Lieutenant Wilfred Parke RN (1889–1912) was a British aviator who was the first pilot to make an observed recovery from a

spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally ...

Family

Parke was the son of Alfred Watlington Parke, the Rector of Uplyme, and Hilda Fort, and the grandson of Charles Joseph Parke.

Career

Parke became a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Af ...

in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

in September 1905, was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1908 and lieutenant in 1910.Aeroplane Accident at Wembley ''The Times'' Monday 16 Dec 1912; p. 4; Issue 40083. He had his first flying lesson at the Avro school at

Brooklands Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England, United Kingdom. It opened in 1907 and was the world's first purpose-built 'banked' motor racing circuit as well as one of Britain's first airfields ...

on Sunday 11 April 1911. At that time dual-control instruction was almost unknown, and Parke was in sole charge of the aircraft, in which he had been told to try taxying. To the surprise of all, he opened the throttle, and made series of short hops, managing to land successfully. The following Wednesday Parke, at his third attempt, succeeded in flying a half-circle in a stiff breeze, landing with minor damage to the undercarriage. The following Monday he successfully took the test for his pilot's licence in a Bristol Boxkite, and was awarded

Royal Aero Club The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910. History The Aero Club was foun ...

flying license no.73, awarded in a RAeC meeting that also awarded licenses to the pioneer naval aviators

C. R. Samson Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson, (8 July 1883 – 5 February 1931) was a British naval aviation pioneer. He was one of the first four officers selected for pilot training by the Royal Navy and was the first person to fly an aircraft fr ...

and Arthur Longmore. In October 1911 he was taken on as a demonstrator and instructor by the

Grahame-White Grahame-White was an early British aircraft manufacturer, flying school and later manufacturer of cyclecars. The company was established as ''Grahame-White Aviation Company'' by Claude Grahame-White at Hendon in 1911. The firm built mostly aircr ...

flying school at

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Gre ...

, doing this when not engaged on naval duties. In May 1912 he was posted to HMS ''Actaeon'' (part of the Royal Navy's

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, ...

school HMS ''Vernon'') as an officer of the Naval Wing of the R.F.C. In August 1912 he was the pilot of the

Avro G __NOTOC__ The Avro Type G was a two-seat biplane designed by A.V. Roe to participate in the 1912 British Military Aeroplane Competition. It is notable in having a fully enclosed crew compartment, and was also the first aircraft to have recover ...

cabin biplane which had been entered in the British Military Aeroplane Competition taking place at

Larkhill Aerodrome Larkhill is a garrison town in the civil parish of Durrington, Wiltshire, England. It lies about west of the centre of Durrington village and north of the prehistoric monument of Stonehenge. It is about north of Salisbury. The settlemen ...

on Salisbury Plain. On the morning of August 25 he had carried out a three-hour endurance trial, accompanied by Lieut. Le Breton, R.F.C., and was approaching the aerodrome in order to land. When flying upwind an altitude of about , Parke entered a spiral gliding approach and closed the throttle without switching the engine off. Having turned though a half circle and now more or less flying into wind, Parke thought the aircraft was too nose-up and also insufficiently banked for the turn he was making. He therefore applied up elevator and possibly applied the

wing warping Wing warping was an early system for lateral (roll) control of a fixed-wing aircraft. The technique, used and patented by the Wright brothers, consisted of a system of pulleys and cables to twist the trailing edges of the wings in opposite direc ...

control, and at once the aircraft entered a

. Parke attempted to recover from the spin by increasing engine speed, pulling back on the stick, and turning into the spin, with no effect. The aircraft descended , and observers braced themselves for a fatal crash. Parke was disabled by centrifugal forces but was still considering a means of escape. In an effort to neutralize the forces pinning him against the right side of the cockpit, he applied full right rudder, and the aircraft levelled out fifty feet above the ground. With the aircraft now under control, Parke climbed, made another approach, and landed safely. The British pilot

F. P. Raynham Frederick Phillips Raynham (1893–1954) was a British pilot from the early days of aviation, gaining his aviator's certificate in 1911. He test-flew Avro, Martinsyde, Sopwith and Hawker aircraft before and after World War I. He later formed ...

had already made a successful recovery from a spin, but the event was unobserved. In spite of the discovery of "Parke's technique," also known as the "Parke Dive", pilots were not taught spin-recovery procedures until the beginning of World War I.

Death

Parke was killed a few months later on 15 December 1912 when the Handley Page monoplane in which he was flying from Hendon to Oxford crashed at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

, also killing his passenger Alfred Hardwick, the manager of Handley Page. The accident was caused by loss of engine power, combined with the loss of airspeed caused by turning, exacerbated by the wind disturbances due to the local topography, especially the presence of a belt of trees on the windward side of a ridge. There is a stained glass window dedicated to his memory in Uplyme parish church.Memorial to Lieut Parke, R.N.
''Flight'', 2 August 1913, p.853

Notes

References

* The Old Flying Days By Charles Cyril Turner 1927 {{DEFAULTSORT:Parke, Wilfred 1889 births 1912 deaths Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in England British aviators Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1912 Royal Navy officers