User:MinorProphet/Draft subpages/Ernest W. Stedman

Air Vice-Marshal Ernest Walter Stedman, CB, OBE, (21 July 1888–27 March 1957) was an English-born aircraft engineer and senior commander in the Royal Canadian Air Force.

He trained as a practical naval engineer and served throughout WW1 in aerodynamic research in the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), and then in the newly-formed Royal Air Force (RAF). Having reached the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in 1918, he was briefly employed by Handley Page after the war, involving a temporary trip to Canada. He stayed there, becoming Technical Director of the Air Board of Canada in 1920. He joined the newly-formed Royal Canadian Air Force and reached the rank of Group Captain by 1931. The same year he was appointed chief aeronautical engineer for the Department of National Defence. Promoted Air Vice-Marshal in 1940, he became Director-General of RCAF Air Research in 1941.

In 1946 he was an official observer of the Bikini atom-bomb test, retiring from the RCAF later that year. He was Assistant Professor of Engineering at Carleton College, Ottawa from 1948 until his final retirement in 1954.

Biography

Early life

He was born in Malling, Kent.

He was educated at Brunswick House School, Maidstone, Kent and was then articled for four years as a fitter at H.M. Dockyard, Sheerness Apprentice School. Later he attended the Royal College of Science, London as a Whitworth Scholar, and the City and Guilds Central Technical College, London. He completed his formal education in 1911.

Career

For the next two years Stedman was employed as a draughtsman on marine engines and taught evening classes in engineering subjects at Hartley University, Southampton. As a result of a visit in 1913 to the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington and seeing wind tunnel testing being carried out, he applied for a position there, and spent a year as a Junior Scientific Assistant engaged in the pioneering discipline of aerodynamics.

World War I

Stedman (centre) with a group of airmen in front of a Handley Page O/100 bomber at Ochey airfield, NE France in March 1917

When World War I broke out, he was employed in the Design Branch of the Admiralty's Air Department, attached to the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).

Lorra testing..

"Development: On the prototype the four rectangular radiator matrices were combined into a single block mounted above the fuselage between the engines and occupying half the centre-section gap. On trials, the big central radiator caused excessive drag and disturbed the airflow over the tail. In the hope of further reducing turbulence over the tail, the engines were completely cowled in sheet aluminium nacelle panels resembling airship gondolas and of good streamline form, with a pair of tall narrow radiators at the front, arranged side by side to form a single octagonal matrix with a vertical separator on the centreline; in the nacelle top panel was a water header tank acting as a steam trap and condenser, and the suggestion for this nacelle may have originated from Beardmores, as an improvement to their Atlantic installation." "Already the third Cricklewood machine, F7136, had been designated as an extra prototype, with widened radiators forming regular hexagons, redesigned cylindrical header tanks and the nacelles lowered by 2 ft, not only to improve performance and stability (as found by experience with the D.H.10A), but also to allow the later substitution of Napier Lion engines, which had a higher thrust line." "there also was F7135, with an original radiator on the starboard side and a new hexagonal one on the port side, being flown to investigate various overheating and air-lock troubles which had caused F7134 to crash." Cricklewood-built F7135 at Bircham Newton, showing early-type radiator on starboard nacelle and revised hexagonal type on port nacelle." update V/1500 article

He was intimately involved in the development of the HP O/100: RNAS began trials of the O/100 on 17 December 1915, with Stedman and Flt-Lt. J. Babington (later Air Marshal Sir John Babington, KCB, CBE, DSO) in charge.

According to the Official History of the RCAF,

"On 16 March 1917 the weather was judged good enough to attempt the first raid. The aircraft selected was No 1460, which had joined the wing in October. The crew consisted of Babington; Stedman, acting as observer; Flight Sub-Lieutenant C.L. Hains of Salmon Arm, BC, who served as after gunlayer; and Adjutant Chasard of the French air service who accompanied them as forward gunlayer and guide."

The target was Hagendingen but it was obscured by mist, and they bombed the railway station at Moulins-les-Metz instead. When the bombs were released they stuck in the bomb bay door, and Stedman had to put all his weight on them to force them through. Two were seen to explode harmlessly: despite this, the aircraft 'exceeded all expectations'. "After the first raid the spring doors were removed. Brown paper fairings in their place permitted the bombs to burst through so that the crews were subjected to a fearful draft during the flights home until the doors were modified and replaced." Probably copy to O/100 article

Post war

Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic flight competition

Daily Mail aviation prize for the first Trans-Atlantic crossing by a British aircraft crewed by Britons was won by Alcock and Brown, buggers.

The government donated a V/1500 to Handley Page for the competition.

Handley Page's Rolls-Royce Eagle VIII engines had a lot of overheating trouble, faulty radiators, oil and water pipe failures. But Alcock & Brown also had the same engines, minus the hassle. I seem to remember that either A or B personally went to Royce's factory to watch/oversee the engines being made on the 'production line'. Refs, please... - best check my own personal copy of Putnam's HP Aircraft since 19xx, then.

NB There isn't a proper article about the race...

• The Race Across The Atlantic by Dominic Savastano - Spink
• The race to cross the Atlantic - science + industry museum
• The great Transatlantic race - Royal Aeronautical Society
• Handley Page 0/100, 0/400, and V/1500 biplane bombers - with pix of the 'Atlantic' at Harbour Grace
• A.Brew - Boulton Paul Aircraft since 1915 (Putnam) - lots of detail & dates about individual teams.

Teams

• Withdrew or did not start
  • Whitehead Aircraft Ltd., (withdrew)
  • Alliance-Napier Seabird (Alliance Aeroplane Co.) (withdrew)
  • Boulton Paul Atlantic P.8 (crashed on takeoff on ?maiden flight in UK)
  • Felixstowe Fury - triplane - (the aircraft's size presented a problem as no vessel with a capacity large enough could be found as transport, and the project was officially opposed on grounds of expense, despite the crossing being well within the Fury's capabilities.) (withdrew)
  • Sundstedt-Hannevig Seaplane File:Sundstendt plane LCCN2014708274.jpg (crashed while testing in Newark Bay, NJ)
  • Short Shamrock (modified Shirl) (East to West - crashed in Irish Sea on the way to starting point in Ireland)
  • Fairey N.9 (Fairey III C) (still not ready in Britain when race was won)

• 4 teams actually arrived with their aircraft in Newfoundland
  • Sopwith Atlantic with Harry Hawker (ditched after 800 miles, picked up by ship)
  • Martinsyde Buzzard (Raymor), (NB not the earlier 1914 File:Martin-Handasyde trans-Atlantic monoplane.jpg - Pic of propellor in The Aeroplane, 1 July 1914, p. 20 - "some wind-stick!") (crashed twice on takeoff in Newfoundland: first time 20 minutes after Hawker departed, and again after the Vimy had won)
  • Handley Page V/1500 (did not start - delayed in Newfoundland by overheating engines)
  • Vickers Vimy (last to arrive, won)

Handley Page entry

Handley Page decided to enter, and Stedman was in charge of assembling and testing the Handley Page V/1500. But he wasn't part of the flight crew:

1st pilot was Major Herbert G. Brackley; 2nd pilot and publicity officer was the recently-retired Admiral Mark Kerr, (Aviator's Certificate no. 842 on 16 July 1914, first Flag Officer ?Vice-Admiral? to become a pilot); Tryggve Gran was navigator and stand-by pilot (he had already become the first to cross the North Sea, by flying from Scotland to Stavanger in a Bleriot XI and [would fly] from London to Stockholm [later that year?] [refs pls from WP article]; the wireless operator was Frederick Wyatt. Plus mechanics A.P. Arnold and C.C. Clements (rigger). Navigator's seat is in the Ottawa House Museum, Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, update V/1500 article

Also in the team as meteorologist, though not in the flight crew, was a young Cambridge physicist. Major Geoffrey Taylor.

"The ‘Atlantic’ (F7140) was packed in crates and left Liverpool, England, aboard a ship on May 2nd, 1919. Upon arrival in Newfoundland on May 10th, and an 80-mile journey by rail, reassembly of the ‘Atlantic’ began under the supervision of Col. Ernest W. Stedman on an airfield prepared in Harbour Grace."

After unloading, V/1500 taken to Harbour Grace to be re-assembled. Overheating? Needed new radiators. After the repairs had been completed, a trial flight could not be made until 10 June because of bad weather conditions. Trial flights revealed that the engines had an alarming tendency to overheat, and new radiators were sent for from England, but were not to arrive before the 18th.

Overheating radiators were a continuous problem. New rads were ordered and on the 1,000 mile journey the rear rads failed after about 1,000 km (620 miles)

Final erection in the open air began on 21 May, being very much hampered by stormy weather. After a brief handling flight on 8 June, Brackley attempted a five-hour test on the 13th, but landed after 1 1/2 hours with the engines boiling, so decided to wait again for new radiators of the latest pattern, which were already on their way in SS Digby; the ship docked next day, having been held up by thick fog 200 miles from St John’s, and the radiators were sent on urgently to Harbour Grace by the narrow-gauge railway. They were installed and found satisfactory in the third test flight on 18 June, but meanwhile Jack Alcock and Arthur Whitten-Brown, the last to arrive on the scene, had flown their Vickers Vimy from Lester’s Field to Clifden on 14/15 June and won the prize.

While they were waiting for spare parts, A&B (who had arrived in Newfoundland on 24 May 1919, assembled their Vickers Vimy, trials 9 & 12 June) did that thing, taking off at 1:45 p.m. on 14 June.

Timeline

NB Various sources, esp. web, mangle the dates.

• Brew, Alec (1993). Boulton Paul Aircraft Since 1915. London: Putnam Aeronautical Books. ISBN 0-85177-860-7.

• On 27th February in the USA, the Swedish pilot Hugo Sundstedt was only a few days behind Harry Hawker in making a first trial flight in a trans-Atlantic prize contender, but had to land his lightweight 100ft wingspan twin Liberty engined floatplane “Sunrise” after just one mile with engine trouble. The aircraft was built by the Wittemann-Lewis Aircraft Company in Teterboro, New Jersey, to Sundstedt's design, backed by the Norwegian Christoffer Hannevig, a ship and shipyard owner, broker and banker.

• On 18th March Hawker, Mackenzie-Grieve and the crated aircraft left Liverpool on board SS Digby on their way to St John’s Newfoundland accompanied by a Rolls-Royce engine expert and the cine photographer who had been filming the trial flights from a Sopwith Buffalo. The Sopwith Atlantic arrived in Newfoundland on 29 March.

• On 25 March, Capt Sundstedt’s American-built twin-engined floatplane crashed in Newark Bay, piloted by Commander Alexander Prokofieff-Seversky, a Russian naval aviator. Banking while coming to land after a trial flight, the aircraft went into a spin from around 400 feet. Neither Sundstedt nor his co-pilot Lieutenant Paul Micelli were on board. It was damaged and needed new pontoons, which would have taken at least a month. Assuming that the race would be won by that time, Sundstedt withdrew his name from the Trans-Atlantic Prize entries. In fact the race wouldn't be won until the middle of June.

• On 2nd April, the Handley Page ‘V/1500’ four-engined entry for the Trans-Atlantic Prize made its first flight in the UK. It was double the weight and power of an O/400. On loan, free of charge, from the Air Ministry it carried its F7140 military serial number.

• The Bolton Paul P.8 crashed on its first test flight in April 1919, apparently in the UK - although the engines had been run up separately, not enough fuel was delivered to both engines at once - this only became apparent in flight.

• The Martinsyde team arrived in Newfoundland at St John’s on 11th April with Fred Raynham and their Raymor aircraft.;

• Sopwith Atlantic flew tests on 11 April. With snow and rainstorms outside, the Sopwith team had taken a week to assemble the ‘Atlantic’ in the substantial wooden hangar on the remote airfield in Newfoundland. The propeller appeared to be two two-bladed ones bolted together. On 10th April, with the mud bath airfield hardened by a frost, Harry Hawker managed a lightly loaded 1hr 10 min flight, despite damaging the rudder on a difficult takeoff.

• On 13th April, the Vickers ‘Vimy’ twin Rolls-Royce engined Atlantic contender made a test flight at Brooklands where it has been built. Or perhaps 18th? See next

• On 16th April in a brief lull in the storms, the Martinsyde Raymor was tested for a 3-hour flight.

• On 18 April the Vickers Vimy was test flown at Brooklands.

• On 17th April, the Short Shamrock started from Eastchurch towards the Curragh, Ireland, but ditched in the Irish Sea on the way.

• By or on 1 May 1919 the Fairey N.9 was one of the earliest aircraft to be civil-registered after official approval of civil flying in the United Kingdom. Fairey’s N9 was registered as K-103, later to be G-EAAJ. "As with N10 (F.128), N9 was bought back by Fairey from the Admiralty in 1919 and was re-engined with the more powerful 250 hp Sunbeam Maori II V-twelve liquid-cooled engine and modified with equal-span wings. This was possibly the seaplane being considered as the company’s entry, announced in March 1919, in the competition to win the Daily Mail prize of ?10,000 for the first nonstop crossing of the Atlantic. The crew for the flight was to have consisted of Sydney Pickles as pilot and Capt A. G. D. West as navigator."

• 2nd May V/1500 Atlantic left Liverpool

• V/1500 arrived in Newfoundland on May 10th

• On 12th May, the Handley Page ‘V/1500’ four engined trans-Atlantic contender arrived by rail from St John’s at the little town of Harbour Grace on Conception Bay. Their airstrip started as a series of gardens and farms with brick walls between them which have been removed by gangs of men together with three houses, a farm building and a barracks. Attempts to flatten hummocks with a horse drawn heavy roller have left “a bumpy aerodrome”. Mechanics and riggers boarded in local homes erected a 50ft high scaffold with blocks and tackles to lift the wings and engines onto the fuselage.

• At night on 13th May, the Vickers ‘Vimy’ team arrived at St John’s.

• On 16 May the three USA Curtis NCs lifted off from Trepassey Bay and headed for the Azores, but only one was to arrive, NC-4 at 9.25 am on 17 May.

• On 18 May At 3.15pm (5.51pm GMT really?), the Sopwith Atlantic took off from Newfoundland, piloted by Harry Hawker, with Lieut Cdr MacKenzie-Grieve as navigator. But ditched after 800 miles, picked up by ship with no wireless, didn't arrive in port till 8 days later. "Mr Hawker and Comm. Mackenzie Grieve in the Sopwith Rolls Royce Biplane began the transatlantic flight this afternoon at 6:45pm from Mount Pearl flying field, St. John's, Newfoundland." (Spink) Picked up by Norwegian cargo ship, the Mary.

• The Martinsyde attempted to take off 20 minutes after the Sopwith on 18 May, but was heavily overloaded and undercart collapsed. crashed at Quidi Vidi, Newfoundland,

• Mrs. Pickles, wife of the Fairey III pilot, told the press that she had dissuaded her husband from taking part.

• V/1500: Final erection in the open air began on 21 May, being very much hampered by stormy weather. Trial flight could not be made until 10 June because of bad weather conditions.

• A&B arrived in Newfoundland on 24 May 1919, Alcock had even watched the engines being assembled at the factory, In the last four days, the Vickers ‘Vimy’ had arrived at St John’s and with great difficulty brought a mile up the narrow streets to Raynham’s airfield at Quidi Vidi where the thirteen man team are re-assembling it behind canvas screens in the cold raw weather working ten or twelve hours a day. Today they had the engines mounted and started on the wings whilst the search continued for a long enough field for a fully loaded take-off.

• Just after 10am on Sunday 25th May, the Mary signalled the coastguard on the most northerly point of the Outer Hebrides. Hoists signalling flags M-A-R-Y, S-A-V-E-D-H-A-N-D-S, S-O-P A-E-R-O-P-L-A-N-E. The Coastguard responded IS-IT-HAWKER and gets back Y-E-S. The fast destroyer HMS Woolston was sent out from Scapa Flow to collect the rescued pair.

• On 4th June, Fairey Aviation announced that since its test pilot Sydney Pickles had withdrawn from their trans-Atlantic challenge they already had more than enough offers from potential replacement pilots; the Fairey ‘IIIH’ dubbed ‘Threelantic’ was ready to be crated for shipping to Newfoundland. NB The aircraft was most probably the Fairey N.9, one of the prototypes for the Fairey IIIC which along with the larger Fairey N.10 (which also developed into versions of the III) had served as test beds during the war. The N.9 was trialled for catapult launch off a converted cruiser, HMS Slinger during 1916-18. Fairey bought back the N.9 and N.10 from the Navy, one reason was to re-engineer the N.9's original design to participate in the Trans-Atlantic race with Sydney Pickles. Pickles had flown a III (probs. N.9 or N.10) through Tower Bridge on 21 March 1919. It seems Fairey were more interested in flights to Africa.
  • Smith, Adrian (2018). The Man Who Built the Swordfish: The Life of Sir Richard Fairey, 1887-1956. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 9781838609504.

• 13 June: V/1500: After a brief handling flight on 8 June, Brackley attempted a five-hour test on the 13th, but landed after 1 1/2 hours with the engines boiling, so decided to wait again for new radiators of the latest pattern, which were already on their way in SS Digby but wouldn't get delivered until 18 June;

• Alcock & Brown assembled their Vickers Vimy, trials 9 & 12 June. By 9th June, the Vickers ‘Vimy’ was ready but they discovered that their fuel was contaminated. Rainham loaned them enough for Jack Alcock to fly the lightly loaded ‘Vimy’ from Martinsyde’s short field at Quidi Vidi to the longer Lester’s field to the north west. Lester’s field had only recently been found but in three days gangs of men had filled a drainage ditch and cleared the trees, a stone wall and many large boulders, some requiring dynamite.

• Vimy took off at 1:45 p.m. on 14 June, arr. Ireland 15 June.

• Fairey's attempt was abandoned after Alcock & Brown's win.

• By 18th June, the Handley Page team had fitted the replacement radiators on the ‘V/1500’ and managed a third test flight at Harbour Grace. The V/1500 then set off on a flight to New York, starting on 5 July 1919.

• The Martinsyde team rebuilt the aircraft in a garage in St John’s. With “Fax” Morgan injured in the take-off crash, a new navigator/co-pilot was engaged, and the “Raymor” was renamed “Chimera”. The Martinsyde crew made a second attempt on 17 July, but the undercarriage collapsed again on take off.

A number of stamps were overprinted for the transatlantic flights and carried by many of the aircraft/pilots involved, including those who never started. Hawker's aircraft was recovered drifting in mid-Atlantic along with the mailbag, and the post was delivered in Britain.

Flight to Long Island

New orders from Handley Page instructed the crew of the ‘Atlantic’ to organize a non-stop, 1000-mile flight to New York for publicity purposes, where they planned to meet the British R.34 airship, which was making the first east to west crossing of the Atlantic by air.

On 2 July the 634ft R.34 long set off from RAF East Fortune, East Lothian, in Scotland to cross the Atlantic not only for the first time from east to west but also back again. Arrived at Mineola on Long Island on 5 July.

5 July 1919. Report from the Manchester Guardian: "The Handley-Page left here at 9 15 p.m. (British summer time) for Atlantic City." After taking off at 9. 55 pm, the V/1500 continued to suffer from an overheating engine which threw a leg out of bed: not sensible to continue on 3 engines - forced to land, crashed on Parrsboro racecourse while attempting a landing: but not burned. According to a postcards and photos, the aircraft buried its entire nose section in the ground up to the leading edge of the starboard wing.

NB How far by air from Harbour Grace to Parrsboro? Very approximately, about 1000 km SW.

Wyatt sent reports to New York Times.

"Col. Stedman, along with a spare engine and his team of mechanics arrived from Harbour Grace to assess the damages. New parts were ordered from England including a new nose portion of the fuselage, a lower wing, undercarriage and a propeller. Repairs took three months."

"Gran and Frank Wyatt of the Marconi Company had to leave the crew and return to England. Spare components, including a complete nose section, undercarriage and starboard bottom wing, were shipped to Halifax in SS Caterino, arriving there on 21 August and being sent on by rail to Parrsboro, where repairs were completed in the open by 1 October with satisfactory test flights during the following week."

"Trial flights began on October 2nd, and the Handley Page ‘Atlantic’ departed from Parrsboro on October 9th, 1919, for another adventurous flight on route to New York, carrying the first air mail from Nova Scotia to the United States."

"The Handley Page was an aircraft of many firsts including the longest-flying wireless radio [eh?] used in flight; first international flight into Canada; first airmail into Eastern Canada; first airmail between Canada and USA; Canadian record for most people aloft in a single aircraft to date, October 4th, 1919; and first aerial photographs of Nova Scotia taken over Parrsboro."

"On 9 October, flown by Kerr and Brackley, with Arnold, Clements and three other fitters and riggers as crew, and three journalists and a film cameraman as passengers, F7140 (having had a bulldog badge painted on its nose by the Boston Globe's staff artist) took off at 11 a.m. and landed in total darkness at Greenport, NY on Long Island 96 miles short of Mineola, NY, just over twelve hours later, with fuel nearly all gone after a flight of 800 miles against strong headwinds. The aircraft was refuelled next morning but continuing strong wind and heavy rain prevented take-off till fine weather arrived on the 13th, when Mitchel Field, Mineola, was reached in 65 min. Fourteen flights were made over New York City between 17 October and 4 November, with such distinguished passengers as the Governor of New Jersey (possibly William Nelson Runyon) and the President of the Aero Club of America, Laurence Driggs, as well as many businessmen, journalists and film magnates."

Attempted flight to Chicago

Six months before the Armistice, HP had appointed William H. Workman to act as their agent in the US. In 1919 put in a tender for an airmail contract from New York to Chicago, carrying passengers and cargo as well. He started shipping suitable aircraft to New York, and the commercial demonstration was intended to show off the V/1500's capability for such an operation.

Atlantic on the way to Chicago

"Next, a commercial demonstration was arranged in conjunction with the American Express Company, to fly a 1,000 lb payload of baggage, newspapers and urgent parcels nonstop from Mitchel Field to Chicago (about 800 miles due west). Taking off at 7 a.m. on 14 November at a gross weight of 29,000 lb Kerr, Brackley and their crew of three, with three passengers, were over Delaware in two hours and reached Ithaca by midday, against strong headwinds at 5,000 ft. Over the Alleghenies three hours later, the starboard rear engine boiled nearly dry and after ten minutes of anxiety Brackley landed safely two miles from Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania. A burst water pipe joint was repaired next day and they took off again at 2.5 p.m. on 16 November, intending to refuel at the Glenn L. Martin Company factory at Cleveland, Ohio (about half way to Chicago) where William Workman was to meet them; but they mistook their landmarks and landed instead on North Randall racecourse, east of the city, (there seem to have been at least four racetracks around Randall at various times) and in their final run sheared off both wing-tips in trying to steer between the judge’s stand and the timekeeper’s stand, which were marginally too close together; the cargo was then transferred to the railroad and F7140 was dismantled and not flown again, Brackley and Stedman returning to England from Halifax, NS on 9 December."

Handley Page were appointed agents in March 1920 for the Aircraft Disposal Company Ltd. to sell war surplus aircraft, and Frederick H-P travelled to the US to secure airmail and passenger flight contracts. However, the Manufacturers Aircraft Association took a dim view of the proposed dumping of British surplus airplanes; in July 1920 the Wright Aeronautical Corporation won a injunction preventing the sale of non-US built aircraft which infringed their wide-ranging patents including ailerons, and the whole enterprise was scuppered.

See also

• Seyer, Sean (6 June 2022). "An Industry Worth Protecting? The Manufacturers Aircraft Association's Struggle against the British Surplus, 1919–1922". Journal of Policy History. 34 (3). Retrieved 28 June 2022.
• F.Manson British Bombers Since 1914 (Putnam)
• O.Thetford Aircraft of the Royal Air Force since 1918 (Putnam)
• Jane's All The World Aircraft 1919

More on the crew

Norwegian bloke - haha, Tryggve Gran] "and that same month crossed the North Sea from Cruden Bay near Aberdeen to Stavanger in Norway. When war broke out he flew over the Norwegian coast scouting for submarines, and in 1910 went to England and joined the Royal Flying Corps. He went to France the next year and took part in many successful bombing raids over the German lines, being incapacitated for a long time by wounds received in a night aerial battle near Cambrai. He has more than 2590 flying hours to his credit.

Frederick Wyatt, the wireless operator, is twenty-nine years old [thus born 1890] and has had a long experience in wireless. He is an expert in the WOT? TOT iyl GW /Oz Al luge of directional wireless and was engaged in that work for the British Navy during the latter part of the war. Wyatt worked for Marconi.

Search for "Frederick Wyatt" "handley page" §§Hidden text here, Wyatt bios

Brackley had been taught to fly by Alcock who was instructing at the RNAS RAF Eastchurch flying school.

• Vigar, Bruce; Higgs, Colin (2019). Race Across the Atlantic: Alcock and Brown's Record-Breaking Non-Stop Flight. Pen and Sword. ISBN 9781526747846.

Brackley, DSO, DSC, Croix de Guerre (P) (4 Oct 1894–15 Nov 1948) rose through the wartime temporary ranks: (T) (P) Flt Sub-Lt: 13 Jun 1915, (T) Flt Sub-Lt: 21 Sep 1915 [13 Jun 1915], (T) Flt Lt: 1 Oct 1916, Act Flt Cdr: 7 May 1917, (T) Flt Cdr: 30 Jun 1917, Act Sqn Cdr: 22 Dec 1917.

Dec 1915: Pilot, Wireless Trials, No 4 Wing, Eastchurch
    1916: Pilot, No. 5 Squadron RAF, No 4 Wing, RNAS, Dunkerque - So Brackley knew all about wireless as well. It was No. 8 Squadron RFC which did all the artillery & tank spotting, see Trenchard & Maurice Baring. 

Commanded O/400 squadrons:

9 Dec 1917: Officer Commanding, No 14 Sqn RNAS (Handley Page 0/400)
1 Apr 1918: Officer Commanding, No 214 Sqn. (Handley Page 0/400)

Thus he knew all about flying since 1915

LEAVE IT 4A BIT, lots to get on with...

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

• Barnes, C. H. (1976). Handley Page Aircraft since 1907. London: Putnam. ISBN 0370000307.

• Wise, S. F. (1981). Canadian Airmen and the First World War (PDF). The Official History of the Royal Canadian Air Force, Vol 1 (reprint, illustrated ed.). University of Toronto Press. [NB This book is available in PDF format in 15 parts, from airmen-ww1-1.pdf to airmen-ww1-15.pdf.]7