The M.9 was Miles' first high powered aircraft with aerodynamical clean lines, cantilever wings and tailplane. It's not clear if it was named after the bird of prey or after the engine it was powered by, the Rolls-Royce Kestrel.
It was equipped with thick wings, as the Miles Hawcon had, with a root thickness to chord ratio of about 12%. They had an inverted gull form, with anhedral inboard, which, on the outer part, became dihedral. The wings carried ailerons just after the outboard of Miles split trailing edge flaps in two sections of each wing. The main undercarriage was set at the lowest point of the wing and, in order to keep the legs short, they retracted backwards, with the wheels rotating into the plane of the wings. The Kestrel was also fitted with a tail wheel. Both rudder and elevator were fitted with trim tabs. It was made out of wood with spruce frames covered in beech plywood and dope fabric sheath. Both instructor and student sat under a simple perspex canopy, with the minimum framing and extra clean pannels in the fuselage sides, behind the rear seat. Forward seat was placed at around mid-chord.
It was powered by a single Rolls-Royce Kestrel XVI engine which yielded 745 hp of power and drove a three-bladed propeller and had a chin radiator under the nose.
The only prototype, registered as G-AEOC, was built privately by Miles, and flew for the first time in May 1937. Shortly later, on 26th June, it appeared at RAF Hendon display, where it showed remarkable performance for a trainer with top speed of 295 mph (475 km/h) at 14.000 ft high (4.270 m). Those numbers were comparable to the Hawker Hurricane fighter. That's why the British Air Ministry deemed the machine as premature, and ordered the first North American Harvards instead.
However, realizing that, during wartime, there could be supply problems, the Air Ministry reacted and placed a huge £2.000.000 order for the Kestrel successor in June 1938, making it the most expensive contract for a trainer aircraft back then. This would eventually serve as the prototype of the Miles Master I.
Once that programme kicked off, the Kestrel was used for a series of stalling experiments and the fitting of slats on the leading edges of the wings.
By 1943, the Kestrel had completed its usefulness and was returned to Reading to be dismantled. The engine was removed and used to drive the fan of a new wind tunnel being built at the factory.
It was not armed, though it had provision for a single 0.303 in (7.7 mm) Browning machine gun at the starboard wing, outboard the landing gear and a camera in the matching port side position. It could also carry up to eight small practice bombs on two central section racks.
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Kestrel
2. Scale Aircraft Modelling Magazine. Volume 19 Number 8. October 1997.
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