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 ...

John Reginald Dowling, (5 July 1923 – July 2000) was a

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) officer and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

pilot famous for placing the spire of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral on 22 April 1962. He was a

Lancaster bomber The Avro Lancaster is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same specification, as well as the Short Stirling ...

pilot during the Second World War, and the author of ''RAF Helicopters: The First Twenty Years'', a comprehensive overview of the RAF's early helicopters and their uses. Dowling was born in Withington Manchester, the son of Dr Stephen Dowling and Mrs Kathleen Dowling (née Gilmore). One of four children, he was educated at Ampleforth College and practised Catholicism all of his life.

References

1923 births 2000 deaths British World War II pilots British World War II bomber pilots Helicopter pilots British military personnel of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation Members of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force wing commanders Royal Air Force personnel of the Malayan Emergency Military personnel from Manchester People educated at Ampleforth College {{RAF-bio-stub