Miles Magister

Description
The Miles Magister, known to numerous trainee RAF pilots as the ‘Maggie’, was a product of the prolific design team led by George Miles‘ A contemporary of the Tiger Moth, it was the RAF’s first monoplane trainer, but reversed the trend to metal construction by being all wood. It was faster than its biplane counterpart, but had a lower landing speed.

The Magister stemmed from the well-established M2 Hawk series, the prototype of which (G-ACGH) had made its first ﬂight on 29 March 1933 powered by a 95 hp Cirrus lll engine, and this was an instant success. The design was steadily developed, and a 130 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major engine was fitted in 1934 to produce the Hawk Major, which attracted sufficient interest from the Air Ministry for a special machine (K8626) to be ordered in l936 for evaluation at Farnborough. Another improved variant fitted with dual controls, full blind ﬂying equipment and vacuum operated ﬂaps was designated the Hawk Trainer. This formed the main equipment of No 7 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School at Woodley, which opened in November l936 and was operated by Phillips and Powis Ltd, the builders of Miles aircraft.

All these machines were given manufacturers type numbers in the M2 series, the first four Hawk Trainers being designated M2W. The next nine machines were M.2Xs with a horn-balanced rudder of greater area, and the final twelve were M.2Ys with internal modifications The type number M.l4 was given, however, to the next development, designed to Specification T40/36, which called for a low-wing monoplane elementary trainer to meet the need for instruction in this type of aircraft by pilots who would shortly be ﬂying the new monoplane fighters and bombers being built under the expansion scheme. Civil machines reﬂected their origin by being known as Hawk Trainer Ills, but the M14A military version. which was essentially identical, was named the Magister.

ln view of its already proven qualities, and successful completion of trials, no prototype was sought, and the design was ordered straight from the drawing board, an initial contract being placed for 90 aircraft. The main visible differences from the Hawk Major were larger cockpits equipped with blind ﬂying equipment, and a spatted undercarriage. The first machine (D5912) was sent to Martlesham Heath on 14 June l937 for testing, and trials were well advanced when it unfortunately crashed on 22 July. Despite this, the subsequent official report was generally favourable, though it made quite a number of comments. The machine was reported to be stable at all speeds except at the stall, which arose quickly and with a slight tendency to vibration and a swing to the right. For most conditions it would ﬂy straight with the feet off the rudder bar, and such slight swing as might develop was easily counteracted. ln any event, it was thought that if rudder bias was fitted it would ﬂy straight with feet off under all conditions.

The cockpits, which were connected with the usual Gosport tube with its faint smell of rubber, were ungenerous in size, though they offered no problems to the average or small pilot. A large pilot, however, would only just be able to achieve full aileron control if he sat in the rear cockpit, which was rather smaller than the contemporary Tiger Moth. and much smaller than the Avro Cadet being used by some of the pre-war Reserve Schools‘ If he sat in the front cockpit. his knees would foul the control column.

Aileron control was generally responsive and effective‘ except at the stall, when aileron drag would induce a spin but it was suggested that this could be cured by increasing the differential action of the ailerons. The feel of the controls was not very good if a side slip was attempted while coming in to land with the flaps down‘ The aircraft tended to swing against full rudder into the direction of the side~slip and the nose would drop‘ the rudder being insufficiently powerful to counteract this. Lowering the flaps made the aircraft nose heavy, and adversely affected manoeuvrability. The aircraft was lost when it crashed into the River Deben, near Felixstowe, and was considered to have been unable to recover from a spin.

The accident to the test machine was not the only one, and the Magister began to earn the unwanted name of ‘The Yellow Peril’ in the press as further accidents occurred. The company was mystified as they had experienced no similar problems with either the Magister or the Hawk Trainer. Finally, wind-tunnel tests at Farnborough identified the cause of the problem as being the enlarged cockpit openings fitted to the Magister, which tended to interfere with the airﬂow across the tail surfaces.

The lessons learned were applied to early production machines‘ and spinning trials were able to continue at Martlesham between 26 August and 2 October, using LS933, the twenty-second production aircraft. This had the tailplane raised six inches, ﬂat top decking to the rear fuselage, flat fillets fitted at the rear end of the fuselage to merge into the leading edge of the tailplane, and a tail parachute anchored at the fin root, To the relief of the manufacturers, the combined effect of these modifications proved totally effective in curing the earlier problems, and the Magister went on to equip a number of the wartime Elementary Flying Training Schools,

While L5933 was at Martlesham Heath it was also tested for ease of maintenance, ln general it was found to be satisfactory, though there was some criticism of the control cable, which would be time-consuming to repair as it was necessary to make splices in situ. There was also poor access to the countershaft in the rear fuselage, and it was recommended that improvements be made to the elevator controls.

Experience in the schools led to further modifications to later machines, The effect of rough treatment on the solid~rubber tailwheel was too great in its original position, mounted on the fuselage sternpost. To overcome this, a stout ply bulkhead was fitted some inches further forward, to which the tailwheel was then fitted, and this in turn was later replaced by a pneumatic Dunlop type, The rather flimsy engine cowling also gave trouble, and the original two-piece version, hinged at the centreetop, gave way to a more rigid three-piece type. A larger curved windscreen also replaced the small angular one in the rear cockpit. Once these difficulties had been overcome, production steadily increased, reaching a peak of l5 machines each week by 1941. The company was also busy with Master orders by this time, however, so much of the work was sub-contracted, final assembly and test flying being at Woodley. They became standard ab initio training equipment at a number of the pre~war civilian operated Elementary and Reserve Flying Training Schools, and subsequently with several wartime Elementary Flying Training Schools. the word ‘Reserve having been dropped on mobilisation. Numbers also served with the Central Flying School at Upavon. Many were used for communications, and they served in every RAF Command. both at home and overseas. A few machines of 8 EFTS were even fitted with bomb racks in June 1940. these ‘Maggiebombers’ carrying eight 25 lb bombs in underwing racks. dropped by pulling on a cockpit handle connected by Bowden cables to quick release pins.

The Magister had an unremarkable career in the elementary schools. Pupils flying one for the first time would be told by their instructor to start with a gentle take-off, then climb slowly at about 5mph above the recommended speed. Once they had reached 3.000 feet or more they would be told to level off. by then having sufficient altitude to be able to recover from any manoeuvres they might attempt. When the time came for landing, they were to approach downwind, close the throttle, then readjust the trim and hold the speed at 65 mph. Checking round to ensure no other aircraft was approaching, the speed was increased to 70 mph, then a gliding turn brought the machine into wind. The ﬂaps were then lowered for the final approach to the grass-covered airfield.

After the war, many surviving Magisters were sold, and in civilian guise as Hawk Trainer IIIs. were a familiar sight for many years.

Other info

 * Take-off run: 630 ft (192 m) in 5 mph (4.3 kn; 8.0 km/h) wind
 * Take-off distance to 50 ft (15 m): 1,200 ft (366 m) in 5 mph (4.3 kn; 8.0 km/h) wind
 * Landing run: 420 ft (128 m) in 5 mph (4.3 kn; 8.0 km/h) wind
 * Landing distance from 50 ft (15 m): 975 ft (297 m) in 5 mph (4.3 kn; 8.0 km/h) wind