Remembering Ray and Mark Hanna

Thanks for posting, it’s good to pay tribute to these two incredibly gifted pilots & perfect gentlemen. I see from some of the posts that as I found, they would always make time to talk to airshow enthusiasts, amateur pilots, or anyone with an interest in vintage aviation. They both had a passion for flying that has rarely been equaled, it’s what they lived for & it’s what they did best. I for one will never forget them.

Regards, Rich

I was pushing my young son around Duxford in a pushchair and Ray held the OFMC door open for us,little things you never forget 🙂

Steve, what a wonderful story! I had precious few moments with Ray when I met him – “excuse me, I think this young man[me!!] wants to speak with me” – but I’ve never heard a bad word about him. Ditto for Mark, whose death left me in tears and who I never got so see fly in person.

I’m at work so will have to watch the video when I get home, but thanks for sharing!

I don’t know about Mark as one never hears much about him but I know that appears to have been the concensus of opinion about Ray. Never considered himself too good to talk to anyone. I think it’s something to do with him being a colonial. They tend to be less stuffy than us British.

Never to be forgotten as consummate aviators and great blokes. Mark was a bit ahead of my son at school and was a senior all the juniors looked up to by force of his character.

Lovely video. both sorely missed.

I only got to see Ray and Mark display together twice. East Fortune, both times.

The first time was a classic Spitfire vs. Buchon dogfight. The second was a P-40 vs. Buchon dogfight the year after.

Sad to think that Mark was gone just a couple of months after that second dogfight.

Steve, what a wonderful story! I had precious few moments with Ray when I met him – “excuse me, I think this young man[me!!] wants to speak with me” – but I’ve never heard a bad word about him. Ditto for Mark, whose death left me in tears and who I never got so see fly in person.

I’m at work so will have to watch the video when I get home, but thanks for sharing!

When in the day I wore my hat as Webmaster for the Spitfire Society I fended a question to Ray Hanna about carburetor icing in Merlin engines (I was a low hours PPL who had been asked the question as to whether Merlins suffered from this problem). None of the WW2 pilots I talked to had any idea about it- the engine ran so why worry?. A couple of weeks passed and I forgot about the question. One afternoon I finished early and arrived home as the phone rang. It was Ray Hanna who had clearly asked around his engineers and he then talked Merlins and Spitfires at me (someone about whom he knew nothing) for around an hour. He offered me an hour of his time- I will never forget.

Thanks for posting this Steve. How fortunate we are that the Hannas’ routines were professionally filmed for posterity with no commentary background and minimal narrative. There’s lots of footage on the web but mainly from shows, so thanks!

Sadly missed but their displays are fondly remembered here

Thanks for posting Steve.

I still have the VHS version of this, along with the DVD.

Do you still have the footage you put up (along time ago!) of Mark in the Mustang, tail chasing 434, I think filmed at the same time as ‘A Spitfires Story’?

I seem to recall there was an ultra low pass over the camera at the end of RWY 24 after the Mustang took off! 😀

Cheers

Paul