M.52

The Miles M.52 was a turbojet-powered supersonic research aircraft project designed in the United Kingdom in the mid-1940s. In October 1943, Miles Aircraft was issued with a contract to produce the aircraft in accordance with Air Ministry Specification E.24/43. The programme was highly ambitious for its time, aiming to produce an aircraft capable of a speed of at least during level flight, and involved a very high proportion of cutting-edge aerodynamic research and innovative design work. Until 1945 all work on the project was undertaken with a high level of secrecy. In February 1946, the programme was terminated by the new Labour government of Clement Attlee, seemingly due to budgetary reasons as well as the disbelief of some ministry officials regarding the practicality of supersonic aircraft. In September 1946 the existence of the M.52 project was revealed to the general public, leading to criticism of the decision and calls for an official explanation of why the project had been terminated. The Air Ministry controversially decided to revive the design, but as a series of unmanned rocket-powered 30 per cent scale models instead of a manned full-scale aircraft. These models were air-launched from a modified de Havilland Mosquito mother ship. During one test flight Mach 1.38 was achieved by a model in normally controllable transonic and supersonic level flight, a unique achievement at that time and one which validated the aerodynamics of the M.52. At that point, the ministry had cancelled the project and issued a new requirement, which ultimately resulted in the English Electric Lightning interceptor aircraft. Work on the afterburning version of the Power Jets W.B.2/700 turbojet was also cancelled, and Power Jets was incorporated into the National Gas Turbine Establishment. According to senior figures at Miles, the design and the research gained from the M.52 was shared with the American company Bell Aircraft, and that this was applied to their own Bell X-1, the experimental aircraft which broke the sound barrier. Development