The spectacle of Alan Cobham’s Flying Circus and the Fleet at anchor
in Weymouth inspired the author’s lifelong passion
for aeroplanes, flying and the Royal Navy. World War Two provided the
opportunity to fulfil his ambition and at eighteen he volunteered for the Fleet
Air Arm as a pilot. Training in Canada began a Naval flying career
that spanned thirty-years. Front line squadron service, embarked on aircraft
carriers was followed by qualification as a flying instructor. Selection for the
Empire Test Pilots School at Farnborough and qualification as an experimental
Test Pilot changed the direction of his naval career. In all he flew nearly one
hundred types of aircraft and carried out close to a thousand deck landings.
Initial flight testing of a number of new naval aircraft, as well as research
flying in support of the development of aircraft such as the English Electric
Lightning and Concorde added to a unique career.
Such a long and varied period of flying was not without the
inevitable mishaps. A near catastrophic catapult launch of a new naval aircraft,
the jamming of the power control system in a research aircraft and hazardous
flying through tropical storms at supersonic speeds to determine safety factors
for Concorde’s intended Far East route were some of the dangers of flying at the
cutting edge. As pilot, he flew the first Royal Naval aircraft to cross the
Atlantic non-stop without in-flight refuelling or navigational aids. He
describes the fascinating ten day flight from Croydon to Rangoon across Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan and India to deliver
a Percival Provost trainer to the Burmese Air Force.
