Nice one. I remember seeing Janusz Zurakowski's wonderful displays in the Gloster Meteor at Farnborough in the 50s.

It's a pity we don't do the same for our heroes over here. Our test pilots used to be household names, as well known as film stars. 50 years later I wouldn't mind betting the general public have never heard of Neville Duke or any of his contemporaries.

Hagar, I actually remember Peter Twiss from my kiddie days...........

Well only Porteous doesn't ring any bells in that list Doug!

Mark

Only two I know are Nevil Duke (WW2 Spitfire Pilot) and Roland Beamont. Beamont worked with Hawker. He Flew Typhoons and was involved with the development of the Tempest. He commanded the first Tempest wing and scored the Tempests first air to air on D-Day plus 2 in Tempest 5 JN751, a newly delivered Tempest complete with factory painted (and so nice and neat) invasion stripes!
Duke broke the world speed record in Hunter WB188 in 1953. His speed 727.6 MPH.

Hagar pal, I'm sorry if I got any of that wrong, but it was all from memory

Am I confused if I add in Athos, Porthos, and Aramis?  ....guess I was too young when I left GB.... ???



John Derry...........DH 101 ?

Peter Twiss...........Fairey Delta II ? World Speed Record

.......neither were net-checked......... 8)

I might as well give the answers. I think this illustrates my point. All these once-famous men, now mostly forgotten except by old fogies like me.

Neville Duke - Hawker - Broke world absolute speed record in the much modfied Hunter prototye - 727 mph on 7th September 1953. He flew out of RAF Tangmere & the FAI timing points were at Rustington & the end of Worthing pier. Duke is now over 80 but still flying. He plans to commemorate this flight over the original course in a Hunter T.7 on its 50th anniversary in 2 weeks time. I shall be there to watch as I did the first time.

Mike Lithgow - Supermarine - Attacker, Sea Hawk & Swift. Took Duke's speed record 3 weeks later in a Swift F.3 over Libya - 26th September 1953 - 735mph. Killed testing the BAC 111 in 1963 when it went into an unrecoverable spin due to the high-set tailplane. I heard the tape of him calmly talking it down until the second it hit the gound. It was due to men like him that this problem was later overcome.

John Derry - De Havilland - Chipmunk, DH 108 & DH 110. Invented the "Derry Turn" still used by jet fighter & display pilots. Took over testing the DH 108 after Geoffrey De Havilland (Junior) was killed testing it. Quote: "On September 9, 1948, test pilot John Derry climbed the aircraft to 40,000 feet and pushed over into a steep dive. A few moments later, the plummeting D.H. 108 became the first British aircraft to exceed Mach 1."
He repeated this at the first public Farnborough display in 1948.
Derry was demonstrating the DH 110 at the 1952 Farnborough display when it suddenly disintegrated while in a supersonic dive - killing Derry, his observer Tony Richards & 29 spectators.

John "Cat's Eyes" Cunningham - De Havilland - Famous for testing & displaying the DH 106 Comet jet airliner.

Peter Twiss - Fairey Aviation - Took absolute speed record to over 1000 mph in FD.2 (Fairey Delta 2) research aircraft - 1132 mph.

A.E. "Ben" Gunn - Boulton Paul. P.111 & P.120. Held record for highest altitude live ejection when the little P.120 delta broke up around him. Due to spinal injury he never tested jets again. Became test pilot for Beagle Aircraft & was later airport manager at Shoreham.

Roland "Bee" Beamont - English Electric - Canberra, Lightning & TSR.2. Broke many speed, altitude & long-distance records in the Canberra.

Roland "Roly" Falk - Avro. Chief test pilot of the mighty Vulcan.

"Bill" Pegg - Bristol - Brabazon & Britannia.

Geoffrey Tyson - Saunders Roe. SRA/1, SR.45 Princess & SR.53. Famous pre-war DH test pilot well known for his love of inverted flying.

Ranald Porteous - Auster Aircraft, later Beagle-Auster. Invented the "Avalanche" aerobatic manoeuvre now better known as the "Porteous Loop".

These are a few names I remembered without looking them up. I missed many others like them from those exciting days of a once-thriving British aircraft industry. Sadly, most of these dedicated & talented men are no longer with us.

I forgive you Ozzy.
I deliberately included Porteous to catch you out. Not many would know him apart from the aerobatic manoeuvre named after him. The others were mostly known for displaying jets or larger types.

PS. If it makes you feel better, the instructor on my recent Extra trip (an ex Red Arrow) had never heard of him either.