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Thursday, 08 May 2008 01:56 |
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His incredible flying career took him from the brink of execution at the hands of a vain Chinese warlord to being guided into makeshift island runways by local crofters.
But Captain Ted Fresson's pioneering commercial flights across the north of Scotland revolutionised Highland life and led to what is thought to be the longest-running scheduled air service in the world.
Now the de Havilland DH.60 Moth aeroplane, which Fresson used to set up his Highland Airways airline in 1933, is to return to the skies above Orkney for a fly-past to mark its 75th anniversary.
Cairns and plaques will also be placed at airfields across the Highlands.
Surrey-born Fresson worked as an engineer in China before his constant badgering finally saw him admitted to the RAF towards the end of World War I after repeated refusals.
He returned to China after the war, where a local lord commissioned him to design and build the country's first home-grown aeroplane.
But as the aircraft taxied up the runway for a maiden flight which had caused massive excitement across China, the embarrassed warlord mistakenly believed it was unable to get off the ground and ordered Fresson's immediate execution.
Luckily all was forgiven as the plane quickly turned, sped back down the runway and lifted off, but Fresson would later joke it was the closest he ever came to death in all his years of flying.
Fresson's Chinese adventure ended when civil war broke out in 1927, and he returned to the UK to set up a flying circus, which toured every corner of the country doing displays and taking thrill-seeking passengers on short five-minute joyrides.
It was a tough life, with his plane in the air almost continually from dawn until dusk, but it also to provided him with an inspired idea that revolutionised communications in the Highlands forever.
On a trip to Thurso, Fresson was asked by two local businessmen if he could carry them to Orkney and back.
Dangerous missions
The journey opened his eyes to the possibility of flying newspapers, mail and passengers across the Highlands and Islands.
He set up Highland Airways with a single de Havilland Moth after striking a deal with the publishers of the Scotsman newspaper, which saw their title being flown to the islands, allowing it to arrive at least a day ahead of its competitors.
The airline's first scheduled flight between Inverness, Wick and Kirkwall took off on 8 May 1933.
Soon Fresson had also established the UK's first domestic airmail delivery flights and the north of Scotland's first air ambulance service, insisting on flying the most dangerous missions himself in all weathers, day or night.
Before long Highland Airways was flying to and from Inverness, Orkney, Wick, Shetland, Aberdeen, Perth and Glasgow, carrying an estimated 18,000 passengers in its first four years.
His son Richard Fresson, 72, himself a former RAF pilot, said the flights provided a massive boost for business in the north of Scotland.
Fresson is widely regarded as being one of Britain's greatest ever pilots
He said: "For the first time it was possible to travel to Inverness and back from Orkney or Shetland in the same day, when previously it would have taken the best part of a week by land and sea.
"It also meant you no longer had to wait two days longer than the rest of the country for mail and newspaper deliveries.
"He would fly in conditions that no modern pilot would consider. They had the odd forced landing because of engine failure, which was common back then, but miraculously nothing more serious."
Fresson established a network of hotel owners and farmers from Inverness to Orkney, who he would call to get information about weather conditions.
His knowledge of the local terrain saw him being consulted by the Air Ministry and Admiralty on where to place air bases at the outset of World War II, and he was credited with coming up with the idea for the UK's first tarmac runway, at Hatston in Orkney.
But his involvement with Highland Airways ended in acrimony when all domestic air services were nationalised into British European Airways in 1947.
'Daylight robbery'
Fresson received a paltry pay-off of just one year's wage from the government - about 2,000 - in return for the airline he had built up from scratch.
Richard Fresson said the way his father and other early air pioneers were treated by the government remained a shameful episode in the history of British aviation.
He added: "My father was very bitter about the way he was treated - it was daylight robbery, but he kept flying and went to Kenya for a time before returning to Britain, bought a plane and started doing charter and photography flights."
Fresson was still flying two years before his death at the age of 72 in 1963. His book of memoirs, Air Road to the Isles, is considered to be a classic account of the fledgling British air industry.
Highland Airways, which re-emerged in 1997 after Air Alba changed its name, will mark the 75th anniversary of Fresson's first scheduled commercial flight by unveiling a cairn on the former Longman Airfield in Inverness - his original base.
Plaques will also be placed at Dalcross and Kirkwall airports, and a cairn at Wideford Farm, where the first Orkney service operated from.
A bronze statue of Fresson has stood outside Inverness Airport since 1991.
His son and other members of the Fresson Trust, which was established to help young pilots meet the cost of qualifying for their flying licenses, will be in attendance to watch the fly-past of Highland Airways' original Moth, and a twin-engine de Havilland Dragon. Read more: |
