Miles Mercury

The Miles M.28 Mercury was a British aircraft designed to meet the need for a training and communications plane during the Second World War.

It was a single-engined monoplane of wooden construction with a twin tail and a tailwheel undercarriage with retractable main units.

The resulting machine introduced several features not found on trainers: retractable undercarriage and trailing edge flaps amongst others.

The prototype first flew on 11 July 1941 [1] 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.