Roland Falk

Falk was born in London in 1915, the second son of Diana Gwendoline Edith Cecil (née Stracey) and Oswald Toynbee Falk, and he was educated at Stowe School and the de Havilland Technical School. After gaining his pilot's licence he flew in both the Abyssinian War and the Spanish Civil War for the press. In 1937 he flew a newspaper service from London to Paris and then joined the Air Registration Board as a test pilot. ==Wartime service==

Falk had been a member of the Reserve of Air Force Officers since 1935 and at the start of the Second World War in 1939 he joined the Royal Air Force. By 1943 he was chief test pilot at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough. At Farnborough he flew and tested captured German aircraft as well as carrying out operational flights with night fighter squadrons. For his service he was awarded the Air Force Cross twice, described as the Air Force Cross and bar. ==Delta-wing testing==

At the end of the war in 1946 he joined Vickers-Armstrongs as Chief Experimental Test Pilot but was seriously injured in an accident at Wisley airfield while testing new reverse pitch propellers on Vickers Wellington X LN817. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1952. ==Later life==

Falk retired from Avro in 1958 and became a sales representative for Hawker Siddeley. until he set up his own aircraft business in Jersey. Falk died in Jersey on 23 February 1985, at the age of 69. ==Notes and references==