Biography & Memoir

Samuel 'Kink' Kinkead won two DSCs with the Royal Naval Air Service, two DFC with the fledgling RAF and the DSO in Russia.A brilliant pilot, post-war he was a long range aviation pioneer and leading racing ace selected for the international Schneider Trophy in Venice in 1927. Tragically he was killed aged just 31 in 1928 attempting to shatter the World Air Speed record. He is honoured by several memorials, at Cranwell, the RAF Club in Piccadilly, at Fawley and a permanent exhibition in the Kinkead Room at Calshot from where he set out on his final flight.Julian Lewis has pieced together Kink's extraordinary story of achievement during his short but eventful and glamorous life. A fascinating account of flying derring-do in war and peace.