This film from 1947 shows the Empire Test Pilots’ School in Cranfield in Bedfordshire (where the ETPS was based before moving to Boscombe Down in Wiltshire). It was the first of it’s kind when established in 1943. The first training courses were conducted by Commandant, Wing Commander Samuel Wroath with Maclaren Humphry’s as the technical instructor. The film is presented by the Central Office of Information (:10) and was produced by The Horizon Unit (:18). Top pilots from around the world, chosen by their governments were sent here for specialized training (1:04). At the mess hall (1:34) students include a Dutch Army Air Force Captain, an English Squadron leader who lost his eye in combat (1:45) and a Canadian. A U.S. Army Colonel is seen conferring with an English civilian pilot (1:52). The school’s Commander and Group Captain Wilson (2:17) speak with another pilot who recently broken the world’s speed record in 1946 (2:24). The previous record was set by Captain Wilson in 1945, as he hit speeds of 660 mph (2:29). Wing Commander Smith was in charge of the flying portion of the course (2:38). He was the Flight Commander during the Battle of Britain as well as the Squadron Leader of the Night Fighters (2:42). The course was divided in half, the first being the discovery and understanding of how planes handle in the air (3:01) and the second being the testing of planes’ natural performances and the measuring and recording of their characteristics (3:15). Five instructors trained the students (3:27). Squadron Leader Titch Havercroft had 1,000 hours of test flight experience (3:39). Mr. Maclaren Humphreys is seen (4:02) in charge of all classroom tuition. The instructors built their platform on his ground work (4:20). Havercroft heads out to perform his own flight experiment (4:33). The lecture here is about positional error testing (4:57). In order to measure the pressure of the atmosphere on the craft, a tube is installed on the outside of the plane (5:19). Air moving by this while the craft is in flight leads to a disturbance in the ordinary atmosphere around the craft which means the reading on the instrument panel will always be incorrect (5:27). Just how wrong depends on the position of the pitot tube (5:40). Flight tests with the Meteor twin engine jet are conducted to decipher the rate of the inaccuracy (5:50). Lieutenant Warren Smith of the U.S. Naval Reserve is seen climbing into the cockpit (5:58) and four students and an instructor take to the control tower (6:08). The four are equipped with an altimeter and one is also placed within the craft (6:22). Because the altimeter of the plane is connected to the tube outside of the plane, the readings will vary between this one and the one the four students held (6:30). The plane has to fly at the same height as the observers in order for the test to be accurate which means the plane had to be flown only 50 feet from the ground (6:42). Two runs are conducted, one at 120 mph and the other at 400 mph (7:18). After both runs, the American pilot steps from the plane with his record of the altimeter readings (8:48). Humphreys will compare these to his own (8:54). A montage ensues of the courses which were to take place the remaining months including partial climbs (9:32), spinning and other aeronautic tests (10:00) as well as asymmetrical handling (10:42). The last course involves plane handling when it has engine trouble (10:51). Smooth flight depends on balance (11:10). Mr. Miles, a civilian pilot from Australia, asks the instructor if the rudders and ailerons would be enough to keep the craft level (11:42). He will be the test pilot for this specific test with a Chinese Lieutenant as his observer (11:45) in a Lancaster weighing 22 tons (12:38). Once they were 4,000 feet up, they were to cut the outer starboard motor (12:58). Once the engine is cut, the plane wobbles momentarily and Miles uses the rudder and aileron controls to steady it (14:23). He then informs the control tower that they were preparing to land with one dead engine (15:00). These test pilots of the future are seen playing with puppies as overtime, the cultural and language barriers dissipated (16:06).

The Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS) is a British training school for test pilots and flight test engineers of fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft was established in 1943, the first of its type. Its motto is “Learn to test; test to learn”.

This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com