Tom Brooke-Smith

Tom was a farmer’s son from the Fens, born in 1918, whose passion for flying started when a pilot landed on one of his family’s fields to ask for directions. Tom learned to fly at Brooklands in his teens and at 16 began studying aeronautical engineering at Chelsea College. The day after his 17th birthday he first few went solo, and forged a successful career in civil aviation, but the Second World War pivoted that to delivering fighter planes for the Transport Auxiliary. Ferrying Shorts Stirling bombers brought him a job as test pilot at its Belfast factory, and by the age of 23 he had reportedly flown 83 different aircraft, many of them with no prior experience whatsoever! From 1948 he was Shorts’ chief test pilot. To prepare for flying experimental vertical take-off prototypes, the ever-cheerful Tom first learnt to fly helicopters, which he mastered in just one day. After four years’ development, he became he first pilot to lift the fixed-wing SC1 VTOL plane, propel its jet engines forward, and then return it to the hovering position for landing. The public saw his ‘jump-jet’ skills when he demonstrated it all over again at the Farnborough Air Show. After ‘retiring’ with many awards and trophies as well as the Segrave, he worked in PR for Flight Refuelling, and passed away in 1991.