John Lankester Parker OBE

FRAeS The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows ...

Hon. MSLAE (1896 – 22 August 1965) was Chief

Test Pilot A test pilot is an aircraft pilot with additional training to fly and evaluate experimental, newly produced and modified aircraft with specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques.Stinton, Darrol. ''Flying Qualities and Flight Testing ...

for

Short Brothers Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aeroplanes. It was particu ...

from 1918 until his retirement in 1945. He joined Shorts in 1916 as a part-time test pilot and assistant to then Chief Test Pilot Ronald Kemp, having been recommended for the post by

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, later Admiral Sir,

Murray Sueter Rear-Admiral Sir Murray Fraser Sueter (6 September 1872 – 3 February 1960) was a Royal Naval officer who was noted as a pioneer of naval aviation and later became a Member of Parliament (MP). Naval career Sueter was born in Alverstoke. Comi ...

RNAS The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

. By the time he retired he was a director of the company.

First flying experience

He gained his first flying experience as a pilot and instructor flying for the Northern Aircraft Company's Seaplane School based in

Windermere Windermere (sometimes tautology (language), tautologically called Windermere Lake to distinguish it from the nearby town of Windermere, Cumbria (town), Windermere) is the largest natural lake in England. More than 11 miles (18 km) in leng ...

, where he flew, first as a pupil and then as an instructor, between 1914 and 1916. It was during this time that he made the acquaintance of

, Ronald Kemp and

Oscar Gnosspelius Major Oscar Theodor Gnosspelius (10 March 1878 – 17 February 1953) was an English civil engineer and pioneer seaplane builder. Gnosspelius was born at Brookfield House, Lydiate on 18 March 1878 the only son of Adolf Jonathan Gnosspelius. He was ...

, all of whom would figure later in his work at Shorts. In 1916 he joined the Prodger-Isaacs Syndicate of freelance test pilots, working for several British aircraft manufacturers.

Shorts

His first assignment with Shorts began on 17 October 1916, when he was asked by Horace Short to test fly a batch of six Short Bombers from the

Eastchurch Eastchurch is a village and civil parish on the Isle of Sheppey, in the English county of Kent, two miles east of Minster. The village website claims the area has "a history steeped in stories of piracy and smugglers". Aviation history Eastchu ...

airfield. In spite of his relative youth, his flying skills impressed Horace Short, who soon offered him a permanent position as assistant to Ronald Kemp. He became Chief Test Pilot for Short Brothers in 1918 as successor to Ronald Kemp. Between 1918 and his last official flight as Chief Test Pilot on 22 August 1945 he flew every Shorts prototype on its maiden flight, ranging from the diminutive

Short Satellite The Short S.4 Satellite was a small British two-seater sporting monoplane, produced in 1924 to take part in the Air Ministry's Two-Seater Light Aeroplane competition on 27 September of that year. Design Design began in July, with only weeks ava ...

(640 lb (290 kg)) to the very large

Short Shetland The Short Shetland was a British high-speed, long-range, four-engined flying boat built by Short Brothers at Rochester, Kent for use in the Second World War. It was designed to meet an Air Ministry requirement (defined in Specification R.14/4 ...

(75,860 lb (34,410 kg)). During the course of his long association with the company, especially during the early pioneering years, he survived numerous forced landings, both on land and on water. He was awarded the OBE in June 1942. In 1943 he became a Director of Short Brothers and Harland Ltd., Belfast, resigning from the Board in 1958.

Other activities

Parker was a long-time member of the

Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators The Honourable Company of Air Pilots, formerly the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (GAPAN), is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Company was founded in 1929, and became a Livery Company in 1956. Elizabeth II granted ...

, serving as its Master from 1951 until 1953 and again from 1956 until 1957. In 1948 he was the first recipient of the Guild's Brackley Memorial Trophy, "awarded to a transport pilot(s) or navigator(s), for outstanding flying, contributing to the operational development of air transport, or transport aircraft, or of new techniques in air transport flying." In 1964 he succeeded

Lord Douglas of Kirtleside Marshal of the Royal Air Force William Sholto Douglas, 1st Baron Douglas of Kirtleside, (23 December 1893 – 29 October 1969) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. After serving as a pilot, then a flight commander and finally as a sq ...

as President of the

Seaplane Club of Great Britain A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their technological characterist ...

.''Flight'' Magazine archive, 4 June 1964
/ref> In memory of his long association with the Medway area, a road in

Rochester, Kent Rochester ( ) is a town in the unitary authority of Medway, in Kent, England. It is at the lowest bridging point of the River Medway, about from London. The town forms a conurbation with neighbouring towns Chatham, Rainham, Strood and Gillin ...

was named after him.

References

External links

*
The Air Pilots' and Air Navigators' Guild
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, John L English aviators British test pilots Officers of the Order of the British Empire People from Medway 1896 births 1965 deaths