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Like a number of milestones in the history of Guinness World Records, the challenge of not only flying the fastest aircraft in the world but also becoming the first pilot to break the 1,000 mph air-speed barrier was a close-run race, and one conducted in utmost secrecy.
It’s a tale of derring-do and adventure, starring a larger-than-life character straight from the pages of a Boy’s Own comic: a tea-tasting-apprentice-turned-fighter-pilot who would go on to become a multiple record-holder, a speedboat consultant and a James Bond stuntman.
In the mid 1950s, the British Fairey Aviation Company had its sights set on a world record. Fearing that they would be beaten to the 1,000-mph air-speed mark by American rivals, Fairey conducted top secret test flights across the British countryside, terrorising the inhabitants of Southeast England with deafening jet engines and window-shattering sonic booms.
It was hardly the best way to keep a secret – one market gardener threatened to sue when he lost his greenhouses during a test flight – but it certainly worked, and the exact source of the disturbances remained unconfirmed.
Why the secrecy? Over the previous decade following the end of World War II, the air-speed record had changed hands a few times between the UK and the USA, with the Americans having the upper hand.
The supersonic barrier had already been surpassed back in October 1947, when the USAAF’s Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager reached Mach 1.07 (1,310.79 km/h or 814.49 mph) in the rocket-powered Bell X-1. (Despite the unprecedented speed, Yeager’s flight wasn’t formally accepted by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) for the air-speed record – it was rocket-powered and dropped out of a B-29 bomber; the first supersonic pilot to officially pass the FAI’s strict rulings would be the USAAF’s Horace Haines, who reached Mach 1.25 (1,323.312 km/r or 822.26 mph) on 20 August 1955.)
The British were lagging behind in the development of supersonic craft, so when the next major milestone presented itself – the 1,000 mph mark – the Fairey engineers were determined to secure the record.
The man chosen for the job of piloting Britain back into the record books was Peter Twiss (born Lionel Peter Twiss, 23 July 1921), who’d spent his apprenticeship before World War II as a tea taster for Brooke Bond.
At the outbreak of war, Twiss had signed up as a Naval Airman Second Class and by 1942 had earned himself the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), finishing the conflict as a Lieutenant Commander.
In 1946, he joined Fairey as a test pilot and began top-secret research into trans- and subsonic flight.
The aircraft developed to achieve the superlative speed was the Fairey Delta II – a 15.7-m-long (51-ft 7-in) tailless delta (triangle) wing designed by the Scottish aeronautical engineer Robert Lang Lickley (later Sir).
The project was kept under wraps even from much of the Fairey staff, such was the need for secrecy, and many of the plane’s 400 test flights were done under cover, with only the Royal Air Force aware of what was actually flying overhead.
The single-seater aircraft’s revolutionary design featured a long, tapering nose that could be hinged downwards by 10 degrees to improve the pilot’s forward view from the cockpit. (This unmistakable “cocked nose” design would later be adopted for Concorde.)
Either side of this slender nose were wing-root air intakes, and Rolls-Royce provided the engine in the shape of an Avon RA.14R with afterburner. Finally, the delta wings (named for the greek symbol [delta]) were crucial in helping the aircraft reach supersonic speeds.
Twiss piloted the maiden flight on 6 October 1954 and enjoyed a number of successful tests until a malfunction nearly brought the project to an early close.
On the 14th test flight, engine failure and a loss of pressure resulted in the Delta II crashing to the ground near Boscombe Down in Wiltshire.
Twiss, resolving to save his aircraft rather than ditching, managed a controlled crash-land, and he and his aircraft survived, with the Delta requiring 11 months of repairs before it could get airborne again.
For his heroism, Twiss was awarded The Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service.
After two years of test flights – and with the Rolls Royce engines powering the little Delta II through the sound barrier on less than full power – Twiss and the Fairey team were confident that they could reach the speed required to set the record and pass the 1,000 mph milestone.
Crucially, they had the support of the RAF to be able to sufficiently document the attempt using the radar stations located along England’s south coast.
On 10 March 1956, on the eighth attempt, Twiss succeeded in pushing the Delta II to speeds of 1,117 mph and 1,147 mph (1,797.6 km/h and 1,845.9 km/h) along a 14.5-km (9-mile) course between Chichester and Ford at an altitude of 38,000 ft (11,582 m).
The next morning, the RAF confirmed the average speed of 1,132 mph (1,821.7 km/h) as a new air-speed record, and Twiss was congratulated as the first pilot to fly faster than 1,000 mph.
The Brits held the record for just over a year before it was beaten on 12 December 1957 by a USAF McDonnell F-101A Voodoo that clocked at 1,207.6 mph (1,943.4 km/h). Bar a couple of brief periods when it was held by the Soviets (in 1959 and 1962–65), the record has remained the preserve of the USA ever since, roundly proving their superiority in the air.
Today, the official record stands at an incredible 2,193.2 mph (3,529.6 km/h) – almost twice as fast as Twiss – set by Captain Eldon W. Joersz and Major George T. Morgan in a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird back in July 1976.
Twiss went on to pursue a career in Fairey’s marine division, and even found himself in front of the cameras when he piloted a Fairey speedboat in the Sean Connery James Bond movie From Russia With Love.
He died on 31 August 2011 at the of 90 years. His legacy is a lasting one: not only did he hold the air-speed record and become the first pilot to fly faster than 1,000 mph, he was also the first human to ever fly faster than the Earth’s rotation: as he explained in his autobiography Faster Than The Sun, at his record-breaking speed, he outpace the sun as it crosses the sky.