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Small-Brown-Dog In reply to Small-Brown-Dog [2019-09-03 16:12:06 +0000 UTC]

There is something wonderful about those pre war designs.

Talking about the war, I have a bit of a thing about how the M20 may have been developed.

Imagine a thinner wing and retractable undercarriage. The bubble canopy was very forward thinking but then innovation was part of the Miles animal.

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Daniel-Wales-Images In reply to Small-Brown-Dog [2019-09-03 16:00:32 +0000 UTC]

I have always found it very strange that Miles Aircraft have never really received the recognition they deserved in terms of their place in aviation history. Ask the average man on the street, and sure they'll have probably heard of de Havilland, Hawker and maybe Avro etc. But I very much doubt they'd name Miles as being that significant. But personally I have always thought that Miles were highly significant, and were quietly in the background, revolutionising the civil aviation market. Hell, the likes of de Havilland, Hawker, Bristol, Gloster etc were still building biplanes while Miles were producing their quite excellent series of monoplane aircraft. Beautiful and practical machines, each and every one of them. In fact in my opinion, some of their designs are among the most beautiful to ever take to the skies. Just look at the wonderful Hawk Trainer I and Falcon Major for example.

On a related note, the man who owns this wonderful Gemini, has very recently acquired another of Miles' wonderful machines, in the form of a Miles Mercury. Hopefully we shall see her at Old Warden at some point in the near future.

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