John "Jeff" Hawke

[Agaricus bisporus]

Following on from another thread I'm intrigued to know more about John Hawke, the pilot, adventurer and bon viveur who met his demise in an Aztec in the Adriatic where he apparently wasn't expected to be.

There are references on the internet to his having tried to intercept a U2 over Cyprus while in the RAF - that's surely a tale worth hearing if anyone knows any detail?

And his disappearance is another curious business - given his "previous" gun running wouldn't seem at all out of character but in an Aztec? Hardly the machine of choice is it? Veiled mentions too of "damage inconsistent with a ditching..." Is that recorded anywhere (that opinion/statement) or is it purely a verbal anecdote? The AAIB report is no help on that at all.

Any more info or tales? Surely enough water has passed under the bridge for any coyness to be gone by now? Tales of such a character shouldn't be kept - anyone care to add anything to this fascinating chap's story?

[POBJOY]

You will find much info back on Prune 2003-4.
Former RAF fighter pilot who gravitated into film work including 633 Squadron and the 1968 BoB film.
Well known for his spirited displays in a B 25 and for given his 'co-pilots' an interesting 'lawn mowing' ride; (of which i had a personal experience).
One of aviations 'characters' and apparently on 633 Squadron he would always be late back from a filming sortie due to staying airborne until all the fuel was used.
RIP John (Cornwall) a fighter pilot who 'missed' his war.

[Fishtailed]

See if you can get hold of a copy of 'B25 'Mitchells do fly in IMC', a Channel 4 film. It's about Jeff getting 4 B25s together in the USA and ferrying them to England for a film, great stuff.

[exwessex]

There's no problem seeing "B25 Mitchells......" its currently on youtube.

[Agaricus bisporus]

Thanks - that was what sparked the interest, and other than the very little on the prune archive there is next to nothing to be found (or that I have managed to find) on the web. Curious for someone so much larger than life.

Even this thread has turned up virtually nothing!

[cyflyer]

Still had the original videotape of "B25's....IMC" floating around and found that I had this newspaper clipping stuck to it. Can't remember the date or which newspaper but here it is. Great documentary by the way.

http://i496.photobucket.com/albums/rr327/eurocypria/hawke.jpg

[AdamFrisch]

All I know is that he got trained in the Royal Canadian Air Force for the RAF and after that was stationed in the UK. Here's a very old posting on another forum from some chap named Speedbird who trained with him:

I joined the RAF with John Hawke, whom we immediately nick-named 'Corny' due to his previous domicile in the Duchy, I don't think "Jeff " had even been invented in those days, and he is still 'Corny' to me and a few old chums that have recently been re-united as a result of a 50 yr. reunion of Canadian trained pilots from the 50's, and we have started to discuss his exploits again via the magic of e-mail.

We were selected from basic training at Kirton Lindsey to be sent to Canada, to start our flying training in Jan. 1956 at RCAF Centralia, our ab initio trainer being the North American Harvard Mk II B, and from there we converted to the T-33 Silver Star, F-80 "T-Bird" two seater at RCAF MacDonald, previously a gunnery training station just north of Portage la Prairie, west of Winnipeg.

Whilst flying a solo training flight in the T-33, Corny experienced an electric elevator trim runaway full nose up just as he crossed the threshold and commenced the flare. I would have been dead a few seconds later, but he applied full power and threw the aircraft into a 90 deg. banked turn, and continued to circle whilst he wrestled with the circuit breaker and alternate trim procedure and then continued to land, such was his extraordinary handling prowess even at that stage.

Following award of our RAF Wings, we returned to UK, and most of us being National Service pilots completed our commitment and left flying, tho' I joined the airlines and enjoyed a 40 yr. flying career, Corny was by then, if not initially, on a Permanent Commission and went on to RAF Worksop to a squadron OCU on Meteors.

I only had little contact after that, so I can't answer questions about his subsequent RAF flying, or departure from the Service - or whose hand initiated the parting - but my next contact was meeting him again at Prestwick, I was about to depart with all the, then, modern navigation tools of a 4 - eng Bristol Britannia and he was about to take-off in a single-engined 1936 Messerschmitt 108 ( trainer 109 ) across the North Atlantic in December ! I offered to keep a listening watch on all the distress frequencies.

He had been held up at Prestwick due to a failed gasket on the CSU, and had to wait for the only spare that could be located being delivered to him from some obscure factory in France.

He was in fact leading a flight of 2 108's, ( the Daily Mail of that day said that his navigator was his wife, but it wasn't the wife to whom I had seen him get married to, not many years earlier, but I didn't ask questions !) and I subsequently got a postcard from him to say that he had made it, but the other one had been lost, ditching 40 miles East of Goose Bay. You can use your own chart to work out how many miles there are between G.B. and the coast. The crew both survived. I believe that was the start of his involvement with the film industry, for it was for a Hollywood producer that he was delivering the aircraft.

My next contact was via an article in Newsweek, documenting his interception and arrest by the US Air Force for attempting to photograph the White House from ( I think) a B-25. The story was that he had been given funds by the CIA to make B-25's (?) airworthy from various locations given to him, then fly them to Portugal for use against the rebel forces in Angola, the U.S. gov't wishing to distance themselves from this activity. Corny claimed that he was a CIA agent, and had been given the name Sparrow ( as in Sparrowhawk I guess ) but he squawked this to his interrogators to no avail and the CIA denied all knowledge of him.

The reasons for his release now escape me, and I think were not actually documented by Newsweek anyway, but a mysterious "Count" was mentioned, and having been disowned by the CIA, they couldn't then claim their aeroplane back, which is how he got to own the "Psychadelic Monster" that has been mentioned, and which he undoubtedly leased to Harry Saltzman, director of the Battle of Britain film.

Corny rang me during the time he was based Bovingdon flying for that film, and offered me a ride, unfortunately I couldn't make a date to take him up on the offer.

That was the last time I spoke to him, and like everyone else am now curious as to what he was doing over the Adriatic flying an Aztec with an anti-dazzle paint scheme, but in view of his previous activites one does wonder ! A simple heart attack, as suggested by one of our colleagues, just isn't rightfor Corny, tho' I gather he was somewhat overweight ?

[Neilesmith]

The video is on my YouTube channel here:
B-25 Mitchells do fly I.M.C. - YouTube
I understand it was B26's he tried to get to Portugal.
Apparently the Aztec had gear down as well as flaps which would be an unusual configuration to attempt a ditching.
I will never forget him displaying a B25 at Biggin many years ago.

[cyflyer]

I understand that of those five B25's that made the crossing in the documentary and, for the film, Hanover Street, one of them is on display at Hendon RAF Museum. Anyone know what happened to the rest ?

[Jhieminga]

From a thread on the Flypast forums (http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=61564):

44-29121 N86427 Museo del Aire, Madrid.
44-29366 N9115Z Traded to RAF museum.
44-30210 N9455Z Still owned by Dave Tallichet.
44-30925 N9494Z Brussels Air Museum Foundation.
44-86701 N7681C Destroyed in museum fire Paris.

[compton3bravo]

I did read somewhere that he could have been on an arms smuggling flight to one of the new countries emerging from the previous Yugoslavia when the break-up was occurring but you never believe everything you read in newspapers!
Also I think he flew a Boeing 707 with a car strapped to the top of the fuselage for a TV ad -what a character.
I was fortunate enough (did not know in advance) to be at Luton when the Mitchells arrived - could not believe my eyes. Great bit of chit chat from Luton ATC and a Britannia B737 captain!

[Noyade]

Also I think he flew a Boeing 707 with a car strapped to the top of the fuselage for a TV adThere's a very good article titled "How to Fly a Citroen" in AIR Enthusiast 42, which goes into great detail on how they achieved that....

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3822/img466n.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/4/img466n.jpg/)

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Watching the B25 documentary again, that guy 'George' at Halifax was amazing, with his black 3/4 coat, white shirt, and tie... Whether he's refuelling, driving the fork lift or the tow tractor, or helping to change that nose wheel! Another type of 'character' you won't find on a ramp these days.

Anyone know if he's still around?

[Agaricus bisporus]

The AAIB report states the Aztec had one main landing gear down only
and does not mention flaps unless I missed that. It entered the water at speed, under power and steeply. That isn't a ditching.

Whatever he was up to was clearly nefarious - book out to La Ferte Alais (Paris area) from Cannes, speak to no one after 2 minutes of flight, fly to Italy instead, land in the Appenines, take off a few minutes later and head across the Adriatic towards Pula, transponder off and talking to no one all the way.

[treadigraph]

There was an item in the news section of "Pilot" at the time the wreckage was discovered; as I recall it said that as he departed for the fatal trip he'd allegedly told his wife "this is the big one" from which inferrence was drawn that whatever he was up to was going to be very lucrative...

No mention of flaps down in the AAIB report.

There's a bit about Hawke and the Me108 in "Ragwings and Heavy Iron" by Martin Caidin - sigh, I'm going to have to re-read it!