Wing Commander Wing commander (Wg Cdr or W/C) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Wing commander is immediately se ...

Roland "Roly" John Falk OBE AFC* (1915 - 1985) was a British

test pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testin ...

noted for being at the controls on the maiden flight of the British

V bomber The "V bombers" were the Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft during the 1950s and 1960s that comprised the Nuclear weapons and the United Kingdom, United Kingdom's strategic nuclear strike force known officially as the V force or Bomber Command Mai ...

, the

Avro Vulcan The Avro Vulcan (later Hawker Siddeley Vulcan from July 1963) was a jet-powered, tailless, delta-wing, high-altitude, strategic bomber, which was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) from 1956 until 1984. Aircraft manufacturer A.V. Roe ...

. Falk typically flew dressed in pin stripe suit and tie.

Early life

Falk was born in London in 1915, the second son of Diana Gwendoline Edith Cecil (née Stracey) and

Oswald Toynbee Falk Oswald Toynbee Falk (1879 – 1972) was a stockbroker and economist, born in the Toxteth area of Liverpool on 25 May 1879 to Hermann John Falk and Rachel Russell Everard Toynbee. He was the nephew of social philosopher and economist Arnold Toynbee ...

, and he was educated at

Stowe School The Stowe School is a public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13–18 in the countryside of Stowe, England. It was opened on 11 May, 1923 at Stowe House, a Grade I Heritage Estate belonging to the British Crown. ...

and the de Havilland Technical School. After gaining his pilot's licence he flew in both the Abyssinian War and the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

for the press. In 1937 he flew a newspaper service from London to Paris and then joined the Air Registration Board as a test pilot.

Wartime service

Falk had been a member of the Reserve of Air Force Officers since 1935 and at the start of the Second World War in 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force. By 1943 he was chief test pilot at the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

Farnborough. At Farnborough he flew and tested captured German aircraft as well as carrying out operational flights with night fighter squadrons. For his service he was awarded the Air Force Cross twice, described as the Air Force Cross and bar.

Delta-wing testing

At the end of the war in 1946 he joined

Vickers-Armstrongs Vickers-Armstrongs Limited was a British engineering conglomerate formed by the merger of the assets of Vickers Limited and Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Company in 1927. The majority of the company was nationalised in the 1960s and 1970s, w ...

as Chief Experimental Test Pilot but was seriously injured in an accident at

Wisley Wisley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England between Cobham and Woking, in the Borough of Guildford. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village and Ockham and Wisley C ...

airfield while testing new reverse pitch propellers on

Vickers Wellington The Vickers Wellington (nicknamed the Wimpy) is a British twin-engined, long-range medium bomber. It was designed during the mid-1930s at Brooklands in Weybridge, Surrey. Led by Vickers-Armstrongs' chief designer Rex Pierson, a key feature of t ...

X LN817. Falk recovered and became Chief Test Pilot with A V Roe in 1950. He soon embarked on one of the most important jobs of his career, test flying the

Avro 707 The Avro 707 (also known as Type 707) is an experimental aircraft designed and produced by the British aircraft manufacturer Avro. It was developed to test the tailless aircraft, tailless thick delta wing configuration chosen for the Avro 698 ...

. The Avro 707 was an experimental delta-winged aircraft to gain experience for the design of the

bomber, Falk's experience flying the German

Messerschmitt Me 163 The Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet is a rocket-powered interceptor aircraft primarily designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt. It is the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft in history as well as ...

came in handy in what was seen as advanced and dangerous test flying. After testing the Avro 707, Falk made the first flight of the prototype Vulcan from Woodford Aerodrome on 30 August 1952. Falk demonstrated the Vulcan on several occasions and designed much of the cockpit layout. During the 1955

Farnborough Airshow The Farnborough International Airshow is a trade exhibition for the aerospace and defence industries, where civilian and military aircraft are demonstrated to potential customers and investors in Farnborough, Hampshire. Since its first show in ...

he barrel-rolled a Vulcan at the top of the post-take-off climb; although safe, he was rebuked for this manoeuvre by the organisers, but only because performing aerobatics in an aircraft weighing 69 tons and with a 99-foot wingspan was "not the done thing"! He was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 1952.

Later life

Falk retired from

Avro Avro (an initialism of the founder's name) was a British aircraft manufacturer. Its designs include the Avro 504, used as a trainer in the First World War, the Avro Lancaster, one of the pre-eminent bombers of the Second World War, and the d ...

in 1958 and became a sales representative for

Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in list of aircraft manufacturers, aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers ...

. until he set up his own aircraft business in

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

. He had married the daughter of former Avro test pilot Sydney "Bill" Thorn. The couple had two children. Falk died in Jersey on 23 February 1985, at the age of 69.

Notes and references

External links

Roly Falk biography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Falk, Roly 1915 births 1985 deaths English test pilots Royal Air Force officers Royal Air Force personnel of World War II People educated at Stowe School Officers of the Order of the British Empire Military personnel from London Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) English aviators