Science: Twin-Jet Pinwheel

In the cold, thin air, high over Britain's Severn River one day last week, a sleek ground-attack fighter zoomed through its paces. Its twin jets roaring at full power, the sturdy Gloster Meteor suddenly whipped up into a vertical climb. Slowly its speed dropped off until, just before it stalled, the pilot cut the power in his port engine. Like a great, improbable pinwheel, the plane revolved through a tight circle (see diagram). Three-quarters of the way around, the pilot cut the power in his starboard engine. Momentum kept the Meteor revolving until it completed a turn and a half. For a brief instant it seemed to hang there, nose down, immobile in the sky. Then it fell away in a normal tailspin which the pilot could correct after only half a turn.

At the controls during this spectacular maneuver was Polish-born Test Pilot Janusz Zurakowski, who had worked out the first new aerobatic stunt in 20 years.* Squat, studious-looking Pilot Zurakowski flew with the R.A.F. after escaping from a Nazi prison camp, has three Luftwaffe kills and three probables to his credit. One day about a year ago, at a test-pilot school bull session, the discussion got around to the maneuverability of the Gloster Meteor. "Zura," a test pilot for the Gloster Aircraft Co., said the plane was good enough to do a "Fin Sling," a cartwheel-like stunt he had been thinking about for a long time.

Even after Zura explained what he had in mind, no one believed it could be done. But when the British aviation show opened at Farnborough this fall, he had already managed to do the trick three times and he was ready to demonstrate it to an incredulous public. Flying a Meteor that was loaded to capacity with wingtip fuel tanks and two dozen 90-lb. rockets, Zura successfully performed his Fin Sling.

Last week Zurakowski was doing slings for fun as part of routine test nights. None of his fellow pilots have yet managed Zura's trick, but they know it requires a plane with the proper wings to prevent it from rolling out of the skidding, cartwheel turn. It also needs the powerful thrust of the Meteor's two jets, set just the right distance apart. And it needs Zura's confident touch on the controls.