Flight Commander Hans A. Busk, RNAS

[kin47]

Hello

Can anyone give details on the death of Flight Commander Hans A. Busk, RNAS on 6 January 1916?

Thank you.

don

[Dolphin]

Don

Flt Cdr Hans Acworth Busk, of No 2 Wing RNAS, was killed in action aged 21 at Gallipoli on 6 January 1916 while bombing Turkish troops. His aeroplane [type not recorded] came down in the sea. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.

On 1 January 1915 he was the pilot of Short Type 74 Seaplane No 79 when it broke up in heavy seas 2 miles north of Fifeness; he and his observer, Ltv L H Strain, were rescued.

On 24 February 1915 he was the pilot of Short Type 74 Seaplane No 76 when it side-slipped while turning and crashed.

On 16 December 1915 he was flying Bristol Scout C No 1263 when the aeroplane sank while being hoisted on board Trawler No 83. He was rescued by another vessel.

I hope that this is useful.

Gareth

[Starlight]

Hi Don,

From "Airmen Died . . . " and "The Sky Their Battlefield", Flt Cdr Hans Acworth Busk (pilot), 2 Wg, aged 21 and a native of Regents Park was killed in action on 6th January 1916. With no known grave, he is listed on Helles Memorial, Gallipoli. Apparently he was in the act of bombing Turkish troops when he came down in the sea.

Regards

Steve

[michaeldr]

Both the 'Brief History of the Canakkle Campaign' by the TGS, and 'Ottoman Aviation 1909-1919' by Nikolassen & Yilmazer mention a large allied air raid on 6th January

Eg from the former; "An Entente squadron composed of numerous planes dropped more than 30 bombs to Galata Headquarters on January 6th…"

While the latter also gives three aircraft claimed by the Turkish Forces over Gallipoli on 6th January – two shot down by Lt Buddecke and one "hit by G/F and seen to crash" No further details

The British OH 'The War in the Air' Vol.II merely says that 'Busk went off to bomb, but was never heard of again. He probably came down somewhere in the sea…"

Regards

Michael

[per ardua per mare per terram]

ADM 273/3/45 Page 45: Hans Acworth Busk. RNAS Officers Service [record] 1914-1918

ADM 273/31/100 Page 100: Hans Ackworth Busk. RNAS Officers Service 1914-1915

[barkalotloudly]

I have a book somewhere with his memorial

regards John

[Adrian Roberts]

Was he a relative of Edward Busk, the RAF test pilot who researched inherent stability in the BE2 aircraft and was killed just before the war when one caught fire in mid-air? Its not a common name and aviation was a small world in those days.

Adrian

[josquin]

Was he a relative of Edward Busk, the RAe test pilot who researched inherent stability in the BE2 aircraft and was killed just before the war when one caught fire in mid-air? Its not a common name and aviation was a small world in those days.

Adrian

Adrian,

Edward Teshmaker Busk and Hans Acworth Busk were brothers. CWGC lists parents for both as Mary Busk, of

Hampstead, London, and the late Thomas T. Busk. Edward was killed in a flying accident on 5 November 1914,

at Aldershot; his aeroplane caught fire in the air, at an altitude of 800 feet, over Aldershot (CWGC, SDGW, and

his obituary in "Flight," 13 November 1914, all confirm the date--he was not killed before the war). RAC gives

Hans' birth information as 9 January 1894, Rudgwick, Horsham, Sussex (so he was killed 3 days before his

22nd birthday). Edward's obituary states he was born 8 March 1886, but does not give a birthplace; BMD

says his birth was registered in the 2nd Quarter of 1886 at Edmonton. Edward's MIC says he was with the

Royal Engineers & RFC, as a 2/Lieutenant; his obituary in "Flight" covers a full page and records a distinguished

career as an aeronaiutical engineer in great detail (he was a Scholar of King's College, Cambridge, taking a 1st

class in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos in 1907, and he was employed as an engineer with the Royal Aircraft

Factory, at Farnborough, in 1912, after prior employment as an engineer with Hall & Co., at Dartford.

Edward's "Flight" obituary includes a good photograph of him in one of his aeroplanes.

Regards

Trelawney

[NigelS]

By remarkable coincidence, I chanced on and took this picture of Edward Busk's grave at Aldershot Military Cemetery while on a visit there yesterday

The incription reads:

IN LOVING MEMORY OF

EDWARD TESHMAKER BUSK

LIEUTENANT LONDON ELECTRICAL

ENGINEERS R.E. (T) ELDEST SON OF

THOMAS TESHMAKER AND MARY BUSK

OF HERMONGERS RIDGWICK SUSSEX.

THE DESIGNER OF THE FIRST FULL SIZED

EFFICIENT INHERENTLY STABLE AEROPLANE

HE LOST HIS LIFE IN THE SERVICE OF HIS

COUNTRY WHILE DOING EXPERIMENTAL

WORK IN THE AIR OVER LAFFANS PLAIN

ON NOVEMBER 5.1914. AGED 28 YEARS

HE BEING MADE PERFECT IN A SHORT TIME

FULFILLED A LONG TIME WISDOM IV

He seems to have achieved a remarkable amount in his short life, and I can't help wondering what he may have gone on to achieve in aircraft design had he survived.

This is not a topic I know a great deal about, but would it be true to say that Edward Busk's development of the 'inherently stable aeroplane' had a significant affect on both the ability to train pilots quickly and the use of aircraft during the war? Presumeably parallel development of this principal must have been going on in Germany and elsewhere, or was copying (and/or espionage) involved?

NigelS

[Dolphin]

Harald Penrose's excellent British Aviation: the Great War and Armistice, includes: "[bE 2c] production would have started sooner but for a bad set-back the previous November through destruction of the first experimental engine [the RAF 1] in the prototype BE 2c which caught fire when being flown by Farnborough's star scientist-pilot, Ted Busk, the ensuing crash destroying aeroplane and killing the pilot."

Gareth

[per ardua per mare per terram]

His brother's records are also at Kew: WO 374/11334 BUSK, Lieut E T

Along with other records of interest:

AIR 1/724/91/7/36 Royal Aircraft Establishment Photographic Department. Photograph of the burnt out wreckage of BE2c 601 [blériot Experimental]. It crashed on 5 November 1914, killing ET Busk. 1914 Nov 6

AIR 1/827/204/5/186 Fatal aircraft accident report to 2/Lt. Busk and suggested Busk Memorial. 1914 Nov. - 1916 Nov.

[NigelS]

Having roused my interest, quite a few snippets on Edward Busk can be found by a trawl through the Flight Archive.

He learnt to fly at the Valkyrie school in the winter/spring of 1911/12 on a day per week basis, but, although his brother Hans gained his Royal Aero Club certificate in 1914, there is no trace of a record of Edward having done so, which seems odd (lost record possibly?).

An article in August 17 gives that he was involved at the Royal Aircraft Factory (Farnborough) with instrumentation for measuring Glide angle (the 'Trajectograph') and there is a photo of him at a field station known as 'Trajectograph Villa' at Knighton Down.

On his death his mother received the following letter:

Buckingham Palace, Nov. 11.

Dear Mrs. Busk - The King has heard with much concern of the tragic death of your son Mr. Busk.

His Majesty well remembers meeting him at the Royal Aircraft Factory on the occasion of their Majesties’ visit to Aldershot last summer, and was much struck by his ability and technical knowledge of the machinery of aeroplanes.

The King also saw him give an exhibition of flying in a stable aeroplane of his own invention.

In offering you his sincere sympathy in your bereavement, the King feels that the country has lost the services of one who by experiment and research, contributed in no small measure to the science of flying.

Yours very truly

CLIVE WIGRAM

(A report of the King's visit to Farnborough is given in The Times of May 20th 1914)

Post death his mother received a Gold medal on his behalf from the Society of Arts for his achievments, and memorial fund was set up which established the Edward Busk Memorial Prize for 'for the best paper received by the Royal Aeronautical Society on some subject of a technical nature in connection with aeroplanes (including seaplanes).' which ran for a number of years.

There are also series of articles in Flight- I'm afraid to say, far above my level of interest - on the BE2, including Busk's contribution, starting in the issue of 2nd April 1954.

The Times of August 16th, 1916 reports on 'An interim report of the Committee on the Administration and Command of the Royal Flying Corps &c':

The report gives the following among other instances:- ….

(b.) No. 11. Hansard. – Machine caught fire in air with experimental Royal Aircraft Factory engine. Bombs on board burst; pilot burned to death in the air.

Supplemental statement.

– Date 5th November, 1914. Place, Farnborough. Person killed, E. T. Busk. Type of machine, B.E., Killed while doing experimental work for the air service.

Facts.

– Mr. E.T. Busk was conducting experimental work in the air. He was an experienced and intrepid flier and had the rare faculty of being able to note and report upon the effect in actual flight in the air of experiments in construction and design. His work was highly dangerous and he was killed while performing it.

His death was described by General Henderson as one of the greatest losses to aeronautics we have ever suffered. The Committee desire to endorse the statement.

Conclusions.

– There is no evidence of negligence in the death of Mr. Busk, whose loss was due to the exceptionally dangerous nature of the work to which he devoted himself.

The inquest into his death recorded 'Accidental Death' with the suggestion that it may have been started by an engine backfire.

NigelS

[Adrian Roberts]

Thanks everyone for this extra information.

Does anyone know if he actually built "an aircraft of his own invention", or whether this refers only to his work in developing the BE2?

Clearly his work on stability was vital to produce a practical reconnaissance aircraft. The BE2c, RE8 etc were very good at this role. They have been criticised for being too stable to be able to evade attack by HA, but I really don't think Busk or anyone else could have been expected to foresee how aerial warfare would develop.

Frank Courtney was testing another BE2c at Farnborough eighteen months or so later. He writes:

"At 1500 feet I dived to restart the engine. Fortunately the propellor was slow in starting and I was down to two or three hundred feet before it got going..... As the cold engine picked up, it backfired and a couple of seconds later wisps of black smoke began to come from somewhere in the cowling...... During the glide, a stuck needle had allowed fuel to dribble into the new, lower cowling which had no provision for drainage.... [fortunately he was very close the airfield].. I put the machine into a sideslip to carry the increasing smoke and flame clear of the cockpit, but I had to straigten out for landing and then the choking smoke and heat closed around me .. the wheels had hardly touched before I was overboard ... if I had been two or three hundred feet higher up, it would have been another mysterious fire like that which killed Edward Busk on another BE2c"

[josquin]

Adrian,

The obituary in "Flight," a full page that showcased his considerable accomplishments, stated that he was a scientist

who directed the "chemical, metallurgical, and physical research and testing" for the Royal Aircraft Factory and that

he conducted test flights in conjunction with this research. Nothing was stated regarding designing or constructing

his own aeroplane.

Regards

Trelawney

[NigelS]

Adrian,

Busk's development work on the 'inherently stable aircraft' appears to have been confined to not insignificant modifications to the BE2 which resulted in BE2c; The Flight articles of 1954 details these modifications:

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/vie...20-%200873.html

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/vie...20-%201070.html

This article also makes this comment:

Apart from difficulties with armament, the BE's inherent stability proved to be a disadvantage, for it deprived the aircraft of manouevrability so vital in combat. By the end of 1915, the B.E.s were forming an alarmingly large proportion of the 'Fokker Fodder' of the time, but no attempt was made to modify or withdraw the machine, or even suspend production. Attention was dramatically focused on R.F.C casualties by Mr Noel Pemberton-Billing, who, ina bitter speech in the House of Commons on March 21st, 1916, attacked Factory machines in general and the B.E.2C in particular, saying that R.F.C. pilots in France had been "rather murdered than killed."

A judicial committee was set up to investigate these charges,but did not deliver itself of its findings until December 1916. In general, the charges were found to be not proven, and in the meantime the B.E.s plodded on: bombing, observing, and trying to fight, always with considerable losses.

(The extract I gave from The Times in my last post came from the interim report of this committe; this was also reported in Flight http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/vie...0-%200698.html)

This extract from The Times of May 20th, 1914 gives a remarkably technical commentary (at least when compared with what would be given in modern day newspapers) on the principles involved (I wouldn't like to comment on the accuracy of the article, but as it appears to have been written by somebody with considerable knowledge, I did wonder if Busk might have been the author of this part! )

METHOD OF CONTROL

It is believed that in the present instance the rudder is spring-controlled, but that all other movements are due to the inherent stability of the design – which, expressed in other words is this: - A righting couple is formed tending to restore balance when by any means balance is disturbed, and, in addition, to this, if the flight path is disturbed any oscillation which is set up is of the kind which dwindles down to nothing. If an aeroplane is stable laterally it must also be stable directionally, since the two are inextricably linked, but they may be considered separately to some extent. Any loss of lateral balance involves side-slip, and therefore side-slip is utilized to create the restoring couple. Side-slip produces as side wind on the ‘fin’ surfaces of the aeroplane. These are made up of the lateral surfaces of the struts, wires, wheels, the fuselage, the propeller, and in addition there is a fin equivalent obtained from the dihedral angle between the wings. On all these surfaces the side wind acts, and if they are exactly proportioned there is enough top fin to give the righting moment. So far this has been known and practised by aeroplane builders, but it does not give the stable aeroplane, as we may see by carrying the analysis a little farther. When the side-slip begins the whole aeroplane moves sideways relatively to the air consequently the fin forward and the fin aft must be exactly balanced.

If, as has so frequently been the case in the past, the fin near the rudder is too large, the side wind up it tends to throw the stern round, and, in the absence of the pilot’s correcting action on the rudder, the machine ‘nose-dives.’ Conversely, with too small a fin aft, the same trouble arises in a different set of circumstances and produces the same awkward results.

It is precisely in the calculation of the fin aft in relation to the fin forward that the directional stability so closely affects the lateral stability, and this linkage has, it is hoped, been made broadly evident by the above example.

In longitudinal stability the difficulty is quite different. Longitudinally there are oscillations of the aeroplane on its centre of gravity regarded as pivot, and there are oscillations of the whole mass on its path; both classes of oscillation must tend to die out.

FUNCTION OF THE TAIL

A matter of extreme importance in this connexion is the alteration in the lifting force exerted by the wings. Unfortunately, when a dive begins, the centre of lift of the wings tends to move backwards towards their trailing edge, and this obviously aggravates the dive by lifting up the tail and depriving the front edge of the wings of their quantum of lift. To remedy this and to damp out oscillation is the function of the tail. Those machines which depend entirely on the pilot’s sense of balance also depend entirely upon him to check the oscillations by the appropriate movement of the elevator. Many an argument has taken place between those who, to give the pilot greater control, insisted upon the whole of the tail being mobile, and certain authorities who insisted that the damping effect on oscillations of the fixed portion of the was of priceless value to the pilot by giving him time to act. This point of view has to-day obtained far greater force in that the fixed tail plane if appropriately designed can not only damp oscillation but actually introduce the corrective moment necessary.

NigelS

[Simon Birch]

I have a copy of the biography of Edward Teshmaker Busk, published in 1917 in Glasgow if anyone would care to give it a good home. It is not my subject, and would be happy if someone had a proper use for it. Looking at it there are pictures of Edward and Hans.

Simon

[Adrian Roberts]

Nigel

This extract from The Times of May 20th, 1914 gives a remarkably technical commentary (at least when compared with what would be given in modern day newspapers) on the principles involved (I wouldn't like to comment on the accuracy of the article, but as it appears to have been written by somebody with considerable knowledge, I did wonder if Busk might have been the author of this part! )

METHOD OF CONTROL

It is believed that in the present instance the rudder is spring-controlled, but that all other movements are due to the inherent stability of the design ........–

Wow! - a bit late in the night to take this in, but I just about got the gist. The original RE8 had a tendency to spin due to having too small a fin - it seems the RAF had forgotten a lot of Busk's principles by then, or maybe someone wasn't as good on the maths as he was.

By the end of 1915, the B.E.s were forming an alarmingly large proportion of the 'Fokker Fodder' of the time, but no attempt was made to modify or withdraw the machine, or even suspend production. Attention was dramatically focused on R.F.C casualties by Mr Noel Pemberton-Billing, who, ina bitter speech in the House of Commons on March 21st, 1916, attacked Factory machines in general and the B.E.2C in particular, saying that R.F.C. pilots in France had been "rather murdered than killed."

I think it was Lloyd George who coined the term "Fokker Fodder", and he and Pemberton-Billing are probably responsible for the poor reputation of the BE2c. Lloyd George knew zilch about aviation but would use anything to make political capital, and the term "crank" could have been invented for PB.

You would have to do a lot of number-crunching to prove whether BE2cs and RE8s were really more vulnerable than other two-seaters, but as an indication, out of Immelman's 17 victories, only six were BE2cs - despite the BE being the most common British type at the time. Only two of Mulzer's 10 were BEs, and similarly with the other KEK aces (not counting Boelcke who was flying against the French for the early part of his career).

In "Bloody April" 1917, the Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters suffered horrendous casualties - and they were supposedly more manoeuverable than the RE8.

Basically, if you had to fly in combat, do it in a single-seater!

[Adrian Roberts]

I have a copy of the biography of Edward Teshmaker Busk, published in 1917 in Glasgow if anyone would care to give it a good home. It is not my subject, and would be happy if someone had a proper use for it. Looking at it there are pictures of Edward and Hans.

Simon - this book would be exactly my subject - I'll PM you!

Adrian

[Adrian Roberts]

In my posts above I've just realised I was writing RAe when I should have written RAF (Royal Aircraft Factory). Maybe none of you noticed, or maybe you were being kind!

I've edited them now.

[James A Pratt III]

Busk was shot down and killed by German ace then Ltn H. J> Buddecke. Also according to OTF 3-1 Busk was flying "Farman #42. This issue also has a picture of both the Busk brothers as children in 1904. OTF 9-1 mentions that the RNAS and MF 98T sometimes swaped aircraft. This maybe why no one has a serial number ect of the plane Busk was killed flying. There are some other RNAS aircrew who were shot down and KIA in this area where the type and serial number of the plane they were flying is unknown. This could be why.

[michaeldr]

Thanks James

Good to have those extra details

Michael

[mullet]

Hello Chaps

Just stumbled across this thread as I research the two Busk brothers who are commemorated in my local church as part of a local history project www.rudgwickremembers.co.uk.

Would one of you kind gentlemen with a copy of the Busk booklet be able to email me with regard to the possibility of obtaining a scan of a few photographs?

andy@rudgwickremembers.co.uk

Thanks

Andy