Eustace Loraine Eustace Broke Loraine ( 3 September 1879 – 5 July 1912 ) was a pioneer British aviator and the first Royal Flying Corps officer to be killed in an aircraft crash . Eustace Loraine was the first child of Rear - Admiral Sir Lambton Loraine , 11th Baronet and his wife Frederica Mary Horatia ( née Broke ) . His younger brother Percy was born in 1880 . Service in Africa . Loraine was gazetted as a Second Lieutenant on 5 July 1899 with the Grenadier Guards . He was promoted to Lieutenant in May 1900 a month after his arrival in South Africa where he served until to May 1902 when he returned to England . He served as adjutant , Grenadier Guards from July 1905 until September 1906 . Promoted to Captain in July 1907 he was selected for the West African Frontier Force in October 1908 . He later served in Nigeria on the headquarters staff in Lagos and as a section commander on Colonel Trenchard ' s 1907 / 1908 expedition to the Munshi tribe . In 1909 whilst Loraine was still in Nigeria , reports reached him of Louis Blériot ' s flight across the English Channel . This news stirred Loraine ' s curiosity and he decided to find out more about flying . Pioneer aviator . The War Office was content to pay for Loraine ' s flying training and he was seconded from the Grenadier Guards in order that he might learn to fly . Loraine successfully completed his flying training and was granted Royal Aero Club certificate number 154 which was dated 7 November 1911 . Loraine was in correspondence with Trenchard , who was now serving in Ireland , and he kept Trenchard informed about his progress as an aviator . On one occasion in Spring / Summer 1912 , Loraine wrote to Trenchard urging him to learn to fly . Trenchard was greatly impressed by Loraine ' s words which read " You ' ve no idea what you ' re missing , . . . Come and see men like ants crawling . " At that time Trenchard was looking for a new direction and after reading Loraine ' s letter he decided to try and learn to fly . Trenchard went on to command the Flying Corps in France during World War I and then serve as the Royal Air Force ' s first Chief of the Air Staff . At some stage in 1911 or early 1912 , Lorraine was attached to No . 2 Company of the Air Battalion which was based at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain . On 13 May 1912 , with the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps , No . 2 Company was redesignated No . 3 Squadron RFC and Loraine remained at Larkhill . Death . Less than two months later and exactly 13 years since he joined the Army , Loraine and his passenger Staff Sergeant R H V Wilson were flying a Nieuport Monoplane out of Larkhill on a routine morning practice sortie . They were executing a tight turn when the aircraft fell towards the ground and crashed . Wilson was killed outright and although Loraine was speedily transported to Bulford Hospital in a horse - drawn ambulance , he succumbed to his wounds only a few minutes after arriving at the Hospital . Loraine and Wilson were the first Flying Corps personnel to die in an aircraft crash while on duty . Later in the day an order was issued which stated " Flying will continue this evening as usual " , thus beginning a tradition . The site of the crash at Greenlands Bottom , near the intersection of the A344 and the A360 roads and less than a mile west of Stonehenge , is now known as ' Airman ' s Cross ' . There is a stone cross memorial in middle of the grass island at the junction and its inscription reads : ' To the memory of Captain Loraine and Staff - Sergeant Wilson who whilst flying on duty , met with a fatal accident near this spot on 5 July 1912 . Erected by their comrades ' . On 25 June 2012 the memorial was removed from its roadside position to make way for a new roundabout that will lead to a proposed visitors ' centre at Stonehenge . It will be kept in storage in Royal Engineers ' barracks at Perham Down until it can be re - erected within the new centre .