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View Full Version : Dennis R Kenyon? Was the Suez Canberra bloke later the well known helicopter ace?


Jackonicko
21st Oct 2007, 14:39
I was just listening to the Radio 4 'Preposterous Files' programme, in which Julian Putkowski has presented a series on cases from the National Archives "that show up Civil Service bureaucracy at its nonsensical and frequently hilarious worst."

This one was based on the transcript of the court martial of Flying Officer DR Kenyon, who retracted his Canberra's undercarriage whilst still standing on the runway prior to taking off for a bombing mission during the 1956 Suez crisis.

(The story can be heard via the BBC's listen again service, or read at:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809045,00.html?promoid=googlep

It sounded to me as though Kenyon was guilty of stupidity more than anything (certainly not cowardice), and I don't ask the question out of anything more than curiosity.

The name rang bells, and I wonder whether this Kenyon is the same Dennis R Kenyon who was the helicopter World Freestyle Aerobatic Champion, former owner of Skyline Helicopters, a stunt pilot in 'Blackhawk Down', an airshow favourite, and now rotary correspondent for Loop?

The latter Kenyon is an ex-RAF pilot (a pilot since 1952) who has written about seeing a a UFO while flying a Canberra "on one of the regular ‘Stronghold’ bombing exercises practiced by Bomber Command."

The Canberra force was huge in the 50s, of course, and there could have been half a dozen Kenyons in it.

But if the two Kenyons are the same, what a character, and what a recovery.

Jackonicko
21st Oct 2007, 14:46
I should add that after initially claiming to have raised the gear deliberately, because he didn't agree with what he was being asked to do, Canberra Kenyon subsequently said that he'd admitted to that rather than admitting the truth - an incompetent mistake that he thought would end his career, when all he wanted was to go on flying with his squadron.

Poor judgement, for sure, but .................

aw ditor
21st Oct 2007, 16:25
If I remember correctly (its a long time ago!) you could not raise the undercarriage on the B2 by simply pressing the "UP" button whilst on the ground. WOW switch prevented this. There was a concentric ring surrounding the UP button which had to be rotated through 90 Degrees before a selection could be made to select wheels-up' in extremis.

Pontius Navigator
21st Oct 2007, 17:37
I thought he did it on the roll, weight off, wheels up, aircraft down.

detgnome
21st Oct 2007, 19:47
Not to be confused with another Kenyon at a secret SAR flight in N Wales. I suppose the parallel is driving his car into a lampost whilst stationed at a secret SAR flight near hull.....

Green Flash
21st Oct 2007, 20:30
What is it with SAR drivers and lamp posts?

Hi ***girl!:}

Warmtoast
17th Sep 2010, 19:46
The Wrong Button?

This was re-broadcast today 17th Sept and is available on the BBC iPlayer for the next seven-days here:
BBC - BBC Radio 4 Programmes - The Preposterous Files, The Wrong Button? (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0082855#broadcasts)

As it says on the BBC Radio web page:

Files from the National Archive reveal preposterous acts: grand, petty and tragic. Julian Putkowski distills them down.

It's not a good idea to retract the undercarriage of a bomber when it is standing still on the runway fully loaded with 6 X 1000lb bombs. What, if anything, was Flying Officer Kenyon thinking?

Readers: Crawford Logan and George Gillespie
Producer: Matt Thompson

A Loftus production for BBC Radio 4.


An interesting and fascinating story.

ShyTorque
17th Sep 2010, 20:14
What, if anything, was Flying Officer Kenyon thinking?

Probably something along the lines of: :confused: :eek: "Oh, Sugar!", I reckon...

STAN DEASY
18th Sep 2010, 06:35
As a young PPL AFI, my first rotary flight was with Dennis at Shoreham in an Enstrom in the late 70's early 80's. I remember him saying he once flew Canberras from Weston Zoyland in Zummerzet.

Even now when doing IF in the areas or flying into Bristol I remember both him and the flight when I look at the disused airfield so it may well be one and the same.

baffman
18th Sep 2010, 17:47
Contemporary report From TIME magazine, Feb 1957:

CYPRUS: Grounded Bomber - TIME (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809045,00.html)