Peter Twiss - RIP

[Huntsman]

Peter Twiss, WWII pilot, first man to fly a plane at over 1000 mph, salesman and racer of Fairey Marine Powerboats in the 1960's has passed away aged 90.

[Eric Mc]

Sad to hear. Probably the last of the great 1950s British Test pilots.

[Waynester]

Time catches us all eventually - sad news

RIP

[jonny142]

Very sad news, I've just google'd his name as i'd never heard of him to be honest ...But what a career he had ..love the Green house owners trying to suing him for £16.000 ..link below,half way down the page.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/south/series9/week_...

[Eric Mc]

People like Peter Twiss and Neville Duke were as famous in the 1950s as rubbish celebrities are today. Read "Empire of the Clouds" to find out a bit more about them and their exploits.

[perdu]

Very deep respect to yet another passed on hero of my generation

Hell of a guy who leaves this earth much poorer

R I P

[Huntsman]

Eric Mc said:

People like Peter Twiss and Neville Duke were as famous in the 1950s as rubbish celebrities are today. Read "Empire of the Clouds" to find out a bit more about them and their exploits.

Funnily enough Eric I read that book very recently, my interest is that I own one of the Powerboats that Peter raced, pictured in his book Faster than the Sun.

[Dr G]

Huntsman said:

Funnily enough Eric I read that book very recently, my interest is that I own one of the Powerboats that Peter raced, pictured in his book Faster than the Sun.

You'd best get some pictures up then

FD2 is a really lovely looking piece of kit:

[Eric Mc]

It's a real pity it wasn't developed into a proper combat aircraft. Dassault were amazed that Fairey went no further with the basic design.

The only development of the FD2 was the conversion of one of the two aitrcraft built into the BAC 221 for testing the ogival wing shape planned for Concorde.

[heisthegaffer]

Eric Mc said:

It's a real pity it wasn't developed into a proper combat aircraft. Dassault were amazed that Fairey went no further with the basic design.

The only development of the FD2 was the conversion of one of the two aitrcraft built into the BAC 221 for testing the ogival wing shape planned for Concorde.

Would it have been good then? Why would it have been good? What type of combat? An intercepter I guessing? Would it have been better that the Lightning? It looks a bit bigger?

It is beautiful.

[Eric Mc]

No, it was smaller. But the whole delta wing fighter concept was being investigated very seriously in other countries. The US built both the F-102 and F-106 and the French built the Mirage III.

Britain's only delta wing fighter was the Javelin - which seemed to be built so as to deliberately fail to capitalise on the high speed advantges of the delta design (precisely the reason why everybody else was studying the delta shape).

[perdu]

Eric Mc said:

No, it was smaller. But the whole delta wing fighter concept was being investigated very seriously in other countries. The US built both the F-102 and F-106 and the French built the Mirage III.

Britain's only delta wing fighter was the Javelin - which seemed to be built so as to deliberately fail to capitalise on the high speed advantges of the delta design (precisely the reason why everybody else was studying the delta shape).

LOL Eric

Much as I loved all those post war British jets with a passion I am certain that the Javelin was the result of someone's dream at Glosters that you could make even a brick wall aerodynamic if you threw enough power and cash at it.

[Eric Mc]

Of course, another one of the great advantages of the delta planform was that you didn't need a tailplane - and therefore could save weight.

Guess what Gloster did?

[Andy Zarse]

Just seen this thread. Peter Twiss was a very old friend of my stepfather, who worked on marine projects with Twiss on the Hamble.

My folks live abroad and don't get to see the UK news. My mother has just gome to break the news to the old boy...

[Mojocvh]

I want to know how they got the noseleg retracted without the pilot getting it in the jacksie!

Seriously, a scary looking aircraft.

[Eric Mc]

Not exactly sure but the nose gear leg might have been partially telescopic.

[Ayahuasca]

heisthegaffer said:

Eric Mc said:

It's a real pity it wasn't developed into a proper combat aircraft. Dassault were amazed that Fairey went no further with the basic design.

The only development of the FD2 was the conversion of one of the two aitrcraft built into the BAC 221 for testing the ogival wing shape planned for Concorde.

Would it have been good then? Why would it have been good? What type of combat? An intercepter I guessing? Would it have been better that the Lightning? It looks a bit bigger?

It is beautiful.

You can go and see it for real at RAF Cosford. It is teeny-weeny in real life. IIRC it was an out-and-out research aircraft; it would have required complete redesigning to carry enough fuel, weapons, avionics to becomea warplane, and also I believe the pilot's visibility was not great.

[Huntsman]

Andy Zarse said:

Just seen this thread. Peter Twiss was a very old friend of my stepfather, who worked on marine projects with Twiss on the Hamble.

What did your stepfather do at Fairey? He might have built my boat, a '67 Huntsman 28.

[ClaphamGT3]

Married 5 times by all accounts so obviously no slouch at the old indoor sport either...

[Andy Zarse]

Huntsman said:

Andy Zarse said:

Just seen this thread. Peter Twiss was a very old friend of my stepfather, who worked on marine projects with Twiss on the Hamble.

What did your stepfather do at Fairey? He might have built my boat, a '67 Huntsman 28.

My stepfather wasn't at Fairey, they were together at Hamble Point. When I next see him at his 90th birthday I'll ask him about Twiss, I'm sure he knows lots of stuff about Fairy Marine. He also used to race against Twiss in powerboats back in the sixties, last time I saw him in Febuary he showed me some old newspaper cuttings, something to do with the Daily Express IIRC?

You own a beautiful boat by the way