Miles Falcon

M.3 Falcon
Type:	Small plane
Design country:	United Kingdom
Manufacturer:	Miles Aircraft
First flight:	October 12, 1934
Number of pieces:	36

The Miles M.3 Falcon is a small aircraft made by the British manufacturer Miles Aircraft in the 1930s.

development and construction

The M.3 Falcon is a single - engine low - wing aircraft with a tail wheel landing gear and a disguised main landing gear . It was designed in 1934. Structurally, it is similar to the earlier Miles Hawk Major , but has side-by-side rear seats for two passengers and a glazed cockpit. The machine is powered by a de Havilland Gipsy Major with a nominal output of 130 PS (96 kW ). The prototype built by Philips and Powis with the registration G-ACTM completed its maiden flight on October 12, 1934.

The first machine from series production flew in January 1935. To improve passenger comfort, it had a wider fuselage than the prototype. Since the M.3A was slightly underpowered, later versions were equipped with a de Havilland Gipsy Six with 200 PS (147 kW).

The larger, five-seat M.4 Merlin was developed from the M.3 .

use

Miles M.3D Falcon Six G-ADTD in May 1955

Equipped with additional tanks, the prototype started in October 1934 in the MacRobertson air race from England to Australia . It took him 27 days to reach Darwin . However, the machine made the return trip in the record time of seven days, nineteen hours and fifteen minutes. She flew 1,800 mi (2,897 km) non-stop from Jodhpur to Basra .

Twenty-nine M.3A and M.3B were shipped to private owners, associations and commercial operators in the UK and abroad in 1935 and 1936.

In 1935, Royal Air Force officer Tommy Rose won the King's Cup Race with an M.3B at an average speed of 176.28 mph (283.7 km / h ). The following year Rose cut the record flight time from the United Kingdom to the Cape of Good Hope on the same machine to three days, seventeen hours and thirty-eight minutes.

Before World War II , the Royal Air Force used three machines to test various wings and other aerodynamic developments. When the war broke out, three aircraft remained in civil service as liaison aircraft . However, ten more were drafted from the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy , Royal Australian Air Force and the Swedish Air Force . Six machines survived the war.

Versions

M.3: three-seater prototype powered by a de Havilland Gipsy Major with a rated output of 130 hp (96 kW ); one copy built
M.3A Falcon Major: four-seater production version; eighteen copies built
M.3B Falcon Six: three-seater version powered by a de Havilland Gipsy Six with 200 hp (147 kW); thirteen copies built
M.3C Falcon Six: four-seat version of the M.3B with double control; one copy built
M.3D: reinforced version of the M3.C; three copies built (one of which was later converted into an M.3B)
M.3E: Trial version; one copy built but not registered
M.3F: modified M.3B

operator

Australia Australia

Royal Australian Air Force , three copies

South Africa South Africa

South African Air Force

Sweden Sweden

Flygvapnet , one specimen

United Kingdom United Kingdom

Royal Aircraft Establishment , three copies
Royal Air Force , five copies
Royal Navy , one copy

Spain Spain

Fuerzas Aéreas de la República Española

Preserved copies

Today there are still three airworthy specimens. One is in Madrid . Another is registered in Australia . The third specimens is part of the Shuttleworth Collection in Old Warden in the UK .

Technical data (M.3A)

Three-sided view

Parameter	Data
crew	1
Passengers	2
length	25 ft (7.62 m )
span	35 ft (10.67 m)
height	6.5 ft (1.98 m)
Wing area	174.3 ft² (16.19 m² )
Empty mass	1,300 lb (590 kg )
Max. Takeoff mass	2,200 lb (998 kg)
Cruising speed	125 mph (201 km / h )
Top speed	145 mph (233 km / h)
Service ceiling	15,000 ft (4,572 m)
Range	615 mi (990 km )
Engines	1 × de Havilland Gipsy Major with 130 PS (96 kW )

literature

Peter Amos: Miles Aircraft - The Early Years - The Story of FG Miles and his Airplanes, 1925-1939 . Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd, Tonbridge, UK 2009, ISBN 978-0-85130-410-6 (English).
Don Lambert Brown: Miles Aircraft Since 1925 . Putnam & Company Ltd., London 1970, ISBN 0-370-00127-3 (English).
Peter Cooper: Farnborough: 100 years of British aviation . Midland, Hinkley 2006, ISBN 1-85780-239-X (English).
AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919, Volume 3 . Putnam & Company Ltd., London 1988, ISBN 0-85177-818-6 (English).
David Mondey: The Hamlyn Concise guide to British Aircraft of World War II . Chancellor press, London 2002, ISBN 1-85152-668-4 (English).

Web links

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

Individual evidence

^ AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919, Volume 3 . Putnam & Company Ltd., London 1988, ISBN 0-85177-818-6 , pp. 147-150 (English).
^ D. Jones: The Time Shrinkers: the Development of Civil Aviation between Britain and Africa . Rendel, 1971, p. 175-178 (English).
↑ Vintage car portrait: Miles Falcon Major M.3A. flieger Magazin, June 1, 2016, accessed April 10, 2020 .

[1] AJ Jackson: British Civil Aircraft since 1919, Volume 3 . Putnam & Company Ltd., London 1988, ISBN 0-85177-818-6 , pp. 147-150 (English).

[2] D. Jones: The Time Shrinkers: the Development of Civil Aviation between Britain and Africa . Rendel, 1971, p. 175-178 (English).

[3] Vintage car portrait: Miles Falcon Major M.3A. flieger Magazin, June 1, 2016, accessed April 10, 2020 .