Neville Duke DSO OBE, a quiet and unassuming man, former holder of the world airspeed record, has died. Duke, a highly successful World War Two squadron leader, was one of the small band of brave test pilots who, in the late 1940s, pressed aviation past the legendary sound barrier.
In September 1953 the year of the Queen”s Coronation, in a Hawker Hunter fighter aircraft, he pushed the airspeed record up to a then unbelievable 727mph over the South Downs. Concorde, with 100 passengers, flew at nearly twice that speed.
Last week, at the age of 85, when flying his wife in the same area, he felt unwell, landed the aircraft safely, and died later the same evening.