Summary: This entertaining lecture on the enterprising Miles Aircraft company takes the listener on Miles’ journey from giving flying lessons on an Avro 504k during the 1920s to developing the M.52, the cancelled research aircraft that could have made Britain the first country to fly at supersonic speeds. The majority of Battle of Britain pilots trained on Miles' advanced trainer aircraft, the Master. The company also proposed a remotely piloted aircraft that would have carried a 1,000 lb bomb, though this was never put into production. Long-standing Miles employee D. L. Brown's talk features such famous Miles’ civilian and military aircraft as the Martlet, Magister, Messenger and Marathon. This latter aircraft was the company's response to the Brabazon Committee. Brown also discusses the relationship with the Royal Aircraft Establishment, which helped sponsor the company's research work and financed some of its aircraft. D. L. Brown FRAeS addressed a meeting organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 22 November 1965. The lecture is introduced by J. L. Nayler FRAeS FAIAA, the recording was digitised thanks to a grant from the RAeS Foundation and the podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS.
