The Miles M.38 Messenger is a British four-seat liaison and private owner aircraft built by Miles Aircraft. The Messenger was designed to meet a British Army requirement for a robust, slow speed, low maintenance air observation post and liaison aircraft. The aircraft designed was a cantilever low-wing monoplane with a fixed tailwheel, powered by the de Havilland Gipsy Major 1D inline engine. Fitted with retractable auxiliary wing flaps enabling a wing loading of around 12.5 lb per square foot, the Messenger featured triple fins and rudders in order to maintain sufficient controllability down to the exceptionally low stalling speed of 25 mph. The prototype was converted from a Miles M.28 Mercury and first flew at Woodley on 12 September 1942, some three months after an approach by army officers.[2] When informally test flown by an Aerial Observation Post Squadron it was declared a success, meeting all the army's requirements, however the Ministry of Aircraft Production, having not been consulted, reprimanded George Miles for failing to seek the ministry's permission before rebuilding the aircraft and no orders for the Miles M.38 were placed for the aerial observation post role, AOP units using light, fixed-wing aircraft, notably various marks of Auster. For more information on the design and development, production and operation, and 11 variants, click here.
