Cold War U-2 pilots
Hello Alec,
I note with great interest that Basil W. Dodd was a friend of yours. I think he might well be the same Basil Dodd who was a fellow student with me at The de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School, Hatfield, Herts., in 1945-49. I know from the Empire Test Pilots School that the Basil Dodd I knew attended their Course No.15 in 1956, and he died in 2001.
Can you tell me more about what he told you, in case it confirms he is the same Basil Dodd I knew? I have no record of his middle initial being 'W', nor of his being in the RAF.
I remember him well, as he gave me my unforgettable looping, spinning first flight around 1948, in a Tiger Moth from Panshanger aerodrome, Hertfordshire. He is remembered by ex-de Havilland people for his Panshanger aerobatics. He was particularly fond of inverted flying and, on one occasion, he did so for a longish time and, on landing, he learned that the dirty windscreen was due to practically all the oil having drained from the engine - that Tiger had not been adapted for prolonged inverted flights!
I look forward to your reply.
Regards,
Ken Watkins, CEng, MRAeS,
(DHAeTS 1945-49)