Peter Twiss OBE DSC

It was on 10 March 1956 that Peter, chief test pilot for the Fairey Aviation Company, set his breathtaking new world record in the FD2 aircraft, established using the average speed measured over two flights over a nine-mile course between Chichester and Portsmouth, at 38000ft. It was snatched from Colonel Horace Hanes of the US Air Force flying a North American Aviation F-100C Super, who ‘only’ managed 822.268mph. The experimental supersonic FD2, number WG774, took its maiden flight with Peter at the helm in 1953, and on 17 November 1954 he skilfully saved the plane from certain destruction when its engine failed on its 14th flight; rather than parachuting out, he landed it by gliding down to the Boscombe Down runway, hitting the ground at 170mph with no landing gear. It took a year to repair for his successful record assault. Peter was born in 1921 and worked as a tea-taster before joining the Navy in 1939 and then training as a brilliant WWII fighter pilot. His flying career was over in 1958 after 4500 hours in 150 different planes, after which he worked for Fairey Marine, piloting one its speedboats in the James Bond film From Russia with Love. He married five times.