Airwork by Keith McCloskey

Author:Keith McCloskey
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752494593
Publisher: The History Press

AIRWORK PERSONNEL & MISR-AIRWORK

Several well-known Airwork employees either worked for the airline or paid regular visits. Alan Muntz made a yearly tour of Airwork operations in the Near and Middle East of which Misr-Airwork was the centrepiece. Richard Muntz (the brother of Alan Muntz) flew out to Almaza on secondment in an Airwork DH.84 Dragon in mid-December 1933.

Larry Lafone, later a director of Airwork, was superintendent of aircraft operations for Misr-Airwork prior to his return to Heston in early 1936.

Technical manager John J. Parkes inspected the Misr-Airwork workshops as part of his Middle East tour returning on 6 January 1936, prior to his departure to join de Havilland that same month.

Robert Maxwell joined Misr-Airwork as controller of operations at Almaza in 1936 and stayed in the post for two years before joining British Airways back in the UK in 1938. He joined Misr-Airwork from Airwork associate company Indian National Airways where he performed exceedingly well.

Another significant member of the British Misr-Airwork team was E.G. Parsons, who was on the airline staff from the beginning as a pilot as well as being an instructor. He flew the final pre-war DH.89A Rapide, SU-ABU, out from Heston on 13 December 1935 to Cairo with two new Misr-Airwork employees: Flying Officer N. Samuels, who was starting with the airline as a pilot, and a Mr Kimberley, who was joining the airline as a ground engineer having just gained his licences at Heston.

Flying Officer D.L. Dustin was seconded to the airline for three months from 6 February 1936 to join the piloting staff.

Conditions for British pilots working for Misr-Airwork were good. Guy ‘Flip’ Fleming, a former Hillman Airways pilot, joined the airline in Cairo on 24 July 1936. By this time (early 1936), roughly a dozen British pilots were employed by the company, along with British and Egyptian engineers. There were also several Egyptian pilots in training for the company at this point.

‘Flip’ Fleming described the weather in the region (particularly around Cyprus in winter) as some of the worst he had experienced after flying in thirty-four countries. He described flying to Baghdad in a thunderstorm over the Jordan Valley in DH.86 SU-ABN on 13 January 1937, when they were struck by lightning which knocked the three crew ‘out cold’. Fleming recovered to find the aircraft in a steep dive from which he managed to recover the DH.86. The shaken passengers elected to carry on to Baghdad with a hole in the roof of the cabin and one passenger holding the door of the aircraft in place with his feet. Due to the instruments being unserviceable from the lightning strike, they followed the Iraq Petroleum Co. pipeline for most of the remaining 640 miles (1,030km).

On another journey from Baghdad to Lydda in DH.86 SU-ABO in winter, before departure, Fleming had to pour hot water over the brake drums as they were locked frozen. After take-off, he then ran into one of the worst snowstorms he had ever encountered, forcing him to land at the oil-pumping station at Rutbah in a foot of snow which obscured the runway markings.

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