Thursday, March 22, 2007

Monthly Profile - March 2003 -Peter Langley


PROFILE OF THE MONTH – PETER LANGLEY

Peter Langley was born in Shanghai in 1924. His father was an accountant for the British American Tobacco Co. They returned to the UK in 1929 and Peter was schooled at Dauntsays in Wiltshire. At the age of 16 he left his home in Staines to ride his bicycle 15 miles to Ealing to enlist in the RAF in 1941. He started flying at 17 at Perth in Scotland and sailed on the Queen Mary to Canada for further flight training with the US Navy and the RCAF. After he received his wings in Feb1944 at Weyburn, Saskachawan, he returned to the UK in March as a pilot officer.

After numerous officer indoctrination courses he found himself in June of 1944 at RAF Fairoakes in Surrey. To relieve the RAF regiment of their arduous duties manning the AA guns against the V1 flying bomb attacks the pilots on the base were asked to man the guns around the airfield at night. P.O Langley was on duty at a twin 50 mm gun emplacement on the night of June 19th with a RAAF sergeant pilot. At 3am a V1 crossed the airfield at 500’ , Langley fired the guns using the tracer to lead his target. The giros’ on the V1 were hit and the bomb started to descend with its engine still running and exploded harmlessly on Farnham Common nearby. This was the only V1 destroyed that day.

After suffering a short stint in the Air Ministry he volunteered to be a glider pilot. After training on the Hotspur, Horsa and Hadrian he was posted to India in November 1944 to join 671 squadron. After a short stay in the Punjab, the squadron was moved to Lalahgat, Assam, to the south west of Imphal, a 5-day train journey across India. After 2 months the officers were sent to the OTS Belgaum (the Indian Army Infantry Officers Training School) for a six weeks course to become infantry officers.

In April Langley had a signal from Delhi to say that his father was in the Westminster Hospital in London and was dying. He was granted compassionate leave and returned to England. His father died 2 weeks later and Langley was posted to RAF Down Ampney on Dakotas as a second pilot. After 3 months he became a captain. The war was just ending in Europe and 271 Squadron was engaged in returning displaced persons from all parts of Europe to their homelands. The Squadron then moved to Naples in Italy flying between there and Austria. They returned a month later to RAF Broadwell in Oxfordshire flying between England and Karachi taking troops out and returning ex-POW. In July of 1946 he was demobbed.

Langley then took his Airline Transport Pilots Licence but, as there were no flying jobs available at that time he accepted a job offer in Bahrein in 1947 as an Oil Refinery Fieldman. He spent the next 2 unpleasant years there. On returning to the UK he was employed by Shell at Thames Haven in Essex in the laboratory. At the same time he had joined the RAFVR at Hornchurch and started flying again.

The Korean War was just starting and he was offered a Commission in the RAF which he accepted. He was sent to RAF Finningly to take an instrument flying course on Wellingtons and from there to RAF Dishforth to do the Hastings OCU. On graduation he joined 47 Squadron as a co-pilot at RAF Topcliffe and flew between the UK and Japan for six months. In 1951 he was back at RAF Dishforth on the Valetta OCU as a captain, and in July left to join 48 Squadron at RAF Changi.

The route flying structure from Singapore was between Japan and Korea in the east all the way to Ceylon in the west, and included periods of supply dropping to the troops in the Malayan Jungle out of Kuala Lumpur. In 1953 he was made deputy wing pilot and in 1954 as a Flying Officer given the task of reforming 267 Squadron as a Physiological Warfare Unit having previously gone to Australia to collect a Dakota. After it was fitted out with loud hailing equipment. Langley trained the crews to fly the aeroplane and the operational techniques. The squadron had also two Valetta and 3 Army Austers in the broadcast role. Langley finished his Far East tour in 1955 having completed 126 operational mission’s in-country for which he was awarded the DFC.

In England he returned once more to RAF Disforth to command the VIP flight on 30 Squadron and spent the next 2 ½ years flying many interesting and important dignitaries in the UK and throughout Europe. There was a short break in November in 1956 for the Suez Operation when he was based in Cyprus for three months.

In 1958 he arrived in Malta to command the VIP flight of 1312 Malta Communications and TT Squadron, flying Valetta’s, Dakotas, Pembrokes, Devons, Meteors, and Beauflighters. In 1960 he was made CO of the squadron and promoted to Squadron Leader. He was detached in 1961 to join the Queens Flight at RAF Benson to fly HM the Queen and Prince Phillip on an up-coming tour of India and Nepal. On return to the UK he re-joined his squadron in Malta and when his tour there ended 2 months later joined 214 Squadron at RAF Benson on the Argosy.

He spent the next five years flying the Argosy in the tactical airborne support role and route flying around the world. He retired from the RAF in February 1966. He took his US ATR pilots licence and headed for California to join his mother and sister and a job flying the DC6-B on Logair for World Airways out of Oakland in California. He was to spend the next 18 years for working for World. After 6 months he upgraded onto the B707 as a co-pilot flying worldwide on charters for the next 3 years. In 1969 he upgraded as a Captain onto the B727 and spent the next 6 years in Tokyo flying between there and Bankok on contract to the US Government. At this time he became a US citizen. On return to the US in 1975 he converted onto the DC8-63 and flew worldwide from Oakland. In 1978 he was senior enough to bid on a vacancy as a DC10 Captain where he spent his remaining career. During this period he was based in Los Angeles, Charleston and Baltimore, but always commuting to work from San Francisco. After over 20,000 flying hours and many adventures he retired on his 60th birthday on the 24th October 1984.

During his time with World Airways he also worked on contract for Air Mali, Air Algerie, Air Vietnam, Mepati, and Malaysian Airways. He lived for the next 5 years in Maryland and then the following 5 years in Florida. In 1973 he had bought a property in Spain so eventually he ended up here – but that’s another story!