Hawker Hart K5808 at Thornaby aerodrome.

On 31st March 1937 this No.9 Flying Training School aircraft was on the ground at Thornaby airfield when Hart K5814 taxied into it. Both aircraft were repaired, both suffered Cat.R/FA damage.

Pilot - Acting P/O Stanley John Daly Robinson RAF.


Stanley Robinson received a short service commission in the RAF to the rank of Acting P/O on probation with seniority of 8th March 1937. He was posted to 9 FTS at Thornaby on 20th March 1937. He was confirmed in the rank of P/O at a later date but this is not yet known. A serving RAF serviceman with the same name and initials played in the RAF rugby team against the Army in 1938 and he could well be the same man as involved in this incident at Thornaby. On 30th January 1939 he and P/O Jack Thomas had taken off from Church Fenton in Blenheim L1476 to undertake a training flight, the aircraft failed to return and two weeks later was found to have crashed on Sykes Moor, in the Peak District. Both men had died and were returned to their parent RAF station for burial. He was twenty two years old and is buried in Kirkby Wharfe Cemetery, Yorkshire; the cemetery used by Church Fenton for their dead. A memorial was placed at the crash site in 1991.


K5808 was built to contract 410420/35 by Vickers Ltd at Weybridge and was delivered to 9 FTS on 12th March 1936. It sustained Cat.R/FA damage as a result of the incident above and following repair it suffered a further Cat.R/FA incident on 19th September 1940 from where it was sent to Marshall's at Cambridge for repair on 30th September 1940. Following rebuild it was transferred to 10 MU on 26th June 1941 and then issued to the ATA on 18th May 1942. It was finally struck of charge on 2nd July 1943.

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