Ivor Ewing McIntyre, (6 October 1899 – 12 March 1928) was a
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
in the
Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
(RAAF). He gained national recognition in 1924 when he and
Wing Commander
Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...
Stanley Goble
Air Vice Marshal Stanley James (Jimmy) Goble, CBE, DSO, DSC (21 August 1891 – 24 July 1948) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served three terms as Chief of the Air Staff, alternating with Wing Com ...
became the first men to
circumnavigate
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...
Australia by air. Two years later, under the command of
Group Captain Richard Williams, McIntyre piloted the first international flight undertaken by an RAAF plane and crew; this feat earned him the first
Air Force Cross awarded to an RAAF member. Born and raised in England, McIntyre had served with the
Royal Naval Air Service and
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
in World War I before joining the RAAF. He left the Air Force in 1927 to become an instructor with the
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
n branch of the Australian Aero Club, and died after a plane crash the following year.
Early career
Ivor Ewing McIntyre was born on 6 October 1899 in
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, England, the son of
Captain Duncan McIntyre.
[Gillison]
''Royal Australian Air Force'', p. 25
/ref> He joined the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in 1917, and saw action in World War I as a flight sub-lieutenant.[ McIntyre transferred to the ]Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
(RAF) on its creation as an independent service in 1918, and was a lieutenant
A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations.
The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...
when awarded the Air Force Cross in the 1919 New Year Honours
The 1919 New Year Honours were appointments by King George V to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of the British Empire. The appointments were published in ''The London Gazette'' and ''The Times'' in Jan ...
. He was granted a short-service commission in the RAF as a flying officer on 12 December 1919.
McIntyre joined the Royal Australian Air Force
"Through Adversity to the Stars"
, colours =
, colours_label =
, march =
, mascot =
, anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...
(RAAF) in 1923.[Coulthard-Clark, ''The Third Brother'', p. 385] In November that year, he piloted a survey flight between Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
and Sydney, and carried out a similar mission between Melbourne and Hobart in February 1924.[Coulthard-Clark, ''The Third Brother'', p. 55] In July 1925, McIntyre was tasked by the Chief of the Air Staff with intercepting a squadron
Squadron may refer to:
* Squadron (army), a military unit of cavalry, tanks, or equivalent subdivided into troops or tank companies
* Squadron (aviation), a military unit that consists of three or four flights with a total of 12 to 24 aircraft, ...
of the United States Pacific Fleet
The United States Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) is a theater-level component command of the United States Navy, located in the Pacific Ocean. It provides naval forces to the Indo-Pacific Command. Fleet headquarters is at Joint Base Pearl Harborâ ...
as it approached Melbourne on a flag-waving visit; he succeeded in doing so despite poor weather and not without, according to the official history of the inter-war RAAF, "an enormous element of luck, not to mention risk".[Coulthard-Clark, ''The Third Brother'', pp. 394–395]
Pioneering flights
Circumnavigation of Australia
In 1924, McIntyre and Wing Commander
Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...
(later Air Vice Marshal) Stanley Goble
Air Vice Marshal Stanley James (Jimmy) Goble, CBE, DSO, DSC (21 August 1891 – 24 July 1948) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served three terms as Chief of the Air Staff, alternating with Wing Com ...
, another veteran of the RNAS, became the first men to circumnavigate
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...
Australia by air. McIntyre was lead pilot while Goble, who was Chief of the Air Staff at the time, acted as commander and navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...
. The pair took off from Point Cook
Point Cook is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, south-west of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Wyndham local government area. Point Cook recorded a population of 66,781 at the 2021 census.
Point Cook ...
, Victoria, on 6 April 1924 in a single-engined Fairey III
The Fairey Aviation Company Fairey III was a family of British reconnaissance biplanes that enjoyed a very long production and service history in both landplane and seaplane variants. First flying on 14 September 1917, examples were still in u ...
D floatplane. They flew anticlockwise along the eastern coast to Thursday Island
Thursday Island, colloquially known as TI, or in the Kawrareg dialect, Waiben or Waibene, is an island of the Torres Strait Islands, an archipelago of at least 274 small islands in the Torres Strait. TI is located approximately north of Cape ...
, Queensland, then crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria to Darwin, Northern Territory, and continued along the Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...
n and South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...
n coasts. Along the way they faced adverse weather, fatigue and illness, and had to deal with engine problems and fuel leaks.[Stephens, ''The Royal Australian Air Force'', pp. 39–41]
McIntyre and Goble returned to Victoria after covering in 44 days. As they flew over Point Cook, 12 RAAF aircraft took off to escort them to their landing place at St Kilda Beach, where a crowd of 10,000 people was waiting to welcome them. Prime Minister Stanley Bruce
Stanley Melbourne Bruce, 1st Viscount Bruce of Melbourne, (15 April 1883 – 25 August 1967) was an Australian politician who served as the eighth prime minister of Australia from 1923 to 1929, as leader of the Nationalist Party.
Born ...
called the journey "one of the most wonderful accomplishments in the history of aviation"; his government presented McIntyre with a gift of £250, while mission commander Goble received £500.[ The British ]Royal Aero Club
The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain, being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910.
History
The Aero Club was foun ...
awarded the duo the annual Britannia Trophy
The Britannia Trophy is a British award presented by the Royal Aero Club for aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviation during the previous year.
In 1911 Horatio Barber, who was a founder member of the Royal Aero Club, w ...
, and they were appointed Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Commander (commonly abbreviated as Cmdr.) is a common naval officer rank. Commander is also used as a rank or title in other formal organizations, including several police forces. In several countries this naval rank is termed frigate captain. ...
(CBE) in the King's Birthday Honours
The Birthday Honours, in some Commonwealth realms, mark the reigning British monarch's official birthday by granting various individuals appointment into national or dynastic orders or the award of decorations and medals. The honours are prese ...
. McIntyre was also awarded the Oswald Watt Gold Medal The Oswald Watt Gold Medal is an Australian aviation award named for Oswald Watt (1878–1921), a decorated pilot in World War I.
It originated in 1921 after the death of Oswald Watt and is awarded for "A most brilliant performance in the air or t ...
for 1924, and promoted to flight lieutenant effective from 31 March that year.[Coulthard-Clark, ''The Third Brother'', p. 388]
Pacific Islands flight
In 1926, McIntyre was selected as lead pilot on another pioneering Australian flight under the command of the then-Chief of the Air Staff, Group Captain (later Air Marshal Sir) Richard Williams, to study the South Pacific region as a potential theatre of operations. In company with Flight Sergeant Les Trist, they took off from Point Cook on 26 September 1926 and made a round trip to the Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...
in a De Havilland DH.50
The de Havilland DH.50 was a 1920s British large single-engined biplane transport built by de Havilland at Stag Lane Aerodrome, Edgware, and licence-built in Australia, Belgium, and Czechoslovakia.
History
In the early 1920s, Geoffrey de Havi ...
A floatplane. The DH.50's fuselage bore the words "Royal Australian Air Force", the first aircraft to do so. Like the circumnavigation of Australia in 1924, this flight was not without its difficulties. Approaching Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
Southport lies on the Iris ...
, Queensland, on 29 September, the DH.50 lost power and had to land in the ocean; after making repairs, McIntyre was twice thrown clear of the aircraft while taxiing to the beach in heavy surf.[Coulthard-Clark, ''The Third Brother'', pp. 390–391] The expedition returned on 7 December to a 12-plane RAAF escort and a 300-man honour guard.[Wilson, ''The Brotherhood of Airmen'', pp. 34–35]
Though subsequently described as partly a "matter of prestige" owing to rumours of other countries planning such a journey, as well as a "reaction" by Williams to the 1924 expedition led by Goble, Williams' rival at the time for leadership of the young Air Force, this was the first international flight undertaken by an RAAF plane and crew. McIntyre was awarded a second Oswald Watt Gold Medal,[ and a Bar to his AFC, for his part in the flight;] it marked the first occasion that the AFC was awarded to a member of the RAAF. Trist received the Air Force Medal
The Air Force Medal (AFM) was a military decoration, awarded to personnel of the Royal Air Force and other British Armed Forces, and formerly to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for "an act or acts of valour, ...
,[ and Williams was appointed a CBE.
]
Death and legacy
McIntyre left the RAAF in November 1927 to become a flying instructor for the newly formed South Australian section of the Australian Aero Club. He died in an Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
hospital on 12 March 1928 of injuries received the previous day, when he crashed the club's Moth trainer while giving an aerobatics display at Parafield.[ Goble said of him, "That he did sterling work with our air force is well known, but it is doubtful whether the majority of the people in Australia have a true appreciation of the greatness of this man and the magnitude and difficulties of many of the tasks he performed."
In 1994, McIntye and Goble were honoured by the issue of a ]postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail), who then affix the stamp to the f ...
by Australia Post, one of a series depicting Australian aviators that also included Freda Thompson
Freda Thompson (5 April 1909 – 11 December 1980) was a pioneer aviator, the first Australian woman to fly solo from the United Kingdom to Australia.
Early life
Born at South Yarra, Melbourne Victoria to parents Frederick and Martha Thompson ...
, Lawrence Hargrave
Lawrence Hargrave, MRAeS, (29 January 18506 July 1915) was a British-born Australian engineer, explorer, astronomer, inventor and aeronautical pioneer.
Biography
Lawrence Hargrave was born in Greenwich, England, the second son of John Fletc ...
, Sir Keith and Sir Ross Macpherson Smith.
Notes
References
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
* Footage of Goble's and McIntyre's arrival at St Kilda after their 1924 flight.
{{DEFAULTSORT:McIntyre, Ivor
1899 births
1928 deaths
Britannia Trophy winners
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
People from Herne Bay, Kent
Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)
Royal Australian Air Force officers
Royal Naval Air Service aviators
English emigrants to Australia
Royal Navy officers of World War I
Royal Air Force officers
Royal Air Force personnel of World War I