This Week’s Hints to help you along:
- A relatively obscure flying wing that was jet-powered and quite fast.
- Construction of the wings in two pieces, upper and lower sides!
- That canopy looks similar to that of the little known Saab 18
- The tail design seems right for something from Scandinavia, but is it?
- Strange tandem seating for a crew of two, yet with the cockpit offset slightly to the side.
- Resulted in another rather dubious record first!
So do you know what this aircraft is and what was the record first “achieved”?
It’s definitely British! That is an Armstrong Whitworth AW.52.
Correct! Once again, a solid answer from Nico Braas out of the Netherlands. We may have to make these harder….
I believe the record which the AW52 achieved, or rather it’s pilot achieved, was the first ejection due to an actual emergency of a British pilot, which happened in 1949 via a Martin Baker Mk.1 ejection seat.