Some further notes on helicopters and USS *Randolph.*
“I have never been in a helicopter” is in *Winston S. Churchill,* vol. 8,
*Never
Despair 1945-1965*
<https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/official-biography/> (Hillsdale
College Press, 2013),
Wendy Reves, “The Man Who was Here,” *Finest Hour 63, 2nd Quarter 1989:*
I remember . . . our helicopter ride together. It was his
first, and mine also. He was to be the honored guest aboard the *Randolph*,
an aircraft carrier. He loved unusual happenings, and this was certainly
one. My husband Emery, Sir Winston, his bodyguard Detective Sergeant Murray
and I drove to the Nice airport, where we found two Navy helicopters
awaiting us. The plan was that Sgt. Murray would go with Sir Winston in one
machine, and Emery and I in the other. Then, without warning, Sir Winston
said, “No! Wendy comes with me.” And so it was. The helicopter was a rough
and raw model, sternly navy with no comforts. The pilot, feeling I think
his moment of greatness, lofted us up so quickly and so roughly that we
were both startled. I looked across at Sir Winston, and there before me was
the young, valiant Churchill, courageous, with his chin jutting forward. It
was as though he had suddenly shed 50 years, and was once again squarely
facing a challenge: a split second only ... a memory.
Martin Gilbert, *Churchill: A Life,* 954:
The helicopter ride was “an exhilarating incident,’ he told
Wendy Reves, who accompanied him.
Edmund Murray, *I Was Churchill’s Bodyguard, *160:
On trips abroad, especially to the French Riviera, we
invariably had trouble with too many enthusiastic photographers and
reporters. On the 1952 trip, one of the newer weapons of the fourth estate,
the helicopter, was employed to spy on Churchill while he painted in the
seclusion of the Caponcina grounds. But he was quite unperturbed for, as he
heard the chattering of the machine overhead, he commented, “I may fly home
in a helicopter too.”
“Would you wish to land in the Festival Grounds, Sir?”
“No,” said he, “on the Horse Guards Parade. Why not?” Chuckle,
chuckle. He did not do so, however, and in fact, his first ride in a
helicopter did not take place until some four or five years later when the
American Navy picked us up at Nice Airport to carry us to the United States
carrier Randolph, part of the Mediterranean Fleet, for dinner. It was a
superb evening and I was told that permission had been obtained from the
White House or the Pentagon, for champagne, whisky and cocktails to be
served, probably for the very first time since the American Navy went dry.
*Second Helo Ride, May 1959*
Pilpel, *Churchill in America, *268:
On Wednesday, the sixth, Eisenhower took Churchill to have a
look at his Gettysburg farm. They traveled by helicopter from Washington,
which gave Winston a chance to inspect the Civil War battlefield from the
air en route.
Anthony Montague Browne, *Long Sunset,* 261:
We had flown with the President by helicopter to his Gettysburg
farm, and after the visit had hovered over the battlefield with the curator
of the museum. All had been astounded that WSC could pick out with the
utmost accuracy the main features of that terrible engagement: Round Top
Hill, Pickett’s charge, with their distances and significance, were
fluently and dramatically described. WSC had walked many of the Civil War
battlefields and his descriptions are very close to the greatest of his
prose. It was a triumph for a very old man.
Mary Soames, *Speaking for Themselves, *CSC to WSC, 7 May 1959:
“Not one word from you & Anthony after the short message
announcing your safe arrival - However I follow your doings in the Press -
I am so very glad you went to see Mr Dulles & General Marshall, & what fun
the helicopter must have been!”
*Churchill on Helicopters (seems there was nothing he didn't
contemplate....)*
15 July 1953. From Moran, *Struggle for Survival*
“He was troubled often with fluids going down the wrong way.
Turning to Clemmie after one of these bouts of coughing, he said: ‘You see,
dear, we have a turnstile in our throat, and it is so arranged that traffic
is bound to go the right way, until things go wrong.’ He showed me a
memorandum that he had written on helicopters. When they were 300 feet from
the ground or less, if the engine cut out or the propeller came off there
was a nasty crash. His memorandum contained suggestions to meet that
contingency; the propeller was to be hollow, and in the hollow there was a
parachute. He had sent his paper to the Prof. for his comments.”
Gilbert, *Never Despair,* 772: “He also wanted to know, on
another occasion, why a parachute could not be deployed by a helicopter,
should the engine fail, and thus float down in safety!” [The paper, 1943,
is referenced in *The Churchill Documents, *vol. 18, Hillsdale, 2015.]
Paul Alkon, *Winston Churchill’s Imagination,* 60:
“Knowing as we now do how and to what effect helicopters
evolved from autogiros later in the twentieth century, we can see that
Churchill was right to identify the advent of what he calls wingless flight
as a noteworthy milestone in the history of aviation. As someone whose own
flying lessons had taught him firsthand the difficulties of landing
conventional aircraft, he is quick to appreciate the advantages of a
different method of getting back to the ground. It is easier to see now
that Churchill is a little over optimistic in supposing that landing
disasters would thereby be almost entirely eliminated, and wildly
overoptimistic in jumping to the conclusion that via autogiros flying will
be taken up by “the millions just as the cheap motor car is used to-day;’
thus relegating airports to a minor role in aerial transportation. Three
years later Churchill is a more somber prophet in his 1938 essay “The
Effect of Air Transport on Civilization.”
*Pedantic nit:* Emery's surname name is not “Reeves” but *Reve**s* (from
the original Hungarian Imre Révész). The possessive is “Reves’s.”
Richard M Langworth CBE
Hillsdale College
Churchill Project
winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu
richardlangworth.com
Amazon author: https://www.amazon.com/author/rmlangworth
<https://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?C=Z9SQXHR9LXA4&M=urn:correios:msg:201809081637102225379ea2b642b4a00d0acbb800p0na&R=3E2VB1BLY5CI5&T=C&U=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fauthor%2Frmlangworth%3Fref_%3Dpe_1724030_132998060&H=D217IAT2170XA9BHIBFWYWVD8AWA&ref_=pe_1724030_132998060>
Twitter: twitter.com/rmlangworth
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