This obituary was originally published in The Telegraph on April 13 2007
Squadron Leader Neville Duke, who died on April 7 2007 aged 85, had a remarkable record as a fighter pilot during the Second World War; he was decorated for gallantry six times and went on to become one of the world's foremost test pilots.
Duke was the chief test pilot of the Hawker Aircraft Company at a time when transonic and supersonic flight was at a highly experimental and extremely dangerous stage. He was one of a small group of test pilots, some of whom would lose their lives, exploring the regions of the "sound barrier".
On September 6 1952 at the Farnborough Air Show he was to fly the supersonic Hawker Hunter jet...