Famous pilot visits Hooton Park

[davecalveley]

Today at Hooton Park aa guy brought his dad and told me he was an ex pilot ..I asked civil or military and told me his dad was a test pilot and his claim to fame was he had ejected from a Lightning at very low level and was in an iconic photograph ..I asked is that the one of a lightning going in vertically with a tractor in the foreground ? He then showed me the photo on his phone . His dad was indeed that pilot ,,George Aird ..google Lightning XG332 if you havent already seen this iconic photo ...

[sabre]

XG332 English Electric Lightning by Oliver Meads, on Flickr

"This famous picture was taken by Jim Meads and is of English Electric P1B Lightning XG332 (used for test flying by BAC and DeHavilland) being departed by test pilot George Aird on September 13th 1962. The aircraft suffered an engine fire which burned through the tailplane actuator rods causing XG332 to go into a violent pitch-up about 10 seconds before landing at the DeHavilland aerodrome at Hatfield (not Wattisham). The pilot ejected and landed in a greenhouse. He broke both legs, but was flying Lightnings again a year or so later.

The image became photo of the year 1962 after being cleared by the MOD. Jim recieved £1000 in prize money and this allowed him to become the photographer he is today,

Jim meads is my Grandfather, "

Credit to Oliver Meads Flkr account.. Link

[viscount]

What an amazing co-incidence, as two days ago I received a 'spoof' image of this incident attached to an e-mail from a renowned aviation author. It tickled me, but it does show how skill, quick reactions and a big wallop of good fortune have been reduced to mild humour by everyday access to photoshop.

Do hope I'm not treading on anyone's copyright toes, or indeed belittling memories of George Aird's quite remarkable ejection. I was a budding aviation enthusiast, not even quite a teenager when the original photo became public in Air Pictorial. I had it on my bedroom wall for years until leaving home for College.

[jetdragon]

We had George as a guest speaker at the Clwyd Aviation Group about 40 years ago when he was Chief Test Pilot on the 125 at Broughton. Very interesting guy who spoke in detail about the ejection incident. He was also a member of the Black Arrows display team on Hunters.

Great to hear he's still going strong.

JD

[ronturner]

A most interesting thread, which brings to mind my own experience.

It was in the late 70s I was flying an Arrow out of Staverton. It belonged to a friend. He bought a brand new Saratoga and let me loose on that. I had already arranged to take the Arrow to Duxford for the day so now I had two extra seats. One of my friends who was (is?) a renowned maker of model aeroplanes in silver sheet: very nice objects; said his dad would come. So we assembled and I made a decent job of getting to Duxford after coping with a bit of swing and a lot of cross wind on the take off which was bit entertaining.

At Duxford, friend's dad on alighting observed what a nice machine it was and so well equipped. I asked him if he had any experience of flying light aircraft. Yes he said, he started off with Hinds in the Far East and went on from there. I asked him what he does now. Nothing, he said, he was now retired. He last Job being with BAC working under Brian Trubshaw as Concorde Test Pilot.

We flew back to Staverton in the hands of an expert in the RH seat, and although I don't think I transgressed on that day, the moment served as a reminder to me, to never underestimate people and never " Bull***t" about your flying abilities.

[sabre]

Some more detail on what happened...in particular the photographer who wouldn't normally have taken his camera with him and which only had two exposures left on its film.

Aviation Geek

[robaero]

Plenty of picture of the event are on the Hooton Park Trust Facebook page.