Campbell Mackenzie-Richards (6 January 1900 – 9 November 1927) was a pioneer English aviator, Royal Air Force test pilot, and air race contestant, who was killed testing experimental equipment in November 1927.
Early life Campbell MacKenzie-Richards was born on 6 January 1900 in Streatham, London,1901 England Census. Class: RG13; Piece: 475; Folio: 29; Page: 50. Civil parish: Streatham Ecclesiastical parish: Ascension Balham Hill County/Island: London Country: England; Registration district: Wandsworth; Sub-registration district: Streatham; ED, institution, or vessel: 37; Household schedule number: 325; Shearburn Family Tree, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/780374/person/-778444995. the grandson of Peter Felix Richards (born 1808 in Edinburgh, Scotland; died 14 November 1868 in Shanghai, China), the founder of the Astor House, Shanghai; and the son of Peter Felix Mackenzie-Richards (born about 1863 in Shanghai; died 18 December 1920 in Colchester, Essex), a civil engineer,1871 Scotland Census. Parish: Brechin Burgh; ED: 2; Page: 35; Line: 18; Roll CSSCT1871_48; Year: 1871. and Mary Edith "Mollie" MacRae (born 1 July 1869 in Brighton, Sussex; died 7 December 1954 at Heigham Hall, a private mental hospital in Norwich, Norfolk),By 1836 it had been opened as a Private Lunatic Asylum. It was probably the last privately owned lunatic asylum in the country. The building was demolished about 1960. See Walter Rye, "HEIGHAM HALL ASYLUM", in History of the Parish of Heigham in the City of Norwich (Norwich: Roberts & Co, 1917), http://www.welbank.net/norwich/hist.html#hhall; "Heigham Hall Private Mental Hospital, Norwich", http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nra/searches/subjectView.asp?ID=O45571; Jonathan Tooke, "Hidden Histories: Discovering Disability in Norwich's Museum Collections: A Research Project for Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service", http://www.renaissance-east.org.uk/UserData/root/Files/Hidden%20Histories%20Report.pdf who had married on 4 September 1893 at St. Leonard's Church, Upper Deal, Kent.England & Wales, Death Index: 1916–2005: Death Registration Month/Year: 1920. Age at death (estimated):58; Registration district: Colchester Inferred County: Essex Volume: 4a Page: 731. MacKenzie-Richards was baptised on 1 March 1900 at the Holy Trinity Church at Upper Tooting.London Metropolitan Archives, Holy Trinity, Upper Tooting, Register of Baptisms, Including Baptisms at Saint Augustine, Tooting, P95/TRI2, Item 004. 1900. Page 6. MacKenzie-Richards was the brother of Kenneth (born 1894 in Kensington; died 26 December 1980); Ursula (born 13 November 1902; died 11 December 1995);Shearburn Family Tree, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/780374/person/-778444995 and Mary (born 1907 in Woodbridge, Suffolk; died 1983). Campbell MacKenzie-Richards was educated at the Woodbridge School in Suffolk.
Career During World War I MacKenzie-Richards served in the British Merchant Navy and was decorated twice.
Around 1923 MacKenzie-Richards joined the Royal Air Force. On 24 January 1924 he was confirmed as Pilot OfficerThe London Gazette, 32907 (12 February 1924):10. and later was promoted to the rank of Flying Officer, and was attached to the Bombing Squadron based at Martlesham Heath. After earning the reputation of being a highly skilled pilot, MacKenzie-Richards was attached to the experimental staff of the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough.United States Naval Institute, Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. 52 (1926):2548.
As part of the Airship Development Programme, from 9 October 1925 a hook-equipped de Havilland Humming Bird (Registration G-EBQP) was used in a short series of experiments with "an obsolete underpowered type of airship",Naval Institute Proceedings, Vol. 48 (United States Naval Institute, 1922):2136. HMA R33 (known colloquially as the "Pulham Pig") in an attempt to develop an airborne aircraft carrier."R33: G-FAAG: 1921–1928: "The Breakaway", http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/r33/R33-breakway.html. On 15 October 1925 the Humming Bird flown by Squadron Leader Rollo Haig, was released from the R33, and became the first to reattach an aircraft to a rigid airship,"R.33 as Aircraft Carrier", Flight (22 October 1925):698"R.33 as Aircraft Carrier", Flight (28 October 1926):703 although the propeller was damaged as he reattached and he detached again to glide to a separate landing at the aerodrome. On 4 December 1925 Flight Lieutenant Janor, flying a Humming Bird was the first to successfully hook an aeroplane onto a rigid airship and remain attached until the airship landed.Peter W. Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships 1893–1940 (Putnam, 1991):189; Richard K. Smith, The Airships Akron & Macon: Flying Aircraft Carriers of the United States Navy (U.S. Naval Institute, 1965):21; Anthony J. Lambert, Travel in the Twenties and Thirties (I. Allan, 1983):35; Ursula Bourne, East Anglian Village and Town Signs, 2nd ed. (Osprey Publishing, 2003):20. Previously the Royal Air Force had modified two F.1 Sopwith Camels (serials N6622 and N6814) for trials by No. 212 Squadron RAF with airship HMA 23r, which culminated in Lt. R.E. Keys piloting one on 6 November 1918,"'...on the Flying Trapeze': The Experiments with Parasite Airplanes and Airships", http://oldbeacon.com/beacon/airships/parasite.htm; "HMA 23, 24, 25 and 26", http://www.aht.ndirect.co.uk/airships/hma23/index.html; "Flying Forever: R.33 Parasite Fighter Experiments", http://www.unrealaircraft.com/forever/r33_parasite.php and the first launch and recovery of an aircraft in mid-air had been performed by the US Army TC-3 blimp on 15 December 1924, with a Sperry Messenger biplane performing a sortie from and back to a "skyhook" attached to the blimp."Flying Forever – Skyhook", http://www.unrealaircraft.com/forever/skyhook.php; Greg Goebel, "The Parasite Fighters" (1 December 2009), http://www.vectorsite.net/avparsit.html
On Thursday 21 October 1926, MacKenzie-Richards and Flying Officer (later Air Vice-Marshal) R.L. Ragg participated in the experimental trials of launching twin parasite aircraft from retractable trapezes attached under the keel of the R33 using two Gloster Grebe fighters (J.7400 and J.7385) from Pulham aerodrome.The Times (22 October 1926); "R.33 as Aircraft Carrier", Flight (28 October 1926):703–704., http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1926/1926%20-%200795.html and http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1926/1926%20-%200796.html; "The Last of HMA R-33", The Aeroplane (24 November 1926):660; Aero Digest 10:1 (Aeronautical Digest Pub. Corp., 1927):59; Aeronautics 7–8 (1942):56; "NICO BRAAS COLLECTION: No. 9322. Gloster Grebe Mk.II (J7400) Royal Air Force" (31 October 2009), http://www.1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Braas/9322.htm; Brett Holman, "The Flying Aircraft Carrier: Why?", (4 July 2008), http://airminded.org/2008/07/04/the-flying-aircraft-carrier-why/ The first Grebe, flown by MacKenzie-Richards, which was positioned aft, was released at 10.17am over Pulham at an altitude of 2,500 feet (762 metres), and, after diving for about 100 ft (30 metres), it levelled out. The Times reported the next day: "The aeroplane, with her engine running, dropped like a stone and then regaining control, MacKenzie-Richards performed a series of stunts, looping-the-loop, rolling and flying upside down",The Times (22 October 1926). while Flight indicated that the plane "gambolled gaily in the air as if glad to be free, at last, from the maternal apron strings,""R.33 as Aircraft Carrier", Flight (28 October 1926):706, http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1926/1926%20-%200798.html before landing safely back at Pulham."R.33 as Aircraft Carrier", Flight (28 October 1926):705, http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1926/1926%20-%200797.html; Robin D. S. Higham, The British Rigid Airship, 1908–1931: A Study in Weapons Policy (G.T. Foulis, 1961):266; United Service and Royal Aero Club (Great Britain), Flight International, Vol. 81 (IPC Transport Press Ltd., 1962):778; Bernard Fitzsimons, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare, Vol. 11 (Columbia House, 1969):1164; Richard K. Smith, The Airships Akron & Macon: Flying Aircraft Carriers of the United States Navy (U.S. Naval Institute, 1965):21; Anthony Robinson, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aviation, Vol. 10 (Marshall Cavendish Corp., 1979):85; "NICO BRAAS COLLECTION: No. 9322. Gloster Grebe Mk.II (J7400) Royal Air Force" (31 October 2009), http://www.1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Braas/9322.htm. After some difficulty in starting the engine, the second Grebe piloted by Ragg, which had been positioned abaft of the first Grebe, was successfully released at 11.30am from a slightly higher altitude over Cardington, Bedfordshire, and made a safe landing at Cardington.R.33 as Aircraft Carrier", Flight (28 October 1926):706, http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1926/1926%20-%200798.html; "NICO BRAAS COLLECTION: No. 9322. Gloster Grebe Mk.II (J7400) Royal Air Force" (31 October 2009), http://www.1000aircraftphotos.com/Contributions/Braas/9322.htm;
In another experiment, the Grebes piloted by MacKenzie-Richards and Ragg were released from 2,000 feet and were able to fly and then reattach their planes to a skyhook on the airship.Aeronautics 7–8 (1942):56; Peter W. Brooks, Zeppelin: Rigid Airships 1893–1940 (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1992):189; United States Naval Institute, Proceedings, Vol. 61, Part 1 (1935):238; Terence Boughton, The Story of the British Light Aeroplane (J. Murray, 1963):282. Despite the successful trials, the technique was never adopted."Pulham Air Station – RNAS Pulham", Pennoyers Village Centre, http://pennoyers.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=126&Itemid=1&limit=1&limitstart=1
Air racing