Warplanes of the UK: Miles Hawk Miles Major, Miles Magister, Miles Martinet, and Miles Messenger

Miles Hawk Major, Magister, Martinet, and Messenger

(Kevin Dickin Photo)

Miles M.2H Hawk Major (Serial No. DG590), Montrose Air Station Heritage Centre, Scotland.  This aircraft was in storage with the RAF Museum and is one of only two in existance.

(IWM Photo CH 1250)

Miles M.14A Magister, No. 28, No. 8 Elementary Flying Training School at Woodley, Berkshire, September 1940, prior to a training flight.

The Miles M.14 Magister is a two-seat monoplane basic trainer aircraft designed and built by the British aircraft manufacturer Miles Aircraft It was affectionately known as the Maggie. It was the only low-wing cantilever monoplane to ever be authorised to perform aerobatics.

The Magister was developed during the 1930s in response to Specification T.40/36, and had been deliberately based on Miles' civilian Hawk Major and Hawk Trainer aircraft. The first prototype conducted the type's maiden flight on 20 March 1937. It quickly became praised for its handling qualities, increasing the safety and ease of pilot training, while also delivering comparable performance to contemporary monoplane frontline fighters of the era. Having suitably impressed British officials, the Magister was promptly ordered and rapidly pushed into quantity production.

Entering service barely a year prior to the start of the Second World War, the Magister became a key training aircraft. It was the first monoplane designed specifically as a trainer to be induced by the Royal Air Force (RAF). Amid the war, it was purchased in large numbers, not only for the RAF but also for the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) and various overseas military operators. It was an ideal introduction to the Spitfire and Hurricane for new pilots. Its sister design, the Miles Master, was an advanced trainer also designed and produced by Phillips & Powis at Woodley. During the postwar years, surplus Magisters were exported in large numbers, often following a conversion to suit civilian uses. (Wikipedia)

(Alan Wilson Photos)

(Mike Burdett Photo)

Miles M.14A Magister (Serial No. P6382), c/n 1750, Reg. No. G-AJRS, The Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden, Bedfordshire.

(Alan Wilson Photos)

(Alan Wilson Photo)

Miles Magister (Serial No. N3788), Reg. No. G-AKPF, The Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden, Bedfordshire.

(IWM Photo CH 140)

Miles M.14 Magister (Serial No. N3780), flown by Miles Aircraft?s test-pilot, Bill Skinner, from Woodley airfield, Berkshire. The aircraft later served as ?49? with No. 15 Elementary Flying Training School at Carlisle.

(Gaius Cornelius Photo)

(Roland Turner Photo)

Miles M.14 Magister Mk. III (Serial No. BB661), FDT-A, Reg. No. G-AFBS, Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

(Happy Days Photo)

Miles Magister (Serial No. T9707), Museum of Army Flying, Middle Wallop, Hamsphire.

(MBA Photo)

Miles Magister Mk. I (Serial No. T9841), reconstructed as (Serial No. L6906), Reg. No. G-AKKY, Museum of Berkshire Aviation (MBA), Woodley, Berkshire.

(Alan Wilson Photos)

Miles Magister M.14A (Serial No. T9738), Reg. No. G-AKAT, Real Aeroplane Company, Breighton Airfield, North Yorkshire.

Miles Magister Mk. I (Serial No. 35), National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks, Dublin.

(Miles Aircraft Ltd Photos)

Miles Martinet TT Mk. I (Serial No. HN862), being flown by Miles Aircraft?s chief test-pilot Tommy Rose shortly after completion. Following service with The RAE and the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, HN862 joined No. 1634 (Anti-Aircraft Cooperation) Flight at Hutton Cranswick, Yorkshire, where it was lost as a result of a forced landing on 7 July 1943.

(Allen Watkin Photo)

Miles Martinet TT.1 (Serial No. MS902), Reg. No. TF-SHC, ca. 1942, Museum of Berkshire Aviation, Woodley, Berkshire.  MS902 was built in 1943, and spent its operational life in Iceland at RAF Reykjavik.  In 1949, it was sold to the Akureyri Flying Club and given the Icelandic civil registration TF-SHC.  The club flew it until it crashed in 1951 near Kopasker in north-east Iceland.  The wreckage remained at the crash site until 1977, when it was recovered and placed in storage by the Icelandic Aviation Historical Society.  The aircraft was returned to the United Kingdom in 1996 by the Museum of Berkshire Aviation and has since been the subject of a lengthy restoration project.

(IWM Photo B 7065)

Miles M.38 Messenger Mk. I (Serial No. RD333), the personal aircraft of Field Marshal B.L. Montgomery, at a landing ground in Normandy.  His pilot, Flying Officer Martin, stands next to him.

(Alan D R  Brown Photo)

(Les Chatfield Photo)

(L-Bit Photo)

Miles Messenger (Serial No. RG333), Reg. No. G-AIEK, Jim Buckingham, Bristol, Somerset.  Airworthy.

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