The Rollason Beta was a British midget racing monoplane developed from a competition to build a Formula One air racer in the 1960s in England.[1] The Beta was first flown on 21 April 1967. The aircraft were successful air-racers in England during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
The Beta was designed by the Luton Group (who were young technicians employed by the British Aircraft Corporation at Luton)[2] in a competition to design a racing aircraft, the Rollason Midget Racer Design Competition 1964.[1]
The Beta is a fully aerobatic wooden low-wing cantilever monoplane with a cantilever tailplane with a single fin and rudder, powered by a Continental engine of between 65 and 100 hp. It has a fixed-tailwheel landing gear and an enclosed cockpit for the pilot. The original prototype Luton Beta was not completed.[1] The design was built commercially by Rollason Aircraft and Engines who made 4 aircraft at Redhill between 1967 and 1971.[1] [3] Plans were also available for homebuilding; although 55 sets of drawings had been sold by early 1974, five aircraft have been registered but just three aircraft are known to have been completed, all in the UK.[2]
The first Rollason-built Beta (registered G-ATLY and named Forerunner) won the Manx Air Derby in 1969 and the second Rollason-built aircraft (registered G-AWHV and named Blue Chip) won the Goodyear Trophy air race at Halfpenny Green in 1969.
G-ATLY was written off in an aerial collision with a Tiger Moth at Nottingham on 29 September 1973, killing the pilot,[4] G-AWHV was destroyed by fire in 1995[2] and G-AWHW crashed on 17 December 1987 at RAF Wattisham, Suffolk, killing the pilot.[5]