Information on British TP's required
 

Hi all,

I am trying to fill in some missing information ie year of passing and also looking for any copies of obituaries for the following British Test Pilots/Nav's

Geoffrey Haig-Pike (de Havilland)

Ron Clear xxxx - 2005

Tom Brooke-Smith (Shorts) 1918-xxxx

Geoffrey Tyson (Saunders-Roe) 1907-xxxx

Sqn Ldr Jack.B.Wales (AvRoe) xxxx-1956

Peter Moneypenny (BAC) xxxx-xxxx

Joseph 'Joe' Smith (Supermarine Aircraft Designer) 1897-xxxx


Any help in filling in some missing dates or copies of obituaries/information on them woul be most helpful

Regds
Neil

Have you tried contacting Aeroplane Magazine? I'm fairly certain I recall reading tributes to both Geoffrey Pike and Ron Clear, and they may be able to help with the relevant back issues.

Or the Daily Telegraph? It has a good tradition of publishing well researched obituaries of aviators and military men.

G

Thanks guys, i will make contact with both publications as suggested and see what i can find out.

I wonder if the RAes would have any information as well?

Best
Neil

Tom Brooke-Smith

The book on ETPS "Learn to Test, Test to Learn" has following.

Despite the interruptions, No 6 Course (1947) managed successfully to complete by the end of the year.

The one civilian test pilot on the Course was Tom Brooke-Smith, who had come from Short's at Rochester where he had been busy testing the flying-boats. He went back there as Chief Test Pilot, going on for years and testing the VTO testbeds built by Short as research aircraft in the sixties. From there he went to Flight Refuelling Ltd, at Tarrant Rushton.

Unable to find any of the others in my listing of ETPS graduates.

Ron Clear was the airfield manager at Hatfield circa 1980 – 83. Possibly ex Airspeed – the Ambassador aircraft and thence Hawker Siddley; Trident, HS125?

Ron Clear
 

Yes,

Ron Clear was at Airspeed, as far as I remember from my friend ( her Dad was fellow TP to Ron, Robin Milne ) they worked on the Ambassador, Oxford, Horsa etc, Fleet Shadower ( ! ) then with DH the Dove and the Comet. George Errington was also there, though his interest with stalling ( and trying it in a Trident ) eventually proved unfortunate for him & more importantly his crew - see 'Test Pilots' by Don Middleton.

There's an interesting account mentioning Ron Clear in a book on the Mosquito - both Robin Milne & Ron had to pick up Mosquito's from somewhere & bring them back to Airspeed, Portsmouth, for work.

Robin found his merlins overheating on the ground, so cut short his checks & took off - the upper escape hatch promptly blew away, unsecured.

He thought he'd better check the handling, & found the only effect was at the approach of stall a suction would develop, tugging his helmet at it's chinstraps.

He thought 'fair enough' & not much of it, but on attempting to get into Portsmouth, a short strip with a low wall on the approach, he found conventional methods weren't doing it - after a go-round he used the 'helmet suction technique' to come in just above the stall.

Ron Clear took several goes & still landed a lot further on than Robin - when Ron asked " how the **** did you do that ?" Robin just replied, " Oh, sorts the men from the boys !"

It was years before Robin came clean...

I got the feeling from those who knew him that Ron Clear was a much admired guy in every way ( Robin Milne too ).