Douglas Dennison Weightman 1912-1948

L-R Tony Martindale, Jimmy Nelson, Eric Winkle Brown, Doug Weightman on a Spitfire

 

Douglas Weightman joined the R.A.F. in 1938 with a short service commission; he had held an A licence since 1933. He completed two tours of operations with Coastal Command and in 1943 took the Empire Test Pilot's course. Later he was attached to the Structural and Mechanical Engineering Flight at the R.A.E., Farnborough, as a test pilot and was demobilized in 1946.
After a period of charter flying he joined the A.R.B. in July,1947 and became chief test pilot, associated with all test flying of prototypes and particularly with tropical testing. With 3,500 hours' experience of flying about 80 different types Mr. Weightman had been loaned to Bristol's, whose staff was depleted by holidays and sickness, by permission of the M.o.S.
He was killed on 14th October 1948 when a Bristol Brigand in which he was flight testing crashed.