JOHAN VISSCHEDIJK COLLECTION
No. 9019. Beardmore Inflexible (J7557) Royal Air Force
Photograph from MAP, taken at Hendon, 1928

Beardmore Inflexible

06/30/2009. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "Ordered by the Air Ministry, this aircraft was designed by Dr.Ing. Adolf Rohrbach of the Rohrbach Metall-Flugzeugbau GmbH, Berlin, Germany, as the Rohrbach Ro VI. The Air Ministry registered it on December 29, 1925 as G-EBNG, however, on July 12, 1927, the registration was cancelled, and the military serial J7557 was allotted.

The William Beardmore and Company at Dalmuir, near Glasgow, Scotland, license holder of Rohrbach and its innovative stressed-skin metal construction method, produced the aircraft. The largest British-built landplane before WW II had a span of 157 ft 6 in (48 m) and a maximum take off weight of 37,000 lb (16,783 kg).

The aircraft was transported by road to Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, where it was flown by Squadron Leader Jack 'Oogy' Noakes on March, 5, 1928. Powered by three 650 hp Rolls-Royce Condor II twelve-cylinder liquid-cooled V-engines, the aircraft demonstrated during testing a take off run of less than 100 yards (91 m) from the grass runway. The aircraft was broken up in 1930."


Created June 30, 2009