Alex Henshaw
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Alexander Adolphus Dumfries Henshaw MBE (7 November 1912 - 24 February 2007) was British air racer in the 1930s and a test pilot for Vickers Armstrong in the Second World War.
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[edit] Early life
Henshaw was born in Peterborough, the eldest son of a wealthy Lincolnshire family. He was educated at Lincoln Grammar School. He was awarded a Royal Humane Society, for saving a boy from the River Witham.
He took to motorcycles, and then learned to fly at the Skegness and East Lincolnshire Aero Club in 1932, funded by his father, who bought him a de Havilland Gypsy Moth. He made a name for himself in the 1930s in air racing, competing against legendary pilots like Geoffrey de Havilland. He competed in the blue riband of air racing, The Kings Cup, in 1933, aged only 20. in his Gypsy Moth, winning the Siddeley Trophy. After flying in a Leopard Moth and an Arrow Active, he moved on to a Percival Mew Gull. He won the inaugural London-to-Isle of Man air race in 1937, and won the Kings Cup in 1938 with the fastest ever time, flying at an average speed of 236.25 mph (a record which still stands).
He then turned his attention to long distance flying. After reconnaissance of the eastern and western routes in 1938, he set off from Gravesend at 0335 GMT on Sunday 5 February 1939 to fly his Mew Gull to Cape Town and back. He refueled on the way out in Oran in Algeria, crossed the Sahara to land in the Belgian Congo and then Angola, landing in Cape Town after flying 6,377 miles in 40 hours. He spent 28 hours in Cape Town, and retraced his route back to the UK, landing on 9 February after a flight of 39 hours, 36 minutes. He completed the whole 12,754-mile round trip in 4 days, 10 hours and 16 minutes, breaking the record for each leg and setting a solo record for the round trip which still stands. By the end, he was so tired that he had to be lifted out of the cockpit.
His account of this epic feat is given in his book Flight of the Mew Gull (1980) in which he describes hazardous landings at remote bush airstrips, battling through a tropical storm, and overcoming extreme exhaustion on the return leg. The aircraft he used, G-AEXF, was restored to its Cape flight configuration in the 1970s and remains in flying condition at Breighton in Yorkshire.[1]
[edit] World War II
Henshaw volunteered for service with the RAF during World War II, but instead became a test pilot for Vickers Armstrong. He starting with Wellingtons and Walruses at Weybridge. He did not enjoy the work, and was on the point of leaving when Jeffrey Quill invited him to test Spitfires in Southampton.
In June 1940, he moved to the Castle Bromwich aeroplane factory in Birmingham, taken over by Vickers after poor production results by the Nuffield group. He was soon chief test pilot. The factory built over half of the total output of Spitfires ever made, and 350 Lancaster heavy bombers. Henshaw tested both, leading team of 25 others. The job was essential, to ensure that faults were detected before aircraft were delivered to the font line, but was also dangerous: two of his team were killed testing new aircraft. Henshaw survived many forced landings, and a catastrophic crash between two houses in Willenhall in July 1942 which destroyed the aircraft.
It is estimated that Henshaw flew 10% of all Spitfires and Seafires, testing up to 20 aircraft a day in often foggy conditions. He would also demonstrate the Spitfire to visiting dignitaries, such as Winston Churchill, and once flying the length of Broad Street in Birmingham at low level. He was the only pilot known to perform a barrel roll in a Lancaster bomber, a feat that was considered reckless and impossible due to the aircraft's size and relatively low speed.
He was awarded the MBE for his wartime service.
Before his sad death recently, Alex gave permission to the Birmingham based film maker John Barton (J6 moving image), to make THE FLIGHT OF THE MEW GULL into a major feature film
[edit] Post-war
After the War, he wrote a book recounting his experiences at Castle Bromwich, Sigh For A Merlin, the title referring to the Rolls-Royce Merlin aero engine of the same name which powered the Spitfire.
He became a director of Miles Aircraft in South Africa, but came back to England in 1948 to join his family's farming and holiday business in Lincolnshire. He was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Bravery for his rescue work in the 1953 floods.
The Air League awarded him the Jeffery Quill Medal in 1997. He became a Companion of the Air League in 2002, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 2003. He gave his papers and momentos to the RAF Museum in 2005, paying for a curator to catalogue his collection. He famously, albeit briefly, took the controls once again in a rare two-seater Spitfire, flown on the seventieth anniversary of the flight of the first prototype on 5 March 2006 at Southampton Airport in England.
He wrote a third book, Wings over the Great Divide. A film version of The Flight of The Mew Gull is planned.
He married his wife, Barbara, in 1940. She was the widow of Count de Chateaubrun. His wife died in 1996. Henshaw died at home in Newmarket. He was survived by their only son.
