Maurice Farman S.7 Longhorn N5059 at Redcar aerodrome.

On 9th May 1917 this RNAS Flying School aeroplane was wrecked when it crashed on landing at Redcar aerodrome.

Pilot - Probationary F/O Leonard Leslie Stanyon RNAS.

The following is taken from Leonard Stanyon's service file and from birth and marriage records and must be taken to be fact. I feel that his service needs to be documented and also what else he later claimed needs to be shown. He was born on 27th September 1896 at Braddock, Pennsylvania, USA. He enlisted into the RNAS and was granted a commission on 19th January 1917. He was posted to RNAS Redcar on 24th March 1917 and joined the Flying School. In May 1917 his commanding officer put forward a recommendation that his commission he terminated becauase he would never become an efficient pilot. His commission was terminated on 2nd June 1917 and that was that. In October 1917 he was assessed in Ottawa, Canada and was "totally unfit for further service".

Of interest is that he gave a talk to students at the University of Illinois in October 1917 about his service and as I see it not all of what he claimed appears to have been truthful. He stated that he had served his country for two years, leaving prep school in May 1915 to join the Canadian Military being granted a commision in September 1915 in a Mechanical Transport unit. He then claimed to have transferred to the RNAS in March 1916 and undertaken patrols of the North Sea. Up until Spring 1917 he claimed to have been engaged in operations from Dunkirk, flying along the German and Belgian costs bombing Ostend, Zeebrugge and other towns in western Belgium. I can see no truth what so ever in this. He then stated that in May 1917 he was "patrolling the North Sea" when the accident which disabled him occurred when his aeroplane plunged two hundred feet to earth. He claimed that although not seriously injured his nerves were shattered and he has not been able to fly since the incident. This would have been the accident at RNAS Redcar, which was probably the only item of truth in what he said albeit it he was not patrolling but training (and basic training at that). Perhaps his case was another relating to mental health issues stemming from surviving a flying accident, and that the stigma for anyone suffering from such conditions was not understood at the time. He died in January 1977 in Florida, USA.

Longhorn N5059 was built by Brush E.E. Co. Ltd. at Loughborough and was delivered to CSD White City. It was transferred to AAP at RNAS Killingholme on 24th February 1917 and later to RNAS Redcar on 22nd April 1917 where it joined the Flying School. It sustained damage at Redcar on 9th May 1917 that appears to have seen it deleted from stock soon after.

Back to yearly selection.