Cunningham John Cunningham, who died at the weekend, was one of the great stars of Farnborough air shows during the 1950s. As de Havilland's chief test pilot, Cunningham was the first man to fly the DH106 Comet airliner, and also flew the high speed DH108 Swallow and lived to tell the tale, unlike three of his colleagues who died in the aircraft.
Cunningham earned his ‘Cats Eyes' nickname early in the war, when Air Ministry propagandists (wishing to deflect attention from the newly-invented airborne radar) credited his success as a night fighter pilot to his supposedly exceptional night vision. This was attributed to an unusually high consumption of carrots.
Radar
Cunningham joined the Auxiliary Air Force in 1936, flying Hawker Demons and then Bristol Blenheims with 604 County of Middlesex Squadron.
The unit became a night fighter squadron early in the war, after a brief period of second-line night flying duties, including checking factories for blackout effectiveness and AA gun affiliation exercises.
The Squadron received its first radar-equipped Blenheim in December 1939. Cunningham and his radar operator, Jimmy Rawnsley, became a devastatingly effective team in this type, and later in the Bristol Beaufighter (introduced in September 1940) and the de Havilland Mosquito.
In the Beaufighter, Cunningham was the first pilot to shoot down an enemy aircraft using radar – indeed, only one of his 20 wartime ‘kills' was achieved in daylight.
Cunningham was one of the last 'household names' in aviation, and during the 1950s was one of the high profile test pilots whose name was known by every schoolboy.
Source: Flight Daily News