page_title: Roland Beamont
section_title: Hurricane
hierarchical_section_title: Roland Beamont / RAF career / Hurricane
caption_attribution_description: English: Three Hawker Hurricane Mark IIBs of No 79 Squadron RAF based at Fairwood Common, Glamorgan, flying in 'vic' formation above South Wales. The pilots were, the Commanding Officer, Squadron Leader G D Haysom (leading aircraft, Z3745 'NV-B'), and his flight commanders, Flight Lieutenant R P Beamont (nearest aircraft, Z2633 'NV-M'), and Flight Lieutenant L T Bryant-Fenn (furthest aircraft, Z3156 'NV-F).
context_page_description: Wing Commander Roland Prosper "Bee" Beamont, CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar was a British fighter pilot for the Royal Air Force and an experimental test pilot during and after the Second World War. He was the first British pilot to exceed Mach 1 in a British aircraft in level flight, and the first to fly a British aircraft at Mach 2.
  During the Second World War, he flew more than five hundred operational sorties. He also spent several months as a Hawker experimental test pilot developing the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest, and was responsible for introducing these types into operational squadron service. He pioneered the ground attack capabilities of the Typhoon and led the air to air campaign against the V-1 flying bomb
  In 1945 he commanded the Air Fighting Development Squadron at RAF Central Fighter Establishment, before leaving the service in 1947. During his subsequent career as English Electric Aviation chief test pilot, he directed the flight test programmes of the Canberra, the Lightning, and TSR-2, making the maiden flight of each type.
context_section_description: Beamont arrived in France with 15 hours experience flying Hurricanes. During the winter of 1939, there was little opportunity for the inexperienced pilots to fly and Beamont was assigned to the operations room. As a result of a high fever, he was sent to a hospital in Dieppe, but after two weeks absence he risked being removed from squadron strength and put into the pilots pool. To avoid this, he persuaded his father, who was also stationed in France, to provide a car to drive him back to the squadron. The spring of 1940 provided more opportunity for action. In March he took part in an interception of a Heinkel 111, on 8 May he shot down a Dornier Do 17.
  When No. 87 Squadron returned from France they were initially stationed at Church Fenton, before relocating to Exeter, as part of 10 Group, defending South Western England. During the Battle of Britain, Beamont claimed the following: a Junkers Ju 88 on 24 July, two Messerschmitt Bf 110 on 15 August, a Dornier Do 17 and a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on 25 August.
  
  Beamont described the period thus:
  ...I used to fly often to Portsmouth and look down upon my home, where my family was, in Chichester. Tangmere was being bombed ten miles away. It was all a very personal thing. When you got into your aeroplane, you felt the fears that everybody fears when going off to fight but overpowering all that was this feeling that if you and all your chaps didn't do your damnedest on every operation then all these Germans were going to be flooding over your country, your homes and destroying everything that was worth preserving. That was what it was all about.
  During the air raids of The Blitz, No. 87 Squadron was assigned night fighter duties defending Bristol. Directing the Hurricanes by searchlight was largely ineffective. In frustration, Beamont suggested that on moonlit nights they should cross the channel and strafe the Luftwaffe  aerodromes. This tactic was adopted by Group and proved successful, with Beamont taking part in the destruction of several aircraft.
  In May 1941 he was transferred to No. 79 Squadron RAF as flight commander, and in June he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Beamont set about raising the morale of his new flight by engaging them in night flying and formation aerobatics. In September he transported a WAAF cipher officer to a dance at RAF Pembrey in his single-seat Hurricane because the squadron's Tiger Moth was unavailable. This action would lead to his court martial in December 1941 (and his marriage in October 1942). The court found him guilty and was severely reprimanded by Group Captain Richard Atcherley.
  When his tour of duty ended in December 1941, he was offered the position of Leigh-Mallory's personal aide. Instead, he chose to keep flying and to accept a position as a production test pilot at Hawker's. While he had 800 hours flying Hurricanes he was by his own admission, ignorant of the problems of aircraft stability, trim and control balance. To remedy this, Hawker's civilian test pilots, Bill Humble, Hubert Broad and particularly Philip Lucas mentored him in the art and science of test flying.
  At Hawker's, while most of his flying was production test flights of Hurricanes, he did take part in some of the development flying of the early production Typhoons. On his first cross country flight in a Typhoon, while delivering it to Gloster's, its main oil pipe failed. He managed an emergency landing in a  small field being used as a flying school, attracting a rebuke from the chief flying instructor. In February 1942 he took over the vibration programme of the Typhoon. Flying aircraft fitted with vibrographs to determine the effectiveness of propellor balancing improvements and the sprung seat mounts·
caption: Three Hawker Hurricane Mark IIBs of No. 79 Squadron RAF. The pilots were, Sqn Ldr G D Haysom (NV-B), Flt Lt R P Beamont (nearest aircraft,'NV-M'), and Flt Lt L T Bryant-Fenn (NV-F).
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