Neville Duke has passed away

vulcan · Post by **vulcan** » 10 Apr 2007, 20:28

Nothing to add to the above tributes.

We seem to be losing all our heroes, and they were true heroes who put their lives on the line not like today when footballers do it all for money.

R.I.P.

:sad: :sad: :sad:

TobyV · Post by **TobyV** » 10 Apr 2007, 21:08

A true pioneering aviator, right up until his last day.

RIP

Chris558 · Post by **Chris558** » 10 Apr 2007, 21:43

He and other fellow Test Pilots were almost Household names in their day, as the general public waited to see which of them would 'out do' each other. We'll never see the likes of that again in Aviation. :heaven:

Post by **TSR2** » 11 Apr 2007, 00:36

A sad loss. Condolences to his family, rest in peace

steelsporran · Post by **steelsporran** » 11 Apr 2007, 03:23

Another aviation chapter closes, sad.

DispatchDragon · Post by **DispatchDragon** » 11 Apr 2007, 21:36

With the passing of Neville Duke I chanced to find this composite photo taken at Popham last summer

anyone hazard a guess at some of the faces??

Leif

Post by **Trev Clark** » 11 Apr 2007, 22:19

I can only get the Harrier guy (John Farley?) and W/Cdr Wallis of autogyro fame as well as Neville, that is. Mind you, if I saw a shot of my old squadron mates now, I probably would not know who was who :redface:

I bumped into an old school chum who I have only not seen for about 5years when I was in the UK last month and it took about 30 seconds to know who he was....he was so....OLD :roll:

DispatchDragon · Post by **DispatchDragon** » 11 Apr 2007, 22:38

About the same Trev - I added Geoff Worrell only because he was a frequent visitor to my fathers house and Des Penrose - the amazing one who I DIDNT recognise was Dickie Martin the article with the photo said the old guy passed away last november (Dickie was Glosters chief test pilot toward the end - and another frequent visitor to the house at Hucclecote.

Leif

fighterpilot · Post by **fighterpilot** » 11 Apr 2007, 23:41

i may have seen these picsor similar before and seem to remember Alex Henshaw may have been present, is it him on the far right front row?

Richard

kit · Post by **kit** » 12 Apr 2007, 08:48

Two memories of Neville Duke come to mind.

The first was his amazing display flight after the carnage of John Derry's awful crash in the DH110 at Farnborough 1952. I was there, aged 9 and luckily a long way from the crash site, but the display was seemingly hardly delayed before Neville's Hunter was taxi-ing to the threshold to take our minds of things with an awesome flight. Apparently it was almost an hour before that took place, but perhaps my mind just blanked out the bad bits.

The second time Neville's path and mine crossed was at Tangemere one day when I showed up by mistake some time before the place opened. They let me in anyway and while I was marvelling about the depth of that red paint on WB188 I became aware of a gentleman standing a short distance away also looking at WB188. After a short conversation I suddenly realised who he was and we had quite a lengthy chat about life, aviation and Hunters.

The world is poorer for his death.