John Derry DFC

This RAF hero was 26 when he broke the sound barrier on 6 September 1948, and was at the controls of the experimental, bat-like de Havilland 108 jet fighter. Afterwards, through, he told the Daily Mail that his achievement was actually an unintentional mistake that occurred while John put his aircraft into a steep, 60-second dive of 10,000ft. He said: “It just happened, as these things do in routine research flying.” He added that he “suffered no discomfort, just a strange feeling in my tummy.” Although US Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager was, famously, the first to break Mach 1, John Derry was widely acclaimed as a heroic Brit. Born in Cairo in 1921, he joined the RAF shortly after the Second World War broke out as an air gunner and radio operator. After pilot training in Canada in 1943, he flew combat missions from 1944 in Hawker Typhoons with the RAF’s 182 Squadron, and in 1945 was appointed the squadron’s commanding officer. As a de Havilland test pilot, earlier in 1948 he flew the same 108 at an astounding peak 605.23mph around a circuit above Luton. Little wonder that courageous John was one of the inspirations for David Lean’s movie The Sound Barrier in 1952. Yet also in 1952 – again on 6 September – John Derry’s name made headlines for terribly sad reasons. He was killed when the de Havilland 110 jet fighter he was piloting crashed at the Farnborough Air Show, along with his on-board observer and 28 spectators.