Beschreibung:

Flying Suit. A flying suit by Lifeguard Equipment Ltd, belonging to Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork MBE, the green cotton suit with cloth patches embroidered with recipients name and 6-FTS, an LL & AD Training Squadron patch to left arm and a Royal Air Force Station Finningley patch to the right, the leg still retaining original pen and dinghy survival knife, size 4, height 172 to 180cm (Qty: 1) Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork MBE served in the RAF for 36 years as a navigator. He trained at the RAF College, Cranwell and then joined a Canberra reconnaissance squadron in Germany. This was followed by a three-year exchange tour with the Fleet Air Arm as a Buccaneer observer, which included a year embarked on the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle in the Indian Ocean and the Far East. Later, he commanded No. 208 Squadron equipped with the Buccaneer strike/attack aircraft making him the first navigator to command an RAF fast-jet squadron. He was on the Directing Staff at the RAF Staff College, before a tour in the Directorate of Air Plans in the MOD responsible for the Tornado GR 1 and its associated weapons. He served as Director of the Department of Air Warfare at the RAF College Cranwell before commanding RAF Finningley, the largest flying training base in the RAF and where he orchestrated two of the biggest air displays held on an RAF base. He was one of the last Commandants at Biggin Hill where he was responsible for the selection of officers and aircrew into the RAF. His final appointment was as the Director of Operational Intelligence in the Ministry of Defence before retiring in 1994. He was appointed MBE in 1971 and elected as a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1991. Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork is also a well-known face in the Orders Medals & Research Society having been past President and also he has also written over 600 obituaries for one of Britain’s foremost newspapers, the Daily Telegraph and prepares the aviation entries for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.