Lt Cdr J 'Jock' Elliot 1921-1975

Jock Elliot

Chief Designer W.A.Tamblin and Chief Test Pilot 'Jock' Elliot.

DH. Sea Vixen XF828

Jock Elliot served with the Royal Navy between 1941-1954 and had quite a wide range of flying experience in that he commenced with Swordfish and Albacore before the advent of the mighty Avenger with it's undecarriage strengthened to take up to 16/sec thump onto the deck, which would be needed on their trips to the Arctic realms up around the Kola Inlet and Murmansk on Convoy escort duty. Thence to 778 Sqn and the Carrier Trials Unit for several years 1946-1948, to be followed by ETPS and posting to Aero Flight from 1949 -1951.

In 1946 he won the McKenna trophy at ETPS. He was the first Naval Officer to land a swept-wing aircraft (Swift) on the deck of a carrier. He joined the de Havilland company in 1954, becoming Chief test pilot at the Christchurch factory. He made the first flight of the navalised Sea Vixen, XF 828, on July 20, 1955.

Dave Morgan, writing in the Aeroplane in Nov '03 in response to the magazine's request views on those who might be said to have made the greatest single contribution in the century since the first powered flight, said Jock's contribution of variable gearing placed him right at the pinnacle of achievement in that he set the scene for fly by wire.