As far as in-flight calamities go, the explosion of a pack of Tunnock’s tea cakes definitely takes the biscuit.
So when disaster allegedly struck on an RAF flight in 1965, plastering the windscreen, flight controls and men’s uniforms with pieces of chocolate and marshmallow, the sweet tweet was banned from military flights for good.
But now, 60 years on, the treasured snack has been passed fit to fly by the Royal Air Force following a test to see if they really do explode at altitude.
The RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine in Henlow, Bedfordshire, lifted the chocolate-covered biscuits with a marshmallow filling to 8,000ft – climbing at 4,000ft per minute – inside an altitude chamber normally used in the training of new jet pilots.
The teacakes were then rapidly decompressed to 25,000ft in three seconds to see if they would blow up.
In the test, while the marshmallow in the teacakes did escape from their chocolate casing, they did not appear to explode and cause a risk to in-flight safety.
And when the teacakes were frozen before being placed in the chamber, their hardened shells were more resilient to cracking at altitude.
The experiment was filmed for the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS), which provides news and entertainment for personnel and their families.
The RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine in Henlow, Bedfordshire, carried out a test on Tunnock’s Tea Cakes to see if they explode at high altitude
when disaster allegedly struck on an RAF flight in 1965, plastering the windscreen, flight controls and men’s uniforms with pieces of chocolate and marshmallow, the sweet tweet was banned from military flights for good. Above: A Cold War Vickers-Armstrong Valient bomber flying in 1951
Dr Oliver Bird, a Medical Officer Instructor at the RAF Centre of Aerospace Medicine, oversaw the tests on the teacakes and said he saw no reason why they couldn’t be taken on flights.
He recommended freezing the teacakes as it will make their chocolate shells more robust and cause them to merely crack during decompression.
He said: ‘I think the best advice is that the snacks are kept frozen and in their foil wrappings until pilots are ready to consume them.’
Hannah King, a producer and director who filmed the tests for BFBS News, said: ‘This was a critical piece of scientific testing.
‘I’m just glad the RAF medics at the Centre of Aerospace Medicine stepped up and answered the question that everyone’s been wondering for so many years.
‘It may be that the original teacakes really did explode in a much more dangerous fashion. Perhaps the recipe has changed – who knows.
‘But people ought to spread the word – it’s safe to fly with teacakes.’
An RAF source added that they were allowed to eat ‘sandwiches, sausage rolls, crisps, fruit and biscuit based confectionary’ on long missions in the past
In the test, while the marshmallow in the teacakes did escape from their chocolate casing, they did not appear to explode and cause a risk to in-flight safety
The family firm is led by Thomas’s grandson Sir Boyd Tunnock, 92, who created the Teacake in 1956 using marshmallow on a biscuit base coated in chocolate
The initial ban allegedly came into force after a captain and student pilot flying in a bomber plane in the summer of 1965 forgot they had placed unwrapped teacakes above their instrument panels.
When the captain pulled an emergency depressurising switch in a training mission, the treat erupted causing pieces of chocolate and marshmallow to hit the windscreen, flight controls and the men’s uniforms.
The story was revealed by retired Squadron Leader Tonny Cunnane in 2013.
Tunnock’s was founded as a bakery shop by Thomas Tunnock in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, in 1890.
It now employs more than 600 people in the town and exports to more than 30 countries including Saudi Arabia and Australia.
The distinctive red and silver wrapping of a Tunnock’s teacake
The family firm is led by Thomas’s grandson Sir Boyd Tunnock, 92, who created the Teacake in 1956 using marshmallow on a biscuit base coated in chocolate.
The sweet treats have become so popular that giant dancing teacakes featured in the opening ceremony of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
In 2017, scientists launched a teacake into space by attaching it to a weather balloon, which reached an altitude of 121,414ft.
When Sir Boyd was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019, he revealed that Her Majesty told him she preferred the teacake over Tunnock’s’ other bestseller, the caramel wafer.
The wafer – made up of five layers of wafer, four layers of caramel and fully coated in chocolate – was created by his father Archie in 1952.
