CHAPTER XXI
THE PASSING OF A BRAVE AVIATOR
“One moment stood he ... high in the stainless eminence of air. The next he was not.”
CHAPTER XXI
Harry had elected to pilot a Nieuport Goshawk biplane in the Aerial Derby on Saturday, July 16th, 1921. Another pilot had already attained a speed of 166 miles per hour on this machine, and Harry hoped to maintain British prestige in competition with the principal French champions, or “Aces,” who were coming over with machines on which they had exceeded that speed. In short, Harry would get the best possible performance out of the aeroplane.
“Hawker, Ennadale, Hook Rd., Surbiton.—Machine ready for flying Tuesday afternoon.—Folland.”
So reads the telegram which Harry received on Saturday, July 9th, intimating that on the following Tuesday the machine would be ready for him to test.
Those who closely followed aviation during the late spring and early summer of 1921 will remember that there was a striking coincidence between a spell of exceptionally hot weather and an unusually large number of flying accidents (although not all fatal).
Exactly what happened or what was the cause will never be known, but it seems probable that something serious, which, Harry realised, might cause a fire, occurred while he was fairly high over Burnt Oak, Hendon; and it was evident that he proceeded to land, but was unable to do so before the machine took fire. As the aeroplane struck the ground the petrol tank exploded. That Harry died instantaneously there is no doubt, for his body, terribly fractured, was found some 200 yards away.
HARRY GEORGE HAWKER.
AGED 31.
DIED, JULY 12, 1921.
I have said enough: but let the tributes which more learned judges have paid to the father of my Pamela and Mary be widely known.
Photo by]
[Daily Sketch.
FLORAL TRIBUTES BEING TAKEN TO HARRY’S GRAVE, AT HOOK, SURREY, ON THE 225 H.P. SUNBEAM, BY MY BROTHER, CAPTAIN L. PEATY.
[Facing p. 318.
“Hawker’s one ambition was to get more from an internal combustion engine of given size than anyone else had succeeded in getting, and his perpetual success became a byword.... It was in this particular that Hawker shone most brilliantly, and never an engine passed through his hands but it showed an increased power capacity of from 20 per cent. to 100 per cent. when he had finished with it. The same applied to his work in aeroplane and motor-car design. He began where others had left off, and carried what they considered the final stage of development to a point that they had either not dreamed of or had definitely decided to be impossible of achievement.... No one but Hawker could have avoided death at the end of that skid. It took place on a car which, originally capable of some sixty miles an hour, regularly accomplished, when he had finished with it, over a hundred.”
“If ever there was a trier, Hawker was one. Once he made up his mind to do a thing, he would try, and try, and try again until he succeeded. Failures served to spur him on to new effort.... He loved to do things that were worth while, and did them for the sake of doing them, not with any sort of gain in view.”
“The nation has lost one of it most distinguished airmen, who by his skill and daring has contributed so much to the success of British aviation.”—H.M. King George V.
“The nation is the poorer for the loss of one who always displayed such splendid courage and determination. To such pioneers we owed our supremacy of the air during the war.”—Rt. Hon. D. Lloyd George.
“No man has done more to further the march of modern practical science than has Mr. Harry Hawker. A man of deeds and few words, his name will go down in the annals of history as a pioneer airman and motorist. The development of the aeroplane as an arm of warfare owes much to his skill and bravery—skill that was not only shown in his handling of experimental machines in the air, but also in the way he applied his remarkable fund of practical technical knowledge to eliminating faults and improving existing designs. His war record as test pilot of Sopwith machines is unmatched.... Mr. Harry G. Hawker, A.F.C., will ever be remembered as one to whom the word fear was absolutely unknown.”
“Harry Hawker was stamped with genuineness. He was a simple, clean, straight-souled man. He was bred and born to do things. He did them; he did them thoroughly, deep-bitten. He made and left his mark. But in all that he did he worked so simply, so single-mindedly, that in his passing the world of actualities loses not merely a fine airman and a cunning handler of motor-cars.”
“The world of aviation has lost a champion; his wife, near relatives and friends have lost something which is quite irreparable, but in our sorrow let us be comforted by the thought that Harry Hawker died as he had lived, doing the work he loved.”
THE END
PRINTED BY THE ANCHOR PRESS, LTD. TIPTREE ESSEX, ENGLAND.
Transcriber’s Notes
[Page xv]— Ascent changed to Asçent.
[Page xxii]— Capain changed to Captain.
[Page 79]— nseo changed to nose.
[Page 83]— seal changed to sea.
[Page 87]— 3.2 changed to 3.20.
[Page 94]— 8.8 am changed to 8.08 am.
[Page 139] [Page 140]— Denham changed to Denman.
[Page 146]— experiened changed to experienced.
[Page 146]— manœurve changed to manœuvre.
[Page 191]— Mercedes changed to Mercèdes .