The above photo shows Mike, aged 19 at Gravesend, 1939
Mike mentions in his autobiography,
'Mach 1', that the only memorable event at Gravesend was spinning the Tiger
Moth, which made him violently ill.
The above entry in Mike's
logbook for July 6th 1939, confirms that he carried out his spinning exercise
on N-5490.
Mike flew 14 different Tiger
Moths at Gravesend, but often flew N-5490 with his instructor Pilot Officer
Porter.
Mike Lithgow was born on
30 August 1920 and educated at Cheltenham College. He joined the
Fleet Air Arm in March 1939
and undertook his ab initio
flying training at 20 ERFTS, Gravesend.
His wartime flying career
was distinguished. Among other operations, Mike took part in the Fairey
Swordfish attack on the
Bismarck
which crippled the ship,
enabling HMS Dorsetshire to sink her, finally avenging the sinking of HMS
Hood.
Fairey Swordfishes of 820 Sqn attacking the Bismarck
The sinking of the Bismarck as reported by the Daily Mail, 28th May 1941
Lithgow retired from the
Fleet Air Arm and moved to Vickers Supermarine as a test pilot in January
1946
and became the company's
chief test pilot two years later.
On the 28th May, 1946, Lithgow acquired his civilian pilot's license number 21236 from the Royal Aero Club
Lithgow's father's pilot's RAeC license record dated 14th February 1913
Captain E. G. R. Lithgow's pilot's license record, dated 4th February 1913
Lithgow secured the 100 km closed-circuit record for Britain in 1948 at 565 mph in a Supermarine Attacker
On 26 September 1953, flying
the Supermarine Swift F.4 prototype WK198, Lithgow broke the World Air
Speed Record
near Tripoli in Libya, reaching
a speed of 735.7 mph (1184 km/h).
Lithgow's FAI World Air Speed diploma
Lithgow published his autobiography in 1954, which was reviewed in Flight magazine, 5th November 1954
On Wednesday 24th November
1954, a Royal Aero Club dinner was held to honour Mike Lithgow and Sqn
Ldr Neville Duke.
Lithgow's autograph can
be seen at lower right. Among the other autographs is John Cunningham.
Lithgow performed extensive test flying on the Supermarine Attacker, Swift, Scimitar and later the Vickers Vanguard and BAC 1-11.
Lithgow died test flying
the prototype BAC One-Eleven G-ASHG from Wisley airfield on 22 October
1963 when,
during stall tests, the
aircraft entered a deep stall and crashed near Chicklade, Wiltshire.
Six other BAC flight test
team members were killed.
From Flight magazine, 31st October 1963
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