Francis McClean Lieutenant - Colonel Sir Francis Kennedy McClean AFC ( 1876 – 1955 ) was an Irish civil engineer and pioneer aviator . He was one of the founding members of the Royal Aero Club and one of the founders of naval aviation and amateur flying . Early life . McClean was born on 1 February 1876 , the son of Dr . Frank McClean , and was educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Indian Engineering College at Cooper ' s Hill . He worked as a civil engineer in the Indian Public Works Department from 1898 to 1902 but left to concentrate on aviation . Interest in astronomy . Influenced by his father , McClean was an enthusiastic amateur astronomer , especially interested in solar eclipses . He was a volunteer assistant on the August 30 , 1905 solar eclipse expedition to Palma , Majorca . McClean organized 2 astronomical expeditions : one to Flint Island for the January 3 , 1908 solar eclipse and the other to Port Davey for the May 9 , 1910 solar eclipse ; however , bad weather thwarted observations in both expeditions . He also accompanied the expedition organized by Sir Norman Lockyer to Vava ' u for the April 28 , 1911 solar eclipse . McClean made generous gifts to the Lockyer Observatory . Aviator . His first flying experience was in 1907 in a balloon race in Berlin and in December 1908 he flew with Wilbur Wright at Le Mans . At the start of 1909 he began a co - operation with the Short Brothers to develop heavier - than - air aviation in Britain . McLean owned the ground on which the aerodromes at Leysdown and then Eastchurch were built . He was awarded a Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate Number 21 after flying a Short S . 27 biplane at Eastchurch on 20 September 1910 . Between 1909 and 1914 he owned sixteen different aircraft , all but one built by Short Brothers . In February 1911 he offered to let both the Admiralty and War Office use the aircraft and airfield at Eastchurch to teach naval and military personnel to fly heavier - than - air machines . Although the War Office declined the Admiralty accepted and started to train the first naval aviators . McClean also was a pioneer in aerial photography : with the help of Hugh Spottiswoode he took some acclaimed photographs of the wreck of the SS " Oceana " just off the coast at Eastbourne . In August 1912 he flew a seaplane between the upper and lower parts of Tower Bridge and underneath London Bridge . In 1914 he made a flight following the course of the Nile between Alexandria and Khartoum in a specially built four - seater aircraft , the Short S . 80 " The Nile " . Beset by mechanical problems , the flight took from 2 January until 22 March . On the outbreak of the First World War in August he joined the Royal Naval Air Service and carried out patrols in the English Channel before becoming chief instructor at Eastchurch . He transferred to the Royal Air Force when it was formed in 1918 but he resigned in 1919 . McLean was a founder member of the Aero Club of Great Britain ( later the Royal Aero Club ) and was chairman in 1923 - 24 and again from 1941 to 1944 . He was appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire for 1932 . Family and later life . McClean married Aileen Wale in 1918 and they had two daughters . Their elder daughter , Frances , married Sir Arthur Eliott of Stobs , 11th Baronet . Their younger daughter , Iona , married Peter Alexander Rupert Carington , 6th Baron Carrington . In 1932 McClean was appointed High Sheriff of Oxfordshire . He died on 11 August 1955 in London after a long illness . His name is listed on a memorial on the Isle of Sheppey commemorating thirteen pioneer aviators . The family of Sir Francis McClean donated his papers to the Fleet Air Arm Museum .