John Grierson

Who was John Grierson?

John Grierson was an English long-distance flier, test pilot, author, and aviation administrator.

Grierson started his flying lessons at Brooklands while still a schoolboy, graduated from RAF Cranwell in 1929, and flew out to India in 1930 in his own Gypsy Moth, named Rouge et Noir, to join his RAF Squadron. In the same aircraft he established a record in 1931 with a 41½-day flight from Karachi, India to Lympne, England, and in 1932 flew 8,800 miles across the USSR to Samarkand. He had asked his friend Bernard Shaw to lobby the Soviet authorities to grant him passage.

He met the Lindberghs in Reykjavík, Iceland in 1933. He was at that time attempting to fly solo to America in Rouge et Noir, now fitted with floats, but overturned on take-off. His next effort was in a Fox Moth named Robert Bruce. On his third try, Grierson successfully made the first London - Ottawa flight, at the same time making the first solo flight across the Greenland ice cap.