Spot the difference:
The Miles M52's fuselage was patterned after a .303 bullet, because that was one shape that was known to be stable at supersonic speeds. It had straight, laminar-flow, ultra-thin wings and an all-moving tail.
The Bell X1's fuselage was patterned after a .50 calibre bullet. It had straight, laminar-flow, ultra-thin wings and an all-moving tail.
Sounds like similar approaches, really. But then Miles did tell Bell their design concept.
So what made the M52 so much less credible a test plane than the DH108, an abortion cobbled together from a Vampire fuselage and swept-back wings?
The DH108 killed Geoffrey de Havilland, Stewart Muller-Rowland and George Genders. John Derry may or may not have exceeded the speed of sound in the Swallow in what was called "a barely-controlled crash dive". Eric "Winkle" Brown, arguably the greatest test pilot in history, who was due to be chief test pilot for the Miles M52, flew the 108. His Pilot Notes recorded: "A killer. Nasty stall. Vicious undamped longitudinal oscillation at speed in bumps."
Brown has flown more different types of aircraft than anybody ever, and he has prevailed in some pretty hairy experiences. Yet he attributes his survival in the DH108 not to his outstanding skills as a pilot, but to the fact that he was several inches shorter than de Havilland, and he cranked the seat right down, because he guessed Geoffrey had broken his neck when his head hit the canopy. Sure enough, at 0.98 Mach, all hell broke loose without warning, and Brown was thrown up and down as the plane went into a vicious phugoid oscillation,
The plane had a 60% fatality rate, and all three aircraft were destroyed in fatal accidents. Credible? I don't think so.
The restitution of life is no great feat. A variety of deaths may well enter into your punishment
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