Interview with Gabriel Robb Bryce and Jeffrey Nicolas Montgomery

British civilian test pilot and flight test observer with Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and British Air Corporation, GB, 1948-1965

REEL 1 Bryce: Recollections of period as civilian test pilot with Vickers-Arrmstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd in GB, 1960: preparations for test flying Vickers VC10; importance of writing check lists for aircraft; need to make actuator movements during flights; tailplane on Vickers VC10. Montgomery: Recollections of period as civilian flight test observer with Vickers-Arrmstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd in GB, 1960: changes in understanding of how aircraft operate. Bryce: question of what it was like to fly a new aircraft; Montgomery: reasons for longevity of Vickers VC10 in civil and Royal Air Force service. Bryce: advantages of location of engines on Vickers VC10; shape of the wing; test stalling of Vickers Viscount. Montgomery: introduction of stall warnings to Vickers-Armstrongs aircraft. Bryce: question of crash of Vickers VC10 in Nigeria, 20/11/1969. Montgomery: question of being warned off investigation of Vickers VC10 crash in United States of America. REEL 2 Continues: Bryce: question of complacency on flight deck of Vickers VC10. Montgomery: question of flying in an out of Brooklands Airfield. Bryce: flying into Brooklands Airfield: Montgomery and Bryce: taking off from Brooklands Airfield; first flight of Vickers VC10 into Brooklands Airfield. Bryce: work with community over first flight; preparations for flying Vickers VC10 out of Brooklands Airfield; first flight out of Brooklands Airfield in Vickers VC10; Sir George Edwards parting remarks prior to flight; company investment in the Vickers VC10. REEL 3 Continues: Montgomery: question of advanced design of Vickers VC10; background to development of BAC 111. Bryce: discussions of personalities; relations between Vickers-Armstrongs and Supermarine; problems with Supermarine Swift development; problems with Supermarine Scimitar; friction on merging of flight test departments of Vickers-Armstrongs and Supermarine; story of Supermarine test pilot Gordon 'Chunky' Horne ejecting from Supermarine Swift, 26/6/1956. Montgomery: move of Supermarine design team to Weybridge. Bryce: Mike Lithgow's skills as test pilot; memories of Mike Lithgow; loss of Mike Lithgow in prototype BAC 111, 22/10/1963; location of escape hatch in BAC 111; memories of Dicky Reimer and Dennis Hayley Bell. REEL 4 Continues: amusing story of Dennis Hayley Bell attending press conference at Mohawk Airlines; Dennis Hayley Bell's method of training pilots. Montgomery and Bryce: improvements in test piloting during 1960s; question of engineering skills of test pilots and their contribution to design process; opinion of Roland Falk's test pilot skills. question of liaison between test pilots and designers. Montgomery: story illustrating designers and test pilot relations pre-1960s. Bryce: Joseph 'Mutt' Summers relations with Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down; flying circuit at Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down. Montgomery: operational testing. Bryce and Montgomery: question of Joseph 'Mutt' Summer's attitude to Empire Test School pilots. Montgomery: gradual integration of test pilots into design team. Bryce: attitude of post-war test pilots. Montgomery: question of relations between test pilots and the design office. REEL 5 Continues: question of military ignoring aircraft limitations during wartime. Montgomery: degree to which military calculate risk of aircraft limitations during wartime. Bryce: Vickers-Armstrongs' encouragement of design office staff to fly. Montgomery: need for liaison between design office and factory staff. Bryce: amusing story of test pilot encounter with villagers. Montgomery: father's involvement in aviation industry; second hand story of Sir Thomas Sopwith's pet bear; activities of Vickers engineers in Royal Flying Corps during 1917; father's role in assembling Alcock and Brown's Vickers Vimy for record breaking flight from Newfoundland to Ireland; mother's selling of airmail letter from Alcock and Brown's first flight; souvenirs made from damaged parts of Vickers Vimy; Sunday morning activities at Brooklands pre-1939; first flight at Brooklands; father's involvement in long distance Vickers Wellesley flight, 11/1938; father's search for shadow factory sites. REEL 6 Continues: family move to shadow factory site at Chester, 1939; production rate achieved by his father at Chester factory prior to death in 1941; pattern of career.