Churchill, with his amateur navigation, was confused as he sat in the co-pilot's seat with the nervous Lord Beaverbrook standing beside him.įighter Command at Rudloe Manor, near Bath, had been told to expect the VIP flight, and fighters from Perranporth were scrambled to help provide cover against any intruders from the south. In fact, at no time, according to Kelly-Rogers, were they within 90 miles of Brest. In the nick of time, he claimed, they altered course but the aircraft was reported as a hostile bomber coming in from France and Fighter Command planes were ordered to shoot it down. Churchill, in his own account of the flight, wrote years later that he believed a navigational error had taken them to within 'five or six minutes' of German gun batteries at Brest. The day after landing at Bermuda, the aircraft, with Churchill, two Chiefs of Staff and Lord Beaverbrook, his Minister of Supply, among those on board, set off for England. He asked Captain Kelly Rogers: 'What about flying from Bermuda to England? Can she carry enough petrol?' Kelly-Rogers replied: 'Of course.' During the flying boat's four-hour flight, Churchill was allowed to make a couple of slightly banked turns after taking the controls. Keen to avoid another long and hard sea voyage, Churchill and his party agreed to fly in the Berwick to the British colony of Bermuda on the first leg of their journey home, and meet the Duke of York there.

Hours after his speech came the first of many scares about Churchill's health when he suffered a mild heart attack.

Churchill made the outward journey to Washington on the battleship Duke of York, a long and stormy crossing, after which both leaders plotted the war and Churchill addressed Congress. The historic January 1942 flight on the British Boeing 314 flying boat, Berwick, came about after Churchill had insisted on a face-to-face meeting with President Roosevelt following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. That same year he flew the first passenger flight to and from the United States, and was the first overseas pilot to land at LaGuardia Airport. In 1940 he flew the four-engine flying boat, Corsair, out of the narrow Dungu River in the Belgian Congo where it had been marooned for 10 months. He made the first scheduled west and eastbound airmail flights across the Atlantic by a European operator, landing at Foynes to be greeted by Éamon de Valera. A year later, he tested the first in-flight re-fuelling of flying boats. He became Commanding Officer of the fleet of flying boats, ferrying passengers to Australia, South Africa and America. He joined the fledgling airline, Imperial Airways, soon to become British Overseas Airways Corporation. In 1937 he quit the RAF for the growing commercial sector of aviation. Kelly-Rogers was 22 when he left the sea and joined the RAF. At 19, a qualified second mate, he went into service on long-haul liner routes from England to Australia. John trained as a cadet on the frigate HMS Conway, sailing out of the River Mersey. John Cecil Kelly-Rogers was the second child of sea captain Theodore and Violet Elizabeth Kelly-Rogers. John Cecil Kelly-Rogers (8 February 1905 – 29 January 1981) was a British aviator who flew Winston Churchill to wartime meetings.

Roger kelly wikipedia