Planet Satellite
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2017}}
{{Infobox aircraft
|name = Satellite
|image = Planet Satellite.jpg
|caption =Planet Satellite during testing
|type = Light aircraft
|manufacturer = Planet Aircraft Ltd.
|designer =Major Dundas Heenan
|first_flight = April 1949
|introduction =Cancelled
|retired =1958
|produced =
|number_built = 1 (second prototype abandoned)
|status = Experimental
|unit cost =
|primary_user =
|more_users =
|developed_from =
|variants = Firth Helicopter (fuselage used)
}}
The Planet Satellite was a British light aircraft of the late 1940s. Designed to exploit new technology, the aircraft was abandoned after two crashes although the innovative fuselage was later incorporated into a helicopter prototype.
{{TOC limit|limit=2}}
Design and development
The Planet Satellite was designed by Major J. N. (John Nelson) Dundas Heenan, of Heenan, Winn and Steel, consulting engineers, 29 Clarges Street, London, W.1. Dundas had served in the RFC in WW1, retiring as acting Major in 1919{{cite web |title= Royal Flying Corps – People index:Surnames H |website=Airhistory.org.uk |url=http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/people_index.html |access-date=1 January 2023}} and had then worked at the family firm of Heenan & Froude, leaving in 1935 when the parent company went bankrupt. He served on the British Air Commission to North America in World War II, and communicated many of Frank Whittle's reports to the USAAF, which eventually led to the Bell P-59 Airacomet, the first US jet aircraft.{{cite web |title=Planet Satellite: British super-plane or magnesium flop? |date=16 October 2015 |website=Hush-Kit |access-date=1 January 2023 |url=https://hushkit.net/2015/10/16/whisky-business-the-strange-story-of-the-planet-satellite/ }}
The Satellite was a futuristic looking four-seater aircraft built of Elektron,{{cite web |last=Pearce |first=William |title=Planet Satellite Light Aircraft |date=June 2021 |website=Old Machine Press |url=https://oldmachinepress.com/2021/06/ |access-date=1 January 2023}} a 90% magnesium alloy, in a true monocoque 'teardrop' shaped fuselage with no internal reinforced structure.Middleton 1983, p. 528. The wings were also skinned with sheet elektron. The UK manufacturing rights for Elektron were owned by F. A. Hughes and Co., which had acquired the license in 1923 from IG Farben in Germany.{{cite journal |title=Advertisements: Industry |url=http://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1935/1935%20-%201537.PDF |journal=Flight |date=27 June 1935 |page=17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150610211920/https://www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDFArchive/1935/1935%20-%201537.PDF |archive-date=10 June 2015 |access-date=1 January 2023}} Hughes & Co. had been fully owned since 1947 by Distillers Company Ltd., (makers of Gordon's Gin and Johnnie Walker Whisky), who decided to finance the Satellite: a partnership established
the Planet Aircraft Company, which operated as a subsidiary of a liquor company.Middleton 1983, p. 530.
The Satellite was powered by a 250 hp de Havilland Gipsy Queen 31 mounted amidships driving a two-blade Aeromatic "pusher" airscrew in the tail,Air Progress, November 1978, p. 18. with cooling air drawn by a fan through a flush slot on the roof of the fuselage.Orde-Hume 2021, p. 62 Other notable features included a 'butterfly' V-tail and a retractable tricycle undercarriage with some Elektron components, with the nosewheel retracting into a reinforced keel made of solid Elektron that ran the length of the underside of the fuselage.Middleton 1983, p. 528.
Breaking with conventional design and manufacturing conventions, Heenan declared in the July 1948 Aviation News issue, that the 400 drawings made were in stark contrast with the standard of approximately 3,000 drawings required for a project of that complexity.Middleton 1983, p. 529.
Built in the Robinson Redwing factory at Purley Way, Croydon, Surrey in 1947, the first prototype was taken to Redhill Aerodrome in 1948. The sleek light aircraft appeared at the S.B.A.C. show at Farnborough Airshow in September 1948 and received the registration G-ALOI in April 1949.
Testing and evaluation
The Chief Test Pilot at RAE Farnborough, Group Captain H. J. Wilson (holder of the World speed Record in the Gloster Meteor), after several long runs down the runway, managed to get the Satellite airborne at Blackbushe Airport. The first "hop" was followed by the collapse of the undercarriage. After repairs, the prototype was flown off the ground and after reaching an altitude of barely 20 ft was put down on the ground gently but nonetheless, the undercarriage again collapsed, and this time the main keel had been cracked by the force of the landing. The conclusion of the Air Registration Board investigating the incident was that the aircraft had inadequate stress analysis and would require complete re-stressing and redesign.Middleton 1983, p. 530.Orde-Hume 2021, p. 64
The manufacturers had already begun the production of a second prototype but having already invested £100,000, and facing a likely cost of a further £50,000 to redesign the Satellite, chose to wind down the program with no further attempts to fly the Planet Satellite.
The second prototype, registered G-ALXP was abandoned but the completed fuselage was incorporated into the Firth Helicopter FH-01/4, (also designed by Heenan) built in 1952 at Thame, Oxfordshire. The Firth Helicopter was abandoned without flying. It was presented to the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield in 1955.
The single "flying" Satellite languished at Redhill until 1958 when it was unceremoniously broken up.Middleton 1983, p. 531.
Specifications (Planet Satellite - performance estimated)
{{Aircraft specs
|ref=Heavenly BodyMiddleton 1983, p. 530.
|prime units?=imp
|genhide=
|crew=1
|capacity=4 passengersBridgman 1948, p. 86c
|length m=
|length ft=26
|length in=3
|length note=
|span m=
|span ft=33
|span in=6
|span note=
|height m=
|height ft=9
|height in=3
|height note=
|wing area sqm=
|wing area sqft=153
|wing area note=
|swept area sqm=
|swept area sqft=
|swept area note=
|volume m3=
|volume ft3=
|volume note=
|aspect ratio=
|airfoil=NACA 23000 series
|empty weight kg=
|empty weight lb=1,600
|empty weight note=
|gross weight kg=
|gross weight lb=2,905
|gross weight note=
|max takeoff weight kg=
|max takeoff weight lb=
|max takeoff weight note=
|fuel capacity={{convert|56|impgal|USgal L|abbr=on}}
|lift kg=
|lift lb=
|lift note=
|more general=
|eng1 number=1
|eng1 name=de Havilland Gipsy Queen 31
|eng1 type=air-cooled, six-cylinder inline engine
|eng1 kw=
|eng1 hp=250
|prop blade number=2
|prop name=Aeromatic variable-pitch propeller
|prop dia m=
|prop dia ft=6
|prop dia in=6
|prop dia note=Air International July 1972, p. 46
|rot number=
|rot dia m=
|rot dia ft=
|rot dia in=
|rot area sqm=
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|perfhide=
|max speed kmh=
|max speed mph=208
|max speed kts=
|max speed note=
|max speed mach=
|cruise speed kmh=
|cruise speed mph=191
|cruise speed kts=
|cruise speed note=
|stall speed kmh=
|stall speed mph=62
|stall speed kts=
|stall speed note=(maximum loading)
|never exceed speed kmh=
|never exceed speed mph=
|never exceed speed kts=
|never exceed speed note=
|minimum control speed kmh=
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|minimum control speed kts=
|minimum control speed note=
|range km=
|range miles=1,000
|range nmi=
|range note=
|combat range km=
|combat range miles=
|combat range nmi=
|combat range note=
|ferry range km=
|ferry range miles=
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|ferry range note=
|endurance=
|ceiling m=
|ceiling ft=22,000
|ceiling note=(absolute ceiling)
|g limits=
|roll rate=
|glide ratio=
|climb rate ms=
|climb rate ftmin=1,450
|climb rate note=
|time to altitude=
|sink rate ms=
|sink rate ftmin=
|sink rate note=
|lift to drag=
|wing loading kg/m2=
|wing loading lb/sqft=
|wing loading note=
|disk loading kg/m2=
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|fuel consumption kg/km=
|fuel consumption lb/mi=
|power/mass=
|thrust/weight=
|more performance=
|armament=
|guns=
|bombs=
|rockets=
|missiles=
|hardpoints=
|hardpoint capacity=
|hardpoint rockets=
|hardpoint missiles=
|hardpoint bombs=
|hardpoint other=
|avionics=
}}
References
=Notes=
{{Reflist}}
=Bibliography=
- "A glimpse into the past". Air Progress, Vol. 40, No. 11, November 1978. pp. 16–18.
- Bridgman, Leonard. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1948. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Company, Ltd., 1948.
- Gunston, Bill. Back to the Drawing Board: Aircraft That Flew But Never Took Off. London: Zenith Imprint, 1996. {{ISBN|0-7603-0316-9}}.
- Middleton, Don. "Heavenly Body". Aeroplane Monthly Vol. 11, No. 10, Issue: no, 128, October 1983.
- Orde-Hume, Arthur W. J. G. "Sleeping Satellite". Aeroplane, Vol. 49, No. 12. December 2021. pp. 60–64. {{ISSN|0143-7240}}.
- "Plane Facts", Air Enthusiast, Vol. 3, No. 1, July 1972. pp. 46–47.
External links
- [http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,1170.0.html Secret projects UK]
- [http://hushkit.net/2015/10/16/whisky-business-the-strange-story-of-the-planet-satellite.html Whisky business: The strange story of the Planet Satellite]
- [https://books.google.com/books?id=QCgDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+science+1930&pg=PA92 "Plane Resembles Torpedo."] Popular Science, August 1948, p. 92, bottom of page.
Print Publication Mechanix Illustrated January 1949, p. 80 title "Tail-Prop Plane"
Category:1940s British civil utility aircraft