| Royal Aircraft Establishment | |
|---|---|
| Farnborough, Hampshire | |
 Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) c.1915 | |
| Site information | |
| Type | Research establishment |
| Owner | War Office (1904–1906) Ministry of Defence (1964–1991) |
| Controlled by |  British Army (1904–1906) |
| Location | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 51°16′46″N0°47′17″W / 51.279475°N 0.787926°W /51.279475; -0.787926 |
| Site history | |
| In use | 1904–1991 |
| Battles/wars | First World War Second World War Cold War |
TheRoyal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of theUK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.
The BritishArmy Balloon Factory was established on Farnborough Common in the early 1900s. By 1912 it had come under civilian control and was theRoyal Aircraft Factory (RAF) In 1918 it was renamed Royal Aircraft Establishment to prevent confusion with the newly created Royal Air Force.
The first site was atFarnborough Airfield ("RAE Farnborough") inHampshire to which was added a second siteRAE Bedford (Bedfordshire) in 1946.
On 1 May 1988 it was renamed theRoyal Aerospace Establishment (RAE) before merging with other research entities to become part of the newDefence Research Agency in 1991.
In 1904–1906 the Army Balloon Factory, which was part of the ArmySchool of Ballooning, under the command of ColonelJames Templer, relocated from Aldershot to the edge of Farnborough Common in order to have enough space to inflate the new "dirigible balloon" orairship which was then under construction.[1][2] Templer's place was taken by ColonelJohn Capper and Templer himself retired in 1908. Besides balloons and airships, the factory also experimented withSamuel Franklin Cody'swar kites and aeroplanes designed both by Cody andJ. W. Dunne.[1] In October 1908 Cody made the first aeroplane flight in the United Kingdom at Farnborough.[3]
In 1909 Army work on aeroplanes ceased and the Factory was brought under civilian control. Capper was replaced as Superintendent byMervyn O'Gorman.[1] In 1912 the Balloon Factory was renamed the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF).[4] Its first new designer wasGeoffrey de Havilland who later founded his own company. Later colleagues includedJohn Kenworthy who became chief engineer and designer at theAustin Motor Company in 1918 and who went on to found the Redwing Aircraft Co in 1930[5] andHenry Folland – later chief designer atGloster Aircraft Company, and founder of his own companyFolland Aircraft. One of the designers in the engine department wasSamuel Heron, who later went on to invent the sodium-filledpoppet valve, instrumental in achieving greater power levels from piston engines.[6] While at the RAF, Heron designed a radial engine that he was not able to build during his time there, however upon leaving the RAF he then went toSiddeley-Deasy where the design, the RAF.8, was developed as theJaguar.[7] Heron later moved to the United States where he worked on the design of theWright Whirlwind.[8]Other engineers included MajorF.M. Green, G.S. Wilkinson, James E. "Jimmy" Ellor, Prof. A.H. Gibson, andA.A. Griffith. Both Ellor and Griffith would later go on to work forRolls-Royce Limited.[9]
In 1918 the Royal Aircraft Factory was once more renamed, becoming the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) to avoid confusion with theRoyal Air Force, which was formed on 1 April 1918, and because it had relinquished its manufacturing role to concentrate on research.
During WWII theMarine Aircraft Experimental Establishment, which had moved fromFelixstowe to a safer location atHelensburgh in Scotland, was under the control of the RAE. In 1946 work began to convertRAF Thurleigh into RAE Bedford. Engineers at the Royal Aircraft Establishment invented high strengthcarbon fibre in 1963.[10] In 1961, the world's firstgrooved runway for reducedaquaplaning was constructed.[11] In 1965, a US delegation visited to view the new surfacing practice and initiated a study by theFAA andNASA.[12]
On 1 May 1988 the RAE was renamed the Royal Aerospace Establishment.[13] On 1 April 1991 the RAE was merged into theDefence Research Agency (DRA), theMOD's new research organisation. Then, on 1 April 1995 the DRA and other MOD organisations merged to form theDefence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA). The Bedford site was largely shut down in 1994. In 2001 DERA was part-privatised by the MOD, resulting in two separate organisations, the state-ownedDefence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), and the privatised companyQinetiQ.
The unit used various aircraft such as : Hawker Hunter,English Electric Canberra B.6 WK163 & B.6 WH953,[14]BAC One-Eleven Series 402 XX919,Hawker Siddeley HS.125 XW930,[15] andDouglas Dakota ZA947.[16] During February 1988 the lastWestland Wessex left after 30 years of trials work.[17]
Between 1911 and 1918 the Royal Aircraft Factory produced a number of aircraft designs. Most of these were essentially research aircraft, but a few actually went into mass production, especially during the war period. Some orders were met by the factory itself, but the bulk of production was by private British companies, some of which had not previously built aircraft.
Up to about 1913 the designation letters referred to the general layout of the aircraft, derived from a French manufacturer or designer famous for that type:
From 1913/4 onwards this was changed to a designation based on the role for which the aircraft was designed:
The B.S.1 of 1913 was a one-off anomaly, combining both systems:Blériot (tractor)Scout (fighter).
R.T. & T.E. were also used for strictly one-off prototypes.
Several aircraft were produced during the days as the Army Balloon Factory. These include theairships as well as theCody andDunne designs.
Subsequent Royal Aircraft Factory type designations are inconsistent and confusing. For instance the "F.E.2" designation refers to three quite distinct types, with only the same broad layout in common, the F.E.2 (1911), the F.E.2 (1913), and finally the famous wartime two-seat fighter and general-purpose design, theF.E.2 (1914). This last aircraft was the one that went into production and had three main variants, the F.E.2a, F.E.2b, and the F.E.2d. As if this wasn't enough, there is the F.E.2c; this was a generic description rather than a subtype proper, and refers to several one-off conversions of F.E.2b's that experimentally reversed the seating positions of the pilot and the observer.
The B.E.1 was basically the prototype for the earlyB.E.2 but the B.E.2c was almost a completely new aeroplane, with very little common with the earlier B.E.2 types apart from engine and fuselage. On the other hand, the B.E.3 to the B.E.7 were all effectively working prototypes for the B.E.8 and were all very similar in design, with progressive minor modifications of the kind that many aircraft undergo during a production run. The B.E.8a was at least as different from the B.E.8 as the B.E.7 was.
The S.E.4a had nothing in common at all with the S.E.4, while theS.E.5a was simply a late production S.E.5 with a more powerful engine.
Several early RAF designs were officially "reconstructions" of existing aircraft because the Factory did not initially have official authority to build aircraft to their own design. In most cases, the type in question used no parts whatever from the wreck, in some cases, not even the engine.
No details are known for the B.E.11 and F.E.11 projects.[18]
At the time of the "Fokker Scourge" in 1915, there was apress campaign against the standardisation of Royal Aircraft Factory types in theRoyal Flying Corps, allegedly in favour of superior designs available from the design departments of private British firms. This slowly gained currency, especially because of the undeniable fact that the B.E.2c and B.E.2e were kept in production and in service long after they were obsolete and that the B.E.12 and B.E.12a were indisputable failures. Some of this criticism was prejudiced and ill-informed.[19]
Some aviation historians continue to perpetuate the resulting belittling of the important experimental work of the Factory during this period, and the exaggeration of the failings of Factory production types, several of which were described in sensationally derogatory terms.[20]
A modern, rather more "pro-factory" point of view, can be found in several of the volumes ofWar Planes of the First World War, by J.M. Bruce—MacDonald, London, 1965.
The Superintendents of theSchool of Ballooning wereJames Templer (1878–1906) andJohn Capper (1906 – 1909). The following have served as Superintendents of the Royal Aircraft Factory / Establishment:
After the end of the First World War, the design and development of aircraft types ended – although work continued on general research and the development of missiles. Research includedwind tunnel testing and other aeronautical research, areas which offered rare opportunities forwomen in STEM fields at this time with examples includingFrances Bradfield who worked at the RAE for her entire career from 1919 to her retirement;Muriel Glauert (née Barker) joined in 1918 as a researcher working in aerodynamics andBeatrice Shilling who went on to inventMiss Shilling's orifice, to improve the engine performance ofRAFHurricane andSpitfire fighters during theBattle of Britain as part of wider work at the RAE on aircraft engine problems duringWorld War II.Johanna Weber, a German mathematician who joined the RAE afterWorld War II as part ofOperation Surgeon to employ German aeronautical researchers and technicians and bring them to the UK, to prevent their technical knowledge falling into the hands of the Soviet occupying forces in Germany.
In 1930 the RAE developed the Robot Air Pilot, an autopilot that used a gyro and flight controls that functioned by compressed air.[21]
Aircraft that were developed or tested at the RAE included theHawker Siddeley Harrier andConcorde.
In the late fifties and through the sixties work proceeded at the RAE on severalrocket projects – all of which were eventually abandoned
The former RAE Farnborough site is (as of 2011) occupied by:
The National Aerospace Library (NAL), located in the former Weapon Aerodynamics building (Q134 Building), has a collection of over 2,500 technical reports produced by the RAE.[25]
The historic Farnborough factory site houses three majorwind tunnels, the 24 ft (7.3 m) low-speed wind tunnel (Q121 Building), constructed during the early 1930s, the No. 2 11 ft 6 in (3.51 m) low-speed wind tunnel (R136 Building) and the 8 ft × 6 ft (2.4 m × 1.8 m) transonic wind tunnel within R133 Building, which was originally commissioned in the early 1940s as a 10 ft × 7 ft (3.0 m × 2.1 m) high subsonic speed tunnel but converted during the mid-1950s. A smaller 2 ft × 1.5 ft (0.61 m × 0.46 m) transonic tunnel is housed in R133 Building, while R52 Building contains the remaining 4 ft × 3 ft (1.22 m × 0.91 m) low turbulence wind tunnel. R52 Building had previously housed two early 10 ft x 7 ft low-speed tunnels in separate bays, which were replaced by the No. 1 11.5' and 4ft x 3ft tunnels respectively. The former remains in operation at the University of Southampton.[citation needed] R52 building also previously contained a 5 ft (1.5 m) open jet low-speed tunnel, originally built as a sub-scale prototype for the larger 24-ft tunnel, but subsequently modified for use as a noise measurement facility. Both Q121 and R133 are now Grade Ilisted buildings.[26][27]
To the west of the Farnborough site is the 5-metre pressurised low-speed wind tunnel, which was commissioned in the late 1970s. This facility remains in operation byQinetiQ, primarily for the development and testing of aircraft high lift systems.[citation needed]
The hero ofNevil Shute's 1948 novelNo Highway is an eccentric "boffin" at Farnborough who predictsmetal fatigue in the United Kingdom's new airliner, the fictional "Rutland Reindeer". TheComets failed for just this reason in 1954, although in the case of the Comet I the problem was in the metal structure around the navigation windows, while the point of failure in the Reindeer aircraft was in the structure of the rear empennage/fuselage joints. A film version of the novel,No Highway in the Sky, appeared in 1951, starringJames Stewart as the protagonist. Stewart prepared for the role by shadowing Fred Jones OBE, a co-founder of the RAE Accident Section. Jones later was head of Structures Section (formerly Airworthiness Section) from 1957 to 1980.
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