Eric “Winkle“ Brown; the great British aviator has passed away aged 97.
[Pictured in 1940]
Eric “Winkle“ Brown flew 487 different aircraft in his career, flew combat operations during the Second World War, took a flight whilst a young boy sat on the lap of German ace Ernst Udet and this is only a snippet of the story of this great man.
For a greater look at the life of this Eric Brown, please have a read of the obituary as seen on the Telegraph’s website:-
In 1917 Hardit Singh Malik became not only the first Sikh but also the first Indian to fly with the Royal Flying Corps. Born in Punjab in 1894 to Indian nobility he was sent to England at the age of 14 for school attending prep school before enrolling at Oxford. He was a keen sportsman during his time at university proving to be an accomplished golfer and cricket player.
In 1915, following his graduation from Oxford he applied to join the Royal Flying Corps but was denied, no doubt on racial grounds. Instead he volunteered for the French Red Cross before being offered a commission in the French Aéronautique Militaire. While on leave in England he told one of his former Oxford tutors about being turned down by the Royal Flying Corps and his tutor appealed to General David Henderson, commander of the Royal Flying Corps, on his behalf.
In early 1917, he was commissioned as 2nd Lt. Hardit Singh Malik and began training in April. In the summer of 1917 he No. 26 Squadron and began flying Sopwith Camels. As an observing Sikh Malik continued to wear his turban while flying sorties, his superiors ordered him to wear a flying helmet and he had one which would fit over his turban made by a hatter in Piccadilly, London.
While with Major George Baker VC’s No. 28 Squadron Malikflew in an engagement with Manfred von Richthofen’s Jagdgeschwader 1 Malik suffered two bullet wounds in the right leg when he was hit by machine gun fire. Having shot down two enemy fighters his Sopwith Camel was unable to effectively climb and Malik was forced to run for home, flying at treetop level while being pursued by German fighters. He reached allied lines and was forced to crash land, upon inspection his plane was found to have ~400 bullet holes in the fuselage. After months of recuperation with shrapnel from the machine gun fire which had hit him still in his leg Malik joined a fighter squadron defending London from possible Zeppelin attacks.
Newsreel of Malik in Manchester accepting a new fighter plane (source)
In 1918, he was sent to Manchester to accept the gift of a new Sopwith Camel given by the Manchester Chamber of Commerce in honour of India’s contributions to the war (see image #1).
Malik remained with the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force until April 1919 when he returned home to India. He went on to become an accomplished civil servant later becoming a trade commissioner and was later first India’s High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to France. He died in 1985 at the age of 91. Malik holds the distinction of being the first Sikh and the first Indian to become a commissioned pilot with the Royal Flying Corps and sadly he was the only Indian fighter pilot to survive the war.
On May 8th 1933 Highland Airways was established by Captain Ernest Edmund “Ted” Fresson.
Highland Airways inaugural flight was a passenger service between Inverness, Wick and Kirkwall. Captain Ted Fresson’s pioneering commercial flights across the north of Scotland revolutionised Highland life and led to what is thought to be the longest-running scheduled air service in the world. After early training as an engineer, he was sent to his firm’s branch in China in 1911, but following his boyhood aspirations to become a pilot he signed on as a volunteer when the Great War began in 1914. He trained as a pilot for the Royal Flying Corps in Canada at the beginning of 1918.
When the war was over he returned to China, keeping his hand in at flying whist working for his old firm again. He rebuilt or assembled some British aircraft for local dignitaries and then built and flew an aircraft of his own design for a Chinese warlord – to place it in production there. A revolution intervened and Ted returned to Britain in 1927 to begin several years of concentrated joy-riding and display flying, firstly with existing aviation companies, then with his own.
Each year saw him carrying thousands of air-minded passengers on five minute joy rides, at fields he chose all over Britain. During this time he took a great deal of liking to Scotland and saw an opportunity to start scheduled services in the Highlands. This started between Inverness, Wick and Kirkwall on May 8th 1933.
Ted formed his airline, Highland Airways Limited, with considerable help from Macrae & Dick, the motor engineers in Inverness, the Scotsman newspaper, Dr Alexander of Dr Grays Hospital in Elgin and other local traders. His regularity in flying in all weathers became a by-word, and so a year later, on May 29th 1934, his airline was given the first UK domestic Airmail contract by the Post Office. This was to fly mail at ordinary rates by air to Orkney and back. He later acquired the airmail contract to Wick and Shetland.
In October 1933, Ted operated the first commercial charter out of Aberdeen, carrying three salesmen to Shetland. On May 7th 1934 he began Aberdeen’s first scheduled service to Wick and Kirkwall. After this, Highland Airways became the trail blazer for many new services throughout the Highlands and Islands, linking up with Inverness and Aberdeen with Shetland and Stornoway, as well as inaugurating the Orkney inter-island flights and services to Perth and Glasgow.
Ted Fresson could land his aircraft in almost any field in Scotland and frequently did so. He knew the terrain so well that he became one of the principal advisors on airfield construction sites to the Air Ministry and the Admiralty during World War II. The booming regional airport at Inverness is still on the site suggested by Ted to the Air Ministry as a wartime airfield and the Admiralty also consulted him prior to laying the first tarmac strip at Hatston, Orkney. The tarmac was actually Ted’s suggestion. The ‘runways’ suggested by at the old Stornoway golf club so as to create least disturbance and inconvenience to the golfers are now acknowledged as the first runways in Britain.
When his airline became part of Lord Cowdray’s pre-war British Airways and was combined with the Renfrew-based Northern and Scottish Airways to form Scottish Airways (as it became), Ted Fresson played a vital part in running the airline throughout the war years. In 1947, however, all domestic air services were nationalised into the British European Airways corporation and Ted Fresson left the corporation in March 1948, dismissed without compensation for the fine airline he had built up. That Ted Fresson and other early pioneers were so treated by the government of the day is still a shameful episode in the history of aviation in Britain.
The fact that almost all his network is still being flown today is a tribute to his foresight, flying enterprise and efforts to bring air travel to everybody living in these remote parts of the British Isles.
After a period overseas Ted Fresson returned to the Highlands continued to fly the occasional charter in the Northern skies using his own light aircraft. He died in Inverness on September 25th 1963.
If you have ever been to Inverness airport you will no doubt have seen the statue tribute to the pioneer Highlands aviator Fresson.
16th May 1933 saw Midland Scottish Air Ferries begin Islay’s first scheduled passenger service.
Midland & Scottish Air Ferries was the country’s first airline, operating from 1933 to 1934. It is particularly noted for pioneering flights to the Inner Hebrides.
Islay received its first recorded flight in July 1928, but Midland Scottish Air Ferries operated the islands first scheduled flight on 16th May 1933, arriving from Renfrew via Campbeltown. Two days earlier, on 14th May 1933, the islands first air ambulance flight, using a De Havilland Dragon aircraft, landed on the beach at the head of Lochindaal to collect a local fisherman suffering from abdominal pains.
The airport at Glenegedale opened for business in 1935 and was taken over by the RAF during World War Two. The hard runways that exist today at Islay originally date from 1940, and look the same as in the aerial pic from the 60′s. The Avro Ansons of 48 Squadron, and Beaufighter and Beaufort aircraft of 304 Ferry Training Unit used the new runways while flying boats of 119 Squadron landed in nearby Laggan Bay and Loch Indaal. By 1944 the airfield was under the control of Coastal Command and included three runways and six hangars. Personnel stationed there included 266 WAAF and 1,113 RAF servicemen.
Many different aircraft have used Islay Airport over the decades, ranging from a Hercules and a BAE 146 jet of the Royal Flight to the smallest microlights. Loganair now uses Saab 340s for scheduled flights to Glasgow and many charter aircraft from the UK and overseas land at the airport. Scottish Air Ambulance Service planes and helicopters are regular visitors along with a variety of military and private aircraft.
Islay airport is perhaps best known for a hugely expensive. The Prince of Wales was involved in the alarming incident during a visit to the Isle of Islay in Scotland in 1994. Charles was flying the Queen’s Flight passenger jet when it dramatically overshot the runway. Landing too fast and too awkwardly left the royal plane with its nose buried in mud. e and shocking “unfortunate incident” during a royal trip to Scotland. Former RAF Squadron Leader, Graham Laurie, the pilot at the time, was later found to be negligent in allowing the heir to the throne to take the controls, of course it wouldn’t be the Prince’s fault eh? A year after the crash, Charles gave up his license to fly for good, the last pic shows the plane where it ended up, nobody was injured in the incident.
Charles Lindbergh Jr., New York Daily News, 5/12/1932.
By Miriam Kleiman, Public Affairs
On March 1, 1932, 20 month-old Charles, Jr. was taken from his crib. For 10 long weeks, the nation hoped and prayed for the baby’s safe return.
LINDBERGH BABY FOUND DEAD #OTD 1932
Called the “crime of the century,” the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr. shocked and horrified the country and the world, as “Lucky Lindy” became the face of tragedy.
The National Archives holds tens of thousands of related records, including nearly 30,000 pages from the FBI investigation of the kidnapping, in addition to records of the subsequent arrest, trial, and execution of Bruno Hauptmann. The files include letters, memoranda, telegrams, and press clippings dating from the 1930s to 1982!
DON’T RELEASE AL CAPONE FROM JAIL TO AID SEARCH!
Petition from Citizens of Mitchell, SD, urging President Hoover not to release Al Capone, despite his stated willingness – given his gangster connections – to help with the search. Department of Justice Criminal Division, 4/26/1932.NARA ID 595053.
Congressman appeals “on bended knee” for baby’s safe return:
Congressman Charles A. Karch (D-IL), from the Congressional Record, 3/9/1932, NARA ID 34382871.
Related interesting fact! Scenes from HBO’s Lindbergh-based Plot Against Americawere filmed outside the National Archives, as were scenes from (unrelated)Wonder Woman 1984!
I’ve never seen these before! You just made my day!
I feel like Neil definitely spent at least twenty minutes telling little Eric all about the history of the Fokker D.VII only to realize that he wasn’t old enough to absorb this plane talk so they just skipped to the part about throwing blane
A little boy dreams of flying in this promotional comic strip by “Steve.”
Edgar F. “Steve” Schilder (1888-1963) was an American cartoonist and editor who worked at a number of newspapers around the United States. His pen name “Steve” came from the black cat that appeared in many of his cartoons.
The Adventures of Eva, Pora and Ted, was published by the Evaporated Milk Association in 1931, four years after Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight.
The Spirit of St Louis was a custom-built Ryan aircraft flown by Charles Lindbergh on May 20-21, 1927 on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris. Lindbergh won the $25,000 Orteig Prize for the 33 ½ hour trip.
Nine St. Louis men financed Charles Lindbergh’s designs for a suitable plane to fly non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris. Lindbergh tested the aircraft on May 10-11, 1927, when he flew the plane across the United States, from San Diego to New York City (stopping overnight in St. Louis).
A Lockheed Model 322 Lightning I during a test flight over California, 1941. The type would be rejected by the RAF and the aircraft already produced would be impressed into USAAF service after Pearl Harbor
![Eric “Winkle“ Brown; the great British aviator has passed away aged 97.[Pictured in 1940] Eric “Wink](https://64.media.tumblr.com/5e117e866cf46f44f4733acf4914a86a/tumblr_o2x3obKqvt1qcp6xao1_400.jpg "Eric “Winkle“ Brown; the great British aviator has passed away aged 97.[Pictured in 1940] Eric “Wink")
