Test Pilot (Aviation Classics)

Product Information

In January 1945 Duke became a production test pilot at Hawkers and a year later was selected to attend the fourth course at the Empire Test Pilots' School where he flew a jet fighter for the first time. In June 1946 he was one of three pilots assigned to the RAF High Speed Flight. On one occasion he was flying his Meteor at its maximum speed at 120 ft when one of its two engines failed. He managed to retain control and make a safe landing. A few months later he displayed a Meteor at an air display at Prague when he was presented with the Czech Military Cross for his wartime service. Plt Off Robert J ames Daniel "Butch Jeffries, 406179 , RAAF standing by the nose of Tomahawk Mk IIB, AK578, GAV, photo taken at Sidi Hanish, he was KIA 12 Dec 1941 AK578,GAV, was the plane Butch Jeffries posed with, this aircraft was the regular mount of Flight Officer Neville Duke during the first months of 1942. On the 14th February he shared in No.112 Squadron's achievements when the unit enjoyed considerable success near Tobruk - Duke sent a C.200 crashing into the ground and shared in the destruction of a second. These were his final claims in the Curtiss and his only ones in a Kittyhawk. AK578 saw further action with Nos 4 and 5 Sqns SAAF before going on to No.73 OTU. It was listed as missing during a training flight with this unit in March 1944)Dad (Tom Dugdill, 19/9/40 to 7/12/45) believes that George Staly, a friend of his and an engine fitter, was the first person to paint a shark on a Tomahawk, then the rest of the pilots wanted the same and the ‘Shark Squadron’ was born. A decade ago, interviewed for a BBC2 documentary The 600mph Men, he painstakingly described the technique of flying the Hunter into the sound barrier and coming out across an airfield at 720mph. "Piece of cake," he concluded, in the language of another time, and smiled. In November 1942, Duke rejoined 92 Squadron, which has been transferred to North Africa flying the tropicalised Spitfire Mark V. [4] He became a flight commander in February 1943 and received a DSO in March. By the end of his second tour in June, Duke had amassed a further 14 victories to his total and was awarded a Bar to his DFC.

Young, Charles Robert (1996). The Making of the Neville Family in England, 1166-1400. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. ISBN 978-0-85115-668-2.Geoffrey de Neville's eldest son and heir was Robert de Neville, Sheriff of Yorkshire and Sheriff of Northumberland (1258). Other children include Geoffrey—who was to start a cadet branch of the family in Hornby, Lancashire [12]—John, [12] and Hugh. [13] The identity of the mother, however, is disputed among scholars. A. F. Pollard, for example, writing in the Dictionary of National Biography in 1894 suggested that she was Margaret, daughter of Sir John de Longvillers. However, this Margaret was married until 1285, and there is evidence from a Lincolnshire fine of 1247 which refers to one Robert de Neville, knight, and his mother, Joan. [12] [note 1] Rise to power [ edit ] a. Humphrey Neville of Brancepeth c. 1439–1469 [36] b. Charles B. Sir Ralph Neville, d. 1458 [37] [38] C. Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, 1400–1460 I can still recall the guy behind me pushing me to the ground and the engine going over our heads just a few feet up. The family's wealth and power grew steadily over the following centuries. Their regional power benefited greatly from frequent appointment to such royal offices as sheriff, castellan, justice of the forest, and justice of the peace in various parts of northern England. [16] This prominent office-holding began with Geoffrey de Neville's son Robert, in the reign of Henry III, whom Robert supported against the barons under Simon de Montfort. [17] The Nevilles also held administrative office under the prince-bishops of Durham. [18] Robert's grandson Ralph Neville was one of the founding members of the Peerage of England, being summoned to sit in the House of Lords at its establishment in 1295, and thus initiating the line of Barons Neville de Raby. [19]

Derry, aged 31, and his flight observer Anthony Richards, aged 24, drove to de Havilland's base at Hatfield and took off in the first silver-coloured prototype WG236. This aircraft had flown supersonic many times.At the end of this hectic period he was promoted to squadron leader and returned to the fighter school as the chief instructor. Forty years on from his 1953 world record, he co-piloted a re-creation of the flight in a two-seater Hunter. The Hunter, he observed that day, was the love of his professional life. On 30 November 1941, Duke was shot down by the high scoring German ace Oberstabsfeldwebel Otto Schulz from Jagdgeschwader 27. [3] On 5 December, he was again shot down by a pilot from JG 27. However, his own tally of victories continued to mount and, after the squadron was re-equipped with the more capable Curtiss Kittyhawk, by February 1942, Duke had at least eight victories, resulting in the award of the DFC in March. These victories included a Fiat CR.42 and a Bf 109 on the 20 and 21 December. [2] William Neville, 6th Baron Fauconberg created Earl of Kent in the Peerage of England in 1461. Extinct on his death in 1463. My father and uncle would always go the airshows and stand on the hill where the majority of the casualties were.

Reflecting the estrangement between the two branches of the family, the Nevilles of Raby, headed by Ralph Neville, Earl of Westmorland, had sided with the Lancastrians from the outset. Westmorland's brother John Neville, Lord of Raby was killed in the defeat at Towton. The line of the Earls of Westmorland survived the wars, but the loss of most of the ancestral estates through their inheritance by the Nevilles of Middleham and their subsequent downfall left the family a much diminished force. [33] He said: "We were very fortunate and always immensely proud that he should have agreed to serve as our president. When the DH110 broke up and crashed, the one engine landed in the crowd on the hill. The Swindon lads said to the camera owner, "Just as well you brought your camera or we would have been on that hill".

But it is his air speed record for which he is best remembered. On 7th September 1953, an excited crowd gathered over the shingle beach at Littlehampton as Neville Duke attempted to break the record set by American Lt Col WF Barnes in an F-86D Sabre. Flying a red Hawker Hunter, he achieved a speed of 727.48mph in a timed run offshore, beating the record by just 12mph and falling only 33mph short of the sound barrier on that occasion. The Latimer branch of the family had also died out in 1577, but the Bergavenny line endured. After the death of Henry Nevill, 6th Baron Bergavenny in 1587, his daughter Mary Nevill(e) fought a legal battle to be recognised as heiress to all the remaining Neville inheritance. Ultimately, however, these lands were split between her and her first cousin Edward Nevill, who inherited the baronial title. Her son Francis Fane inherited through her the very old title of Baron le Despencer; to him, the Neville family's senior title of Earl of Westmorland was recreated, and remains with his male-line descendants.