AMATEUR TEST PILOT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 22, 27 January 1938, Page 22

AMATEUR TEST PILOT

A remarkable young man'who undertakes the 'hazardous duties of a military test pilot, not because of the pay and not because of the glory, but because of his great \ove of flying and his immense interest in aircraft development work, is James B. Taylor, jun., of U.S.A. His latest test work was putting through its paces an allmetal Seversky low-wing monoplane, developed -for the U.S. Navy as a singleseater .pursuit for service on board the aircraft carriers.. One of the series of tests is to dive from an altitude of "about 16.000 feet to about 8000 feet and in,pulling out to develop safely 7i times g, the acceleration due to gravity. That is to say, the strain on the aircraft mdst be seven and a half times its normal weight. Mr. Taylor has successfully completed these tests, and j newspaper reports state that a speed of 530 miles an hour was attained durI ing one of the dives; instead of the required 7h g, the load measured by the t accelerometer was actually 8£ g. It must be remembered that it, is not only the ship which v, subjected to this tremendous strain. The flesh-and-blood pilot is also subjected to the same dynamic forcei. ;