Miles Master

Trainer · Miles Aircraft · United Kingdom

Miles Master
ⓘ licence & creditBritish official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miles_M.27_Master_MkIII_W8667,_No.5_SFTS._IWM-COL198.jpg
Typical crew2
Engines1 × Rolls-Royce Kestrel or Bristol Mercury
First flight1939
Number built3,450

Photographs

Royal Air Force Fighter Command, 1939-1945 Aircraft of No. 58 Operational Training Unit at Grangemouth, Stirlingshire: a Miles Master Mark I undergoes an engine service in the hangar, while another Master is parked on the hard standing outside. In the background a Supermarine Spitfire can be seen taxying on the airfield.
ⓘ licence & creditWar Office official photographer, Lockeyear W T (Lt) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Fighter_Command,_1939-1945_H9190.jpgView source & full licence →
Royal Air Force Flying Training Command, 1940-1945. Aircraft of the Empire Air Armament School, lined up across a dispersal track at Manby, Lincolnshire. Front row (left to right); Miles Master Mark III, Miles Martinet TT Mark I, De Havilland DH.94 Moth Minor, Percival Proctor Mark II, Miles Magister, Hawker Hurricane Mark IV and Supermarine Spitfire F Mark XII: back row (left to right); Avro Anson Mark I, Avro Lancaster B Mark III and Vickers Wellington Mark X. More Wellingtons can be seen parked in the 'frying pan' dispersals, and also in the distance by the 'C' Type hangars.
ⓘ licence & creditMiller (Flt Lt), Royal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Manby_-_Royal_Air_Force_Flying_Training_Command,_1940-1945_CH14880.jpgView source & full licence →
Miles M.9A Master I advanced trainer Photograph published in: Aircraft of the Fighting Powers Vol I Ed: H J Cooper, O G Thetford and D A. Russell Harborough Publishing Co, Leicester, England 1940. Photographer not identified, so UK Copyright contended to have lapsed 50 years after publication. Picture prepared for Wikipedia by Keith Edkins in April 2004.
ⓘ licence & creditphoto:Unknown authorUnknown author scan:Keith Edkins / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miles_Master.jpgView source & full licence →
Miles M.27 Master III (W8667), No.5 SFTS.
ⓘ licence & creditBritish official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Miles_M.27_Master_MkIII_W8667,_No.5_SFTS._IWM-COL198.jpgView source & full licence →
Basuto 'hangar boys' clean and polish a Miles Master at No. 23 Air School at Waterkloof in Pretoria, South Africa, January 1943. Basuto 'hangar boys' clean and polish Miles Master 2036, at Waterkloof.
ⓘ licence & creditChetwyn L (Lt), War Office official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basuto_%27hangar_boys%27_clean_and_polish_a_Miles_Master_at_No._23_Air_School_at_Waterkloof_in_Pretoria,_South_Africa,_January_1943._TR1255.jpgView source & full licence →
Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Miles M.9b/m.19 Master. Master Mark II glider tug of an unidentified unit, on the ground at Bodney, Norfolk, during airborne forces Exercise SNAFFLE, 9 August 1943. The exercise was intended to demonstrate airborne forces resupply from the air where petrol, ammunition and ordnance supplies were dropped with harness and parachute from transport planes.
ⓘ licence & creditWar Office official photographer, Bebbington E (Private) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aircraft_of_the_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Miles_M.9b-m.19_Master._H31737.jpgView source & full licence →
Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Miles M.9b/m.19 Master. Master Mark 1A, T8559, in flight while being tested at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment. The aircraft later served with No. 9 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit at Errol, Perthshire.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aircraft_of_the_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Miles_M.9b-m.19_Master._E(MOS)1218.jpgView source & full licence →
Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Miles M.9b/m.19 Master. Master Mark III, W8825 ‘43’, of No. 5 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit based at Ternhill, Shropshire, in flight.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer, Woodbine G (Flying Officer) / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aircraft_of_the_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Miles_M.9b-m.19_Master._CH6473.jpgView source & full licence →
Aircraft of the Royal Air Force 1939-1945- Miles M.9b/m.19 Master. Master Mark I, N7576 ‘F’, of No. 14 Service Flying Training School, parked with other training aircraft on hard standing at Cranfield, Bedfordshire.
ⓘ licence & creditStanley Devon / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aircraft_of_the_Royal_Air_Force_1939-1945-_Miles_M.9b-m.19_Master._CH1089.jpgView source & full licence →
Image from the Charles Daniels Photo Collection album "British Aircraft." SOURCE INSTITUTION: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
ⓘ licence & creditSan Diego Air & Space Museum Archives / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:15_Miles_Master_II_(15216625273).jpgView source & full licence →

About

The Miles Master was the RAF’s principal advanced trainer for fighter pilots, designed to bridge the gap between gentle basic trainers and front-line monoplane fighters. Miles built it to match the handling and performance of the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane, so that a pupil who could master the Master would be ready for the real thing.

A sleek two-seat monoplane with the instructor seated higher behind the pupil for a clear view, it was strong, fully aerobatic and pleasantly fast. Early aircraft used surplus Rolls-Royce Kestrel engines; later marks took the Bristol Mercury radial and, in another version, the American Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp. Fitted with provision for guns and light practice bombs, it could also teach gunnery and ground attack. Around 3,200 were built, yet — a fate it shares with the Miles trainers generally — no complete example survives today.

Sources: This page was compiled from publicly available historical sources, including Miles Master — Wikipedia and Today in Aviation History: First Flight of the Miles Master — Vintage Aviation News. The text is original and has been written from factual source material; no source text has been copied unless specifically quoted and attributed.

Engines