The Tiger Club - Cosmic Wind

The Cosmic Wind was an amazing aircraft for the Club to operate. It was modern compared to the rest of the fleet and had a very fast rate of roll for that time and flew at over 200mph on an 85hp engine. The first Cosmic Wind in England was G-ARUL which was bought here by Milton Blake in 1961 and was called Ballerina. Quite how Norman Jones ended up buying it for the Tiger Club to operate is probably a story in itself!

There have been three pilots who have been recognised over the years as great exponents of this aircraft, the first was Peter Phillips, then there was Neil Williams who competed in the World Aerobatics Competition in Ballerina and nowadays it is the current owner, Pete Kynsey, all of whom could fly a beautiful display sequence including an immaculate 16 point roll to perfection.

The aircraft was designed in the late 1940’s by Tony LeVier a Lockheed test pilot for the new Goodyear racing class, it was built in the Lockheed workshops. Three aircraft were built and began racing in 1947 but due to a series of crashes, Lockheed stopped their pilots from racing and the aircraft were sold on. During the early 1960’s a second Cosmic arrived in England and was based at Redhill, this was G-AYRJ which was called Little Toni.

Both aircraft were based with the Club at Redhill for a few years and used for Formula 1 Air Races both in the UK and France. In 1964 Ballerina won the Kings Cup with Dennis Hartas at the controls.

Ballerina crashed on take off in 1966 at Halfpenny Green but the remains were saved and were then used for a rebuild which was completed in the 1970’s. By this time the aircraft had been sold and it has been privately owned since. It is currently available for air shows, please contact the Club for details.

Cockpit

This picture shows what a diminutive aircraft the Cosmic is, with a tiny cockpit that the pilot sits down inside with limited view ahead and with a bullet shaped canopy. Picture © John Blake.

Today Ballerina is privately owned and lives at Duxford where she can be viewed in one of the public hangars or if you are lucky you will see her flying at a Duxford airshow.
Picture courtesy and copyright © of Jenny Coffey

The picture on the right above is an excellent demonstration of the head on profile of this aircraft, this was taken while the aircraft was in the hangar at Duxford. It gives an indication of the pilot's limited view from the cockpit.
Picture courtesy and copyright © of Simon Thomas