Army Rumour Service

James Doohan
(Filed: 21/07/2005)

James Doohan, who died yesterday aged 85, played Scotty, chief engineer of the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek television series and films; he was at the receiving end of one the screen's most famous injunctions, "Beam me up, Scotty," whenever a member of his crew needed to be re-materialised in the spacecraft.

Microsoft

As a character actor who had spent his early years in radio, building a reputation for mastering dialects, Doohan was auditioned for a role as an engineer for the new NBC television series in 1966.

He offered a number of different accents, and the producers asked him which he preferred. Doohan opted for Scots, because "all the world's best engineers have been Scottish". The result might have passed muster in the United States, but when Scotty would insist to Captain Kirk (William Shatner) that "You cannae change the laws of physics", the delivery would have fooled no one north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Nonetheless, his character (Montgomery Scott) was a success and also inspired a generation of young engineers - the Milwaukee School of Engineering even invested Doohan with an honorary doctorate.

James Montgomery Doohan was born on March 3 1920 in Vancouver, and was brought up there and in Ontario. His father was an alcoholic, and James left home at 19 to go to war.

As a captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery, he led his men into battle on Juno Beach on D-Day, helping to secure a field and establish command posts. That night, however, Doohan was hit by machine-gun fire, taking four bullets in the leg and three in the middle finger of his right hand; he lost the finger, and an eighth bullet hit him in the chest - but he was saved by the sterling silver cigarette case in his pocket. For the remainder of the war Doohan served as a pilot observer.

After returning to Canada, Doohan performed on local radio before winning a two-year scholarship in 1946 to the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City. He then worked consistently in radio and television, as well as on stage and in films, in both America and Canada. He eventually gravitated to Hollywood, landing parts in many films and television series, including The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits and Fantasy Island.

When the Star Trek series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery Scott. He appeared in five Star Trek films (he devised the Vulcan and Klingon languages for Star Trek: The Motion Picture), and forged another career as a public speaker, addressing campuses throughout the United States and Canada. He also appeared at Star Trek conventions.

As his health began to fail in recent years, Doohan denied rumours that he had Alzheimer's disease, saying: "If I had Alzheimer's, I think I'd remember." He made his final convention appearance last year, in Los Angeles, when he was also honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Doohan's first marriage to Janet Young produced four children, and he had two by his second marriage to Anita Yagel. Both marriages ended in divorce. In 1974 he married Wende Braunberger, with whom he had two sons and a daughter.


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Air Commodore 'Rex' Boxer, who has died aged 90, was one of the four-strong team of pilots that gave the RAF's most celebrated pre-war aerobatic displays, notably at the Hendon Air Pageant of 1937.



Boxer had joined No 1 Squadron in July 1935 to fly that graceful bi-plane fighter the Fury. By the spring of 1937 he was one of the most experienced pilots in the squadron, when his flight commander, Flight Lieutenant Teddy Donaldson, obtained the CO's approval to form a four-man aerobatic team. He selected Boxer to be his deputy.

The aircraft of previous aerobatic teams had been tied together to create a spectacle for the spectators, but this inevitably restricted each aircraft's movement. Donaldson - who later rose to air commodore and became air correspondent of The Daily Telegraph - dispensed with the practice, so enabling the individual pilots in his team to manoeuvre and change positions during a display.

After an intensive period of training, the team appeared at Hendon in 1937, when King George VI became the first reigning sovereign to attend the pageant. Donaldson and his team of young pilots were the stars of the show, and won a rare standing ovation from the crowd. Following an aerobatic competition with other crack squadrons, No 1 was selected to represent the RAF at the International Aviation Meeting at Zurich, the first time the Air Ministry had authorised an RAF unit to represent Britain at a major international meeting on the Continent. With participating German and Italian teams anxious to display their skills and to best the RAF, the Zurich meeting had, as things turned out, the added significance of taking place just two years before Europe was plunged into war.

The British team arrived at Dubendorf airfield on July 25 1937 and had one day in which to practise. Throughout the following week they thrilled the crowds and even attracted admiring comments from their rivals. General Milch, then the Luftwaffe chief of staff, told Boxer that he had never seen flying like it.

As the week neared its climax, the opposition became increasingly daring in attempts to outshine the RAF team; Italy's crack squadron of "stunning bachelors" was particularly bold. When, on the final Sunday, the weather threatened the event, the Italians, determined to provide the grand finale, approached Donaldson and asked to exchange their allocated mid-afternoon slot for the RAF's later one.

Donaldson agreed and, contending with a low cloud base and heavy rain, he and his four pilots put on an outstanding display, in spite of the rain beating against their goggles and windscreens. They landed as it became even heavier - to tumultuous applause given to no other act. The adverse weather then forced the cancellation of the remainder of the show, much to the great consternation of the stunning bachelors. "The Italians," as Boxer commented, "lost out."

The RAF pilots received a huge reception on their return to Tangmere, near Chichester, and were much praised by the British press. At a time of considerable expansion of the RAF, the team's success reflected great credit on the service and increased British prestige.

Henry Everard Crichton Boxer, always known as Rex, was born on July 28 1914 at Hardingstone, Northampton, the son of Rear-Admiral Henry Boxer. He was educated at Shrewsbury, where he excelled at athletics, soccer and rowing and was captain of the boat that won the Lady's Plate at Henley.

In 1933 Boxer entered the RAF College, Cranwell. He was awarded the Sword of Honour as the outstanding flight cadet, just pipping his friend Peter Townsend, who was to win renown in the Battle of Britain. Having gained his wings, Boxer - along with Townsend - joined No 1 Squadron at Tangmere.

In October 1938 he became a flying instructor at No 1 Flying Training School, where he specialised in teaching landings on aircraft carriers. The following year he attended the first wartime Specialist Navigation Course at the School of Air Navigation.

With aircraft operating over ever-increasing ranges, accurate navigation was of paramount importance. With the navigator aircrew branch in its infancy, it fell to a small, select group of pilots, who had specialised in the art, to create and develop a huge expansion plan for the training of navigators and the opening of schools to meet the rapidly increasing requirements of the bomber and maritime squadrons.

In June 1942 Boxer left for South Africa, where many flying training schools had been formed as part of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. After 18 months as the chief instructor at two air schools specialising in navigator training, he returned to be the senior navigation instructor at No 7 (Operational) Advanced Flying Unit, where recently qualified pilots and navigators attended before joining operational squadrons.

In late 1944 he returned to operational duties with No 180 Squadron, flying Mitchell light bombers with the Second Tactical Air Force in Belgium. After a period at the Air Ministry as the Director of Navigation, Boxer left for Washington as a member of the British Joint Military Staff with specific responsibility for navigation systems and policy.

He returned to Britain in February 1949, as a member of the directing staff at the RAF Staff College, Bracknell. He then attended the National Defence College in Ottawa, Canada, as the RAF representative.

Promoted to group captain in August 1953, Boxer returned to the Air Ministry as the deputy director of Navigation Training at a time when many RAF navigators were trained in Canada under a Nato training plan. This was followed by his appointment in June 1956 as CO of Thorney Island near Portsmouth, home of No 2 Air Navigation School. For the duration of this appointment he was appointed an ADC to the Queen.

After completing the Imperial Defence College course Boxer returned to Canada as the Senior Air Liaison Officer and Air Advisor to the High Commissioner.

In 1962 he was appointed the Air Officer Administration at Headquarters Coastal Command and in 1965 he became the Director of Personnel (Air), with responsibility for the career management and appointments of all officer and airmen aircrew.

After retiring from the RAF in 1967, Boxer was appointed as the Counsellor (Defence Equipment) at the British High Commission in Ottawa. He and his family developed a deep affection for Canada and his children considered it to be their second home; one son remained to join the Canadian air force.

Boxer managed to extend his three year appointment to seven years, which was quite an achievement as the United Kingdom had little equipment to sell the Canadians who, in any case, tended to spend what little money they had on American equipment.

Boxer was an excellent conjuror and for some time a member of the Magic Circle. He was also an accomplished sketcher and writer. He enjoyed the outdoor life and was a keen fisherman and sailor.

He was appointed OBE in 1948 and CB in 1965.

Rex Boxer died on July 13.

He married, in 1938, Enid Collyns, who died in 1994, and is survived by two sons and a daughter; another daughter predeceased him.

Major Tom Allen
(Filed: 09/08/2005)

Major Tom Allen, who has died aged 87, won an MC with the Gurkhas in Italy in 1943 and, after the war, devoted himself to philanthropic projects in Nepal.

On the night of November 27 1943, the 1st Battalion 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles (Frontier Force), part of 17th Indian Infantry Brigade, 8th Indian Division, advanced in heavy rain on the village of Mozzagrogna, north of the River Sangro, Italy.

When the artillery barrage was lifted, the Germans emerged from their underground positions and raked the forward slopes up which the Gurkhas were scrambling, sliding and slithering as they did so.

Allen, then a captain, was in command of one of the two leading companies in the attack. They broke through the enemy defences but the Germans fought back fiercely and turned each house into a strong-point. By midnight, his company held part of the village but he was then wounded during a fierce counter-attack.

When the commander of the other forward company was also wounded, Allen took command of both and organised the defence of the village. He was wounded again during successive counter-attacks but he stayed at his post, encouraging his men and sending back vital reports.

Two companies of 1st Battalion Royal Fusiliers (1RF) were ordered in to support the Gurkhas and parties of both battalions soon found themselves under siege from enemy tanks, flame-throwers and snipers.

At first light, when their ammunition was almost exhausted, Allen undertook a hazardous journey through a part of the village that was still occupied by enemy snipers in order to replenish supplies. He refused to wait while his wounds were being dressed but instead led the relief party straight back to his men.

Shortly after 8 am, 1/5 RGR and 1RF were ordered to withdraw but some of the troops did not receive the order and a grim game of hide and seek began among the ruins of the village. Allen was twice wounded again before being evacuated. The citation for the award of an immediate MC paid tribute to the great personal courage that he had shown.

Tom James Whiteside Allen was born on March 1 1918 at Bearstead, Kent. His father, Brigadier-General Alfred Allen, was commissioned into the Buffs and fought in the Zulu War and on the North West Frontier.

Young Tom was educated at Malvern before going to the RMC Sandhurst. He was commissioned into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry in 1938 and posted to the 1st Battalion at Lahore.

He transferred the following year to 1/5 RGR and saw active service in West Iran and then in Italy. In 1947, when India achieved Independence, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles remained part of the new Indian Army and Allen transferred to the 6th Gurkha Rifles (later 6th Queen Elizabeth's Own Gurkha Rifles) and was subsequently posted to Penang, Malaysia, with the 1st Battalion.

Allen had two spells at the Gurkha Depot before moving to HQ Far East Land Forces. He retired from the Army in 1951 in the rank of major and settled in Penang.

During the next 40 years, Allen involved himself in many philanthropic projects in Nepal, supervising and financing them in person. These included road improvement and water storage schemes and building village schools and health centres.

In the years 1961 to 1965, Allen organised the planting of 8,000 trees at Baidichhap Kyakmi to prevent soil erosion. Seedlings were imported from Scotland and nurtured locally before being planted.

He returned to England in 1988 to settle in Kent and remained active until well into his eighties, swimming at least a mile every day.

Tom Allen died on June 19. He never married but he adopted three sons and brought them up as members of his family.

He educated them and they looked after him devotedly in his old age.

Op Telic: In Memorium.

Johnny Wiseman, who has died aged 89, was awarded an MC in 1943 for leading an SAS assault on a coastal battery during the invasion of Sicily.

In the early hours of July 10 1943, the Special Raiding Squadron (formed after the temporary disbandment of 1SAS), left their troopship and embarked in landing craft in heavy seas. Wiseman, in command of the forward section of the leading troop, ordered the pilot of his LCA to stop and pick up a group of men who were clinging to the wing of their ditched glider.

One of them was the commander of the airborne force who, like many others, had been dropped short of the target by inexperienced pilots. "Look, old boy," Wiseman told him firmly, "I can take you into the beach, but you will have to keep out of my line because I have a job to do."

After landing on Cape Moro di Porco, Wiseman led his men up the cliffs while mortars provided covering fire. He reached the perimeter of the enemy position without being detected and cut through the wire. As soon as the mortar fire was lifted, he and his section attacked.

Wiseman achieved complete surprise and his small force captured, killed or wounded 40 of the enemy without sustaining a single casualty. Wiseman's CO, Paddy Mayne, then got him on the wireless to order him to remove his men from the battery because sappers were coming to destroy the guns. Wiseman mumbled, and Mayne had to tell him to speak up.

"I managed to tell him that I had lost my false teeth," said Wiseman. "It was amusing afterwards, but it didn't seem so at the time." He had been hit in the mouth playing cricket at Cambridge and had worn false teeth ever since. He had been shouting orders when they flew out of his mouth into the long grass.

Despite this mishap, he was awarded an immediate MC.

John Martin Wiseman was born on January 27 1916 at Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, and educated at St Paul's before going up to Pembroke, Cambridge, to read History and Modern Languages. He went into the family optical instrument business in 1937.

The company had been founded by his father, Max, who arrived from Germany in the 1920s and started selling spectacle frames. In 1926 he began to build up a group of purpose-built factories.

On the outbreak of the Second World War, Wiseman joined the North Somerset Yeomanry as a trooper and saw action in Syria against the Vichy French. He was fluent in French and German and was selected for Octu in Cairo.

Shortly after his commission, he heard that David Stirling was expanding his detachment to a full regiment and went to meet him. Stirling's batman answered the door of the flat in Cairo. His master was in the bath, he said, and could not see anyone. Wiseman persisted, and Stirling, who valued people who were not easily discouraged, agreed to take him on.

For the next months, Wiseman and his men, mounted in three Jeeps, operated in the Great Sand Sea, mining the coastal road and strafing enemy vehicles when they were forced to halt. Then they slipped back into the desert.

Following the taking of Sicily and shortly after the capture of Termoli on the Italian mainland, the Germans counter-attacked. Wiseman had just left his truck to talk to a messenger from his CO when the vehicle received a direct hit from a shell. His whole troop was killed or injured. It was, he said afterwards, the worst moment of his life.

Wiseman returned to England to train for the invasion of France. He was promoted captain and placed in command of 1 Troop "A" Squadron, and in June 1944 they were dropped into France in Operation Houndsworth.

Operating from near Dijon, the most exposed of the Houndsworth bases, Wiseman's objective was to help prevent the Germans from reinforcing their units in Normandy from the south. His troop blew up the Dijon-Beaune railway line three times, the Beaune-Paris line once and derailed two trains.

In August, Wiseman got wind of a joint assault on his hideout by the Germans and the Milice. He rapidly evacuated his troop and, when the pincer attack was launched, the two parties opened fire on each other, inflicting numerous casualties.

He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Silver Star.

The following month, Wiseman brought his troop back to England. He was exhausted, and Paddy Mayne put him in charge of SAS HQ while the rest of "A" Squadron went to Norway.

Wiseman and Mayne did not always see eye to eye. Wiseman said afterwards that Mayne, one of the most highly decorated soldiers in the war, was a great warrior but a difficult man to serve under. A man of considerable physical strength, on one occasion Mayne wrestled Wiseman to the ground, pinned him there with his knees and called for a cut-throat razor. He then shaved half of Wiseman's beard without using soap or water.

At the end of the war in Europe, Wiseman retired from the Army in the rank of major and returned to his family business. He was a director of what became a large-scale manufacturing organisation with affiliated companies overseas until he retired in 1982.

Wiseman lived in London for a time, and then moved to Sussex. He led an active life in the country and greatly enjoyed racing.

Johnny Wiseman died on August 23. He married first, in 1944, Jill Sinauer. He married secondly, in 1994, Eileen Finch (née Gill) who survives him with a step-son and a step-daughter.

One of Britain's last First World War veterans has died aged 108. The death on Saturday of George Rice, a machinegunner who served on the Western Front, means there are just seven of the 5.4 million Britons who fought in the Great War still alive.

Mr Rice, who lived his last few years in Kings Heath, Birmingham, enlisted at the age of 17 and served originally with the Durham Light Infantry before being attached to the Duke of Wellington regiment. In one skirmish alone he killed eight Germans with a burst of machinegun fire.

Despite being a religious man, he always said he had no regrets. "It was just my job as a soldier," he once said. "I don't know what you felt. You were there to fight the enemy. Feelings didn't come into it in that sense, frightening or otherwise."

Mr Rice was called up for front-line duties in 1917 and taught how to use a Lewis gun, a light machinegun that could fire 500-600 rounds per minute.

In one brutal encounter he shot eight Germans charging at his line with fixed bayonets. "I kept the gun steady, pressed the trigger and kept it on. The Germans ran on to my bullets. They were too near.

''They ran on as I kept on firing … I shot them all. They were dead men," he later recalled.

After the war, he moved to Birmingham to work for Austin Rover at Longbridge. He married in May 1928 and he and his wife, Elsie had four sons. Mrs Rice died in 1997 at the age of 93.

Mr Rice worked on the manufacture of military aircraft in Coventry during the Second World War and later in the motor industry.

He was awarded the Legion D'Honneur, France's highest decoration, to mark the 80th anniversary of the Armistice in 1998.

Roger Freeman, who has died aged 77, became one of the world's foremost military aviation historians alongside making his living as a farmer; he specialised in the history of the USAAF Eighth Air Force, the largest air striking force ever committed to battle.



Freeman, who grew up on a farm in East Anglia, had a boyhood obsession with aircraft which developed into a historical interest in the airmen and operations of the Eighth Air Force, a force with some 3,500 bombers and almost 1,000 fighters occupying some 60 airfields in the area.

During the early post-war years Freeman researched the history of the Eighth when farming allowed. After almost 25 years research, he managed to interest a publisher in his compilation, although publication was dependent on a declared American interest, since "few people in the UK will be interested in what the Yanks did".

The Americans were persuaded; although, with the printing presses ready to roll, they expressed reservations about Freeman's title, which they thought too prosaic. Freeman was given an hour to come up with something more pithy, and lit on The Mighty Eighth.

The book was an instant success, and became the first of a trilogy on the Eighth Air Force's operations mounted from Britain. They have become standard works, with a worldwide circulation and translations into several languages.

The son of a farmer, Roger Anthony Wilson Freeman was born at Ipswich, Suffolk, on May 11 1928, and educated at Colchester High School. When he proved a poor student, his parents withdrew him and he began working on the family farm aged 15.

His enthusiasm for aircraft was ignited when a number of airfields were built in his local area, one of them (Boxted, in June 1943) next to the Freeman farm. Long-range escort fighters flew from Boxted, and the Freemans were given permission to carry out haymaking and other agricultural activities on the airfield.

Roger delighted in raking hay while surrounded by the hefty Thunderbolt long-range fighters of the 56th Fighter Group, known as the "Wolf Pack", which provided escort for the armada of bombers.

With his teenage friends, he cycled hundreds of miles to watch and record the activities of the aircraft at other airfields. He always knew where to go, thanks to schoolboys' word of mouth. On one occasion towards the end of the war Freeman recalled seeing more than 30 formations of bombers, totalling more than 1,000 aircraft, head for Germany.

In 1959 Freeman took over the family farm; but it remained his ambition to chronicle the activities of the Americans who had lived in his local area. He began by writing articles for a local newspaper on agricultural issues in the 1950s and soon became a regular name in the aviation magazines.

Following the outstanding success of The Mighty Eighth, Freeman spent the next 30 years combining his farming activities with writing. He eventually produced more than 60 books and countless articles dealing with the USAAF and RAF air offensive over Europe. He was in great demand on both sides of the Atlantic as a lecturer, and he made many visits to America to meet the veterans.

He became the approved historian of the 20,000-strong Eighth Air Force's veterans' association, participating at 20 annual symposia. He knew and met many distinguished airmen, including the commanding generals of the wartime Force, including Generals Ira Eaker and James Doolittle.

Freeman also contributed to scores of documentaries and films about the Eighth, and in 1989 was the technical adviser for David Puttnam's film Memphis Belle. He also advised on the development of the American Air Museum at the Imperial War Museum's site at Duxford airfield.

It is a measure of the esteem in which Freeman is held in the United States that the library complex at the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum at Savannah, Georgia, is to be named "The Roger A Freeman Mighty Eighth Air Force Research Centre".

A quiet man of great modesty, Freeman was always prepared to assist others, novice and expert alike. He downplayed accolades, saying that his writing was "simply an extension of my enthusiasm for the memory of a unique period of history".

Roger Freeman died on October 7. He married, in 1956, Jean Blain, who survives him with two daughters and a son; two sons died in infancy.

Squadron Leader Ray Hanna, who has died aged 77, was the leader of the RAF's Red Arrows aerobatic team in its early years, developing a level of expertise and panache in formation aerobatic flying that attracted universal acclaim and established "the Reds" as the world's premier team and star attraction at airshows worldwide.



During the 1950s and early 1960s, the RAF instructed various fighter squadrons to provide an official aerobatic team to participate in public events and provide welcome publicity.

The Hunters of the "Black Arrows" and the "Blue Diamonds" were extremely successful; but, with the loss of fighter squadrons due to budget constraints, it was a wasteful activity to withdraw a squadron from the front line each year. The Central Flying School was asked to provide an official team and, in 1965, the Red Arrows were formed at Little Rissington. Hanna was selected to join the team and within a year he became its leader.

Hanna was the ideal candidate to lead a group of individualistic and brilliant fighter pilots. An outstanding and experienced fighter pilot himself, his determination, modest authority, skill and professionalism proved an inspiration to his nine colleagues.

After an intense period of practice, flying their highly manoeuvrable, all-red Gnat aircraft, the team's reputation for excellence on the airshow scene was soon established. In a very short time, the Red Arrows, together with the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, had become the public face of the RAF, as it continues to be to this day.

Hanna led "The Reds" for four seasons, displaying at almost 100 events each year. Their appearances included a tour of the Middle East, for which the short range of the Gnat necessitated numerous stops en route before arriving in Amman to perform in front of King Hussein. This exposure to tens of thousands of new admirers immediately launched the Red Arrows on the world stage.

Raynham George Hanna was born on August 28 1928 at Takapuna, New Zealand. He was educated at Auckland Grammar School before taking flying lessons on the Tiger Moth. In 1949 he worked his passage to England by ship to join the RAF.

Hanna gained his pilot's wings before the demise of the powerful piston-engine fighters such as the Tempest, Sea Fury and Beaufighter, and his opportunities to fly them proved to be the beginning of a love affair with these evocative fighters that was to last a lifetime. He joined No 79 Squadron in Germany, flying the Meteor jet in the fighter reconnaissance role, one of the most demanding for a single-seat pilot. This gave him the opportunity to indulge in authorised low flying, at which he excelled. Formation aerobatics was a routine for all fighter squadrons, and Hanna developed a passion for this form of flying.

His appointment to the Overseas Ferry Squadron provided him with the opportunity to fly a wide variety of jet fighters. He ferried the early Hunters from Britain to India and the Far East; this involved flying over Pakistan, where he was often intercepted by Pakistani fighters, enabling him to indulge in mock combat when fuel reserves allowed.

On one occasion Hanna was returning a Vampire fighter to Britain when the aircraft's only engine failed over India and he was unable to restart it. He eventually made a skilful crash-landing amongst a series of giant anthills close to a railway line. He waited for a passing train, which stopped for him; but the Indian guard refused to let him board since he was unable to pay the fare. Hanna finally offered his watch as payment; the guard scribbled out an IOU and allowed him to travel.

After qualifying as a flying instructor, Hanna became a member of the Meteor aerobatic team at the College of Air Warfare, and in 1965 he was selected to join the new Red Arrows team on its formation.

Hanna led the Red Arrows for four years, the longest of any of the team's leaders, but in 1971 he decided to leave the RAF to begin a new career in civil aviation. Initially he flew the Boeing 707 for Lloyd International Airways, followed by seven years with Cathay Pacific operating from Hong Kong. In 1979 he headed a company operating executive Boeing 707s, which operated worldwide.

Shortly before leaving the RAF Hanna had been approached by Sir Adrian Swire, who had recently purchased a Spitfire IX. Swire invited him to fly and display the aircraft at a time when there were few of the wartime fighters flying regularly. This proved to be the beginning of a unique relationship between Hanna and MH 434 (the aircraft's serial number), an association which will be one of the lasting memories for Hanna's countless admirers.

In 1981, together with his only son Mark, whom he had taught to fly when he was 16, Hanna founded the Old Flying Machine Company, specialising in the restoration and operation of classic "warbirds" such as the Mustang, Spitfire and Kittyhawk. In addition to appearances at hundreds of airshows, Hanna and his son and their pilots were in regular demand by the film industry. Some of their flying sequences in the films Empire of the Sun (1987) and Memphis Belle (1990) were breathtaking in their skill and audacity. After seeing the stunning sequences in the former, Stephen Spielberg insisted that Hanna and his pilots should provide the flying elements for his film Saving Private Ryan (1998). Hanna also featured in the 1988 television series Piece of Cake, a drama about an RAF fighter squadron.

Hanna regularly shipped some of the company's aircraft to his native New Zealand to participate in the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow, recognised as the premier warbird flying event in the southern hemisphere. In later years he established a branch of his company in New Zealand.

In September 1999 Mark Hanna's death in Spain, whilst flying a restored Me 109 fighter, was a devastating blow; but Ray Hanna vowed to continue their joint work, and the Old Flying Machine Company continues to be a major force today.

Hanna retained his passion for flying to the end, and six weeks before his death he was practising formation aerobatics in Spitfire MH 434. An internationally-renowned airshow pilot who was flying alongside him on that occasion has commented: "At every stage of a flying routine, one had utter trust in his skill and judgment - he was the doyen of display pilots."

Hanna was never afraid to be blunt when the occasion demanded, but his intolerance of bureaucracy and all but the very highest standards was tempered by his great modesty, warmth and approachability.

For his leadership of the Red Arrows, Hanna was awarded a Bar to the AFC he had received earlier. He also received numerous international awards, including the Britannia Trophy. In 2000 the Air League awarded him the Jeffrey Quill Medal for his "outstanding contribution to the development of air-mindedness in Britain's youth".