Another one-off, the Miles M.35 Libellula, or dragonfly, U-0235, seen here being flown by George, the younger of the flying Miles Brothers. George's brainchild, the M.35 was designed and assembled within a six week period and kept under wraps from the possible prying eyes of government officials, lest they veto this unconventional, low speed, low powered test vehicle for a proposed deck-landing fighter. Lacking any wind tunnel testing that would have alerted the men from the ministry, George was to fly the ground-hugging canard for the first time on 1 May 1942: and probably instantly regretted it. as the aircraft promptly proved to be inherently unstable around its pitching axis when eventually coaxed aloft. This problem remained with the M.35, being only partially alleviated by the use of ballast. As the larger and later M.39B canard was to show, the 130hp DH Gipsy Major-powered M.35'S troubles lay not with its back-to-front layout, but with the lack of pre-flight wind tunnel testing.
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