• Chitchat

  • contact owner of Miles Messenger G-AJEY

I was a passenger in this aircraft when, in 1947 flying over France, the engine fell out. Would love to hear where aircraft is now, and share photos & story etc.

Not much info available..

http://crimso.msk.ru/Site/Crafts/Craft28100.htm

--from a 2005 forum posting (cached)---

Wingspan aircraft Messenger VIP-version was 11.02 m, maximum speed of 187 km / h, range 418 km. This G-AJEY crashed in France in June 1947.

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*Back in 1947, the Boulton Paul test pilot R. Lindsay Neale borrowed

a Miles Messenger, G-AJEY, from Miles to take his wife, two children

and sister-in-law on holiday to France. After a sudden bang the

aircraft reared up into a steep climb, which Neale just held with the

stick fully forward. He shouted to his family to pile into the front

seat and managed to glide down and land in a French field. One blade

of the prop had cracked and the

engine, cowling and mounting had been whipped out completely, but

there was very little other damage to the airframe.

The wreck had to be returned to the UK to avoid French import duty

Smile

Vic Smith

E-mail to mailto-en@ (use rest of address in From line)

Civil Aviation History Web Site now at

http://users.argonet.co.uk/users/vicsmith/ *

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John