The death on Friday January 6th, of former Farnborough and CAA test pilot and founder member of the Historic Aircraft Association, Darrol Stinton marks the passing of one of the most influential personalities in air show and historic aircraft safety. Darrol died peacefully in hospital following surgery a few weeks after his 84th birthday. News of a likely memorial service in February will be published on this website when available.
Darrol’s work in helping form the Historic Aircraft Association, creating air display and pilot standards later enshrined in legislation, over the years probably saved dozens of lives. But that was only a small part of a varied life in which aircraft, ships and water equally dominated Darrol’s interests.
His life in aviation began as an aeronautical engineering apprentice in 1944, with Blackburn Aircraft Limited of Brough on the River Humber. Blackburns taught him to fly before, around 1950 he moved to De Havilland at Hatfield, from where in Darrol’s words he “escaped into the RAF” in 1953, via the RAFVR.
While still in the RAF, he trained as a Ship’s Diving Officer RN. Urged by the team of RAF divers in the sub-aqua club, Seletar, Singapore, he used them to found the now large Royal Air Force Sub-Aqua Association – training the original team to work with the Navy in the event of aircraft accidents in water.
In 1959 Darrol was accepted for the Empire Test Pilots’ School then crossed the Farnborough runway to join the Royal Aircraft Establishment. His work varied, from pure research and development, to in-flight accident investigation and being a guinea-pig for the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine. In 1964, Darrol was awarded the MBE for his experimental test flying at Farnborough.
Darrol retired from the RAF in 1969 and joined the Air Registration Board, later to become the Civil Aviation Authority, as a certification test pilot on light aircraft. The work was extensive and varied, from canard to conventional single and twin-engined aeroplanes, sailplanes, motor gliders and microlights, one of which he famously described as flying like “an animated beach umbrella”.
His work included several visits to the Experimental Aircraft Association Fly-in, at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. On the first occasion, he returned to the ARB, exhausted, having tested 16 weird and wonderful homebuilt aircraft in a single week.
In the 1970s Darrol was test flying an increasing number of historic, classic and vintage types for which civilian owners were seeking Permits to Fly. In 1978, in answer to CAA concerns about the ability of private owners to properly maintain and display the aircraft, Darrol together with Hawker Chief Test Pilot Duncan Simpson helped founded the Historic Aircraft Association, to monitor standards, share information and make appropriate recommendations to the CAA.
For more than three decades, Darrol worked as a Vice-President of the Association and the excellent safety record of historic aircraft at air shows across the UK is part of his fine legacy. He helped create the system of “Display Authorisation” which evaluated the performance of individual pilots and helped frame regulations which ensured that any potential display incidents were kept away from crowds.
In 1982, with CAA consent and retirement in sight, Darrol formed his own company of aero-marine consultants together with his lawyer-wife, Jacqueline. On leaving the CAA, he continued as a freelance test pilot, with the International Test Pilots’ School at Cranfield, lecturing meanwhile on aircraft design as a Senior Visiting Fellow at Loughborough University.
Darrol once described his lengthy professional career as having “become cluttered with technical qualifications”. He was the author of a number of text books and technical papers, he was awarded a Doctorate in Philosophy for his work on dolphin aero-and hydro-dynamics, was a Chartered Engineer, Fellow and past Vice President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Fellow of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects, Hon Fellowship of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots in the USA, Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators. Gained many years before achieving all of these, he particularly prized his membership of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.