AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 43 / 217

Plate 43 of 217 · Between the wars · Two-seat light monoplane

Parnall Pixie III

Pixie III (1924), painted as G-EBJG, the Midland Air Museum’s Parnall Pixie III, one of the two two-seaters Harold Bolas designed for the 1924 Lympne light aeroplane trials, where it flew as No. 18, later a permanent monoplane and now in deep store at Coventry: a wooden, fabric-covered low-wing monoplane with tandem open cockpits, inverted-V lift struts, a full-length rudder between divided elevators and a 32 hp Bristol Cherub III flat twin on the nose, shown as it flew, standing tail-down on its wheels and skid in its registered scheme: pale aluminium dope all over, black ‘G-EBJG’ on both fuselage sides with a bar under ‘EBJG’, a black ‘G’ on both faces of the rudder and a dark varnished two-bladed propeller (shape from the 1924 NACA three-view, rudder and elevators from photographs of G-EBJG).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-EBJG, the Midland Air Museum’s Parnall Pixie III, one of the two two-seaters Harold Bolas designed for the 1924 Lympne light aeroplane trials, where it flew as No. 18, later a permanent monoplane and now in deep store at Coventry: a wooden, fabric-covered low-wing monoplane with tandem open cockpits, inverted-V lift struts, a full-length rudder between divided elevators and a 32 hp Bristol Cherub III flat twin on the nose, shown as it flew, standing tail-down on its wheels and skid in its registered scheme: pale aluminium dope all over, black ‘G-EBJG’ on both fuselage sides with a bar under ‘EBJG’, a black ‘G’ on both faces of the rudder and a dark varnished two-bladed propeller (shape from the 1924 NACA three-view, rudder and elevators from photographs of G-EBJG). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (1.0 MB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Pixie III (1924) modelled here.

History

The Pixie III

George Parnall & Co. of Bristol had built aircraft under contract during the First World War, and in the early 1920s its designer, Harold Bolas, turned to the new fashion for very light aeroplanes. The first Pixie was a small single-seat monoplane built for the light aeroplane trials at Lympne in October 1923. It came with two sets of wings, a larger pair for economy and a clipped pair for speed, and was flown there by Norman Macmillan with a Douglas motorcycle engine. With the speed wings and the larger engine it won the £500 Abdulla prize for speed, and two Pixies were bought by the Air Ministry.

For the Air Ministry’s two-seater light aeroplane trials at Lympne in September 1924 Bolas enlarged the design into the Pixie III. Its fuselage was 3 ft 2 in longer, with two open cockpits in tandem, and it had a 32 hp Bristol Cherub flat twin on the nose. Two were built. Each could be flown as a low-wing monoplane or, with a detachable top wing on a cabane and N-struts, as a biplane, and the first flew at Yate on 5 September 1924. The trials went badly: the Pixie III flown by Flight Lieutenant Rollo Haig as No. 18 suffered a run of mechanical troubles, and neither machine got far in the competition.

Both Pixie IIIs were later made permanent monoplanes and passed into private hands. One went back to Lympne in 1926, when Frank Courtney flew it to fourth place, and they flew on as club and private aeroplanes. G-EBJG survived the Second World War in store, and in 1967 it was given to the Midland Aircraft Preservation Society as its first aircraft.

This airframe

Parnall Pixie III G-EBJG

G-EBJGThe airframe modelled

G-EBJG was one of the two Pixie IIIs built at Yate in 1924 for the Lympne two-seater trials, where it flew as No. 18, and it was later converted to a permanent monoplane. It was the first acquisition of the Midland Aircraft Preservation Society in 1967 and belongs to the Midland Air Museum at Coventry, where its remains are in deep store and not normally on view. The model shows it as it flew as a monoplane, with both cockpits open and its Bristol Cherub III, in the registered scheme seen in photographs: pale aluminium dope all over, black ‘G-EBJG’ on both fuselage sides with a black bar under ‘EBJG’, a black ‘G’ on both faces of the full-length rudder, and a dark varnished propeller. It stands tail-down on its wheels and skid. The shape follows the 1924 NACA three-view, with the rudder and divided elevators taken from photographs of G-EBJG.

See it at Midland Air Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Pixie III in one UK collection. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 217 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.