“VERY NEARLY A
GOOD AEROPLANE.. .”
... was how Westland test pilot Harald Penrose described the company’s Wyvern naval
strike aircraft, initially fitted with the Rolls-Royce Eagle engine. Naval aviation specialist
MATTHEW WILLIS takes us through an engine ground-run of the second prototype with
a series of previously unpublished photographs taken at RNAS Merryfield in late 1947
Testing the Westland Wyvern at
RNAS Merryfield, 1947
The second Westland Wyvern prototype, TS375,
has its Rolls-Royce Eagle sleeve-valve engine
run up at RNAS Merryfield, a satellite of RNAS
Yeovilton, around the time of its first flight in
September 1947. The noise from the massive
powerplant and its eight-bladed contra-rotating
propeller must have been deafening, and at
least two of the bystanders are, quite sensibly,
covering their ears!