ILL LUCK of the IRISH

Among the gems in the Aeroplane archive is a manuscript written by Eric ‘Jock’ Bonar, a remarkable aviator. An NCO pilot in the RAF of the 1920s, he left and took up civilian flying, in 1932 being awarded the Empire Gallantry Medal — later the George Cross — for his part in the rescue of a friend from a burning Armstrong Whitworth Siskin following a crash at Manchester’s Barton aerodrome. During World War Two he was a test pilot for