Off the wall, Ian, but fun to consider, certainly. I shall check with Whitney’s daughters.

Whitney would have rated Count Basie, perhaps Billie Holliday, though I doubt he’d have been a fan of Dylan or Springsteen!

Thanks Ian.

In the 12 months that Whitney was in captivity, the authorities’ approach to publicity about pilots forced down on enemy territory changed enormously. British newspapers and radio ran with the news of his being shot down, so that German troops redoubled their efforts to find the ‘millionaire racing motorist’. By the time of his escape and return to England, the focus was on protecting the escape lines, the people who ran them and the escapers and evaders moving within them. Only the following January, by which time Whitney had been in Cairo, as AOC of 216 Group, for four months, did the papers run with news of his escape and Daphne’s swift return from New York.

But the on-line back issues of Flight are the most wonderful resource.

Best wishes

Paul

And thanks also to Longshot for the Foynes log tip.

In a vague connection to my previous book, Amherst Villiers’s nephew, Desmond Fitzgerald (the Knight of Glin) provided the salad vegetables for the Clipper from his Glyn estate, just a few miles down the Estuary!

I’ve never visited the Museum, but I’ll make content with them now, thanks.

J Boyle (post 4)
Thanks for the tip.

Robert (post 2)
Thanks, I’m a regular ancestry user, and it’s wonderful for ship manifests – but nothing about flights from the time I’m interested in.

I do apologise to everyone who’s replied to my question.

When I posted the question after so long away, I neglected to update my email link, and it’s only upon checking this evening that I see so many of you have tried to help.

I regret appearing so rude, and will now set about answering each post.

Paul

Paul,

To get back to your original questions, I have never come across any photographs of the Gloster GIV on wheeled undercarriage and the only two short published references to the sale of N224 that I am aware of are in ‘Flight’, as mentioned before, and in ‘Schneider Trophy’ by Sqn Ldr Orlebar. I can scan the information and photos regarding wind-tunnel tests of the wheeled GIV model in 1927 when I get back to the UK next week if you like. I assume that Villiers must already have purchased a Lion VIIA or B as the Gloster would have required extensive reworking to accommodate any other engine.

Your references to the sale of the Gloster GVI are completely new to me. I have not been able to locate any information on these aircraft post 1931 after the High Speed Flight was disbanded. Indeed the same is so for the Supermarine S5s and the S6b S1596. It does sound dubious to me that they would have been seriously considered for modification to landplanes, but there have always been aspirational folk out there willing to take on a challenge so its not impossible by any means. Getting the Lion VIIDs to run smoothly in the aircraft defeated the Napier, Gloster and HSF engineers so that alone would have been a task and a half.

There is footage of Atcherleys stunt flying at Clevelend in 1932 at http://www.itnsource.com . Search on Atcherley and look for the clip called Britain’s Flying Ace, there is a free viewing option.

Cheers

Ralph

Ralph

Thanks very much for this, and for your kind offer of scanning the wind-tunnel tests and images. I should love to have them.

I’m confident that Amherst could have got his hands on a Lion VIIA or B. By 1930 he’d had his own contacts at Napier for at least four years, by virtue of designing Malcolm Campbell’s first Bluebird around a Lion, the engine being his suggestion.

As for the Gloster VI, this is the opening paragraph from an article in ‘The Aeroplane’ of 14 April 1937. Mr Amherst Villiers has long been engaged in experiemental work on both car and aero motors and some years ago he bought both the Gloster Napier IV and Gloster Napier VI of Schneider fame with the idea of putting them on wheels for an attempt on the World’s Land Speed record. The Gloster VI had already reached 336 mph on floats with only about 70% of the designed power, so the prospects were bright. But those were the days before flappage, and no aerodrome was big enough to cope with the estimated landing run, so the idea had to lie dormant.

What bemuses me about this is that if Amherst had found it a problem to locate a long enough runway for the IV, how was he going to find one for the VI?

Rgds

Paul