The Association has learned of the death of Lt Cdr John P G Morton OBE RN on 4 May 2014
Obituary by Peter Hore
Lt Cdr Johnny Morton, who has died aged 88, was a wartime naval fighter pilot and pioneer helicopter test pilot who taught princes to fly.
Morton was a test-pilot of the Fairey Rotodyne, a 1950s design for a large passenger-carrying helicopter which used a tip-jet-powered rotor for landing and take-off and turboprops on it stub wings for forward flight. The concept was decades ahead of its time, the trials were successful, but the programme was cancelled through a lack of commercial orders and political disinterest.
Morton and his colleague, Ron Gellatly, played a major part in the technical success of the Rotodyne. They made the first tethered flight at White Waltham on 6 November, 1957, and the Rotodyne proved so malleable that within a few days, instead of vertical flight, the prototype was taken on a circuit of the aerodrome, well above ‘ground cushion’ height. Until April 1958 all flights were made in the helicopter mode, but on 10th Morton climbed to 5,000 ft. and made the first transition to forward flight, and over the next seventy test-flight they cautiously raised the flight ceiling and built up the speed to 150 mph, until on January 5, 1959 over Berkshire Morton and Gellatly set a speed record which stood for several years.
Morton was also well-known at Farnborough airshows in the late 1950s where he would perform spectacular flights of the Fairey Ultra-light from the back of a lorry. Then taking the Fairey Ultra-light to sea, he gave dramatic demonstrations of how the little helicopter could fly from the heaving deck of a cruiser.
When Westland Helicopters took over Fairey Aviation and concentrated its test facilities at Yeovil, Morton became lead test-pilot for the Westland Wasp, a small, first-generation shipborne helicopter, making his first flight on January 21, 1963. In all the test flying of the Wasp he experienced only one incident when the tail rotor shaft seized and he was forced down in a field in Somerset.
He was also the project officer for the naval version of the Westland Lynx, making the first test flight on May 25, 1972. He continued to develop the aircraft for the next five years, despite an accident in November that year when a mechanical failure caused a loss of tail rotor control, and he made a heavy landing near Yeovil. The aircraft was written off and he and his co-pilot suffered minor injuries. On another occasion he suffered a hydraulic failure over Lyme Bay but skilfully landed his Lynx on Golden Cap, Dorset. Nevertheless such was his confidence in the Lynx that he was able to perform the first ever roll in a helicopter and fly inverted.
His distinguished Flight Test career was recognised by the award of the OBE and the Royal Aeronautical Society’s ‘Alan Marsh’ medal in 1965, and in 1969 the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air.
John George Peter Morton was in born Urmston, Lancashire and educated at William Hulme’s Grammar School, Manchester where his father was a dentist. Aged 17 Morton consummated his childhood passion for building model aeroplanes and ships by volunteering for the Fleet Air Arm.
He learned to fly at Pensacola, Florida, and at the end of the war he flew Corsair fighter-bombers of 1835 Naval Air Squadron from the carrier Colossus in the Far East. One of the aircraft which he flew in 1945, Corsair KD431, is on display at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton.
His test flying skills were recognised when he was involved in testing modified Seafire XVs after they had been grounded by a series of engine [supercharger clutch] failures: he was not deterred by a crash-landing during a test flight at Donibristle on January 28, 1947.
In 1947 Morton embarked in the carrier Theseus flying the Seafire XVs of 804 squadron on a deployment to South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand: on July 20 he drifted into the crash barrier and though an aircraft handler was killed, and his Seafire hung precariously over the carrier’s side, he was able to climb out unhurt. Subsequently, he flew Sea Furies and Sea Hawks from Centaur in the Mediterranean.
In 1949 Morton was one of the first naval aviators postwar to convert to flying rotary wing machines and began his long association with 705 Squadron, responsible for the evaluation of the helicopter for use at sea and for the basic flying training of Royal Naval helicopter pilots.
In 1952 he attended the Central Flying School at Boscombe Down and in 1955 he was lent by the Navy to Faireys, and joined the company permanently as a test pilot soon after.
After his years of test-flying helicopters, Morton was regarded as one of the safest pilots and among his pupils whom he taught to fly were Prince Charles and King Hussein of Jordan.
Morton married Noeline Sinnot, widow of a wartime flying colleague, in 1981. They settled in New Zealand, where she predeceased him and he is survived by their stepchildren.
Lt Cdr J G P Morton OBE RN, born May 10 1925, died May 4 2014