Paul Harwood Blanchard (24 December 1923 in Cleveland, Ohio – 22 June 2011 in Chinnor, Oxfordshire, UK) was one of the early flying instructors of the Cambridge University Gliding Club (1947–49) and author of ''Elementary Gliding – A Pupil's Manual''. Blanchard graduated in

Natural Sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

from St John's College in 1948, becoming Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) in his third undergraduate year.

Elementary Gliding

Blanchard wrote the first version of ''Elementary Gliding'' and offered it to the BGA and the Surrey Gliding Club, however they were not interested in marketing it. He subsequently asked the CUGC to produce and distribute it. The result was a duplicated "Second Edition", dated February 1952, "compiled by P.H. Blanchard", with technical drawings by Roger Austin and cartoons by Pete Sullivan, both CUGC members. It incorporated improvements made by other Club members as well, particularly Ken Machin (later CFI). The next edition no longer carried Blanchard's name, just that of the publisher, "Cambridge University Gliding Club". Paul Blanchard

In 1955, a printed version of the manual appeared, published by Thermal Equipment Ltd, and since 1958 subsequent editions have been published by the BGA, all under the original author's name.

Philip Wills Philip Aubrey Wills CBE (26 May 1907 – 16 January 1978)Fripp UK genealogy was a pioneering British glider pilot. He broke several UK gliding records from the 1930s to the 1950s and was involved in UK gliding administration including being ...

wrote an introduction referring to Paul Blanchard as having been "Chief Instructor of the Surrey Gliding Club", however later editions stopped acknowledging Austin and Sullivan as part of the CUGC. ''Bluebell'' (CUGC's T21) remained immortalised in the cover, complete with the former cement works chimney nearby. The CUGC archive contains Ken Machin's copy of the first printed edition autographed by the author: "With best wishes from Paul". Apart from the illustrations, the major CUGC input to ''Elementary Gliding'' was the idea of a square circuit, opposing the prevailing practice of loitering while flying towards the airfield, until arriving in position for the final approach. CUGC developed square-circuit training and improved airbrakes in response to the introduction of dual

ab initio ''Ab initio'' ( ) is a Latin term meaning "from the beginning" and is derived from the Latin ''ab'' ("from") + ''initio'', ablative singular of ''initium'' ("beginning"). Etymology Circa 1600, from Latin, literally "from the beginning", from ab ...

instruction in Bluebell (1950).

Career

Paul Blanchard, following his father, worked initially for Tate & Lyle in London, then settled in the broader industrial chemical manufacturing industry based in the USA. He authored a book describing key elements of Corn starch production (''Technology of Corn Wet Milling and Associated Processes'', ) which remains the authority on the subject.

Personal

Paul Blanchard married Barbara Ruth Horder at

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

in the early summer of 1953. The couple had four children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blanchard, Paul Harwood 1923 births 2011 deaths Gliding in England Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge American glider pilots American expatriates in the United Kingdom