The Planet Satellite was a British light aircraft of the late 1940s. Designed to exploit new technology, the aircraft was abandoned after two crashes although the innovative fuselage was later incorporated into a helicopter prototype.

Design and development

The Planet Satellite was designed by Major J. N. (John Nelson) Dundas Heenan, of Heenan, Winn and Steel, consulting engineers, 29

Clarges Street Clarges Street is a street in the City of Westminster, London. The street runs from Clarges Mews in the north to Piccadilly in the south. It is crossed by Curzon Street. History Clarges Street was built in the early 18th century and is probabl ...

, London, W.1. Dundas had served in the

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in WW1, retiring as acting Major in 1919 and had then worked at the family firm of

Heenan & Froude Heenan & Froude was a United Kingdom-based engineering company, founded in Newton Heath, Manchester, England in 1881 in a partnership formed by engineers Richard Froude and Richard Hammersley Heenan. Expanded on the back of William Froude's pat ...

, leaving in 1935 when the parent company went bankrupt. He served on the British Air Commission to North America in World War II, and communicated many of

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 for ...

's reports to the USAAF, which eventually led to the

Bell P-59 Airacomet The Bell P-59 Airacomet was a single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft that was designed and built by Bell Aircraft during World War II, the first produced in the United States. As the British were further along in jet engine developme ...

, the first US jet aircraft. The Satellite was a futuristic looking four-seater aircraft built of Elektron, a 90% magnesium alloy, in a true monocoque 'teardrop' shaped

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

with no internal reinforced structure.Middleton 1983, p. 528. The wings were also skinned with sheet elektron. The UK manufacturing rights for Elektron were owned by F. A. Hughes and Co., which had acquired the license in 1923 from

IG Farben Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate (company), conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies—BASF, ...

in Germany. Hughes & Co. had been fully owned since 1947 by

Distillers Company The Distillers Company Limited was a leading Scottish drinks and pharmaceutical company and, at one time, a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It was taken over by Guinness & Co. (now part of Diageo) in 1986 in a transaction which was later f ...

Ltd., (makers of

Gordon's Gin Gordon's is a brand of London dry gin first produced in 1769. The top markets for Gordon's are the United Kingdom, the United States and Greece. It is owned by the British spirits company Diageo. It is the world's best-selling London dry gin. G ...

and

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky now owned by Diageo that originated in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire. The brand was first established by grocer John Walker. It is the most widely distributed brand of blended ...

Whisky), who decided to finance the Satellite: a partnership established the Planet Aircraft Company, which operated as a subsidiary of a liquor company.Middleton 1983, p. 530. The Satellite was powered by a 250 hp

de Havilland Gipsy Queen The de Havilland Gipsy Queen is a British six-cylinder aero engine of capacity that was developed in 1936 by the de Havilland Engine Company. It was developed from the de Havilland Gipsy Six for military aircraft use. Produced between 1936 a ...

31 mounted amidships driving a two-blade Aeromatic "pusher" airscrew in the tail,''Air Progress'', November 1978, p. 18. with cooling air drawn by a fan through a flush slot on the roof of the fuselage.Orde-Hume 2021, p. 62 Other notable features included a 'butterfly'

V-tail The V-tail or ''Vee-tail'' (sometimes called a butterfly tail or Rudlicki's V-tailGudmundsson S. (2013). "General Aviation Aircraft Design: Applied Methods and Procedures" (Reprint). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 489. , 9780123973290) of an aircraft ...

and a retractable

tricycle undercarriage Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle ge ...

with some Elektron components, with the nosewheel retracting into a reinforced keel made of solid Elektron that ran the length of the underside of the fuselage.Middleton 1983, p. 528. Breaking with conventional design and manufacturing conventions, Heenan declared in the July 1948 ''Aviation News'' issue, that the 400 drawings made were in stark contrast with the standard of approximately 3,000 drawings required for a project of that complexity.Middleton 1983, p. 529. Built in the

Robinson Redwing The Robinson Redwing was a British two-seat single-engined biplane light aircraft built in the UK in 1930. Twelve were produced, selling mostly to Clubs; one aircraft survives. Design and development First flown in May 1930, the Robinson Redwi ...

factory at Purley Way,

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, Surrey in 1947, the first prototype was taken to

Redhill Aerodrome Redhill Aerodrome is an operational general aviation aerodrome located south-east of Redhill, Surrey, England, in green belt land. Redhill Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P421) that allows flights for the public transport of ...

in 1948. The sleek light aircraft appeared at the S.B.A.C. show at

Farnborough Airshow The Farnborough Airshow, officially the Farnborough International Airshow, is a trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries, where civilian and military aircraft are demonstrated to potential customers and investors. Since its fir ...

in September 1948 and received the registration ''G-ALOI'' in April 1949.

Testing and evaluation

The Chief Test Pilot at

RAE Farnborough The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mer ...

, Group Captain H. J. Wilson (holder of the World speed Record in the

Gloster Meteor The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies of World War II, Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turb ...

), after several long runs down the runway, managed to get the Satellite airborne at

Blackbushe Airport Blackbushe Airport is an operational general aviation airport in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire. Built during the Second World War, Blackbushe is north of the A30 road between Camberley ...

. The first "hop" was followed by the collapse of the undercarriage. After repairs, the prototype was flown off the ground and after reaching an altitude of barely 20 ft was put down on the ground gently but nonetheless, the undercarriage again collapsed, and this time the main keel had been cracked by the force of the landing. The conclusion of the

Air Registration Board The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is the statutory corporation which oversees and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the United Kingdom. Its areas of responsibility include: * Supervising the issuing of pilots' licences, testing of e ...

investigating the incident was that the aircraft had inadequate

stress analysis Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

and would require complete re-stressing and redesign.Middleton 1983, p. 530.Orde-Hume 2021, p. 64 The manufacturers had already begun the production of a second prototype but having already invested £100,000, and facing a likely cost of a further £50,000 to redesign the Satellite, chose to wind down the program with no further attempts to fly the Planet Satellite. The second prototype, registered ''G-ALXP'' was abandoned but the completed fuselage was incorporated into the

Firth Helicopter The Firth Helicopter was a British helicopter of the early 1950s. Designed to exploit new outrigger rotor technology, the helicopter was abandoned during construction. Design and development Based on the designs of American engineer Fred Landgra ...

FH-01/4, (also designed by Heenan) built in 1952 at

Thame, Oxfordshire Thame is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Oxfordshire, about east of the city of Oxford and southwest of Aylesbury. It derives its name from the River Thame which flows along the north side of the town and forms p ...

. The Firth Helicopter was abandoned without flying. It was presented to the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield in 1955. The single "flying" Satellite languished at Redhill until 1958 when it was unceremoniously broken up.Middleton 1983, p. 531.

Specifications (Planet Satellite - performance estimated)

References

Notes

Bibliography

* "A glimpse into the past". ''Air Progress'', Vol. 40, No. 11, November 1978. pp. 16–18. * Bridgman, Leonard. ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1948''. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd., 1948. * Gunston, Bill. ''Back to the Drawing Board: Aircraft That Flew But Never Took Off''. London: Zenith Imprint, 1996. . * Middleton, Don. "Heavenly Body". ''Aeroplane Monthly'' Vol. 11, No. 10, Issue: no, 128, October 1983. * Orde-Hume, Arthur W. J. G. "Sleeping Satellite". ''

Aeroplane An airplane or aeroplane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. Airplanes come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and wing configurations. The broad spectr ...

'', Vol. 49, No. 12. December 2021. pp. 60–64. {{ISSN, 0143-7240.

External links

Secret projects UK

"Plane Resembles Torpedo."
''Popular Science'', August 1948, p. 92, bottom of page. Print Publication Mechanix Illustrated January 1949, p. 80 title "Tail-Prop Plane" 1940s British civil utility aircraft Low-wing aircraft Single-engined pusher aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1949