Winston Churchill the Pilot
 

I originally posted this in Jet Blast but on reflection thought that it may be more appropriate here.

In today's Telegraph accompanying S/L Neville Duke's obituary there is a photograph of Duke with Winston Churchill who is in full fig as a senior RAF officer (don't know what rank) with many rows of medal ribbons and the RAF pilots' brevet.

I know that as a young man he was commissioned into the Army and fought at Omdurman so I am assuming the RAF rank is honorary. But when and where did he earn his wings or are they honorary too?

Some info contained in this thread:

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=268663

Damn, knew I'd seen it somewhere, don't you just hate it when someone else does that?

Churchill got honorary rank of air commodore (one-star general) in 1939. He was given honorary pilot's wings later in WW2 although he learnt to fly pre-world war 1...

I always understood that Mr. Churchill was taken for a flight in a Meteor NF and that when the pilot explained about the ejector seat, he said;

"If I say 'eject, eject, eject' and you say 'pardon?' Prime Minister, you will be talking to yourself."

My hat is calling.

Roger.

If you read his memoirs of WWII he often took the controls on long-range flights - for periods (and often to the dismay of the pilot...)
Can't be sure without checking, but I seem to remember him stating he piloted one of the PAN-AM Clippers on the way back from the USA, and also the special long-range Liberator called "Commando"

On another occasion when flying in (I think) an Anson the pilot gave him control which he immediately lost. The pilot recovered and said "no problem sir, a fall between two stools" to which Churchill reportedly replied "more like a stall between two fools"