Alan Cobham
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Sir Alan Cobham (May 6 1894- October 21 1973) was a British aviation pioneer.
A member of the Royal Flying Corps in World War I, Alan Cobham became famous as a pioneer of long distance aviation. In 1921 he made a 5000 mile air tour of Europe, visiting 17 cities in 3 weeks. In 1924 he flew a Short Brothers flying boat around the continent of Africa landing only in British territory. In August 1926, he flew from England to Australia where 60,000 people swarmed across the grassy fields of Essendon Airport, Melbourne when he landed his DH-50 float plane.
In the 1930s he pioneered inflight refueling.
External links
- His portraits at the National Portrait Gallery (http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp00938)