Post by Diarist on Oct 21, 2015 20:20:37 GMT 1
Today was my last day at work before going on vacation. In the morning Captain Wales and I visited the 'secret' de Havilland design office to get a progress report and to discuss Air Ministry specification F.37/35, fighter with cannon. The team already had a couple of interesting designs. I liked the one with large shoulder-level wings - very aerodynamic with the cockpit canopy above the forward edge of the wings. It was also their favourite.
I asked if they were considering entering a design for the 'fighter with cannon' requirement. They were toying with the idea, a single-seat version of above mentioned design. The aircraft would be slimmer and the bomb-bay could house the cannons in the forward half and fuel tanks to the rear. Could we get them a couple of Rolls Royce engines? Good question. The prototype has to be delivered by May next year so they would require the engines preferably in February at the latest. Since the design is for an official AirMin specification it shouldn't be too difficult. We said that it'll have high priority and we have six months. We parted after lunch and drove back to the HQ hoping we hadn't promised them too much.
We talked to AVM Freeman in the afternoon and he promised to do what he could. I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning up loose ends and briefing CPT Wales who would be sitting at my desk again. I said my farewells then went home with Sally. We couldn't tell anybody the true nature of our trip but we intended making the most of it.