Roland Beamont

Wing Commander Roland Prosper "Bee" Beamont, (10 August 1920 – 19 November 2001) was a British fighter pilot for the Royal Air Force (RAF) and an experimental test pilot during and after the Second World War.

He was the first British pilot to exceed Mach 1 in a British aircraft in level flight (P.1A), and the first to fly a British aircraft at Mach 2 (P.1B).

During the Second World War, he flew more than five hundred operational sorties.

He also 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.

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

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, née Haynes.

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

His first flight was in 1926; a barnstormer in an Avro 504 landed near his home and took Beamont (aged 6) and his father up for 5 Shillings.

Thereafter, Beamont saved all his pocket money to spend it on flying books and model aeroplanes His second fight was in 1932 in a Fox Moth piloted by C.W.A. Scott.

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

His 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 (under the RAF's schools assistance scheme) the first at Tangmere, with No. 1 Squadron, the second at RAF Halton in which Beamont (aged 16) was allowed to take the controls in an Avro Tutor.

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

He retook it after private tuition, and scraped enough passes to apply for a short service commission.

On 2 September 1939 he reported to No. 13 Elementary and Reserve Training School at White Waltham Airfield for ab initio flying training as a civilian.

His subsequent commission was dependent on passing the course (i.e. going solo after 15 hours tuition), which he only just managed.

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

He 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.

Beamont arrived at British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France with 15 hours experience flying Hurricanes.

During the winter of 1939, there was little opportunity for the inexperienced pilots to fly and Beamont was assigned to the operations room.

As a result of a high fever, he was sent to a hospital in Dieppe, but after two weeks absence he risked being removed from squadron strength and put into the pilots pool.

To avoid this, he persuaded his father, who was also stationed in France, to provide a car to drive him back to the squadron.

The spring of 1940 provided more opportunity for action.

In March he took part in an interception of a Heinkel He 111 bomber, on 8 May he shot down a Dornier Do 17.

When No. 87 Squadron returned from France they were initially stationed at RAF Church Fenton, before relocating to RAF Exeter, as part of 10 Group, defending South Western England.

During the Battle of Britain, Beamont claimed a Junkers Ju 88 on 24 July, two Messerschmitt Bf 110 on 15 August, a Dornier Do 17 and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on 25 August.

Beamont described the period:"...I used to fly often to Portsmouth and look down upon my home, where my family was, in Chichester. Tangmere was being bombed ten miles away. It was all a very personal thing. When you got into your aeroplane, you felt the fears that everybody fears when going off to fight but overpowering all that was this feeling that if you and all your chaps didn't do your damnedest on every operation then all these Germans were going to be flooding over your country, your homes and destroying everything that was worth preserving. That was what it was all about."

During the air raids of The Blitz, No. 87 Squadron was assigned night fighter duties defending Bristol.

Directing the Hurricanes by searchlight was largely ineffective.

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

This tactic was adopted by Group and proved successful, with Beamont taking part in the destruction of several aircraft.

In May 1941 he was transferred to No. 79 Squadron RAF as flight commander, and in June he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

In 1945 he commanded the Air Fighting Development Squadron at RAF Central Fighter Establishment, before leaving the service in 1947.

During his subsequent career as English Electric Aviation chief test pilot (and later for BAC), he directed the flight test programmes of the Canberra, the Lightning and TSR-2, making the maiden flight of each type.

When he retired from test flying in 1968, he had flown 167 different types during a total of 5,100hr and 8,000 flights—of which more than 1,100 were supersonic.

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

In 1971, he became Panavia flight operations director, responsible for the testing of the Tornado, retiring in August 1979 following the maiden flight of the first production Tornado.

After retirement he contributed to aviation journals and wrote a number of books about his experiences.

Beamont was a careful pilot who understood the capabilities of the aircraft he flew.

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

Even when his Tempest was shot down, he had made the best landing possible in the circumstances and got out, free of injury.