AIR HORSE CRASHES AT WESTEND….1950

On the morning of  Tuesday June 13th 1950, a strange new machine appeared in the skies over West End; the Cierva Air Horse, a pioneer form of heavy lift helicopter, the early equivalent of today's Chinook, was on a test flight from Eastleigh. At 11.28am disaster struck, it appeared that one of the wooden rotors broke and within seconds the aircraft plummeted to the ground, exploding on impact at Pragnell's Farm in West End and killing all three crew members.   

THE CIERVA AIR HORSE HELICOPTER IN FLIGHT

Only two of these unusual aircraft had been built as prototypes and these unusual aircraft had beenafter the crash the other was put into mothballs and eventually broken up. The helicopter was unusual in that it had THREE rotors for lift all driven from one Rolls Royce motor through a complex system of gears and drives. One rotor was at the front whilst there was one on either side of the fuselage on outriggers amidships forming a triangle. The prototype Cierva W.11 "Air Horse" made its maiden flight in December 1948 and was displayed at the Farnborough Air Show; designed and built for the Ministry of Supply, it could carry 24 passengers or the equivalent in freight. It was at that time the world's largest and heaviest helicopter.
The crew on that fateful day consisted of  Squadron Leader Alan Marsh, A.F.C., Cierva's Manager and chief test pilot, Squadron Leader F.J. ("Jeep") Cable, A.F.C., Chief  Rotary Wing Test Pilot for the Ministry of Supply at the R.A.F. Station , Beaulieu and Mr Henry "Joe" Unsworth, Cierva's flight engineer. Four M.C.A. fire appliances raced to the scene of the crash from Eastleigh (Southampton) airport, also on the scene were Hampshire Fire Service units from Westend (now the WELHS Museum) and Eastleigh and ambulances from Southampton, but all three of the crew were dead, two of whom were thrown from the aircraft on impact. We have more details of this incident in the Museum archives including copies of the report which appeared in the Southern Daily Echo newspaper of June 13th 1950. If any of our readers witnessed this crash please contact us and let us have a copy of your account for our archives.