Edwin Harris Dunning

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The team members celebrate Dunning after his successful historic landing

Edwin Harris Dunning , DSC (born July 17, 1892 in South Africa , † August 7, 1917 in Scapa Flow, off the Orkneys ) was a pilot for the Royal Naval Air Service at the time of World War I and the first person in aviation history to fly an airplane landed on a moving ship.

Life

Dunning was born in South Africa as the second son of Sir Edwin Harris Dunning of Jacques Hall from Bradfield , Essex and graduated from the Royal Naval College at Osborne House and the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth . He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his service in the First World War .

On August 2, 1917, Dunning managed to land with his Sopwith Pup on the aircraft carrier HMS Furious . This represents the first landing of a pilot on a moving ship and thus an extraordinary pioneering achievement in aviation. For this he had to fly around the chimney and the navigating bridge of the ship, as these blocked the direct approach from the stern. The Furious ran at full speed against the wind, so that the relative speed of the Pup compared to the flight deck was low and the deck crews were able to pluck the aircraft out of the air using ropes attached to it. However, just five days later, Dunning was tragically killed. He made a third approach when a gust with updraft hit the left wing immediately before touching down on the flight deck and the aircraft became uncontrollable. The crew members tried to hold the machine, but this did not succeed, so that the Sopwith Pup slipped over the edge of the ship into the sea. Dunning passed out and drowned in his cockpit.

Edwin Harris Dunning was buried next to his mother in the cemetery of St. Lawrence's Church in Bradfield.

  • Crew members try to stop the runaway plane

  • The machine slips over the edge of the flight deck.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Maritime Memorials
  2. ↑ London Gazette of March 16, 1916  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.thegazette.co.uk  
  3. ↑ a b Google Books "Yale in the World War, Part One" page 166
personal data
SURNAME Dunning, Edwin Harris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British officer and pilot
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH South Africa
DATE OF DEATH August 7, 1917
Place of death Scapa Flow