Letter: A winged horror that tainted the sky
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: I read with interest your tribute to Gwen Alston (27 July) and her work on the stability and control problems of aircraft. It brought to mind the anonymous Fleet Air Arm officer's poem on the Barracuda:
Why should the unoffending sky
Be tainted and corrupted by
This product of a twisted brain,
That's aeronautically insane,
This vile and hideous abortion,
Devoid of beauty and proportion,
That people call a Barracuda,
Whose form is infinitely cruder
Than any other scheme or plan
As yet conceived by mind of man.
To see it stagger into space
Would bring a blush upon the face
Of the most hardened Pharisee
Within the aircraft industry.
But I suggest we don't decry
This winged horror of the sky;
But keep it 'til the war is won,
And then we'll all join in the fun.
Festoon the wings with fairy lights
And wheel it out on gala nights,
Thus so we'll help dispel the rumour
That Britons have no sense of humour.
Presumably the discoveries made about the Barracuda's characteristics by Eric Brown and Gwen Alston caused modifications to be made, since the aircraft remained in service until 1953.
Yours sincerely,
R. P. BROOKES
Olney, Buckinghamshire
(Photograph omitted)
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