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Autograph request
Postcard sent by Bray to H C Biard on 30th November 1933 asking for his autograph.
Henry Charles Biard (1892 - 1966) was an English aviator who flew with the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War after which he joined the Royal Navy Air Service for a short period. He was placed on the unemployment list 1n 1919 prompting him to compete with 200 others for one of six positions as company test pilots with Supermarine Aviation, at Woolston, Southampton. The work involved the testing of newly designed aircraft as well production aircraft and in due course, he became the chief test pilot. He also piloted the first commercial cross-Channel air services from Woolston to Le Havre with Supermarine's offshoot, British Marine Air Navigation, and was one of the first, if not the first, to pilot a commercial flight to the Channel Islands.
In 1922 Hubert Scott-Paine decided to fund and enter an aircraft in the Schneider Trophy competition. Italy had won the trophy in the previous two years of competition, and another success in 1922 would mean that the Italians would retain the trophy. Henry Biard was selected as the race pilot flying the Sea Lion II around a 175 mile course in the Bay of Naples. The finalists were three Italians and Biard, after the two French pilots mysteriously withdrew before the competition got under way. The race saw the Italians taking and holding the lead for the first six or seven laps and bunching so that any overtaking would mean covering a greater distance. Biard managed to pass them by flying over the top, and took a lead from which the Italians could not recover.
Source: https://www.theislandwiki.org/index.php/Henry_Charles_Biard
