Flt Lt George Stainforth
Early life
George Hedley Stainforth was the son of a solicitor, George Staunton Stainforth. He attended Dulwich College and Weymouth Secondary School. He joined the Army before joining the Royal Air Force.
Career
George Stainforth joined the Royal Air Force on 15 March 1923 and was posted to No 19 (F) Squadron on 10 April 1924. He was promoted after four years to Flight Lieutenant on 1 July 1928, and was posted to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment (MAEE) for duties with the High Speed Flight, also known as The Flight.
1929 Schneider Trophy
Stainforth was serving with The Flight in 1929, as pilot of the Gloster VI entrant. The aircraft was withdrawn for technical reasons shortly before the competition, which was then won by his team-mate Flt. Lt. H. Waghorn in a Supermarine S.6.
George being carried ashore after a flight in the 1927 S5 The Gloster VI, a machine George preferred to the S6
On the following day, 10 September 1929, Stainforth took the Gloster VI up for an attempt at the record over a measured mile course. He achieved a top speed of 351.3 mph and a ratified world absolute speed record, averaged over four runs of 336.3 mph.
This record was held but briefly, as a later run by the S.6 managed to raise it over 350 mph.
1931 Schneider Trophy and the 400mph barrier
Flight Lieutenant Stainforth was also one of the team in 1931 when the Trophy was won for the third time in a row, and thus the competition won outright. Following the Trophy triumph on the 16th September, he had the chance to once again break the airspeed record. His first attempt was made in Supermarine S.6B S1596, in which he achieved 379 mph. Following a minor taxiing accident during testing though, he caused S1596 to turn over and sink. Although she was recovered by divers the next day, he now transferred to S1595. This was another S.6B, which could also be fitted with the same specially prepared 2,600 bhp Rolls-Royce R “sprint” engine, serial R27 and airscrew for the record attempt. The engine was using a specially prepared fuel mixture of petrol, methanol and ethyl. Starting the engine was uneasy and there was considerable danger of engine explosion.
S1596 in which GHS narrowly escaped death when it capsized and sank. Seen here being hauled to the surface during the salvaging operation.
Flt Lt. G.H.Stainforth and Flt.Lt. Boothman in London receiving their medals.
On 29 September 1931, the record attempt was made. Due to the aircraft having no flaps, Stainforth took off from the water after a very long run up. The record was established at a height of 400 m. He made a perfect record run over the four timed miles in opposing directions and achieved an average of 407.5 mph (655.8 km/h), being the first man in the world to exceed 400 mph. For this achievement he was awarded the Air Force Cross on 9 October 1931.
S1596 before George's foot jammed under the control bar when alighting on Southampton water.
He later went on to break another record, this time by flying upside down for 12 minutes.
Career after The Flight
Leaving the MAEE in 1935, Stainforth spent a short period as Adjutant aboard HMS Glorious. He was promoted to Squadron Leader on 1 June 1936 and served with No 802 Squadron as the Officer Commanding No 30(B) Squadron in Iraq. In February 1939, he returned to CFS Upavon (as Officer Commanding Examining and Handling Flight). On 12 January 1940, he was promoted to Wing Commander and commanded No 600(F) Squadron. In June 1940, Stainforth and Stanford Tuck, the Battle of Britain ace, were posted to Farnborough in south central England. His task was to take part in comparison trials of a captured Me-109E and a Spitfire Mark II. The tests began with Stainforth flying the Messerschmitt and Tuck flying the Spitfire in level flight, dives and turns, and at various speeds at different altitudes.
During George’s three-year tour of duty at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough as a test pilot, he was approached by Mr. Nevil Shute Norway, the founder of an infant aeroplane company, Airspeed, to test fly their new small commercial monoplane, the Courier. Norway, who had been the chief designer on the R100 airship project and, when that enterprise folded after the disaster to the rival R101, had decided to set up his own company at Portsmouth with two or three enthusiasts and with the backing of Lord Grimthorpe. Nevertheless, the new company was operating on a shoe-string with a minimum of working capital, and they had sunk every last penny in this brilliant new machine, the first plane ever to have a retractable undercarriage.
Norway could not afford to pay the high fee demanded by the well-known test pilots of the day, and had picked George on account of his reputation and because, in common with other impecunious married Flight Lieutenants, he might be prepared to accept the very small fee that they were able to offer. The Royal Air Force made no objection to George accepting the job, and he took the train down to Airspeed’s factory at Portsmouth at the beginning of April 1933.
For the whole of his first day at Airspeed, George spent sitting in the cockpit of the Courier, raised on trestles in the hangar, going over and over the controls with the chief inspector by his side, asking the same questions in an apparent daydream, much to Norway’s exasperation. George was far from being slow witted, but this was his way of memorising every detail, so in the event of an emergency his reaction would be instantaneous and effective.
Sure enough, George’s pre-flight preparation paid off. On the plane’s first flight, taking off into an easterly wind from Portsmouth aerodrome, the engine cut out completely at about 200 ft. Ahead lay the mudflats and tidal waters of Langstone Harbour. To make an orthodox emergency landing dead ahead would have resulted in considerable damage or a complete write-off of the machine in which Airspeed had gambled their fortunes and future. Instead, with the machine still climbing, George instantly had the plane forty-five degrees nose down to maintain speed in a glide, lowered the undercarriage, made a one hundred and eighty degree turn, and made a perfect landing back on the runway downwind. It was one of the most outstanding feats of airmanship that Norway, writing under his pen-name Nevil Shute, in his book ‘Slide Rule’, had ever witnessed.
George spent three weeks with Airspeed flight-testing the Courier, which then went on to become a commercial success. The design of its retractable undercarriage, too, became incorporated in the specification for the new generation of fighter planes, the Hurricane and Spitfire, of Battle of Britain fame.
Stainforth was appointed as Officer Commanding No 89 (Night Fighter) Squadron in October 1941. At the end of that year, the Squadron was posted to the Middle East, and on the night of 27 September 1942, Wing Commander Stainforth was killed in action whilst piloting the aircraft Beaufighter X7700 at Gharib, near the Gulf of Suez. He was buried with full military honours, at the British Cemetery Ismailia, Egypt.
Following his death, a dossier was compiled by his friends detailing many of his achievements, recorded remarks and memories of him by distinguished officers and men who served with him during his lifetime. It also includes extracts from his own thoughts and writings. A copy of the dossier has been presented to the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon.
Mrs Stainforth's pass to the 1931 Schneider Race.
George's constant companion was his small Sealyham, Goblin, here also Mr Fox.
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Group Captain C. CLARKSON, AFC, FRAeS
“I was with George Stainforth both at CFS Wittering in 1927/28 and at CFS Upavon in 1939/40.”
ADVANCED IDEAS – “He brought a more enquiring mind to bear on problems thansome. He always tried to analyse a problem and generally came up with the right answer – though he could be pretty stubborn if proved wrong! If people couldn’t see what he was driving at (and his ideas were often ahead of his time) he would get mad at them. More often than not time proved him right.”
FLYING – “There was never much doubt in our minds that George was almost in a class by himself as a pilot.”
WITTERING 1927/28 – “When we were there we both felt that more attention should be paid to the Aerobatic side of the CFS instruction and that it should be treated much more as a part of the course instead of just `fun and games’. To start with, our Avro 504′s only had lap belts, making inverted manoeuvres somewhat uncomfortable, but George and myself fitted our aircraft with a type of shoulder harness and, encouraged by the CFI (the then Squadron Leader Robb) we produced suitable `patter’ for inclusion in the curriculum. The fact that the other instructors at the time included Boyle (later Marshall of the Royal Air Force), Atcherley and Waghorn – all great aerobatic pilots – made it all easy, and before long all our 504′s were fitted with shoulder harness and all pupils got acrobatic instruction.”
UPAVON 1939/40 – “George was the Flight Commander of the Handling Notes and Development Flight. We had one of each new type which we then analysed for their flight and handling characteristics and produced the official Handling Notes, often going to Squadrons as they re-equipped to assist in the transition stage from one type to another.
DESIGN – “At this time the question of high `G’ was becoming a problem, and George was keen to develop a prone pilot position to overcome this. Some work was done to establish thresholds, and the idea was discussed – I believe at Farnborough – but the matter was not pursued.”
ENQUIRING MIND OVERCOMES CAUTION – “As the operational altitudes increased vapour trails became more common, but there was considerable argument on what produced them. So George went up in a Spitfire (a training aircraft without guns or oxygen) to try and produce some. Engrossed in the attempt (and his concentration on anything he was doing could be tremendous) he reached a height of between 17,000 and 20,000 ft., and that was the last he knew, until he found himself in a vertical dive around 5,000 ft. or so. The forces he exerted in the pull out were sufficient to render the aircraft quite unfit for further flying as both wings and tail were visibly distorted, and it was sent to a Maintenance Unit to be rebuilt. George was unmoved, but most annoyed at remarks about the stupidity of going to such altitudes without oxygen and the ham-handed recovery which wrote off our only Spitfire!”
All in all a very remarkable man (1973)
Comment by Group Captain C. Clarkson — May 8, 2010 @ 3:22 pm
Air Commodore D. D’ARCY GRIEG, DFC, AFC
“I am the sole survivor of the 1929 SCHNEIDER Contest.”
“I first met GEORGE when he came on the Instructor’s Course, Upavon, 1924, and he eventually became a `Teacher’ at the school. We last served together at Farnborough in the early 30s, and never met again.”
CHARACTER – “GEORGE I always looked on as a quiet dreamer, but not lacking in a sense of humour. Everyone liked GEORGE and he could stand any amount of leg pulling.”
FLYING – “In 1927 I led an Aerobatic Formation at Hendon – I like to refer to this event as the `STONE AGE RED ARROWS’!!! – the other members being Atcherley, Waghorn, Stainforth and Brilby, all at CFS.
In 1928 ‘Batchy’, Waghorn and George joined me at Felixstowe, when I was the sole member of the High Speed Flight.”
Accuracy: “A passion for extreme accuracy got him into trouble three times to my recollection:
a) When on the Course at CFS, he nearly spun a Snipe into the ground through concentrating on his altitude and neglecting to allow for `time lag’. (Inexperience) ) In the High Speed Flight, he damaged the undercarriage of a Supermarine S5 through approaching the Solent at the `correct gliding speed’ without making allowance for the gusty breeze. Heel jammed.
He did the same thing at Farnborough in the mid thirties.”
NAVIGATION -”He was a very good navigator”
DESIGNING – “He designed a few useful instruments”
SHOOTING – “He was a wonderful shot with rifle and pistol and took much trouble
in synchronising sights – even to extent of blackleading them regularly.”
DRIVING with him through LONDON traffic in his “AUSTIN 7″ was quite an experience – his accuracy in overtaking etc., being positively terrifying. He never hit another vehicle, however!”
Comment by Air Commodore D. D'ARCY GRIEG, DFC, AFC — May 13, 2010 @ 2:38 pm
Leslie Green, past President of 89 Sqdn Reunion Club
As a Schoolboy, I admired the then F/Lieutenant Stainforth as a member of the Schneider Trophy Team and winner of the World’s Air Speed Record in 1931. To find myself posted to his Squadron in the Middle East some 10 years later, was eve n more exciting.
STRONG C.O. — As a lowly Airman at that time, the awe-inspiring gap in rank between me and a man twice my age was something that had to be experienced to be understood. The first Night Fighter Squadron in the Middle East embodied all its Commanding Officers’ strength of purpose and was carried along in the name of George Stainforth even after his death.
THE CASUALTY
The night of the 27th/28th September, 1942, will never be forgotten by all those involved ; in the Middle East. W/Cdr.
STAINFORTH, together with his Observer, P/O LAWSON, failed to reach base after a night interception using the Squadron stand-by aircraft as theirs had gone U/S. They had both baled out, but their ‘chutes did not have time to deploy sufficiently. There were no signs of burning of the aircraft and there were a number of obstructions near the landing ground which was known as “a bad one at night”.
These are facts, but as always, there has been much conjecture. As they were found close to the machine, it would seem that they were in a shallow dive and had, perhaps, left it too late in an attempt to save the aircraft. It is impossible to ascertain what really happened in their last few moments as there were no witnesses.
THE TRIBUTE
We all lost that night a quiet strong figure, a brilliant pilot and a character on whom the Royal Air Force was built; one whose name is part of our history — and I am proud to have been connected with this project.
Comment by Leslie Green — May 14, 2010 @ 10:13 am
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