Gloster F9/37 at exeter with GRU.

[brewerjerry]

Originally Posted by niallc

..... GRU was after all A Flight of A&AEE's armament testing squadron under another name....... Niall

Hi Niall,
Interesting, I never actually associated the link before................dooh..............

I now wonder if that would explain a whirlwind at exeter before 263sqn arrived, I was told once that there was one there during the battle of britain.

I always assumed it was just a visitor from westlands, But I suppose it could have been either L6844 or L6845, on cannon trials, with the GRU.

or maybe even comparism flights with the F9/37 ?

Cheers
Jerry

[niallc]

Originally Posted by brewerjerry

I now wonder if that would explain a whirlwind at exeter before 263sqn arrived, I was told once that there was one there during the battle of britain.

Hi Jerry
It wouldn’t surprise me at all. A&AEE seem to have a lot (most?) of their air firing at stations other than Boscombe Down or over the sea. For example, for the first air firing trials of the Whirlwind Isherwood took L6845 to Warmwell in late September 1939.
If a Whirlwind was at Exeter during the Battle of Britain period, the only candidate is the first prototype which was subject to air firing tests with the single Hydran worm-drive feed (but not the full set of 4) in July, and with the Chatellerault belt feed in September/October. Who knows? Some of that testing could have been done at GRU.
Niall

[brewerjerry]

Hi Niall,
thanks for the reply & comments, and my apologies for my bad spelling !!
Cheers
Jerry