Forgotten pilots or flights...

[CharlieOneSix]

Well done TGG! I still don’t recall the name but my visual recollection is that it is her, albeit in ‘71 she was facially a little heavier than in that photo and video. I was more taken with Jay which is probably why I can remember her name.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Sydney Cotton, Australian (I guess he couldn't help that), pilot, photographer, spy and later Squadron Leader and head of "Cotton's Club" who was the bane of the RAF hierarchy's lives. He lived a colourful life after the war as well...

Immortalized in a book entitled Aviator Extraordinary: the Sidney Cotton story, by Ralph Barker...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Well done TGG! I still don’t recall the name but my visual recollection is that it is her, albeit in ‘71 she was facially a little heavier than in that photo. I was more taken with Jay which is probably why I can remember her name.

[CharlieOneSix]

The media always seem to get it wrong about the first woman to fly scheduled services. I briefly met Ann Bostock through an ex-Mrs C16 in 1976 when both flew for BCAL although Ann was a pilot. It was claimed by media and others at that time that she was the first female airline pilot - she wasn't, although she certainly was the first one in BCAL. Technically a Lloyd-Bostock she married and became Ann Cranfield. I seem to recall she left aviation and became a lawyer.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Claude Grahame-White, the man who set up a flying school at Hendon airfield, and who put it on the map, and who was royally screwed over by the British treasury in the end...

He Woke Up England
“Claude Grahame-White has gone. To most of the industry’s young men he was
a name. To their elders he was an heroic figure, somewhere betwixt the Wright
Brothers and Buffalo Bill. For it was this gutsy airman show-man who stirred
their schoolboy blood with a joystick. “Wake Up England” was his cry. Fun,
fame and fortune were his goals; homage by his peers his destiny. The pre1914 Hendon days of “G-W” and his band have long been mellow memories.
But wherever people gather in this island to enjoy the spectacle of flying and
take comfort from the benefits it brings our nation and our race…the shade of
Grahame-White will look benignly on.”
(Flight ,1959:63)

Good detail here...

[TheGreenGoblin]

E T Busk was better known, during his heyday, as an engineer, his tragic last flight robbed Britain of a brilliant man whose contribution to flight has been forgotten by many today.

Lieutenant Edward Teshmaker Busk, London Electrical Engineers. RE(T) (8 March 1886 – 5 November 1914) was an English pioneer of early aircraft design, and the designer of the first full-sized efficient inherently stable aeroplane.

He was the son of Thomas Teshmaker Busk (1852–1894) and Mary Busk née Acworth (1854–1935), of Hermongers, Rudgwick, Sussex. After attaining First Class Honours in Mechanical Sciences at Cambridge in June 1912 he became Assistant Engineer at the newly formed Royal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough, later the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Here he devoted much of his time to the mathematics and dynamics of stable flight.

In the early years of powered flight inherent stability in an aircraft was a most important quality. Busk took his theories into the air and tried them out in practice. In 1913 this work was used in the R.E.1 (Reconnaissance Experimental), claimed as the first inherently stable aeroplane, and resulted in the development of the B.E.2c.

The remarkable feature of this design was that there was no single device that was the cause of the stability. The stability resulted from detailed design of each part of the aircraft, with due regard to its relation to, and effect on, other parts in the air. Weights and areas were so arranged that under most conditions the machine would tend to right itself.

Busk was killed on 5 November 1914 while making an experimental flight in a B.E.2 which caught fire at Laffans Plain (now Farnborough Airfield), near Aldershot, burning him to death. He was buried at Aldershot Military Cemetery with full military honours.

ET Busk.JPG (36.37 KiB) Viewed 1916 times

B.E.2c.JPG (19.5 KiB) Viewed 1916 times

[TheGreenGoblin]

Scion of the famous Indian industrialist family, and the son of noted businessman Ratanji Dadabhoy Tata and his French wife Suzanne Brière. Founder of Indian airlines, he was a pioneering pilot himself, having flown a Puss Moth in a number of ground breaking flights in India and also between England and India in the 30's.

J R D Tata

“On an exciting October dawn in 1932, a Puss Moth and I soared joyfully from Karachi with our first precious load of mail, on an inaugural flight to Bombay. As we hummed towards our destination at a dazzling 100 mph, I breathed a silent prayer for the success of our venture and for the safety of those who worked for it.

We were a small team in those days. We shared successes and failures, the joys and headaches, as together we built up the enterprise which later was to blossom into Air-India and Air-India International,” JRD recalled later.

Tata was aided by South African Nevill Vintcent, another forgotten pilot these days... His story and sad death, are all worthy of a book or a film too...

Nevill Vintcent, a South African, born in 1902, entered Osborne in 1916, proceeded to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and served in HMS Temeraire for a few months during the Great War. In 1920 he went to the Royal Air Force College Cranwell with the first course, was commissioned in the RAF in 1922, and served in Kurdistan, Transjordania, Egypt, and Iraq, where he won the DFC in unusual circumstances when he, with a brother officer, had made a forced landing in hostile country. To enable his co-pilot to fire the guns of the aeroplane and beat off the attacks of Arab horsemen, he carried the tail of the aeroplane on his shoulder, and throughout a prolonged engagement swung the aircraft into position for firing until help arrived.

Pilot
For a time he served as a pilot at the RAF Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Martlesham Heath. Convinced of the great future of civil aviation, he left the RAF in 1926 and engaged in air survey work in India, Burma, the Federated Malay States and Borneo, and he flew the first air mail from Borneo to the Straits Settlements.

India
In 1928 he, with a partner, undertook one of the early long-distance pioneer flights, when they flew two de Havilland DH.9 aeroplanes from England to India. For two years he was engaged with spreading the gospel of aviation in India, and his contact with Mr. J.R.D. Tata, of Tata Sons Ltd, gave birth to Tata Airlines.

Nevill Vintcent and J.R.D. Tata together pioneered the air mail service from London to the sub-continent. On 8 October 1932, an Imperial Airways aircraft flew from London to Karachi. J R D Tata, in a de Havilland Puss Moth took the mail on to Bombay, where Nevill Vintcent then took over for the leg to Madras, arriving on 16 October. The first westbound flight left Madras the following day.[1]

On 25 February 1935 Vintcent made an inaugural flight from Bombay to Nagpur to Jamshedpur and on to Calcutta with a de Havilland Fox Moth. They built one of the two air transport companies which, before the 1939-45 war, built the foundation of air transport in India, and during the war rendered invaluable assistance to the RAF in operating scheduled air transport services and in such operations as the carriage of troops to Iraq, the evacuation of women and children from Habbaniyah, and later from Burma.

In 1942, Vintcent set out on a flight to India to put into effect a plan for which he had fought long and tenaciously - the establishment of an aircraft factory in India. The RAF Hudson in which he had been given a place in the crew to expedite his return disappeared without trace after taking off from a Cornish aerodrome. While officially there was no further information, it is known that other RAF aircraft were attacked by enemy aircraft in the mouth of the English Channel that day, and among his friends it was presumed that Vintcent was shot down in that vicinity.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Stan Halse was the Chairman and Flying Instructor at the Johannesburg Light Plane Club (JLPC) from 1929-1937. He was a founding member together with Rod Douglas, seen below running up the Percival Mew Gull ZS-AHO named “Baragwanath” in honour of his home aerodrome on September 15th, 1936 at Gravesend U.K. which was entered for the

Schlesinger, Portsmouth to Rand Airport Race.

The colour scheme for this aircraft was Titanine pillar-box red overall with the lettering and the name in gold. Two of his pupils, Mr. ‘Rex’ Hull and Sir George Albu, put up the funds for the purchase of this aircraft from Percival’s factory at Gravesend.

This ‘Mew Gull’ was one of three entered for the race, the other entries were Major Allister Miller in ZS-AHM and Tom Campbell Black in G-AEKL.

Unfortunately Tom Campbell Black was killed at Speke Airport when a Hawker ‘Hart’ ran into him and sliced into his cockpit with its propeller.

Major Miller was forced to abandon the race at Belgrade owing to a faulty fuel feed.

Of the nine entrants to the race, only one succeeded in finishing – which was a Percival Vega Gull flown by Scott and Guthrie.

Stan Halse, who was well ahead of the race, attempted a landing in a field just outside Salisbury, Rhodesia in order to establish his position, not perceiving that it had been ploughed and the clods of earth jammed his wheels causing the plane to flip on its back and hurling Stan Halse through the cockpit and breaking his collar bone – he was hospitalized for two weeks.

Stan Halse’s Percival Mew Gull was powered by a Gipsy Six Series 2 – 205 HP engine with a two bladed 7ft diameter de Havilland variable pitch propeller.

https://jlpc.co.za/1936/09/stanley-halse/

Alex Henshaw's old mount...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Jackie Moggridge

Jackie Moggridge (1 March 1922 – 7 January 2004), also known as Jackie Sorour earlier in her career, was a pioneering pilot and the first woman airline captain of scheduled passenger services.

A bit more detail on Jackie Moggridge...

http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol126sb.html

[Woody]

Wally Westoby founder of Westair , when asked about his previous experience on one CAA form replied “ I’ve lived for a long time “

PaWoody might’ve had something to say about Denis’ s experience in the 60’s, think that I’ve still got the cutting from the News of the World involving Prince Philip and Jimmy Edwards at Cowdray Park

[TheGreenGoblin]

Wally Westoby founder of Westair , when asked about his previous experience on one CAA form replied “ I’ve lived for a long time “

PaWoody might’ve had something to say about Denis’ s experience in the 60’s, think that I’ve still got the cutting from the News of the World involving Prince Philip and Jimmy Edwards at Cowdray Park

Digitize and publicize!

Westair

[TheGreenGoblin]

"This is the story of one who preferred to live in the open, rather than within the confines of a London office, a condition that has beset the lives of millions of worthy but less fortunate people."

The story of Richard Reid “Dick” Bentley and his flight from England to South Africa in de Havilland DH60X Moth G-EBSO (c/n 419). Bentley and the Moth, fitted with a Cirrus Mark II engine, left London on September 1, 1927. Dick landed at Baragwanath Aerodrome on Monday, 26 September 1927. He arrived in Cape Town on September 28, 1927 having flown a distance of approximately 7,250 miles, achieving the then record longest solo flight.

https://jlpc.co.za/people/

Pioneering Spirit

To the Cape in a Moth...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Henry Petre aviator, married to Kay Petre, he was also Australia's first military pilot.

Henry Aloysius Petre (pronounced "Peter") was born on 12 June 1884 at Ingatestone, Essex. He was the son of Sebastian Henry Petre and his wife Catharine, née Sibeth. Descended from the 11th Baron Petre, Henry was schooled at Mount St Mary's College, Chesterfield, before following his father into law and becoming a solicitor in 1905. Impressed by Louis Blériot's pioneering cross-channel flight in July 1909, Petre gave up his legal practice, borrowed £250, and proceeded to build his own aeroplane, with design assistance from his brother Edward, an architect. After spending six months on its construction, Petre crashed the machine on its maiden flight. Uninjured and undiscouraged, he borrowed a further £25, took flying lessons at Brooklands Airfield in Surrey, and obtained Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate No. 128 on 12 September 1911. He became an instructor at Brooklands' Deperdussin School, and later its head, prior to taking up employment as a designer and pilot with Handley Page Limited in 1912. Characterised by official Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) historian Douglas Gillison as "quiet and academic by nature", and coming from a long line of Catholic clergy, Petre was nicknamed "Peter the Monk". On Christmas Eve 1912, Edward Petre, who was known as "Peter the Painter", was killed in an accident at Marske-by-the-Sea, Yorkshire, while attempting to fly from Brooklands to Edinburgh.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Petre

Petre1.JPG (39.17 KiB) Viewed 1818 times

[ian16th]

Petre crashed the machine on its maiden flight. Uninjured and undiscouraged, he borrowed a further £25, took flying lessons at Brooklands Airfield in Surrey,

Am I the only one to question this sequence?

[TheGreenGoblin]

Petre crashed the machine on its maiden flight. Uninjured and undiscouraged, he borrowed a further £25, took flying lessons at Brooklands Airfield in Surrey,

Am I the only one to question this sequence?

Petre gave up his legal practice, borrowed £250

An (possibly) impecunious lawyer, he gave up his practice and borrowed £250.00 to build the aircraft. Decided to try and fly the aircraft without any tuition and crashed it. He then borrowed an additional £25.00 to take lessons!

He wouldn't have been the first person to try and fly an aircraft without tuition, vide. Orville Wright!

[Undried Plum]

I would guess that this guy hopes that people forget this flight (and the similar one the previous day).

[media]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-56278463[/media]

Personally, I don't see a problem. If he'd arrived in a Ford Mondeo, would he have made the news?

So long as the field has not been used for flights more than twelve times in the prior twelve months, there should be no need for 'change of use' planning permission, so I don't understand the Council's problem.

[TheGreenGoblin]

I would guess that this guy hopes that people forget this flight (and the similar one the previous day).

[media]https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-l ... e-56278463[/media]

Personally, I don't see a problem. If he'd arrived in a Ford Mondeo, would he have made the news?

So long as the field has not been used for flights more than twelve times in the prior twelve months, there should be no need for 'change of use' planning permission, so I don't understand the Council's problem.

Bunch of nimbies, jobsworths and twisted, bureaucratic, power crazed nonentities (like mall security guards) who probably believe, that flying aircraft at any time, should be frowned upon or proscribed. <<Wow, a generalizing, possibly unreasonable, rant at 05:39 in the morning. I feel so much better for it!">>

[TheGreenGoblin]

One might note a slightly partisan theme here but these two gentlemen are probably not as well known as they should be here these days.

Both known for their sterling service (at the highest level of command) to South Africa, Britain and the British Empire in the RFC, RAF and SAAF, during both world wars, I am apt, also, to remember them for their record flight.

In 1920, The Times offered a prize of £10,000 for the first pilot to fly from London to Cape Town, South Africa. General Smuts wanted South African aviators to blaze this trail, and subsequently authorised the purchase of a Vickers Vimy, G-UABA named Silver Queen at a cost of £4,500. Pilots Lieutenant Colonel Pierre van Ryneveld (commander) and Captain Quintin Brand (co-pilot) formed the crew for the record-breaking flight.

Leaving Brooklands on 4 February 1920, they landed safely at Heliopolis, but on the flight to Wadi Halfa, they were forced to land due to engine overheating with 80 miles still to go. A second Vimy was loaned to the pair by the RAF at Heliopolis (and named Silver Queen II). In this second aircraft, the pair continued to Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia where the aircraft was badly damaged when it crashed on takeoff, van Ryneveld and Brand then borrowed an Airco DH.9 to continue the journey to Cape Town. They were disqualified as winners but nevertheless the South African government awarded them £5,000 each. Along with van Ryneveld, Brand was knighted in 1920 for his role in the record attempt.

Pierre Van Ryneveld


Quintin Brand

VanRyneveldBrand.JPG (62.92 KiB) Viewed 1776 times

[G-CPTN]

Bank of England inflation calculator gives £4500 in 1920 as worth £200,000 in 2020.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Bank of England inflation calculator gives £4500 in 1920 as worth £200,000 in 2020.

Not bad for a sponsored flight down Africa and a knighthood. I am also talking about the prize money split two ways, not just the cost of the aircraft.