Nicholas Goodhart

Rear Admiral Hilary Charles Nicholas Goodhart CB FRAeS (28 September 1919 – 9 April 2011) was an engineer and aviator who invented the mirror-sight deck landing system for aircraft carriers.

He was also a world champion and record breaker in gliding.

Goodhart was born at Inkpen, Berkshire, the son of a patent engineer.

He was educated at Miss White's Kintbury, and Connaught House Weymouth.

Goodhart entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in the Hawke Term in 1933.

He then attended the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham, Devonport.

Goodhart joined Yorkshire Gliding Club in 1938, quickly going solo within a week.

He was also at various times a member of Cambridge University Gliding Club and Lasham Gliding Society.

He served as an engineering lieutenant, and saw action in the evacuation of Crete in 1941 on HMS Formidable (67) which was hit by two 1000 lb bombs.

He then served on HMS Dido (37) and saw more action escorting convoys to Malta and the assaults on Italy over the next two years.

He undertook pilot training in Canada in 1944 and joined the Fleet Air Arm.

While flying in a Grumman Hellcat with 896 Naval Air Squadron from the carrier HMS Ameer (D01) off the coast of the Nicobar Islands, he ditched because of engine failure on 11 July 1945 and was picked up by the destroyer, HMS Vigilant (R93).

Trials after 1945 by the Royal Navy revealed that the slow throttle response of jet aircraft meant they could not safely use the standard deck landing technique then in use by propeller-driven aircraft.

Even in peacetime, carrier operations killed 20% of the aircrew.

Goodhart graduated from the Empire Test Pilots' School at Cranfield in 1946 and later tested the turboprop Westland Wyvern fighter for acceptance by the Royal Navy for use on aircraft carriers.

He survived five serious incidents including the implosion of the aircraft's canopy during a high-speed dive.

He then became senior pilot of 700 Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton before returning to test pilot duties at the Naval Air Station (NAS) Donibristle, Scotland; the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire; and the US Naval Air Test Center, Maryland, USA.

During his military career he flew over 50 types of aircraft.

He began gliding competitively, at first with his brother, Tony, winning the British Team Championship in 1950.

Goodhart therefore invented the mirror-sight deck landing system in 1951.

After a period as technical secretary at the Ministry of Supply he was promoted to commander in 1953.

The device was first introduced in the Royal Navy in 1954 and by the US Navy in 1955.

It greatly increased the safety when landing on an aircraft carrier.

There was also a saving in arrester gear units and barriers – Ark Royal needed only four wires and one (emergency only) barrier.

The reduction in weight and the extra space that this conferred enabled more mess-decks to be fitted in, thus reducing congestion in living spaces.

It was recorded that for US carriers, the landing accident rate fell by 80% from 35 per 10,000 landings in 1954 to 7 per 10,000 landings in 1957.

The US Navy awarded him the Legion of Merit for his invention and he received an undisclosed sum from the Admiralty.

After a further spell at Yeovilton, Goodhart was posted to the air warfare department at the Admiralty and then at sea as the staff aviation officer to the flag officer aircraft carriers.

In 1955 he climbed to 9300 m in USA and became the first British glider pilot to gain the Diamond Badge.

Later in 1955 he broke the British National Altitude Record in a Schweizer SGS 1-23 in California climbing to 11500 m. He was a member of the British team at the World Championships from 1956 to 1972.

He finished first in the American Championships in 1955, though as foreigner could not be the US Champion.

In 1956 at Saint-Yan in France, he and Frank Foster won the World Gliding Two Seater Championship in a Slingsby Eagle.

The US Soaring magazine noted that the only single seater to beat them was the winner, Paul MacCready.

He finished in second place in the single seater World Championships in 1958 Leszno, Poland, and fourth in 1960 and 1972.

At Lasham on 10 May 1959 he declared a goal of Portmoak in Scotland and achieved a record goal flight of 579.36 km in a Slingsby Skylark 3 at an average speed of 90.7 km/h.

He was promoted to Captain in 1962 and made project manager of the Sea Dart anti-aircraft missile programme.

He was British single-seater champion on three occasions (1962, 1967 & 1971), and in second place on four others.

After a course at the Imperial Defence College in 1965, he became director of aircraft maintenance and repair in the Admiralty until 1968.

He was then promoted to commodore and then rear-admiral and became director of defence operational requirements and finally military deputy to the head of defence sales.

He was appointed Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1972 and he retired from the Royal Navy in 1973.