Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr.

Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland Jr., OBE (18 February 1910 – 27 September 1946) was a British test pilot. He was the son of Geoffrey de Havilland, the English aviation pioneer and aircraft designer.

Early life Geoffrey Raoul de Havilland was born on 18 February 1910 at Crux Easton, Hampshire, the son of Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, founder of the de Havilland Aircraft Company, and his wife, Louise (1881–1949).

In 1928, he joined the de Havilland company as a premium apprentice, working in the engineering department, with his last two years spent in the drawing office.

When the UK entered the Second World War, de Havilland were manufacturing Oxfords and Flamingos, which Geoffrey was testing. By the height of the Battle of Britain, de Havilland were also carrying out emergency repairs on battle-damaged Hurricanes, and Dick Reynell, then a Hawker test pilot, visited de Havilland to train Geoffrey on the flight characteristics of the Hurricane.

Death De Havilland died on the evening of 27 September 1946 whilst carrying out high-speed tests in the de Havilland DH 108 TG306 which broke up over the Thames Estuary, the remains of the aircraft being discovered the following day in the mud of Egypt Bay, Gravesend, Kent. His body was found on the mud flats at Whitstable, his parachute pull ring untouched; he suffered a broken neck, the result of the aircraft having undergone severe and violent longitudinal oscillations prior to break-up, which caused de Havilland's head to strike the cockpit canopy with great force. Another pilot who flew the DH 108, Capt. Eric "Winkle" Brown, suggested that a factor in de Havilland's death was his height; Brown suffered similar oscillations during a test flight but, because of his shorter stature, they did not cause his head to contact the cockpit hood. The 1952 David Lean film The Sound Barrier refers to this event.

Geoffrey was succeeded as Chief Test Pilot by John Cunningham.

Personal life Geoffrey was a cousin of the actresses Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine. In 1933, he married Gwendoline Maud Alexander. They divorced in 1942, and in 1943 he married Pipette Marion Scott Bruford. There were no children of either marriage. Geoffrey's younger brother John de Havilland was also a test pilot for de Havilland and was killed in a midair collision while flying a Mosquito in 1943.