Miles Mercury

The Miles M.28 Mercury was a British aircraft designed for either training or communications during the Second World War. It was a single-engine, monoplane of wooden construction with a twin tail and a tailwheel undercarriage with retractable main units.

Development
Originally, the M.28 had been planned as a replacement for the Whitney Straight and Monarch, but this was shelved when war broke out.

In 1941, the project was revived in response to a requirement for a training and communications aircraft. The design was produced as a private venture by Ray Bournon using Miles' normal wooden construction. The resulting machine introduced several features not found on trainers: retractable undercarriage, trailing edge flaps amongst others. In the communications role, the M.28 had four seats and a range of 500 mi.

The prototype first flew on 11 July 1941 and proved easy to fly, with light controls and a short landing run. Owing to Miles' heavy commitment to war-production, however, only six aircraft were built, of slightly varying specifications, the last being the Mercury 6 which first flew in early 1946. Examples were operated in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and Australia.

Variants

 * No.1 – 130 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major I
 * No.2, M.28 Mark II - 140 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major IIA (later 150 hp Blackburn Cirrus Major III)
 * No.2 - 145 hp de Havilland Gipsy Major IIA
 * all others 150 hp Blackburn Cirrus Major III
 * M28 Mark III - PW937 fitted with three sets of flying controls.