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Vale Air Cdre Roger Topp AFC*

I am sorry to reveal that Air Commodore Roger Topp AFC* died Friday 6 March 2020 from complications due to a stroke.

What a life! His legacy lives on in the multi-coloured jets around the world that mimic the skills of the Black Arrows that he lead so well over 60 years ago.

I doubt the "22" will ever be beaten.

Sad news indeed! He was a legend and also one of the best (in every way!). Fly well "Sir", as always!

Bill

Obituary from the Telegraph -

Quote:

Air Commodore Roger Topp, pilot who flew gliders after D-Day and formed the Black Arrows display team – obituary

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...NmKnoo7fA.jpegTopping 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”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...bHu2jJnT8.jpegTopp, 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.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...bHu2jJnT8.jpegThe 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.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...bHu2jJnT8.jpegSquadron 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

An amazing career. RIP sir.

He would have had my complete admiration for the achievement with the PIAT alone - this was someone who really understood what engaging the enemy closely actually means! The rest of the story is the sort of thing we ordinary people just sit slack-jawed as we read - what an example he was (and still is); thank you, CAEBr, for posting the obituary.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thud_and_Blunder (Post 10720554)

thank you, CAEBr, for posting the obituary.

Indeed . A truly brilliant career .
(p.s said event (22 ship loop) still well documented on You Tube )

An amazing man, RIP.

Glad I wasn’t number 22 in that formation!

Inspired a whole generation of young lads. Never flew the Hunter; my loss I think.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thud_and_Blunder (Post 10720554)

I'm surprised he wasn't decorated for the PIAT feat.

Excellent obit - in particular, at long last, acknowledgement of the 16 ship barrel roll so much more of a challenge than the (admittedly greater number) loop. Unfortunately, few of such character.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cornish Jack (Post 10721535)

Excellent obit - in particular, at long last, acknowledgement of the 16 ship barrel roll so much more of a challenge than the (admittedly greater number) loop. Unfortunately, few of such character.

Jack, you never spoke a truer word. The very essence of what we most admire. Very little sign of such leadership today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cornish Jack (Post 10721535)

Excellent obit - in particular, at long last, acknowledgement of the 16 ship barrel roll so much more of a challenge than the (admittedly greater number) loop. Unfortunately, few of such character.

Methinks barrel rolls are relatively more gentlemanly affairs ( as demonstrated by Bob Hoover pouring a drink in his Shrike Commander ) , compared to the rather more G intensive loop ; to do it with 22 jets is mind boggling . As an earlier poster said , I would not have liked to be # 22 going over the top ....
(p.s who was that guy ?)

Solo barrel rolls maybe more gentlemanly affairs Phantom Driver but formation ones are a different kettle of fish. My personal experience is five line abreast in an aircraft with poor throttle response - for the Black Arrows there would have been better throttle response from the Avon but 3 out at the edge of the 16 diamond would have been hard work. The formation holding in the loop photographs, which I would guess are from a practice, is superb. My guess is that they flew the loop in big seven with everyone else in line astern on their individual leader. A great result, I wish I’d been there working rather than spectating as a nipper.

Well, this has nothing to do with his undoubted flying ability....but one thing struck me about the photo with the young lads.....look at his face. He's clearly very happy to be there. If ever you could tell something from someones countenance, this photo says it all. Looks like a thoroughly decent bloke! RIP Sir.

This is a part of the dissertation on the preparation of the 22 aircraft Hunter loop, which Dave Edmondston very kindly sent me:

There followed an intensive period of training, first in formations of four led by the more experienced members of the aerobatic team in fairly basic manoeuvres, then moving in slightly larger numbers to take the skeleton of what was to become the 22-aircraft formation.
There was little problem in the centre strands of the formation, but there was those at the back on the wings. The sweepback of the Vic meant that those at the very back were so far back that they were still in effect climbing up to the top of the loop while the leader was accelerating down the other side and, unless the throttle was very carefully managed and the loop very straight, there was simply not enough power to guarantee to keep station. So the technique was devised that when the leader reached the top of the loop he would relax the 'g' for a few moments upside down until the back end caught up and then would tighten, pulling slightly more'g' on the way down. In those days, Artificial Horizons toppled at about 30 degrees of pitch so between 60 degrees and until the horizon appeared above your head it could be difficult to be sure you were doing a straight loop. So Roger borrowed an experimental, un-toppable Artificial Horizon from his friends at Farnborough, which meant that he keep the loop straight.
As a matter of interest we worked out that the maximum number of Hunters we could loop was probably 33, but we could never be sure that it would hold its shape all the way round every time. Take the 24 shape, add on an aircraft to each side of the Vic with one in line-astern on each, add a fifth in line-astern behind Nos 4 and 5, and you have it - but of course we never had the pilots to try it!
On 12 August we achieved the world record of 21 aircraft...... the first 22 formation was flown on 22 August, and then on 25 August we moved to Odiham for the Farnborough display, where we flew the formation twice daily until the start of show week
By way of a repeat performance, the mass formation was flown at Wattisham on 11 September 1958, the second performance for AOC-in-C, ACM Sir Thomas Pike, who had sanctioned the original routine.

RIP Sir. Blue Skies.

You were an inspiration and a role model for both me and my brother. (We both became pilots)

OMS

(I was born and bred in Chichester, just round the corner from, and a couple of years after, you.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonajet (Post 10722634)

Agreed. Having never been part of anything greater than a 4 ship while performing barrel rolls and loops , I can only imagine the skills required in barrel rolling a 16 ship / looping a 22 ship ; smoothness and coordination ( and nerve ) of a different order required .

Hats off to Roger and his team . R.I.P

I sat down today to go through my late cousins effects, he was an ATC cadet before becoming a Civilian Instructor and then a Commissioned Officer and I found this which I thought might be of interest.,,,,,

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....2c9e28d796.jpg

Don't let that go. It's valuable to the right collector.

Herod - Part of the family archive now. The other interesting thing about this is the photo in post #3 two lads, green/blue/red caps were from my primary school, the brown/black/gold cap was the school just down the road, before my time, I hasten to add I was only just one at the time! Must have been a joint school outing.