JEFFREY QUILL

Letter on official Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) paper

from and signed by Jeffrey Quill to

Sir Alan Cobham KBE AFC 

This is a letter from Jeffrey Quill to Sir Alan Cobham dated 7th October 1960 on official embossed Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd stationary. It measures approx. 8 x 10 inches, is in VG condition with faint fold lines and two holes punched in the left margin.

Jeffrey Quill was an exceptional Spitfire test pilot who took the immortal Spitfire from its experimental prototype stage in 1936, when he worked with its great Chief Designer RJ Mitchell, through some 52 variants to the end of its production life in 1948. Before joining Supermarine, he served as an RAF Fighter Pilot in the 1930s and then during the Battle of Britain to gain first-hand knowledge of combat conditions the author fought with 65 Squadron and he later served in aircraft-carriers as an RNVR officer to increase his understanding of the problems of naval aviation and completed some 75 deck landings. His autobiography ‘Spitfire: A Test Pilot’s Story’ is a classic Spitfire book.

Sir Alan Cobham was a pioneer aviator who in the 1920s and 30s did more than any other man to convince the world that flying could – and would – become the accepted means of travelling long distances. Part crusader, part showman, and endowed with not only charm and luck but also enormous energy, throughout his life he was a pioneer. Whether he was flying to South Africa or Australia or taking thousands of ordinary men and women for their first flight at one of his National Aviation Day displays, or exploring the practical possibilities of refuelling aircraft in flight, Cobham was a man who gave everything he had to the one idea which resulted in the universal acceptance of the aeroplane for civilian use.