Geoffrey de Havilland, Junior OBE

Being the son of feted aviation pioneer Sir Geoffrey de Havilland was to be in the shadow of some giant wings, for sure, but Geoffrey Junior carved out a career for himself with the De Havilland company on his own merits, becoming chief test pilot in 1937. The “Young DH” as he was always known joined the company aged 18 in 1928 as an apprentice, and then became a flying instructor with the firm’s Technical School. He was closely involved in testing the ill-starred Albatross, and Geoffrey flew the first Mosquito at Hatfield in November 1940. He also became only the second man in Britain to make a maiden test flight of a jet aircraft, the Vampire, which he flew for the first time in September 1943. He was scarred for life when a Hurricane canopy blew off at 6000ft and hit him in the face – one of several scarily close shaves that earned him an OBE in 1945. Tragically, he was killed instantly in 1946 when the DH8 prototype he was evaluating broke up over the River Thames in Kent.