Test Pilots - Jeffrey Kindersley Quill

Jeffrey Kindersley Quill (1st February 1913 – 20th February 1996) was educated at Lancing College. At the age of 18, he joined the RAF and learned to fly on Avro Tutor biplanes; he went solo after the remarkably short time of 5 hours 20 minutes (9 hours being regarded as the norm). In September 1932 he began flying Bristol Bulldog fighters, and 9 months later he was demonstrating low flying at RAF Hendon, in a mock bombing attack.

At the end of 1933, Jeffrey Quill was posted to the RAF Meteorological Flight at Duxford and flew obsolescent Armstrong Whitworth Siskins, with their open cockpits, no artificial horizon or radio, and only the most rudimentary blind-flying instruments. This unit made twice-daily scheduled flights (except on Sundays) up to 25,000 ft to collect data at 1000 foot intervals on temperature, humidity and cloud formation for weather reports. After Quill took command in November 1934, his flight team managed to fly every slot for a whole year, regardless of ‘unflyable’ weather. For this hazardous achievement he was awarded the Air Force Cross at the age of 23.

Soon after, Jeffrey Quill’s long association with the Spitfire began when he made his first flight in the prototype fighter K5054 on 26 March 1936. Thus, It was he who test-flew every mark of Spitfire and who advanced the Spitfire from a promising but untried prototype to become (with the Hurricane) the instrument of the Royal Air Force’s decisive victory in the Battle of Britain.

In January 1943 he was awarded the OBE. From November 1943 to April 1944 he served with the Fleet Air Arm, as a Lieutenant-Commander (RNVR), helping to develop better carrier-deck-landings with the Supermarine Seafire, the naval version of the Spitfire. With the introduction of the Seafire, the Fleet Air Arm had suffered massive losses in deck-landing accidents. By the time he returned to Supermarine he knew the problems thoroughly, having deck-landed nearly all the British and American carrier types.

In the postwar era, Jeffrey Quill continued as a test pilot, flying the latest Supermarine jets. Later he became a military aircraft marketing executive for the British Aircraft Corporation. He was elected President of the Spitfire Society and in April 1993 he unveiled a full size replica of Spitfire prototype K5054 at RAF Museum, Hendon. Since 1997 the British Air League have awarded the “Jeffrey Quill Medal” annually for an outstanding contribution to the development of air-mindedness in Britain’s youth.