Avro Ashton (Jet Engine Testbeds) ~ 1st Flight 1 September 1950 cover signed Dr Geoffrey Betram Robert Feilden CBE MA (Cantab) FRS FEng FIMechE, Squadron Leader Alexander James Heyworth DFC* FRAeS, Ian Whittle FRAeS
Cover depicting various aircraft that were tesbeds for jet engines such as Avro Ashton Mk3 with Olympus Testbed, Vickers VC10 as Rolls Royce RB211 testbed, Armstrong Siddeley Sapphires in Avro Lancastrian 2, Vickers Viscount as Rolls Royce Tay Testbed, Metrovick F2/4 Beryl installed in Avro Lancaster Tail, Whittle W2B installed in Vickers Wellington Tail and the Avro Vulcan as Bristol olympus testbed for Concorde.
Cover bears 65p Millenium On the Line stamp which is cancelled with
50th Anniversary of the Avro Ashton 1st September Woodford Stockport.
Cover has been flown in Avro Anson of the Air Atlantique Historic Flight on a local flight from Baginton Airport Coventry after winter maintenance.
Cover has been reflown in Piper Aztec piloted by Ian Whittle (son of the late Sir Frank Whittle) to commemorate the 65th Anniversary of the first bench-test run of his WU jet engine on 12 April 1937.
Cover has been signed by
Dr Geoffrey Bertram Robert Feilden CBE MA FRS FEng FIMechE
Member of Frank Whittle's Power Jets Ltd Design team 1940-6
ON graduating from Cambridge he first joined Lever Brothers and Unilever before being recruited in 1940 to join Power Jets Lts the company founded by then Flight Lieutenant Frank Whittle. Initially he was a member of the combustian section and later installed the WIX engine for taxiing trials in the Gloster E28/39 at Brockworth in 1941. He remained with Power Jets until the team was dispersed in 1946. In 1946 he joined Ruston and Hornsby Ltd becoming Chief Engineer, Turbine Department, He was appointed Managing Director Hawker Siddeley Brush turbines in 1959
He received the MacRobert Award for Innovation in 1983 and the Royal Aeronautical Society's Hodgson Prize in 1994
Squadron Leader Alexander James Heyworth DFC and Bar FRAeS
Test Pilot Rolls Royce 1944-55, Chief Test Pilot 1955-1962
He joined the RAF as a volunteer reserve in 1940. After pilot training he was posted to Bomber Command where he saw two tours with 12 Squadron flying Wellingtons and Lancasters from Binbrook and Wickenby. He was awarded the DFC in 1942, mentioned in Dispatches in 1943 and was awarded a Bar to his DFC in 1944.
He was seconded from the RAF to Rolls-Royce at Hucknall in 1944 to develop a new type of power unit which was the Whittle Unit. He flew on many types until 1962 when he ceased flying and undertook management jobs with Rolls Royce until retiring in 1982
Ian Whittle FRAeS
He was awarded a Flying Scholarship in 1952 for pilot training and joined in 1953. His basic flying training was on Prentices followed by the Harvar.l He was posted to Driffield for jet conversion course on Meteors and thence to Leconfield for oprational conversion and gunnery. He was then posted to 247 Odiham flying Meteor and after re-equipment Hunters. He left the RAF in 1958 to pursue a career as an airline pilot and was employed by BOAC to fly for Kuwait Airways
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