Air Commodore Roger Topp, pilot who flew gliders after D-Day and formed the Black Arrows display team – obituary
Topping and comrades in the Black Arrows sign autographs at the Schoolboy's Own Exhibition in 1958 CREDIT: CROWN COPYRIGHT/MINISTRY OF DEFENCE/AIR HISTORICAL BRANCH
18 MARCH 2020 • 5:13 PM
Air Commodore Roger Topp, who has died aged 96, created a sensation at the 1958 Farnborough Air Show when he led 22 Hawker Hunter fighters over the airfield and pulled up to complete a formation loop – a feat that has never been repeated.
When he assumed command of No 111 Squadron (Treble One) in January 1955, the Hunter had started to replace the Meteor. Shortly after, Topp broke the Edinburgh-to-London speed record previously set by a Hurricane in 1938. Reaching speeds in excess of 700mph, the 332-mile supersonic transit was covered in 27 min 52 sec. The record stood for 32 years.
An enthusiast for aerobatics, Topp led a five-aircraft display team which was soon performing to crowds in the UK and overseas. After winning Fighter Command’s aerobatics competition Topp and his team represented the RAF at every major air show in 1957. The aircraft were finished in an all-black gloss finish, which would play a key role in deciding the team name later that year.
May 1957 was spent preparing for the major display of the year, the 22nd Paris Salon. Following a captivating display, a French journalist reported on the squadron’s exceptional flying abilities and referred to the team as “les Flèches Noires”. The squadron display team had been given its name, and from then on would be known worldwide as “the Black Arrows”.
Topp, front centre, with the Black Arrows
Although the Paris display was impressive, the highlight of 1957 came at the Farnborough Air Show. In place of the expected five-aircraft team, the Black Arrows displayed in a diamond nine formation.
Topp was due to hand over command of Treble One at the end of 1958, and for his final display he devised a new and unique formation. At the annual Farnborough show, the 12 all-black Hunters thundered into the airfield as a further 10, drawn from other RAF squadrons, raced to join them.
As the two groups of fighters started to join it became clear to those watching that something very special was about to occur. All 22 Hunters, in close formation, pulled up into the sky and completed a full loop. Just to prove this was not luck, and to the crowd’s delight, they then completed a second loop.
Notwithstanding this stunning piece of precision flying, Topp had one further surprise. Six aircraft detached and he then led the remaining 16 into a barrel roll, a far more difficult manoeuvre for such a large formation. These two spectacular feats have never been repeated by such a large formation.
The 22-aircraft 1957 Hunter Loop
Other fighter squadrons continued to adopt Topp’s innovative ideas for formation aerobatic teams. The RAF realised the publicity value of these displays, and a few years later it led to the creation of the world-famous Red Arrows team. For his leadership of Treble One Topp was awarded a Second Bar to the AFCs he had been awarded earlier.
The son of a farmer, Roger Leslie Topp was born near Chichester on May 14 1923 and educated at North Mundham School. He left aged 15 and joined the RAF as a boy entrant in the apprenticeship scheme. In January 1939 he entered the wireless and radio school at RAF Cranwell for a three-year course. The war curtailed his training, and after two years he served at Gosport as a wireless mechanic.
He was selected to be a pilot and trained in Canada. On his return to Britain in late 1944 the demand for pilots had reduced, but the losses of glider pilots on D-Day and at Arnhem had been heavy and replacements were needed. Topp volunteered, “in order to see some action”.
On March 24 1945 he climbed into a Horsa glider loaded with a jeep, a gun and its crew. Taking off behind a Dakota towing aircraft he joined the huge armada heading for the River Rhine. He released from the tug aircraft near Wesel and was approaching his landing spot when his glider was hit by anti-aircraft fire, damaging the controls. He managed to make a heavy landing but the glider broke with all the occupants escaping injury.
Once on the ground, the glider pilot became an infantryman. Topp was in charge of a Piat anti-tank rocket launcher and he engaged an anti-aircraft gun. A direct hit was achieved before Topp fired a second time, completely destroying the emplacement. The crew immediately surrendered to him. Two days later he was back in Britain.
Topp elected to remain in the RAF and was soon flying Mosquito fighters with No 98 Squadron from an airfield in Germany. After two years he became an instrument flying instructor and was soon training and testing pilots from the many squadrons based with the British Air Forces of Occupation. At the end of his tour he was awarded the first of his three AFCs.
After completing the course at the Empire Test Pilot’s School Topp flew as a test pilot from Farnborough where he evaluated new armaments including guided weapons and the 30mm cannon. In 1954, together with another pilot, he shared the 100 hours of intensive flight-testing of the Comet following three catastrophic crashes of the jet airliner. For this work he was awarded his second AFC. He then took command of Treble One.
In July 1959 he went to Germany as a wing commander in charge of air defence operations at the sector control centre at Brockzetel, near Wilhelmshaven. Three years later he returned to the test pilot arena as a squadron commander at Boscombe Down, where he was responsible for fighter development and testing the early version of the Lightning supersonic interceptor and the Hawker P 1127, the forerunner to the Harrier jump jet.
Squadron Leader Topp in 1958 CREDIT: CROWN COPYRIGHT/MINISTRY OF DEFENCE/AIR HISTORICAL BRANCH
Topp was promoted to group captain in December 1963 to command RAF Coltishall, the base chosen for the introduction of the Lightning into RAF service.
His later years of service saw him intimately involved in the specification and development for a new multi-role combat aircraft. After serving in the operational requirements branch of MoD, he became the UK project officer in the Nato Management Agency in Munich for the joint British/German/Italian programme that led to the development of the Tornado. In 1972 he returned for a second time and served as the deputy director of the project.
After retiring from the RAF in early 1978, Topp worked as a consultant for Ferranti, spending 10 years based in Bonn.
He played golf all over the UK and abroad until late his life and his sailing progressed from dinghies to ocean-going yachts. But his greatest love was his garden where his creative talent transformed every garden he designed.
On his 90th birthday he was reunited with his black Hunter, which had been restored at his old airfield at Wattisham in Suffolk. Despite worldwide fame for his leadership of the Black Arrows, and the adulation of a generation of young men and schoolboys who were inspired to become fighter pilots, Topp was a modest, stoical man who told his son: “Manners are paramount, as is respect for others.”
Roger Topp married Audrey Jeffery in May 1945. She died in 1999; a son and a daughter survive him.
Roger Topp, born May 14 1923, died March 6 2020