Fairey FD2
Serial Number:
WG777
Period:
Post-WWII
Collection Ref: 85/A/10
Location: RAF Museum Cosford, Research & Development
In the late 1940s Britain was trailing far behind in
supersonic aircraft design. To try to retrieve matters the Ministry of
Supply issued a specification for a supersonic research aircraft, and
Fairey set about meeting this with a delta-winged aircraft designed for
investigation into flight and control at transonic and supersonic speeds.
The final design was a single-seat, delta-winged aircraft powered by a
Rolls-Royce Avon engine with an afterburner. The aircraft was named the
Fairey Delta 2, or FD2. To improve the pilot's forward view during landing,
taxiing and take-off, the cockpit and nose section could be hinged downwards
by ten degrees. A similar feature was used on Concorde.
Fairey test-pilot Peter Twiss flew the first FD2, WG774, on its maiden
flight on 6 October 1954. On the 10 March 1956 an attempt was made on
the World Air Speed Record, which Twiss broke by more than 483kph (300mph).
The new record was 1820kph (1132mph) - quite an achievement considering
the old record had only been set the previous year by an American F100
Super Sabre.
This aircraft is the second of only two FD2s built.
