Derek Piggott facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Derek Piggott
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Derek Piggott in his natural habitat at the Lasham Regional Competition in 2005
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Alan Derek Piggott
27 December 1922 Chadwell Heath, Essex, England
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| Died | 6 January 2019 (aged 96) |
| Nationality | English |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Aviator, flying instructor and author |
Alan Derek Piggott (27 December 1922 – 6 January 2019) was a very famous British pilot and instructor. He was known for his amazing skills in flying gliders. He spent over 5,000 hours flying more than 184 different types of gliders. He also flew over 153 types of powered aircraft for more than 5,000 hours.
Derek Piggott was honored for his important work in teaching people how to fly gliders safely. In 1961, he made history by being the first person to successfully take off and fly a human-powered aircraft. He also worked as a stunt pilot in many movies, performing exciting aerial scenes.
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Derek Piggott's Early Life and First Flights
Derek Piggott was born in Chadwell Heath, Essex, England. His father was a reverend. When his mother passed away, his family moved to Sutton, Surrey. Derek went to Sutton County School.
After school, he trained to become a scientific instrument maker. He loved building model airplanes and even helped start the Sutton Model Aircraft Club. He was chosen to be part of the British team for the Wakefield Cup, a big model airplane competition. Derek first flew in a real airplane, an Avro 504, as a passenger when he was just four years old!
Flying for the Royal Air Force
In 1942, Derek Piggott joined the Royal Air Force (RAF). He flew solo in a de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth after only six hours of lessons. He finished his training in Canada and became a Pilot Officer in 1943.
He then trained to be an instructor for different types of aircraft. By 1944, there were many trained pilots, so he chose to fly military gliders. He quickly learned to fly gliders like the Airspeed Horsa and Waco Hadrian. He was sent to India and then Burma, where he flew Douglas Dakota planes. These planes dropped supplies to soldiers on the front lines.
Back in the UK, he became a Staff Instructor at the Central Flying School. He trained other instructors and flew many different planes, including Gloster Meteors and Supermarine Spitfires. He also taught civilian instructors for the Air Training Corps how to fly gliders.
Derek Piggott introduced new training methods that made gliding much safer. He even taught school teachers how to fly basic gliders. Flying with a young cadet, he set a British two-seater altitude record in a glider, climbing over 17,000 feet (5,182 meters) in a thunderstorm. In 1953, he received an award from the Queen for his work in improving gliding instruction.
A Career in Gliding
In 1953, Derek Piggott left the RAF. He became the Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) at Lasham Gliding Society. He held this important role from 1953 to 1989, though he sometimes took breaks for stunt flying.
He traveled all over the world, giving talks and advising gliding groups. He taught them new ways to train pilots, like using motor gliders. Derek Piggott was a top expert on gliding. He wrote seven books about it, plus his own life story and many magazine articles. His first book, 'Gliding', was published in 1958.
Derek Piggott was also a successful competition glider pilot. He won three regional championships. In 1961, he became the UK National aerobatic glider champion. He also set several national gliding records. This included a single-seat altitude record of over 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) in a thunderstorm. He earned the highest award in gliding, the FAI Diamond Badge.
Even at 81 years old in 2003, he flew a 505 km (314 miles) task in a glider during a national competition. He completed it in 7 hours and 14 minutes, even though many younger pilots with better gliders couldn't finish. He stopped regularly flying gliders solo in December 2012.
Derek Piggott was part of a group that tested new gliders for safety. He even had to use a parachute to escape from a damaged glider once. This made him a member of the exclusive Caterpillar Club.
Other Amazing Flights
First Human-Powered Flight
On November 9, 1961, Derek Piggott made history. He flew the SUMPAC (Southampton University Man Powered Aircraft). He became the first person to officially take off and fly a human-powered aircraft. His longest flight was 650 yards (594 meters). He made a total of 40 flights in SUMPAC.
Stunt Pilot in Movies
Derek Piggott took a break from teaching gliding to become a stunt pilot. He also advised on the technical side of several movies. His stunt flying career began in 1965 with the film The Blue Max. This movie was about German pilots in World War I.
He was one of several pilots who helped create the exciting dog-fight scenes. For the movie's big ending, he was the only stunt pilot brave enough to fly under a bridge over a river. He flew through the wide part of the bridge 15 times and through the narrower part 17 times! He flew two replica Fokker Dr.I planes. There was only about 4 feet (1.2 meters) of space on each side when he went through the narrow part.
For Darling Lilli, he helped design and supervise the building of six replica aircraft in just nine weeks. Some of the dogfight scenes in this movie are considered among the best ever filmed.
Derek Piggott also contributed to Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines. He flew and advised on building several early aircraft for the film. Many of these old planes used "wing warping" to steer, which was tricky to learn. He had several close calls because some of these aircraft were quite dangerous.
In the film Villa Rides, he had to crash a plane that was flying towards a cliff. He made the landing gear collapse, stopping the plane from 110 km/h (68 mph) in about 10 meters (33 feet).
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Derek Piggott performed aerial stunts in several other films and TV shows:
- Von Richthofen and Brown (The Red Baron)
- Agatha
- Slipstream
- You Can't Win 'Em All
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
For a TV show in the early 1970s, a replica of Sir George Cayley's first flying machine was built. Derek Piggott flew this machine in 1973 for the TV program. He flew it again in 1985 for the IMAX film On the Wing.
The Piggott Hook
Derek Piggott also invented something called the "Piggott-Hook." This device helps stop a glider's air brakes from opening by accident during launch. This safety system is now used in all new gliders made by DG Flugzeugbau.
Honours and Awards
Derek Piggott received many awards for his amazing contributions to aviation:
- In 1987, he was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE).
- In 2007, he received the Royal Aero Club Gold Medal, which is the highest award for aviation in the UK.
- Also in 2007, the Royal Aeronautical Society made him an Honorary Companion.
- In 2008, he was given the Lilienthal Gliding Medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. This was for his many years of outstanding service to the sport of gliding.
- In July 2016, Derek Piggott became the President of the British Human Powered Flying Club (BHPFC). This was to recognize his pioneering work in human-powered flight.
Death
Derek Piggott passed away on January 6, 2019, at the age of 96.
Images for kids
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Derek Piggott in his natural habitat at the Lasham Regional Competition in 2005
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The replica of Cayley's glider flown by Derek Piggott
