Whitney Straight

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For the aircraft, see Miles Whitney Straight; for the publisher, see Michael Whitney Straight
Whitney Straight at Brooklands racetrack
Whitney Straight at Brooklands racetrack

Air Commodore Whitney Willard Straight CBE, MC, DFC (November 6, 1912 - April 5, 1979) was a Grand Prix motor racing driver, aviator, businessman, and a member of the prominent Whitney family of the United States.

Born in New York, Whitney Straight was the son of Willard Dickerman Straight and heiress Dorothy Payne Whitney. He was six years old when his father died in France of influenza during the great epidemic while serving with the United States Army during World War I. Following his mother's remarriage to British agronomist Leonard K. Elmhirst in 1925, the family moved to England. They lived at Dartington Hall where he attended the progressive school founded by his parents. His education was completed at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Flying was his passion, and while 16 years old, still too young for a pilot's licence he had already achieved over 60 hours solo flight. While still an undergraduate at Cambridge, he became a well known Grand Prix motor racing driver and competed at events in England and on the Continent. He competed in more Grands Prix than any American until after World War II. In 1933 driving a Maserati he won the Donington Trophy and the Mountain Championship, and in 1934 formed his own motor racing team, personally driving to victory in the South African Grand Prix. He also gave public demonstrations at Brooklands Racing Circuit achieving a speed of 138.7 mph, a record for 5 litre class cars.

On July 17, 1935 he married Lady Daphne Margarita Finch-Hatton, daughter of the 14th Earl of Winchilsea, and they had two daughters.

In his early 20s, as head of the Straight Corporation Limited, he operated airfields throughout Britain and ran flying clubs. In 1936 he helped develop the Miles Whitney Straight aircraft. He became a naturalised British citizen that year. On October 18, 1938, the Straight Corporation purchased control of Norman Edgar (Western Airways), Ltd. and renamed it Western Airways, Ltd.

During World War II, Whitney Straight served as a Royal Air Force pilot in 601 Squadron with over 4 kills to his credit in the Battle of Britain. Straight was seriously wounded in Norway in 1940 while laying out an aerodrome on the frozen surface of a lake, and after convalescing he rejoined his squadron towards the end of the Battle of Britain. He was credited with four and a half kills and also recorded damage to many other planes. He was shot down over France in August of 1941 and initially evaded capture. Through the French Underground, he made his way to Spain where he was eventually captured and put in a German POW camp. However, he escaped and reached safety in Gibraltar. With the rank of Air Commodore, he was sent to the Middle East in charge of RAF transport command operations there, and in September of 1943 took over the newly made Cairo aerodrome.

At war's end, he became chairman of the Royal Aero Club and in July of 1947, at the age of only thirty-four, he was made managing director and Chief Executive Officer of British Overseas Airways Corporation. He reorganised the company and in 1949 was appointed deputy Chairman of the board. In the United States, his cousin Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney was the President of Aviation Corporation of America which became Pan American Airways.

Later Whitney Straight joined Rolls-Royce as deputy Chairman, and it was while visiting Peking, China in 1958 that Straight was horrified to discover that the Russian Mig 15 planes had counterfeit versions of the Rolls-Royce Derwent and Nene engines. Russia had been provided with 40 of these engines under an export license provided by the government of Prime Minister Clement Atlee after the war. Straight tried unsuccessfully to claim back £200m from Russia in royalties.

Whitney Straight died in Fulham in 1979 at the age of sixty-six.

Whitney Straight was the father of Barney Barnato (born 1947) out of a long term relationship with Diana Barnato Walker, the British air ace, who herself was the first British woman to break the sound barrier (Source - "Spreading My Wings" by Diana Barnato-Walker).

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