HOW A BRITISH ENGINEER ACCIDENTALLY FLEW A FIGHTER JET

The story of engineer Walter Holden, who accidentally took off on a jet fighter. During the maintenance of the aircraft on the runway and conducting ground tests he found that he was rapidly gaining speed, could not turn off the afterburner and was forced to take off.

In 1943, Walter “Taffy” Holden joined the Royal Air Force and studied mechanical engineering at university. Although he never intended to become a pilot, he still completed mandatory flight training on the De Havilland Tiger Moth (biplane), and later on the North American Harward (light training aircraft). But these planes could not compare with the English Electric Lightning, which could develop a speed of Mach 2.27.

Holden eventually stopped flying to focus on his career as a Royal Air Force engineer. He established himself well and by 1966 was commanding the 33rd RAF Maintenance Unit from RAF Lyneham. They serviced, among other things, the Lightning fighter jet.

Walter Holden needed a pilot to test the XM135 aircraft, but it would take more than a week for him to arrive. Not wanting to wait, he decided to do it himself, since he only needed to tow the Lightning to the runway and test various electrics that malfunctioned only while moving on the runway prior to take-off — accelerate to high revs, turn off the engine and then brake.

Since he wasn’t going to take to the air, Holden didn’t put on either a helmet or a radio, instead communicating with his ground crew using hand signals. There was no hood on the plane, which was removed for communication, the landing wheels was fixed in the lowered position, and the ejection seat did not function to avoid accidents.

The first test went just fine. However, on the second lap, Holden accidentally pressed too hard on the gas and put the plane into afterburner mode. Since he had no experience with Lightning, he didn’t know how to stop. He managed to just miss a tanker and another low-flying aircraft. However, he was rapidly approaching the village at the end of the runway. Unable to stop and not having much time left, Holden could only take off.

As soon as Walter Holden was in the air, he was able to turn off the afterburner and think about landing. On the third attempt, he succeeded, but because of his inexperience, he landed the fighter as if he were landing a slower plane. This caused the tail to hit the runway and damaged the braking parachute, which was necessary to reduce the speed of the fighter.

Even without this Holden was able to force the XM135 to stop — there were only 100 meters left before the end of the runway. His total flight time was about 12 minutes.

Despite the hard landing, the Lightning was subsequently repaired and returned to service until 1974, when it was put on public display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, where its story is now told. Holden came out of the scrape without a scratch, but was sent on vacation to Italy after the media found out about this story. He did not suffer any penalties, and he only had to admit that he should have entrusted the test to a pilot familiar with fighter jet control. He continued to serve in the Royal British Air Force until the early 1980s.