatus.

As a post-script, the Brodie Runway Apparatus was still where it had been left, after the experiments (and the equipment) had been abandoned, some two months later, in April 1946. This led directly to a further accident involving Supermarine Seafire SX121, which crashed on 15-4-46 after colliding with the abandoned apparatus (see separate entry)

1. Halley, James (1999). Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents. Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.30 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Final Landings: A Summary of RAF Aircraft and Combat Losses 1946 to 1949 by Colin Cummings p.69
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft SA100-VZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
4. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_1.html
5. http://www.ukserials.com/prodlists.php?type=851
6. http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4712
7. https://www.uswarplanes.net/grasshopper.pdf
8. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/65915-raf-piper-cubs
9. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=VM
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroplane_and_Armament_Experimental_Establishment
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MoD_Boscombe_Down#Second_World_War

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
12-Jun-2021 20:01	Dr. John Smith	Added
21-May-2023 07:55	Nepa	Updated
15-Jul-2023 00:20	Dr. John Smith	Updated