Fairey Delta 2

Template:Infobox Aircraft

The Fairey Delta 2 (designated Type V within the Fairey organisation) or FD2 was a British supersonic research aircraft produced by the Fairey Aviation Company in response to a specification from the Ministry of Supply for investigation into flight and control at transonic and supersonic speeds.

Design and development

WG774 with the original polished-metal finish. It later received yellow "go faster" stripes, followed by a purple and yellow scheme, before conversion to the BAC 221.

The design was a mid-wing tail-less delta monoplane, with a circular cross-section fuselage and engine air-inlets blended into the wing roots. The engine was a Rolls-Royce Avon RA.14R with an afterburner. The Delta 2 had a very long tapering nose which obscured forward vision during landing, take-off and movement on the ground. To compensate, the nose section and cockpit drooped 10 degrees, in a similar way to that used later on Concorde. Two aircraft were built: WG774 and WG777.

The FD2 was used as the basis for Fairey's submissions to the Ministry for advanced all weather interceptor designs leading to the Fairey Delta 3 for the F.155 specification, but it never got past the drawing board stage.

Testing

The first FD2 was aircraft WG774 which made its maiden flight on 6 October 1954, flown by Fairey test pilot Peter Twiss. On 10 March 1956, this aircraft broke the World Air Speed Record raising it to 1,132 mph (1811 km/h), an increase of some 300 mph (480 km/h) over the record set in August 1955 by an F-100 Super Sabre, and thus became the first aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight.

BAC 221

The first Delta 2, WG774, was later rebuilt by British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), who had absorbed Fairey, in 1960 as the ogee-ogive wing form aircraft BAC 221. This was for aerodynamic research as part of the Concorde development programme. It featured a new wing, engine inlet configuration, a Rolls-Royce Avon RA.28, modified vertical stabiliser and a lengthened undercarriage to mimic Concorde's attitude on the ground. It flew from 1964 until 1973.

Survivors

WG774, in BAC 221 form, is now on display alongside the British Concorde prototype at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton. The second FD2, WG777, is preserved at the Royal Air Force Museum at RAF Cosford, alongside many other supersonic research aircraft.

Specifications (Fairey Delta 2)

General characteristics

• Crew: 1

Performance

See also

• Flight airspeed record

References

• Taylor, H. A. Fairey Aircraft since 1915. London: Putnam, 1974. ISBN 0-370-00065-X.
• Twiss, Peter. Faster than the Sun. London: Grub Street Publishing, 2000. ISBN 1-902304-43-8.
• Winchester, Jim. Concept Aircraft: Prototypes, X-Planes and Experimental Aircraft. Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange books plc, 2005. ISBN 1-84013-809-2.

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