FORMER RAF PILOT TAKES BIPLANE INTO THE JET AGE
A RETIRED Midland RAF pilot has revealed how he created possibly the country’s fastest biplane in his garden shed.
Rich Goodwin, who lives near Malvern, has spent four years and thousands of pounds building himself the Pitts Special muscle biplane, which he often uses for impressive aerobatic displays across the country.
The former Tornado pilot has now taken his love of flying another step further after forking out £100,000 on two jet engines with 850lbs of thrust apiece. The extra power means his homemade jet-powered plane can now hit speeds of 220mph.
The married father-of-five began working to install the engines in 2021 and was able to test out his new creation in January following almost two years of labour.
Mr Goodwin, 60, said: “It is very unique, many people can’t believe the authorities allow me to fly it as it’s a bit off the wall.
“The plane has more thrust than before, it has excess thrust. If you look at the Harrier and the F35 which hover, they all have excess thrust.
“It’s not going to be going any faster than 220mph. But what can you do with this plane, we’ll be able to get an altitude record for a biplane.”
He claimed that his aircraft is now the “fastest biplane in the country”.
He added: “Having flown it nine times now with the new engines, I’m confident that’s it going to be a pretty good aeroplane.
“Its taken a couple of years in extra building for the structure of the jet engine and the paperwork. There’s a saying, when the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the plane, they’ll let you fly it.
“I respect the authorities and the air shows are tightly regulated for good reason but it’s important to keep pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.”
Mr Goodwin, who served in the RAF between 1984-1993 and flew in the first Gulf War, needed to remortgage his house to fund the original aircraft. He said: “It took four years to build the biplane, it was built in my garden shed.
“The top wing is 20ft long and it only fits in the shed diagonally. Then it’s hard to transport it to the airfield as you can’t fly it out of the garden.
“The only experience of building I’ve had before was putting together a model aeroplane but sometimes in life you’ve just got to get on with it. It’s all quite extreme stuff, it’s not easy to do.”