Duke, Neville

Squadron Leader Neville Duke

Neville Frederick Duke was born in 1922 and educated at The Judd School, Tonbridge. With the Second World War already in full swing and the Battle of Britain impending, he enlisted in the RAF in June 1940 (having been turned down by the Fleet Air Arm). He had gained his fighter pilots wings (and a commission) by February 1941.

In April that year he joined 92 Squadron (Spitfires) at Biggin Hill, and flew with it on sweeps over France. Over the next few months of encounters with the Luftwaffe's Me109s he had his first two combat victories, besides claiming two damaged.

In November he was posted to 112 Squadron in the Middle East. This was flying Tomahawks, a fighter markedly inferior to the Me109. But the following months were nevertheless to be prolific for Duke. In spite of being brought down twice and forced to crash land, he himself shot down a mixture of German and Italian aircraft, beginning with a third share in a Fiat CR42 biplane, and proceeding to Stukas and a Macchi MC200 fighter. When No 112 received the improved Kitty-hawk, he downed two more MC200s, and was awarded his first DFC.

He was now rested as an instructor in Egypt for nine months, by which time, January 1943, his old squadron, No92, had arrived in North Africa with its Spitfires. Duke was appointed a flight commander, and another highly effective period of air combat ensued. By the time his second tour came to an end in April he had shot down 14 more aircraft and won a Bar to his DFC. A newspaper headline saluted his third decoration as simply: Plane-a-Day Pilot  DSO After a further period instructing in Egypt he began his third tour, as CO of 145 Squadron, flying Spitfire VIIIs in Italy, in May 1944. With Italy by now out of the war, the opposition in the air was all German, as the Allies pursued the doggedly retreating Wehrmacht up the Italian peninsula. In air operations over Latium, Umbria and Tuscany, Duke shot down two Me109s and two Fw190s in May, and was awarded a second Bar to his DFC.

But he was lucky to escape with his life the following month after his Spitfire was hit by flak and he had to bale out over Lake Bracciano, northwest of Rome. Once in the water, he was unable to release his harness and was almost drowned when wind filled the parachute canopy and nearly dragged him under. Italian partisans saw his plight, fished him out of the water and looked after him until the arrival of American troops.

He returned to his squadron, which was now involved in a good deal of low-level strafing in support of ground operations, and fewer enemy aircraft were encountered. His final combat victories came on September 7, 1944, when he shot down two more Me109s in a single sortie. With 27 kills (including a half share in two aircraft) and several more probables he was now firmly established as one of the highest-scoring pilots in the Mediterranean theatre.

After passing through the Empire Test Pilots School, where he converted to jets, Duke joined the RAF High Speed Flight in 1946. There, Gloster Meteors, which had proved so useful in the battle against the V1s, were setting new speed standards. The flights youngest member, Duke himself was to achieve more than 600mph in a Meteor Mk 4  to be narrowly beaten by his boss, Group Captain E. M. Donaldson, who on September 7, 1946, established a world air speed record of 615.78mph. Seven years to the day later Duke was to perform his own record-breaking feat in the Hunter.

In 1948 Duke retired from the RAF to become a full-time test pilot with Hawker. In the following years, the challenge of the sound barrier beckoned, and much perilous experimental flying was being done at speeds which encompassed many unknowns in terms of strength of materials and air-frame stress.

One of Britain's most exciting aircraft was the Hawker P1067, later to become well-known as the Hunter. Duke was due to demonstrate this at the Farnborough airshow of 1952, following a flight by the DH110, a new, swept-wing, twin-boom, postVampire concept. As the DH110 approached to transit the air show at high speed, it suddenly disintegrated in the air, showering the spectator area with lethal debris and killing 28 on the ground as well as its observer and pilot, Duke's close friend John Derry.

As soon as he had been told that the runway was clear of debris, Duke took off in the Hunter, and gave his display as planned, culminating in a sonic boom, as a tribute to the dead aircrew.

Duke continued as chief test pilot at Hawker until 1956, when he took up consultancy work, later forming his own company, Duke Aviation. He published a number of books, among them: Sound Barrier (1953); Test Pilot (1953); Book of Flight (1958); and The War Diaries of Neville Duke (1995).

He had been flying in his light aircraft with his wife, Gwen, when he suddenly felt unwell. They landed safely at Popham airfield, Hampshire, but he collapsed as he got out of the aircraft. He died later that

Article - Courtesy of the Times, London England.