39 Facts About Roland Beamont

Roland Beamont spent several months as a Hawker Aircraft experimental test pilot developing the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest, and was responsible for introducing these types into operational squadron service.

Roland Beamont pioneered the ground attack capabilities of the Typhoon and led the air-to-air campaign against the V-1 flying bomb.

Roland Beamont set three Atlantic records in the Canberra, including the first double Atlantic flight within 24 hours for which he was awarded the Britannia Trophy.

Roland Beamont was proud that he had never broken an aircraft, nor had to bail out or eject.

Roland Prosper Beamont was born on 10 August 1920 at 8 Private Road, Enfield, Middlesex, the son of Lieutenant Colonel Ernest Clement Beamont, a trade officer with the Foreign Office, and Dorothy Mary, nee Haynes.

Roland Beamont grew up in Chichester, Sussex, and from an early age was fascinated by aviation.

Roland Beamont spent his school holidays, cycling to nearby Tangmere aerodrome to watch the RAF Hawker Furies fly.

Roland Beamont's parents supported his interest in aviation and had him educated at Eastbourne College from 1934 to 1937 with the aim of admission into the RAF College Cranwell In addition, his father organised two air experience flights the first at Tangmere, with No 1 Squadron, the second at RAF Halton in which Beamont was allowed to take the controls in an Avro Tutor.

Roland Beamont was not academic and failed his school certificate in 1938.

Roland Beamont was posted to No 13 Advanced Flying Training School, Drem, flying Hawker Harts and then Hurricanes.

Roland Beamont passed out as a pilot officer, graded exceptional, on 21 October, and in November 1939, he was sent to France to join No 87 Squadron.

Roland Beamont arrived at British Expeditionary Force in France with 15 hours experience flying Hurricanes.

In frustration, Roland Beamont suggested that on moonlit nights they should cross the channel and strafe the Luftwaffe aerodromes.

Roland Beamont set about raising the morale of his new flight by engaging them in night flying and formation aerobatics.

Roland Beamont managed an emergency landing in a small field being used as a flying school, attracting a rebuke from the chief flying instructor.

Roland Beamont was keen to resume operational flying in one of the two Typhoon squadrons.

Roland Beamont was initially posted to No 56 Squadron, as a supernumerary flight commander in July 1942, followed by a permanent posting to No 609 Squadron RAF in October.

When its commanding officer Paul Richey left in January 1943, Roland Beamont was promoted to squadron leader.

Roland Beamont was called to meetings with Air Chief Marshal Trafford Leigh Mallory and AOC Hugh Saunders to discuss the future of the Typhoon.

Roland Beamont argued that he had faith in the manufacturers to correct its faults and that the basic design of the aircraft was sound: it was easy to fly, a stable firing platform, it was both faster and more manoeuvrable than contemporary Luftwaffe fighters.

Roland Beamont challenged the CO of No 91 Squadron to an air race, with Roland Beamont's Typhoon being the clear victor over the Spitfire XII.

Roland Beamont was awarded a bar to his DSO in June 1943, his destruction of 13 trains and numerous lorries being noted.

For instance, Roland Beamont discovered first hand that attacking a V-1 at close range could result in a hazardous explosion.

Roland Beamont established that the best attack was to approach from astern at an acute angle with the cannons synchronised to 200yds.

Around this time Roland Beamont met Ernest Hemingway, who had flown over from America to report on the D-Day invasion and spent time in 150 Wing's officer's mess.

Roland Beamont crash landed without injury and became a prisoner of war.

At RAF Chilbolton Roland Beamont formed the first wing of Hawker Tempest IIs in preparation for planned invasion of Japan.

Petter was concerned about Roland Beamont's lack of engineering qualifications, but Page pointed out they would "have plenty of good engineers but what was needed was a test pilot with operational experience".

Roland Beamont made the first experimental test flight from the Warton Aerodrome in a Meteor on 28 August 1947.

Roland Beamont followed this with a period of development flying in which he explored the envelope of the P1 culminating in a flight to Mach 1.5 in February 1956.

Roland Beamont made the first flight from Boscombe Down the next day.

Roland Beamont was unable to retract the undercarriage satisfactorily on the third and fourth flights.

Roland Beamont was confident in the XR219's precise flying, so made a long approach at low descent rate and successfully rotated the bogies by using the weight of the aircraft on landing.

On Flight 14 Roland Beamont returned XR219 to BAC Warton.

In 1960 Roland Beamont was appointed a special director of English Electric Aviation.

Roland Beamont did however continue production test flying of Lightnings until 1968 when he retired from test flying altogether, by then he had flown 167 different types during a total of 5,100hr and 8,000 flights, of which more than 1,100 were supersonic.

Roland Beamont died on 19 November 2001 at the age of 81.

Sadly, Shirley died in May 1945, two weeks before Roland Beamont was liberated from Luckenwalde.

An AI companion based on Roland Beamont appears in several installments of the military science fiction franchise Halo.