This aircraft flew into high ground on Whorlton Moor on the 27th of August 1955> It had taken off only 10 minutes previously from Church Fenton at 15.45 hrs for the pilot to undertake an airtest. The pilot was killed in the crash. He was identified by a watch found at the scene engraved with his name. Helicopters of 275 Sqdn based at Thornaby were prevented from searching the day of the crash due to low cloud but the following day a party on foot located the site. Wreckage was scattered over a wide area. The aircraft was identified by a broken wing and the ejection seat, both of which had the aircrafts serial number printed on them.
The aircraft was built to contract 6/ACFT/5621 by the Gloster Aircraft Co. Ltd and delivered to the RAF on 3rd September 1951. After acceptance it was issued to 19 Sqdn at Church Fenton on an as yet unspecified date. For a period the aircraft was transferered to DFLS (Day Fighter Leaders School) at West Raynham before returning to 19 Sqdn back at Church Fenton. It was written off in the incident detailed above sustaining Cat. 5(s)/FA damage.
Pilot - F/O Peter Charles Kenrick RAF (2224186), aged 28, of Mansfield, Notts. Buried Kirkby Wharfe Cemetery, Yorkshire (sect 2, row A, grave 2).
F/O Kenrick's headstone at Kirkby Wharfe Cemetery. He was born on 2nd November 1926 in Mansfield.
John Skinn and myself hunted for the remains of this aircraft in March 2003, after an extensive search we only found what we thought to be a pressure switch on a small area of dead ground.
Some sort of pressure switch.
I returned to the area in October 2004 and carried out another search in a different area, this search yielded more results than the first. Of the interesting finds was the aircraft's Mach dial.
The Mach dial found at the site.
The AA shell nearby was also of interest.