Lionel Peter Twiss (23 July 1921 – 31 August 2011) was a British test pilot who held the World Air Speed Record in 1956.

Early life

He was born in Lindfield, Sussex and lived with his grandmother while his parents were in India and Burma. He was the grandson of an admiral and the son of Colonel Dudley Cyril Twiss an army officer.Online version
/ref> Twiss went to school at

Haywards Heath Haywards Heath ( ) is a town in West Sussex, England, south of London, north of Brighton, south of Gatwick Airport and northeast of the county town, Chichester. Nearby towns include Burgess Hill to the southwest, Horsham to the northwest, ...

and later at

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

. In 1938, he was employed as an apprentice tea-taster by

Brooke Bond Brooke Bond is a brand of tea owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions, except in India, Nepal, and Indonesia where it is owned by Unilever. Brooke Bond was formerly an independent tea- trading and manufacturing company in the United Kingdom, known ...

in London, before returning to the family farm near Salisbury.Brief autobiography
/ref>

Aviation career

Military

Rejected as a pilot by the

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

, he was accepted as a Naval Airman Second Class on the outbreak of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After training at 14 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School, Castle Bromwich, he went on to fly Fairey Battles and Hawker Harts. He underwent operational training at

RNAS Yeovilton Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, commonly referred to as WAFU central, (HMS ''Heron'') is an airbase of the Royal Navy, sited a few miles north of Yeovil, in the English county of Somerset. It is one of two active Fleet Air Arm bases, the ...

flying Blackburn Rocs, Blackburn Skuas and Gloster Gladiators. His next posting was at the School of Army Co-operation at Andover, flying

Bristol Blenheim The Bristol Blenheim is a British light bomber designed and built by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, which was used extensively in the first two years of the Second World War, with examples still being used as trainers until the end of the war. ...

s as a twin conversion. He was then posted to 771 Squadron in the Orkney Islands, flying a variety of naval aircraft on various duties, including met observations at 12000 ft in winter in the open cockpit of a Fairey Swordfish, and target-towing duties. He then served with the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit on catapult ships flying

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

s. These missions required the pilot to ditch or bale out, in the expectation of being recovered by a passing ship. During the Malta Convoys in 1942, he flew Fairey Fulmars with 807 Squadron, from the carrier HMS Argus. For his service, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) in June 1942. Later in the year, the squadron converted to Supermarine Seafires flying from for the

Operation Torch Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942) was an Allies of World War II, Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa whil ...

landings in North Africa. During the Allied landings in Algeria and Morocco, he added a bar to his DSC, gazetted in March 1943. By this time, he had shot down one Italian aircraft (a Fiat CR.42 on 14 May 1942) and damaged another.Online version
/ref> He then flew long-range intruder operations over Germany from RNAS Ford, developing night fighter tactics with the RAF's Fighter Interception Unit. Ford also acted as an operational research unit and so Twiss flew missions over occupied Europe, in Bristol Beaufighters and

de Havilland Mosquito The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito is a British twin-engined, multirole combat aircraft, introduced during the World War II, Second World War. Unusual in that its airframe was constructed mostly of wood, it was nicknamed the "Wooden Wonder", or " ...

s, so putting the unit's theory into practice. He claimed two Junkers Ju 88s shot down during 1944. Later in 1944, he was sent to the British Air Commission Washington DC, where he tested various prototype aircraft and evaluated airborne radar equipment. He also served at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. By the end of the war, he was a lieutenant commander. In 1945, he attended No. 3 Course at the Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS), then based at RAF Cranfield. and then went to the Naval Squadron at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down.

Civil

In 1946, Twiss joined

Fairey Aviation The Fairey Aviation Company Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer of the first half of the 20th century based in Hayes, Hillingdon, Hayes in Middlesex and Heaton Chapel and RAF Ringway in Cheshire that designed important military aircraft ...

as a test pilot and flew many of the company's aircraft, including the Fairey Primer, Fairey Gannet, Fairey Firefly, Fairey Delta 1 and the Fairey Rotodyne compound-helicopter. In 1947, he entered the

Lympne Lympne (), formerly also Lymne, is a village on the former shallow-gradient sea cliffs above the expansive agricultural plain of Romney Marsh in Kent. The settlement forms an L shape stretching from Port Lympne Zoo via Lympne Castle facing Ly ...

Air Races flying a Firefly IV
winning the high-speed race at 305.93 mph
He worked for two years on the Fairey Delta 2, a supersonic delta-winged research plane. On 17 November 1954, the FD2 suffered engine failure and consequently hydraulic power loss on a test flight, but Twiss managed to crash-land at Boscombe Down. He received the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air for this feat. The aircraft was repaired and, flying it on 10 March 1956, Twiss broke the World Speed Record, raising it to 1,132 mph (1811 km/h), an increase of some 300 mph (480 km/h) over the record set the year before by an F-100 Super Sabre, and became the first jet aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight.

Later career

In 1960, Fairey Aviation was sold to

Westland Aircraft Westland Aircraft was a British aircraft manufacturer located in Yeovil, Somerset. Formed as a separate company by separation from Petters Limited just before the start of the Second World War, Westland had been building aircraft since 1915. Du ...

, a helicopter manufacturer, which was not Twiss's area of expertise. Twiss left after a career in which he had piloted more than 140 different types of aircraft. Twiss joined Fairey Marine in 1960 and was responsible for the development and sales of day-cruisers. He appeared in the film '' From Russia with Love'', driving one of the company's speedboats. His work as a marine consultant led to directorships of Fairey Marine (1968–78) and Hamble Point Marina (1978–88). In 1969, driving the Fairey Huntsman ''707 Fordsport'', he took part in the Round Britain Powerboat Race, including among his crew

Rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Political demonstration, a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a North American school or college sporting event Sport ...

champion Roger Clark. He also appeared in the film '' Sink the Bismarck'', in which he flew a

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a retired biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was a ...

. Twiss was for several years a member of Lasham Gliding Society. His autobiography ''Faster Than the Sun'' was published in 1963, and revised in 2005.

Personal life

Twiss was married five times. His first three marriages, to Constance Tomkinson, Vera Maguire and Cherry Huggins, ended in divorce. His fourth wife, Heather Danby, predeceased him in 1988. When Twiss died on 31 August 2011, he was survived by his fifth wife, Jane de Lucey. Twiss had a son, three daughters and several stepchildren.

References

Bibliography

* Taylor, H. A. ''Fairey Aircraft since 1915''. London: Putnam, 1974. . * Winchester, Jim. ''Concept Aircraft: Prototypes, X-Planes and Experimental Aircraft''. Rochester, Kent, UK: Grange books plc, 2005. . * Twiss, Peter. ''Faster than the Sun''. London: Grub Street Publishing, 2000. . *

External links

BBC article on record breaking flight

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Twiss, Peter 1921 births 2011 deaths Britannia Trophy winners British test pilots British World War II pilots Fairey Aviation Company Fleet Air Arm aviators Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Sherborne School People from Lindfield, West Sussex Place of death missing Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Navy officers Fleet Air Arm personnel of World War II Recipients of the Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air Segrave Trophy recipients British aviation record holders