Winston Churchill

Thanks for the info.
Pity the current politicians don’t have such a wide life experience to make their decisions.

Best regards,
F111_mac

And smoking a 9-inch cigar would, nowadays, be Court Martial stuff – even for Prime Ministers. Although in my very early days in the RAF although, basically, a Penguin, if you went on a long sortie “if the Skipper smoked so could everyone else”.
When in transit to Egypt as a Nat Svc airman (1954) our York refuelled at Luqa. Just before take-off a drop of liquid descended on my head from the roof of the cabin. T’was petrol! If we’d taken off and the “No Smoking” had been relaxed then we might all have been yet another “unexplained” York prang! They did things in those days that would cause H&S, today, to have the double conniptions!!!
Still alive
Resmoroh

I don’t think Churchill ever held a licence, but he certainly took lessons. I’m having trouble finding the exact information now, but from memory he took lessons whilst he was First Lord of the Admiralty in the years before WW1. (He also helped to establish the RNAS and an Air Department within the Admiralty).
He took up lessons again in the early inter-war years, his tutor being a retired high-ranking officer who’d flown in the RFC. He finally gave up learning to fly after a crash at Croydon which he and the instructor were lucky to survive.
He also took ‘the helm’ of several aircraft in which he was being ferried around. Footage of him at the controls of a Boeing Clipper gets used quite frequently in the numerous Churchill documentaries.

Now you mention it I’m sure I’ve seen photos of him wearing RAF pilot’s wings but I’m sure he didn’t serve in the RAF. Wasn’t he Honorary Air Commodore of No. 600 (or 601?) Sqdn, R.Aux.A.F.? – whether that permitted him to wear wings without having qualified as a pilot I know not.

Roger Smith.