Alex Henshaw Alexander Adolphus Dumfries Henshaw MBE ( 7 November 1912 – 24 February 2007 ) was a British air race r in the 1930s and a test pilot for Vickers Armstrong in the Second World War . Early life . Henshaw was born in Peterborough , the eldest son of a wealthy Lincolnshire family . He was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School , Stratford - on - Avon ( " Shakespeare ' s School " where he sat at the bard ' s desk ) , and Lincoln School ( grammar school ) . He was awarded a Royal Humane Society medal for saving a boy from the River Witham . Henshaw took to motorcycles , and then learned to fly at the Skegness and East Lincolnshire Aero Club in 1932 , funded by his father , who bought him a de Havilland Gipsy Moth . Henshaw received his private pilot ' s licence ( no . 4572 ) on 6 June 1932 . He made a name for himself in the 1930s in air racing , competing against legendary pilots like Geoffrey de Havilland . Aged only 20 , he competed in the Blue Riband of air racing , The Kings Cup , in 1933 , in a Comper Swift . winning the Siddeley Trophy . He also flew a Leopard Moth and an Arrow Active which caught fire while he was performing aerobatics . Henshaw bailed out safely . He later moved on to a Percival Mew Gull . He won the inaugural London - to - Isle of Man air race in 1937 , and won the Kings Cup in 1938 , flying at an average speed of 236 . 25 mph . Henshaw then turned his attention to long distance flying . After reconnaissance of the eastern and western routes in 1938 , he set off from Gravesend at 0335 GMT on Sunday 5 February 1939 to fly his Mew Gull to Cape Town and back . He refuelled on the way out in Oran in Algeria , crossed the Sahara to land in the Belgian Congo and then Angola , landing at Wingfield Aerodrome Cape Town after flying 6 , 377 miles in 40 hours . He spent 28 hours in Cape Town , and retraced his route back to the UK , landing on 9 February after a flight of 39 hours , 36 minutes . He completed the whole 12 , 754 - mile round trip in 4 days , 10 hours and 16 minutes , breaking the record for each leg and setting a solo record for the round trip . By the end , he was so tired that he had to be lifted out of the cockpit . His account of this epic feat is given in his book " Flight of the Mew Gull " ( 1980 ) in which Henshaw describes hazardous landings at remote bush airstrips , battling through a tropical storm , and overcoming extreme exhaustion on the return leg . The aircraft he used , " G - AEXF " , was restored to its Cape flight configuration in the 1980s and remains in flying condition at Breighton in Yorkshire . The Royal Aero Club awarded Henshaw the Britannia Trophy for his record flight . The Cape record stood for more than 70 years . On 11 May 2009 , Charles Stobbart set a new record ratified by the FAI for the reverse route , Cape Town – London – Cape Town . Subsequently , on 3 September 2010 , Steve Noujaim , flying a homebuilt Vans RV7 , landed at Southend Airport in the UK after completing a round - trip to Cape Town in 3 days , 11 hours and 16 minutes . The new record bettered Henshaw ' s time by almost a day . Second World War . Henshaw considered enlisting in the Royal Air Force at the start of the Second World War but instead became a test pilot for Vickers Armstrong . He subsequently took the rank of Sgt Pilot to fly a fully armed Spitfire to defend the factory , if needed , although he was never called upon to fly in combat . Henshaw started with Wellingtons and Walruses at Weybridge . He did not enjoy the work , and was on the point of leaving when Jeffrey Quill invited him to test Spitfires in Southampton . In June 1940 , Henshaw moved to the Castle Bromwich factory in Birmingham , which had been taken over by Vickers after poor production results by the Nuffield group . He was soon appointed to the post of Chief Test Pilot , leading a team of 25 others . The factory built over half of the total output of Spitfires ever made , and 350 Lancaster heavy bomber s ; Henshaw tested both types of aircraft . Production / acceptance test flying was essential , ensuring that faults were detected before aircraft were delivered to the front line , but it was potentially dangerous : two of his team were killed testing new aircraft . Henshaw survived many forced landings and a catastrophic crash between two houses in Wednesfield near Wolverhampton on 18 July 1942 which destroyed his aircraft . It is estimated that Henshaw flew 10 % of all Spitfires and Seafires , testing up to 20 aircraft a day in often foggy conditions . He would also demonstrate the Spitfire to visiting dignitaries , such as Winston Churchill , and once flying the length of Broad Street in Birmingham at low level . He is the only pilot known to have performed a barrel roll in a Lancaster bomber , a feat that was considered by some to be reckless or impossible due to the aircraft ' s size and relatively modest performance . He flew this manoeuvre on several occasions with other members of his flight test team on board , including Peter Ayerst and Czech pilot Venda Jicha . ( Venda was a fighter ace , Battle of Britain pilot and previous member of No . 124 ( " Baroda " ) Squadron RAF . ) Henshaw was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire ( MBE ) for his wartime service . Postwar . After the war Henshaw became a director of Miles Aircraft in South Africa , a job which entailed visiting potential customers in the region and making demonstration flights . But the company folded and he returned to England in 1948 . Although still only in his mid - 30s , he never again flew as pilot in command of an aircraft . Instead he took charge of his family ' s farming and holiday business in Lincolnshire . He was awarded the Queen ' s Commendation for Brave Conduct for his rescue work in the 1953 floods . Following his retirement , Henshaw wrote a book recounting his wartime experiences at the Castle Bromwich Aeroplane Factory ( CBAF ) , " Sigh for a Merlin " ( 1979 ) , the title referring to the Rolls - Royce Merlin engine of the same name which powered the Spitfire . This book was followed in 1980 by " Flight of the Mew Gull " , an account of the author ' s pre - war air racing and record - setting adventures . The Air League awarded Henshaw the Jeffrey Quill Medal in 1997 . In 2003 , he became a Companion of the Air League in 2002 and an honorary fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society . In 2005 , Henshaw gave his papers and mementos to the RAF Museum , paying for a curator to catalogue his collection . In his later years he was invited to make several flights in a two - seater Spitfire , occasionally handling the controls . The last of these came on 5 March 2006 when , at the age of 93 , he took part in a flypast at Southampton Airport to mark the 70th anniversary of the first flight of the prototype . Henshaw wrote a third book , " Wings across the Great Divide " which was published in 2004 . This final part of his trilogy details his experiences flying in Africa in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War . Henshaw married Barbara in 1940 , she was the widow of Guy , Count de Chateaubrun . Barbara Henshaw died in 1996 . Alex Henshaw died at home in Newmarket on 24 February 2007 . He was survived by their only child , Alexander Jr . An hour - long film biography of Henshaw entitled " The Extraordinary Mr Spitfire " was broadcast for the first time on The History Channel UK in September 2007 .