Cheshire tackled the morale problem by ordering changes to the aircraft to improve the performance. He was amongst the first to notice that it was very rare for a Halifax to return on three engines. There were reports the Halifax was unstable in a "corkscrew", the manoeuvre used by bomber pilots to escape the attacks of night fighters. Test pilot, Captain Eric Brown, was tasked with determining the cause. He and his flight engineer set to conduct a series of flight tests, when Brown was informed a representative from Bomber Command would fly along. Brown remembers "We couldn't believe it, it was Cheshire! We were astonished to say the least. I asked him not to touch the controls, and to his everlasting credit he never commented at all. He just sat in the second pilot's seat and raised his eyebrows at what we were doing!"