The 1927 RAF Flights

Thomas Neville Stack and Bernard More Troughton Shute Leete took off from Stag Lane Aerodrome, a private aerodrome, in Edgware, North London on the 15th of November 1926 in Two De Havilland Moth aeroplanes for Delhi.

They flew down to Marseilles and via Pisa and Rome to Naples. Bad weather delayed their onward journey and they reached Malta on the 3rd of December 1926. Continuous storms and bad weather halted their journey for a week in Malta.

Thereafter, they flew to Cairo via Bengazi and Poste Bardin near Tripoli. They left Cairo on the 14th of December and reached Rutba the day after. Despite the continuing sandstorms they continued with their flight and reached Baghdad on the 16th of December. 

The aforesaid flight through sandstorms resulted in planes not being airworthy. Therefore, the air planes underwent deep servicing and maintenance and were made fit for the onward journey. Post, the overhauling, they took of for Bushire via Basra and Bunder Bilan, reaching the destination on the 24th December.

At Bushire they gave a flying display and attended a reception at the British Residency.    

The planes left Bushire on 4th January 1927 and arrived at Bunder Abbas on the same evening. Next day, the planes were at Jask in present day Iran and reached Chabahar on the 6th of January. The next leg of journey took them to Karachi and they arrived at the city at 4:35 PM on the 8th of January.

On the 11th January, the largest crowd ever seen in a public function gathered at the aerodrome besides the Drigh Road to welcome the pilots. A R.A.F display  was organised and Messrs. Stack And Leete performed many faultless dare devil stunts.

After the planes had been overhauled they flew on carrying 900 letters for Delhi and 60 letters for Lahore.  The normal postage rate was charged and a special cachet applied. 

Stack had served in both the first and the second world wars. Post the first world war, he became a flying instructor, and in the second world war he commanded the 742 Naval Air Squadron in Southern India.  He was a manager at Orient Airways when he died in Karachi, Pakistan in 1949.

Leete was the technical officer at the Civil Aviation Directorate of the Government of India and he died in 1978 in England.

In 1927, both Stack and Leete were awarded Air Force Cross for their flight to India. In 1942, Leete was awarded Officer of the Order of British Empire.

On the 2nd April 1927, Mr. Leete's Moth carrying Lady Hailey as a passenger hit a wire and crashed. Both the flyers were unhurt but the planes was wrecked and were damaged beyond repair.