Miles Aerovan

M.57 Aerovan
Type:	Transport plane
Design country:	United Kingdom
Manufacturer:	Miles Aircraft
First flight:	January 26, 1945
Production time:	1946-1947
Number of pieces:	52

The Miles M.57 Aerovan was a twin-engine transport aircraft produced by the British manufacturer Miles Aircraft . It was used by commercial and military operators for cargo, passenger and sightseeing flights.

development and construction

The Miles M.57 Aerovan was a twin-engined shoulder wing plane made of plastic-coated plywood and metal parts. It had a fixed nose wheel landing gear and a triple tail , which is reminiscent of the tail of the Miles Messenger . The fuselage consisted of a nacelle and a tail boom with the tail unit. The two pilots sat under a large Perspex canopy that formed the entire upper half of the bow. Depending on the version, four or five windows on each side offered a view for the passengers. The Aerovan could carry cargo the size of a family car, which was loaded through half-shell doors at the rear. The prototype was designed and built at Miles Aircraft's Woodley , Berkshire factory and made its maiden flight with test pilot Tommy Rose at the controls on January 26, 1945.

The serial production of Aerovan began in 1946 mainly for the civilian market, although some specimens also briefly in the Israeli Air Force and the Royal New Zealand Air Force were used. Production stopped at the end of 1947. The design was licensed to a French company , but never built there. One machine of the Royal New Zealand Air Force was converted with little success for spraying fertilizer , a second for aeromagnetic measurements. An Aerovan 4 was equipped in 1957 with the designation HDM.105 for research purposes with strongly elongated wings by Hurel-Dubois. The prototype of the Aerovan was later equipped with replicas of the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba turboprop engine on a scale of 1: 1.2 under the designation Mark 1 and was used for the development of the Miles Marathon .

use

Most of the Aerovans 3 and 4 have been used by passenger, cargo and charter airlines in the United Kingdom and the Middle East . Meridian Air Maps, an aerial photography company in Shoreham , began using the Aerovan 4 with the registration G-AISF for aerial photography from October 1955. On April 29, 1957, the plane crashed shortly after taking off from Manchester Airport and was destroyed. Pilot Jean Bird and two passengers died in the accident .

The Royal New Zealand Air Force evaluated two Aerovan 4s during the 1950s.

The Israeli Air Force bought an Aerovan in June 1948. Since the machine could land on very short runways , it was used for flights between Jerusalem and various settlements. On 17 July 1948, the aircraft had near Tel Aviv emergency landing and was designed by Palestinians destroyed.

Versions

Prototype Aerovan 1 with four rectangular windows on each side

Aerovan 1: First prototype ; Code G-AGOZ; shorter hull with four rectangular windows on each side; driven by two piston engines Blackburn Cirrus Major III with 150 PS (110 kW)
Aerovan 2: Second prototype; Code G-AGWO; 410 lb (186 kg) lower curb weight and an 18 in (0.46 m) hull with five circular windows; modified trim of the outer rudder
Aerovan 3: Production model of the Aerovan 2; seven built copies were six in the UK and one in Belgium delivered
Aerovan 4: Aerovan 3 with small improvements and four round windows on each side; 43 copies built (including one originally built as the Aerovan 3); 40 of these were registered in the UK, two later converted to an Aerovan 5 and one to the HDM.105; A machine has been in Iraq , two machines to the Royal New Zealand Air Force delivered
Aerovan 5: Powered by two de Havilland Gipsy Major 10s with 145 HP (107 kW) each; one copy built
Aerovan 6: Powered by two Avco Lycoming O-435-A ; a copy with outer rudders a scrapped Miles Boxcar built
Hurel-Dubois Miles HDM.105: Joint project between Miles Aircraft and the Société de construction des avions Hurel-Dubois ; High aspect ratio wings of 20.5 and a wingspan of 75 ft (22.86 m), almost the same wing area as the previous models; First flight on March 31, 1957; damaged in June 1958 and finally dismantled; another HDM.106 with Lycoming engines was planned, but was never built

operator

Civil operator

from: AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft 1919–1959, vol 2 . Putnam & Company Ltd, London 1960 (English).

Angola Angola
Belgium Belgium

Belgian Air Service

France France

Compagnie General de TSF

Iraq Iraq
Italy Italy

Societe Transporti Aerei Mediterranei

Kenya Kenya

Airwork

Netherlands Netherlands
New Zealand New Zealand
Spain Spain

Switzerland Switzerland
Turkey Turkey

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Military operator

Israel Israel

Israeli Air Force

New Zealand New Zealand

Royal New Zealand Air Force

Technical specifications

Parameter	Data
crew	2
Passengers	10
length	36 ft (10.97 m )
span	50 ft (15.2 m)
height	13.5 ft (4.11 m)
Wing area	390 ft² (36.2 m² )
Empty mass	3,000 lb (1,361 kg )
Max. Takeoff mass	5,800 lb (2,631 kg)
Cruising speed	97 kn (180 km / h )
Top speed	110 kn (204 km / h)
Service ceiling	13,250 ft (4,039 m)
Range	350 NM (648 km )
Engines	2 × four-cylinder in-line engines Blackburn Cirrus Major IIA with 150 PS (110 kW )

literature

Peter Amos, Don Lambert Brown: Miles Aircraft Since 1925, Volume 1 . Putnam Aeronautical, London 2000, ISBN 0-85177-787-2 (English).
CH Barnes, Derek N. James: Shorts Aircraft since 1900 . Putnam, London 1989, ISBN 0-85177-819-4 (English).
Don Lambert Brown: Miles Aircraft Since 1925 . Putnam & Company Ltd, London 1970, ISBN 0-370-00127-3 (English).
AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft 1919–1959, vol 2 . Putnam & Company Ltd, London 1960 (English).
Jane's all the world's aircraft 1956-57 . Jane's Publishing Co. Ltd, London (English).
AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X (English).
Miles Aerovan (M.57) . In: Flight International . Reed Business Information , July 7, 1945, ISSN 0015-3710 , p. 604–605 (English, archive.org ).
HDM105 - Hurel's Aero with Miles' Van . In: Flight International . Reed Business Information , April 19, 1957, ISSN 0015-3710 , p. 504–505,524 (English, archive.org ).

Web links

Commons : Miles Aerovan - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft 1919-1959, vol 2 . Putnam & Company Ltd, London 1960, p. 168–1972 (English).
^ AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 79 (English).
↑ Meridian Airmaps Ltd Aerial Photography. National Collection of Aerial Photography , accessed April 1, 2020 .
^ AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 499 (English).
↑ Jean Lennox Bird . In: Flight International . Reed Business Information , 1957, ISSN 0015-3710 , p. 566 (English, archive.org [PDF]).
↑ Amos Dor: Short-Lived 'Duck' . In: Air Enthusiast . No. 109 . Key Publishing, January 2004, ISSN 0143-5450 , p. 26-28 (English).
^ ^A ^b A. J. Jackson: British Civil Aircraft 1919-1959, vol 2 . Putnam & Company Ltd, London 1960, p. 551 (English).
^ AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 82 (English).
^ AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 501 (English).
↑ Jane's all the world's aircraft 1956-57 . Jane's Publishing Co. Ltd, London, p. 87 (English).
^ British Aircraft 1957: FG Miles . In: Flight International . Reed Business Information , August 30, 1957, ISSN 0015-3710 , p. 316 (English, archive.org ).

[1] AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft 1919-1959, vol 2 . Putnam & Company Ltd, London 1960, p. 168–1972 (English).

[2] AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 79 (English).

[3] Meridian Airmaps Ltd Aerial Photography. National Collection of Aerial Photography , accessed April 1, 2020 .

[4] AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 499 (English).

[5] Jean Lennox Bird . In: Flight International . Reed Business Information , 1957, ISSN 0015-3710 , p. 566 (English, archive.org [PDF]).

[Dor-6] Amos Dor: Short-Lived 'Duck' . In: Air Enthusiast . No. 109 . Key Publishing, January 2004, ISSN 0143-5450 , p. 26-28 (English).

[AJJ-7] A ^b A. J. Jackson: British Civil Aircraft 1919-1959, vol 2 . Putnam & Company Ltd, London 1960, p. 551 (English).

[8] AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 82 (English).

[9] AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919 Volume 3 . Putnam, London 1974, ISBN 0-370-10014-X , pp. 501 (English).

[10] Jane's all the world's aircraft 1956-57 . Jane's Publishing Co. Ltd, London, p. 87 (English).

[11] British Aircraft 1957: FG Miles . In: Flight International . Reed Business Information , August 30, 1957, ISSN 0015-3710 , p. 316 (English, archive.org ).