Nicholas Comper (29 April 1897 – 17 June 1939) was an English aviator and aircraft designer, whose most notable success was the 1930s

Comper Swift The Comper C.L.A.7 Swift is a British single-seat sporting aircraft designed and produced by the Comper Aircraft Company. It was the company’s first aircraft. The Swift was designed shortly after Nicholas Comper’s departure from the Royal A ...

monoplane racer.

Early life

Nicholas Comper was born in

Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...

, London, England, the son of church architect Sir John Ninian Comper. After leaving

Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...

, he joined the Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco) as an apprentice. He left the company in 1915 to join the

Royal Flying Corps The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the air arm of the British Army before and during the First World War until it merged with the Royal Naval Air Service on 1 April 1918 to form the Royal Air Force. During the early part of the war, the RFC sup ...

, and was trained to fly at Castle Bromwich Aerodrome. He joined No. 9 Squadron RFC, and was posted to Morlancourt in France, flying B.E.2c aircraft on reconnaissance missions.Nick Comper official websiteRiding (2003) After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Comper stayed in what was then the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

, and in 1920 he studied aerodynamics at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Jesus College was established in 1496 on the site of the twelfth-century Benedictine nunnery of St Radegund's Priory, Cambridge, St ...

. He spent time with

RAE Farnborough 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 UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), before finally losing its identity in mer ...

, and in October 1922 he was posted to

RAF Cranwell Royal Air Force Cranwell or more simply RAF Cranwell is a Royal Air Force List of Royal Air Force stations, station in Lincolnshire, England, close to the village of Cranwell, near Sleaford. Among other functions, it is home to the RAF Colleg ...

to train engineering officers. One of his pupils was

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with co-creating the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 fo ...

, the jet engine pioneer. In 1923, Comper and some of his pupils and other members of staff formed the Cranwell Light Aeroplane Club. The Club went on to build four aircraft designed by Comper, named Cranwell C.L.A.2, C.L.A.3, and two examples of the C.L.A.4A.Jackson (1974), pp.30, 294-296, 333, 391-392 In late 1926 he was posted to the

Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment The Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment (MAEE) was a British military research and test organisation. It was originally formed as the Marine Aircraft Experimental Station in October 1918 at RAF Isle of Grain, a former Royal Naval Air Serv ...

(MAEE)

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, containe ...

to work on flying boats and seaplanes. In March 1929, having reached the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he resigned his commission to pursue aircraft design ambitions.

Civilian life

In April 1929, he formed the Comper Aircraft Company Ltd, based at Hooton Park Aerodrome near

Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south-eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, on the bank of the Manchester Ship Canal. In the 2021 Unite ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. His first design to be built at Hooton was his most successful, the

, a single-seat sporting monoplane. In March 1933, the company moved to

Heston Aerodrome Heston Aerodrome was an airfield located to the west of London, England, operational between 1929 and 1947. It was situated on the border of the Heston and Cranford areas of Hounslow, Middlesex. In September 1938, the British Prime Minister, ...

near London. The company ceased trading in August 1934. In August 1934, Comper joined with Francis R Walker to form a design consultancy named Comper and Walker Ltd, based in central London. He worked on airliner projects he called ''Dominion'' and ''Commerce''. In December 1936, he renamed the company Comper Aeroplanes Limited, to develop those concepts. In 1938, working from his home in

Walton-on-Thames Walton-on-Thames, known locally as Walton, is a market town on the bank (geography), south bank of the River Thames, Thames in northwest Surrey, England. It is in the Borough of Elmbridge, about southwest of central London. Walton forms part ...

, Comper designed a new training aircraft named the Comper Scamp. The single-seat trial version named the CF.1 Fly was built by students at the Chelsea College of Aeronautical Engineering 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, ...

Aerodrome. On 17 June 1939, in

Hythe, Kent Hythe () is an old market town and civil parish on the edge of Romney Marsh in Kent, England. ''Hythe'' is an Old English word meaning haven or landing place. History The earliest reference to Hythe is in Domesday Book (1086) though there i ...

, Comper was fatally injured in unusual circumstances. He had been a practical joker, and after he was stopped lighting

firework Fireworks are Explosive, low explosive Pyrotechnics, pyrotechnic devices used for aesthetic and entertainment purposes. They are most commonly used in fireworks displays (also called a fireworks show or pyrotechnics), combining a large numbe ...

s in a

public house A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

, he went outside. As he bent down to light the firework, a passer-by enquired what he was doing, his reply was that he was an IRA man and was going to blow up the town hall, prompting the passer-by to knock him down. Comper hit his head on the

kerb A curb (American English) or kerb (British English) is the edge where a raised sidewalk/pavement or road median/central reservation meets a street/other roadway. History Although curbs have been used throughout modern history, and indeed ...

, suffered a

cerebral haemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

and died later in hospital, aged 42. After Comper's death, the Comper CF.1 Fly was completed with RAF serial T1788 by Heston Aircraft Company, who failed to make it fly with the available engine power. Comper's collaborator on the CF.1 project, Gerard Fane, later developed the concept into a newly designed air observation post (AOP) aircraft, the Fane F.1/40.Riding (2003)

Aircraft designed and flown

* 1924 – Cranwell CLA.2 * 1925 – Cranwell CLA.3 * 1926 – Cranwell CLA.4 * 1930 –

* 1932 – Cierva C.25 * 1933 – Comper Mouse * 1934 – Comper Streak * 1934 – Comper Kite

Notes

References

*Aitken, Kenneth. February 1994. Fathers of British Aviation No.12: Nicholas Comper. Aeroplane Monthly. IPC Media *Boughton, Terence. 1963. The Story of The British Light Aeroplane. John Murray * *Meaden, Jack & Fillmore, Malcolm. (Winter 2003). The Comper Lightplanes. Air-Britain Archive (quarterly). Air-Britain. *Riding, Richard T. August&September 1978. British Pre-war Ultra-lights No.28: Comper Swift. Aeroplane Monthly. IPC Media *Riding, Richard T. 1987. Ultralights: The Early British Classics. Patrick Stephens *Riding, Richard T. March 2003. Database: Comper Swift. Aeroplane Monthly. IPC Media

External links

Site on Nick Comper
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comper, Nicholas English aviators English aerospace engineers Royal Air Force officers 1897 births 1939 deaths Accidental deaths in England People from Lambeth Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Royal Flying Corps officers British Army personnel of World War I Comper family