SMM+S

ghostwhisperer · Forum Member Joined: 13 Feb 2009 Posts: 153

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/scotlandonfilm/media_clips/clip_display.shtml?topic=transport&subtopic=air&clip_name=highland_air_aa&media_type=audio

Adam Brown · Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:36 pm Post subject:

His biography is available in print:

Air Road to the Isles: The memoirs of Captain E E Fresson OBE

Captain Ernest 'Ted' Edmund Fresson pioneered air services in the north of Scotland, including the first regular domestic air mail service. His memoirs, which include his earlier years in China building aircraft and as a WWI pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, were first published over forty years ago. The original book has long been out of print. Well-worn second-hand copies of that volume can set you back as much as £100.

This new edition has been compiled from Fresson’s original manuscript and includes material that was omitted from the original volume. It is an illustrated hardback volume of nearly 500 pages including black & white and colour photographs.
_________________
Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project

Adam Brown · Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2009 2:39 pm Post subject:

A well deserved statue to quite a character

From

http://www.spaceportscotland.org/index.asp?pageid=129886

Air mail pioneer

In between the wars, the Highlands and Islands saw great developments in civil aviation through the vision and determination of a remarkable man. This was Captain E. E. (Ted) Fresson. He had served in the First World War with the Royal Flying Corps, and after the war had gone to China to organise the first aircraft factory there. He came back to Britain to run a company offering pleasure trips at local shows, and in August 1931 arrived in Orkney.

He found local interest in aviation so strong that within two years he was running an air service between Orkney and Inverness, calling in at Thurso on the way.

He formed a company, Highland Airways, starting with a twin-engined Monospar and then adding an eight-seater de Havilland Dragon. By the spring of 1934 he had the contract for the UK's first domestic air mail service. By October in that same year he was operating an air ambulance service as well.

Flying with Fresson

The writer Eric Linklater used to tell the story of a memorable flight with Captain Fresson. He had arrived at Kirkwall airport in a great hurry without having booked, and asked if there was any way that a space could be found for him.

'I am flying a full load of mail,' said Fresson, 'but if you like to lie on top of the mail bags, you can come.'

After they had crossed the Firth, he turned and shouted: 'I hope you won't mind if I go out of my way a bit. I've got very interested in fulmar gulls, and for the last week or two I've been counting their nests.'

'Then to my horror,' recorded Linklater, 'he drove his aeroplane along the top edge of the Caithness cliffs, weaving in and out, with his head over his right shoulder and his right hand scribbling notes and details of what he saw. But his DH Rapide behaved as if it were an extension of Fresson himself. He had a host of devoted friends, and machinery gave him perfect obedience.'

Fog over Fearn

Eric Linklater also told the story of the time they were flying south from Wick and got lost in thick fog. Suddenly there was a break in the cloud and they spotted the tracks of the Highland Railway below them - and a station coming up ahead.

'If I bring the plane down low enough, will you read the name of the station?' asked the Captain. And as they came close in over the rails, Eric Linklater called out: 'Fearn Station!'

'Excellent,' said Fresson, 'we're making good progress.'

And that story, says Eric Linklater's son Magnus, in the foreword to the second edition of Fresson's book Air Road to the Isles, 'would rank as one of Fresson's milder stories compared to some of those that he recounts.

'Crash-landing on one wing, then rescuing his passenger as petrol sprayed out from a ruptured tank; almost colliding with a navy cruiser off the coast of Helmsdale in thick fog; losing a port engine in a blizzard off Tarbat Ness; delivering mail on the west coats in a 70 mph gale with the outer wing struts bent by the force of the wind; coming under fire from an Australian naval ship as he ferried the Prime Minister-to-be Clement Attlee on a flight to Orkney.'

The sheer ability of Fresson and his utter determination to deliver a punctual and reliable air service, through all conditions of weather, won him then total respect of the communities he served and a place in aviation history.

Post-war decline

By 1939 Fresson's company, now called Scottish Airways, was operating ten aircraft, and a second company was also in the north. This was Aberdeen Airways, run by Eric Gandar Dower, who owned the new Aberdeen airport at Dyce. In addition to their scheduled services, they brought up tourists from the north of England on package holidays.

But after the war, both companies were absorbed into the new nationalised British European Airways. Captain Fresson was taken on by the state company, but was soon made redundant, along with many other pilots; and BEA cut back air services and refused to continue the air ambulance service.
_________________
Scottish War Memorials Project
Scottish War Graves Project