Cyril Uwins

Cyril Frank Uwins OBE, AFC, FRAeS (1896–1972) was a British test pilot who worked for Bristol Aeroplane Company, where he made the first flight of 58 types of aircraft.

In January 1917 he was posted to Farnborough as a ferry pilot,[5][2] and that summer he formed a flying school at Lake Down Aerodrome on Salisbury Plain.

[5] In 1918, during a ferry flight in a Morane-Parasol monoplane from Hounslow aerodrome to St Omer in France, the engine failed and in the ensuing crash Uwins broke his neck.

[7] The following year he was one of the first pilots to experience control reversal caused by aeroelasticity while testing the Bristol Bagshot[8] On 16 September 1932, flying a modified Vickers Vespa fitted with a supercharged Bristol Pegasus engine, he set a new world altitude record, reaching a height of 43,976 ft (13,404 m).

[11] Uwins' entire career was spent with Bristol, and eventually he had a team of ten test pilots working under him.