page_title: Edwin Harris Dunning
section_title: First landing on a moving ship
hierarchical_section_title: Edwin Harris Dunning / First landing on a moving ship
caption_attribution_description: IWM caption&#160;: Squadron Commander E H Dunning's Sopwith Pup veering off the flight deck of HMS FURIOUS during his second and fatal attempt to land on the carrier while underway, Scapa Flow. See File:Dunning Landing-on Furious In Pup.jpg for preceding photograph.
context_page_description: Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, DSC, of the British Royal Naval Air Service, was the first pilot to land an aircraft on a moving ship.
context_section_description: Dunning landed his Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious in Scapa Flow, Orkney on 2 August 1917.  He was killed five days later, during his third landing attempt of the day, when an updraft caught his port wing, throwing his plane overboard. Knocked unconscious, he drowned in the cockpit.
  
  He is buried at St Lawrence's Church, Bradfield, between his parents. A plaque in the church states: 
  The Admiralty wish you to know what great service he performed for the Navy. It was in fact a demonstration of landing an Aeroplane on the deck of a Man-of-War whilst the latter was under way. This had never been done before;and the data obtained was of the utmost value. It will make Aeroplanes indispensable to a fleet;& possibly, revolutionise Naval Warfare. The risk taken by Squadron Commander Dunning needed much courage. He had already made two successful landings;but expressed a wish to land again himself, before other Pilots did so;and in this last run he was killed. My Lords desire to place on record their sense of the loss to the Naval Service of this gallant Officer.
  In memory of Dunning, the Dunning Cup or Dunning Memorial Cup is given annually to the officer who is considered to have done most to further aviation in connection with the Fleet for the year in question. In the 1950s and 1960s it was awarded to Royal Air Force squadrons which achieve the highest standard on courses at the Joint Anti-Submarine School.
caption: Dunning's Sopwith Pup veering off the flight deck of HMS Furious during his fatal attempt to land on the carrier while underway, August 7, 1917
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