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/ar...romoid=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.