Forgotten pilots or flights...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Addendum to the last post - https://journalofwonder.embraer.com/glo ... n-his-mind

[TheGreenGoblin]

A pilot that many might not remember these days. A man who rose to the heights but whose unfortunate death, and those of some of his passengers, might have been bound up in a hubris that was not becoming of what had gone before. Nonetheless he lies buried in Arlington Cemetery, alongside his wife, the actress Maureen O'Hara and his legacy is a worthy one...

Blair flew flying boats into Foynes, Ireland from 1942 to 1945. Foynes' sheltered inlet made for a good operation area for flying boats, and it was the last port of call on Ireland's eastern shore. As a result, Foynes became one of the biggest civilian airports in Europe during World War II. Blair was the first pilot to make the transatlantic flight from the U.S. to Foynes carrying passengers and mail. On July 8, 1989 his widow, Maureen O'Hara, cut the opening ceremony ribbon for the Foynes Flying Boat and Maritime Museum. She also presided over the Grand Reopening and Expansion of the Flying Boats Museum in 2006. O'Hara had been asked to be the museum's patron. She accepted, and served in this capacity from its opening until her death in 2015.

O'Hara donated her late husband's flying boat (Sikorsky VS-44A) "The Queen of the Skies" to the New England Air Museum. The restoration of the plane took 8 years and time was donated by former pilots and mechanics in honour of Charles Blair.

A reproduction of Blair's red P-51 used to be displayed on the roof of the Queen's Building at Heathrow airport.

Blair's Sandringham Flying boat VP-LVE "Southern Cross" has been the center piece of the Southampton Hall of Aviation since 1984. The plane has been restored to appear as it did for Ansett Flying Boat Services, with registration number VH-BRC and the name "Beachcomber".

The Seaplane terminal located at The Charlotte Amalie Harbor Seaplane Base was dedicated in his honor.

Blair and Maureen O'Hara are buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia

C F Blair Jr.

This day in aviation.... C F Blair

[TheGreenGoblin]

A little more on Charles F Blair and the Sandringham Flying boat VP-LVE "Southern Cross"....

http://www.pooleflyingboats.com/archive ... -Cross.pdf

[TheGreenGoblin]

Definitely not forgotten in South Africa... a thoroughly decent man with a more liberal minded view of the world than some of his peers in SA at the time.

Bob Rogers (SAAF Officer)

Robert Harry Doherty Rogers, SSA, SM, MMM, DSO, DFC & Bar (7 November 1921 – 3 June 2000) was a Chief of the South African Air Force. He joined the South African Air Force (SAAF) in 1940, and served in the Second World War and the Korean War. He subsequently rose through the ranks to become Chief of the SAAF. After his military career he entered politics and served as a Member of Parliament.

This interview is very interesting, and tells us more about the history of the SAAF post war than one might imagine. Many SAAF officers quit in the period after the Korean War to fly for the RAF, Fleet Air Arm (e.g. Dick Lord who joined the Fleet Air Arm directly ), went to the commercial side or quit aviation altogether, because they were not Afrikaans speakers or, worse, didn't support the Nationalist government. That Bob Rogers not only avoided these pitfalls, but went on to the highest level, is a measure of the man he was.

[TheGreenGoblin]

This story is bigger than Kearey and encompasses multiple dramatis personae, including well know (now sadly deceased) Johannesburg newspaper editor and author Carel Birkby, the well known British author Desmond Bagley, and sundry other rogues and "buveurs", who used to drink in the infamous "journalists bar" in the old Federal Hotel in Johannesburg (see - Rand Daily Mail.

Charles Sydney Kearey, a former Imperial Airways captain and later pilot for the South African airline Comair, was born in Durban in 1916. Moving to the UK he served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a pilot in 211 Squadron from 30th June 1937 to April 1938, when he travelled to Egypt and was posted to 14 Squadron at Amman in Trans-Jordan.

Resigning his short service commission with the RAF on 25th June 1939 he was seconded to the South African Air Force (SAAF) [1]. In August 1940 Kearey, then a Lieutenant in the SAAF, was based at the old Nairobi Civil Airport flying Vickers Valentia Type 264 transport aircraft. A Fairey Battle single-engine light bomber had made a forced landing near Lokitaung a few miles from Namoropus, an Italian fort on the border between Abyssinia and Kenya. Kearey flew mechanics to the site in an attempt to retrieve the aircraft and whilst they worked mentioned in casual conversation to his colleagues that it was a shame they didn’t have a bomb to drop on the fort on their return journey. Lt. Joe Lentzner, one of the South African Engineer Corps mechanics, enthusiastically replied that he would make Kearey one.

Lentzner packed an empty 44 gallon petrol drum with 380 sticks (130 lbs) of gelignite, around the explosive he packed scrap iron shrapnel consisting of ploughshares, a scale, a sewing machine, a differential from a motor car and some nuts and bolts, all obtained from a nearby abandoned general store. Fused to give a delay of 60 seconds the drum was bound with 100 yards of wire so that it wouldn’t break upon impact.

At 04.00hrs on the morning of 14th August 1940 Kearey flew towards the Italian fort with his crew: Fighter Pilot Lt. Oscar Coetzee; A./Sgt. F. Squares; A./Sgt. Ted Armour; and Lentzner acting as bomb aimer. As Kearey circled the target Lentzner lit the main fuse with a cigarette and manhandled the bomb into the doorway to a chorus of Roll Out The Barrel. The bomb briefly lodged in the doorway and Lentzner eventually managed to cajole it through the doorway where it fell in the courtyard of the fort killing 25 enemy troops. During the attack Coetzee received a wound in his foot from machine gun fire and the Valentia received 93 hits.

Back in Nairobi and sworn to secrecy due to the unplanned, unrehearsed and unauthorised attack the mechanics repaired the damage to the aircraft and Coetzee gave the cause of his wound as having stepped on glass from a bottle. A few days later a radio broadcast in Rome gave an account of an RAF bomber attack on the Italian fort, falsely claiming that the aircraft had been beaten off by anti-aircraft fire. The broadcast initiated an official enquiry and after a month of deliberation the fearless Kearey was publicly chastised, privately commended and quietly transferred to bombers. South African censors finally released the story with scant details to Time magazine for publication on December 4th, 1944. In January 1945 Kearey, now a Major, was awarded the Air Force Cross. When peace came, he led an equally adventurous life, operating Halifaxes between Rome and Palestine for the Jewish forces and later flew aircraft for ex-president Moïse Kapenda Tshombe in the Congo civil war.

Read the whole story here... Bagley and the overload affair...

[TheGreenGoblin]

These pilots were prompted by a present from a ghost, I received in the post yesterday, two years after he had purchased it...

Georges Guynemer

Georges Guynemer (French pronunciation: ​[ʒɔʁʒ ɡinmɛːʁ], 24 December 1894 – 11 September 1917 missing) was the second highest-scoring French fighter ace with 54 victories during World War I, and a French national hero at the time of his death.

Georges Marie Ludovic Jules Guynemer was born in Compiègne to a wealthy and aristocratic family. His father was Paul Guynemer. His mother was Julie, Countess of Saint-Quentin. He experienced an often sickly childhood. Nevertheless, he succeeded as an aviator through his enormous drive and self-confidence.

He was originally rejected five times for military service due to frailty, but was accepted for training as a mechanic in late 1914. With determination, he gained acceptance to pilot training, joining Escadrille MS.3 on 8 June 1915. He remained in the same unit for his entire service. The first plane allocated to him was a Morane-Saulnier L monoplane previously flown by Charles Bonnard, and accordingly named Vieux Charles (Old Charles). Guynemer kept the name and continued to use it for most of his later aircraft.

and

Jerry Pentland

Alexander Augustus Norman Dudley "Jerry" Pentland, MC, DFC, AFC (5 August 1894 – 3 November 1983) was an Australian fighter ace in World War I. Born in Maitland, New South Wales, he commenced service as a Lighthorseman with the Australian Imperial Force in 1915, and saw action at Gallipoli. He transferred to the Royal Flying Corps the following year, rising to captain. Credited with twenty-three aerial victories, Pentland became the fifth highest-scoring Australian ace of the war, after Robert Little, Stan Dallas, Harry Cobby and Roy King. He was awarded the Military Cross in January 1918 for "conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty" on a mission attacking an aerodrome behind enemy lines, and the Distinguished Flying Cross that August for engaging four hostile aircraft single-handedly.

Pentland served in the fledgling Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and later the Royal Air Force, before going into business in 1927. His ventures included commercial flying around the goldfields of New Guinea, aircraft design and manufacture, flight instruction, and charter work. In the early 1930s, he was employed as a pilot with Australian National Airways, and also spent time as a dairy farmer. Soon after the outbreak of World War II, he re-enlisted in the RAAF, attaining the rank of squadron leader and commanding rescue and communications units in the South West Pacific. Perhaps the oldest operational pilot in the wartime RAAF, Pentland was responsible for rescuing airmen, soldiers and civilians, and earned the Air Force Cross for his "outstanding courage, initiative and skill". He became a trader in New Guinea when the war ended in 1945, and later a coffee planter. Retiring in 1959, he died in 1983 at the age of eighty-nine.

and

Francesco Baracca

Count Francesco Baracca (9 May 1888 – 19 June 1918) was Italy's top fighter ace of World War I. He was credited with 34 aerial victories. The emblem he wore side by side on his plane of a black horse prancing on its two rear hooves inspired Enzo Ferrari to use it on his racing car and later in his automotive company.

[TheGreenGoblin]

This chap is one of those people whose life's narrative is so big that it needs more than a book to do it justice, although I do recommend Jack Malloch - Legend of African Skies by Alan Brough...

A South African by birth, a Rhodesian by spirt, he flew as part of the contingent of Rhodesian pilots (that included Ian Smith) on behalf of the RAF in Italy, where he was shot down, seriously injured, had the horror of hearing some of those Italians helping him murdered by the Nazi's, and fell in love with one of the daughters of the Italians helping him. Rescued by an Italian pilot flying a Fieseler Fi 156 Storch he finally made it back to Africa where his life's adventure really began, an adventure that included building an aviation business, hotels, flying commercially in Africa, gun running, flying as a mercenary, sanctions busting, supporting various intelligence agencies, being vilified by the British (after he had supported their covert SAS operations in Yemen) etc. etc.

John "Jack" McVicar Malloch

His life's timeline give some clue as to the varied and hugely interesting, not to say adventurous life this complex man lived.

Timeline

His life came to an end in Rhodesian (by then Zimbabwe) while flying the sole surviving Rhodesian Spitfire that he had rescued and restored, while being filmed by a Vampire chase aircraft for a documentary film, when both aircraft flew into one of those black green Cumulo Nimbus clouds that one sees all over Africa, and only the Vampire came out in one piece. The story of the restoration of the Spitfire, during the latter days of the bush war in Rhodesia, was an odyssey in itself.

F22 Spitfire

[TheGreenGoblin]

[CharlieOneSix]

I took this photo of Jack Malloch's Spitfire in February 1980 at the then Salisbury Airport on one of the early runs of its Griffon engine...great posts, TGG
As my photo shows the initial ground runs were done before the paint was applied - not afterwards according to the description in the excellent video.

Rhodesian Spitfire.jpg (19.5 KiB) Viewed 819 times

[TheGreenGoblin]

I guess your helicopter had no need of the long runway at Salisbury airport C16, longer than the longest runway at Johannesburg to this day.

Fascinating that you got to see the Griffon run up. Did you meet Jack Malloch in person? I have always wondered how a pilot of his experience could have inadvertently penetrated a powerful cell like that, but he did and lost his life and his beloved Spitfire.

Glad you enjoyed the post.

[CharlieOneSix]

No, never met Jack Malloch. It's a long time ago but I think we were based in his hangar when we rebuilt the helicopters after their freighting flight from the UK - UP's Raspberry Ripple in the foreground...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Sometime also mistakenly called Anthony, some might say he is very well known, but to whom, I ask? I have no hesitation in adding him to this list.

Diminutive, brave, cack-handed in the beginning (he wrote off three aircraft in landing accidents) this ex SACS and then College House boy showed the courage and tenacity to become an ace in WW1 and win the VC for his pains and then completing his Engineering Degree at UCT before resuming his RAF Commission in England. Sadly he was killed after the war while practising for an air display at Hendon. It seems likely that his small stature and the need for cushions, may have undone him when they slipped out during a manoeuvre. He was buried, initially in Wiltshire but Mafeking and South Africa claimed him back, and he is now buried in Mafeking, where I stop whenever I am in that neck of the woods (not often these days sadly) to pay my respect when I can.

Beauchamp-Proctor's victory total was 54; two (and one shared) captured enemy aircraft, 13 (and three shared) balloons destroyed, 15 (and one shared) aircraft destroyed, and 15 (and one shared) aircraft 'out of control'.[1] His 16 balloons downed made him the leading British Empire balloon buster.

Andrew Beaucham-Proctor

On 2 November, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, followed by the Victoria Cross on 30 November. He scored all of his 54 victories in the SE5, becoming the most successful pilot in the type.

Page 14204 Supplement to the London Gazette 30 November 1918 reads as follows:

BP1.JPG (111.19 KiB) Viewed 782 times

BP2.JPG (34.76 KiB) Viewed 782 times

[PHXPhlyer]

Aeropostale: The hero pilots who connected the world by airmail
What do two major national airlines, an American fashion retail brand, a large publicly listed industrial corporation, a Hollywood movie and several prize-winning literary works all have in common?

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/aero ... index.html

(CNN) — What do two major national airlines, an American fashion retail brand, a large publicly listed industrial corporation, a Hollywood movie and several prize-winning literary works all have in common?
They are all linked to the extraordinary legacy of an airline that ceased to exist 90 years ago this year.
Despite its relatively short-lived existence, from 1918 to 1931, the "Compagnie générale aéropostale," usually known simply as Aéropostale, left an indelible mark, both in the world of civilian aviation and in the public imagination.
Right at the end of World War I, French aviation pioneer Pierre-Georges Latécoère made a reality of his vision to establish a regular air link carrying mail between Europe and Latin America.
The firm that came to be known as Aéropostale was founded at the end of 1918 under the official name of "Société des lignes Latécoère."
In the decade that followed, this enterprise would not only contribute enormously to the consolidation of air transportation as an essential service in different parts of the world, but also became synonymous with adventure and fearlessness. The story of Aerópostale is perhaps the last big epic tale of the era of exploration.
Aéropostale's long route started in Toulouse, in the south of France. From there it crossed the Pyrenees to Barcelona, followed Spain's Mediterranean coast to Alicante and then over to North Africa, which at the time was under Spanish and French rule.
The line continued south along Morocco's Atlantic coast, with several waypoints along the way: Casablanca, Agadir, Cape Juby/Tarfaya and the present-day cities of Dakhla, Nouadhibou and Saint-Louis, until it reached its African terminus at Dakar, in Senegal.
Given the limitations of aircraft at the time, mail was then loaded on board ships that bridged the South Atlantic at its narrowest point, between West Africa and northeastern Brazil.
From there, the Latin American branch of Aéropostale took over. Its planes flew the mail all the way to Buenos Aires and beyond. The Argentinian capital acted as a hub from which multiple regional routes sprung, taking air mail across the Andes to Santiago de Chile, north to Paraguay and south towards Patagonia.
A magnet for adventurers
This enterprise was not for the faint hearted. In addition to the hazards of 1920s flying, which was a rather dangerous and uncomfortable job, Aéropostale's pilots had to traverse vast regions under extreme climate conditions and devoid of any support infrastructure.
But this may also have been part of the allure.
Aéropostale managed to attract some of the most intrepid aviators of the time, pilots such as Jean Mermoz and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, of "Le Petit Prince'' fame. These were not only daring adventurers, but also talented wordsmiths. And the way their long, perilous journeys were immortalized in a series of award-winning books, and later movies, would massively contribute to the legendary aura of Aéropostale.
Saint-Exupéry's "Vol de Nuit" (Night Flight), for example, was an immediate success when it was first published in 1931, and the story was adapted for film by John Ford in his 1932 movie "Air Mail." It narrates the author's exploits on Aéropostale's Chilean run.
The Andes' 20,000-foot-high peaks presented a formidable obstacle to the fragile aircraft of the time. In one of the book's passages Saint-Exupéry tells the story of his close Aéropostale companion Henri Guillaumet, who, after crashing his plane on an Andean glacier spent several days on an epic trek through snow and ice. He managed to reach a remote Argentinian settlement when he was on the brink of succumbing to cold and fatigue.
This sort of epic would be followed by "Terre des Hommes" (translated to English as "Wind, Sand and Stars"), about Saint-Exupéry's own experience flying in the Sahara desert. Pilots had to rely on primitive navigation and there was often the risk of running out of fuel or experiencing technical difficulties. Pilots making emergency landings in the desert risked being captured by local nomadic tribes who would then attempt to ransom them.
This book also includes Saint-Exupéry's own near-death experience, already in his post-Aéropostale period, after crash-landing in the Egyptian desert. Saint-Exupéry and his co-pilot endured a grueling desert journey in which they were close to dying of thirst before being rescued by a Bedouin tribesmen.

This pioneering spirit was not exclusive to the pilots.
The story of Raymond Galtié is a case in point. Born in 1901 in the south of France, he joined the French navy's submarine arm as a teenager. After serving throughout the World War I years, Galtié left the navy in 1922 to join Aéropostale, where he worked as a mechanic.
"Mechanics at that time were often flying together with famous pilots, such as Mermoz or Saint-Exupéry. They developed close friendships because they spent many hours together in those little, fragile aircraft," says Sònia Galtié, Raymond Galtié's granddaughter, who recently came across a trove of old family photographs.
This led her to further research the life of her grandfather and of Aéropostale. She came across several websites and forums which celebrate the memory of the airline and this close-knit community of people devoted to the advancement of aviation.
Raymond Galtié's engagement with Aéropostale had a happy ending. He traveled the world, working at several of the firm's outposts in Latin America and Europe and later went on to have a successful career with Air France.
But this was not the fate of the firm's most famous pilots.
Mermoz, Saint-Exupéry and Guillaumet would all end their days tragically at the helm of their aircraft in the years following Aéropostale's demise.
The latter two disappeared while on duty in the Mediterranean during World War II, in 1944 and 1940 respectively, presumably due to enemy action (an aircraft wreck found near Marseilles in 2003 has since been positively identified as Saint-Exupéry's aircraft).
Mermoz meanwhile was lost in December 1936, when he was crossing the South Atlantic, in an incident which some have attributed to sabotage, although engine reliability issues may have been a more likely cause.
A long-lasting legacy
Although he remained inextricably linked to the aviation industry all his life and went on to build one of France's largest aerospace businesses, the Groupe Latécoère, which still exists today, in 1927 Pierre-Georges Latécoère sold the air mail business to Marcel Bouilloux-Lafont, a French financier and politician who gave it a new name: "Compagnie Générale Aéropostale".
By 1930 Aéropostale had grown into a massive logistics operation, transporting 32 million letters per year over 17,000 kilometers of air and sea routes (Aéropostale also operated a fleet of eight ships) that straddled three continents.
In that very same year, Jean Mermoz, one of the firm's legendary pilots, would close the Atlantic gap at the helm of a Latécoère 28 seaplane loaded with 122 kilos of mail. It took 19 hours and 35 minutes for Mermoz to fly between Senegal and Brazil. Although regular ocean crossings would continue to be done by ship, Mermoz had shown that it was possible for a letter from France to reach Santiago de Chile in as little as four days.
But soon after reaching its zenith, Aéropostale suddenly folded.
The 1929 financial crisis severely impacted the firm and political instability in Brazil and Argentina added to the woes. In 1931 the French government denied an appeal for financial help and Aéropostale was liquidated soon after. Its assets were absorbed by the group of companies that would eventually become Air France.

The Aéropostale brand was however retained by Air France, which used it for some of its mail and cargo activities, operated jointly with the French postal service (La Poste), until 2000.
La Poste then got full ownership of the business, which was rebranded as Europe Airpost, before selling it again, this time to an Irish company called ASL Aviation Group, which operates passenger and cargo flights to this day under the ASL Airlines brand.
Aéropostale's heritage lives on in the Southern Hemisphere too.
The firm's Argentinian network, known as Aeroposta Argentina, kept operating well after the demise of its European parent, since it provided the only civilian regular air service in the country. It would eventually be nationalized and merged with other airlines to form Aerolineas Argentinas in 1946.
What's more -- perhaps because of the dazzling personalities of the people involved in its operation and the extraordinary literary work they left behind -- the popularity of Aéropostale has transcended the confines of the aviation world to inspire the naming of a US fashion retail chain (that has no relation to the original Aéropostale, however).
Yet, nothing beats the real thing.
As we mark the 90th anniversary of its demise, Aéropostale aficionados have a chance to re-enact the feats of Mermoz, Guillaumet and Saint-Exupéry by participating in the Raid Latécoère-Aéropostale, a long-distance air rally that, since 2008, has regularly retraced the old Aéropostale routes throughout Africa and Latin America.

PP

[Undried Plum]

No, never met Jack Malloch. It's a long time ago but I think we were based in his hangar when we rebuilt the helicopters after their freighting flight from the UK -

UP's Raspberry Ripple in the foreground...

That wuzz Moi.

Fukkn great big tall skids, necessary for long grass and tall snakes, or so I was told. I treasure my willy and I'm keeping it. They gave me a pistol for shooting snakes and niggahs and stuff.

Every landing was a thumper. Bit late on the left-hand lift-up, Hoskins. That sort of thing.

The sort of thing that makes yer balls retract.

I also did the test flight back at Saafend on the proppa skids. That felt better. Smoooth!

[TheGreenGoblin]

Aeropostale: The hero pilots who connected the world by airmail
What do two major national airlines, an American fashion retail brand, a large publicly listed industrial corporation, a Hollywood movie and several prize-winning literary works all have in common?

What a good post. Truly some of the most intrepid souls whose names, once on people's lips, are now slowly disappearing into the mists of time (save perhaps for Saint-Exupéry whose beautiful prose have rendered him timeless).

The tale of Mermoz's walk back to life and safety still brings my skin out in goose bumps... a true a legend, he even looked like a hero...


Jean Mermoz

[TheGreenGoblin]

Saint-Exupéry's last mission... (old, fatter, unfit, a dreamer, heart broken at the loss of France and his own romantic travails)...

Horst Rippert, an 88-year old former pilot of Germany’s Luftwaffe, has said in a forthcoming book that he may have killed French writer and war pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1944.

Saint-Exupery, who achieved worldwide fame with his fairy-tale-like book “The Little Prince”, died in mysterious circumstances when his plane came down near Marseilles while on a reconnaissance mission. His body has never been found.

Extracts of the book “Saint-Exupery: The Final Secret” were published in Le Figaro magazine over the weekend, and Le Figaro quoted Rippert as saying: “It’s me, I shot down Saint-Exupery.”

However, Rippert also said in the article that he could not be certain of the identity of the French pilot whose plane he shot down. He also hoped it was not the French author as he was a big fan of Saint-Exupery’s works.


“I didn’t see the pilot and even so, it would have been impossible for me to know that it was Saint-Exupery. I have hoped ever since that it wasn’t him,” he said.

Saint-Exupery was a pioneering pilot of his era. Following the Nazi German occupation of France in 1940, he moved to New York but then came back and joined the Free French air force. He was 44 years old when he died.

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horst_Rippert

The Little Prince

[TheGreenGoblin]

An excellent commentary on the riddle of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's death and the claims of the German who said he had downed him...

[TheGreenGoblin]

The tale of Mermoz's walk back to life and safety still brings my skin out in goose bumps... a true legend...

Not Mermoz, but Guillaumet, of course, the stories blur into one, in the end, as one's mind wanders...

In June 1930 his companion Guillaumet was lost in the mountains during a storm. For days and days, Saint Exupéry flew over the Andes looking for him or for any sign of his fate. Nobody wanted to accompany him on a trip by land, since the wisdom of the Baqueanos says that the Andes, in winter, do not return men. He writes, then, in an imaginary letter to his friend, which will then be part of his book Land of Men:

“… And when I again slipped between the walls of the giant pillars of the Andes, it seemed to me that I was not looking for you anymore, but that I watched over your body in silence, inside a cathedral of snow …”

Incredibly, after five days of erring, the pilot was found safe and sound. The story of his heroic journey in the mountains, heard so many times by Saint Exupéry, is told in great detail and poetry, in, Land of Men (Wind Sand and Stars) .

https://www.patagonia-argentina.com/en/ ... patagonia/

Henri Guillaumet

[Undried Plum]

Channel Four's on demand service does require registration, but it's simple and free.

[media]https://www.channel4.com/programmes/guy ... /53498-001[/media]

A MkI, "re"built from a pile of mouldering wreckage found on French beach in 1986, where it had been shot down over Dunkirk.

Flown by the then Squadron Leader Geoffrey Stephenson, CO of 19Sqn. He did a forced landing and had to surrender to the sausage people. After several escape attempts they sorted him out by sending him to Colditz.

After the War he became ADC to HMQ and sadly was killed in the US on a test flight of an F100. He was survived by his two young daughters.

I commend the documentary to the House.

[TheGreenGoblin]

A little more on Squadron leader Geoffrey Stepheson who UP has so appropriately and interestingly brought to our attention.

The 44-year-old pilot had flown several thousand hours in fighter aircraft, both conventional and jet, during his 20-year RAF career. He had piloted virtually every type of British jet fighter including Meteors, Venoms, Hunters and Swifts, as well as USAF F-86s. He was considered one of the most experienced and capable fighter pilots in the RAF...

Air Commodore Stephenson headed a six-man team from the central fighter establishment, RAF, whose headquarters are at RAF West Raynham near Fakenham, Norfolk. They were at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, home of the Air Proving Ground Center, on an exchange tour.

On 8 November 1954, Air Commodore Stephenson was flying a USAF F-100A-10-NA Super Sabre, 53-1534,[5] near Auxiliary Field 2 of Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. He was flying at 13,000 ft (4,000 m) as he joined formation with another F-100, flown by Capt. Lonnie R. Moore, jet ace of the Korean campaign, when his fighter dropped into a steep spiral, impacting at ~14:14 in a pine forest on the Eglin Reservation, one mile NE of the runway of Pierce Field, Auxiliary Fld. 2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_D._Stephenson

Squadron-Leader-Geoffrey-Stephenson-was-shot-down-in-Spitfire-F-IA-N3200-on-May-26-1940.jpg (19.3 KiB) Viewed 601 times

http://thecasualobserver.co.za/slipped- ... nds-earth/