Bill Lancaster: Lost in the Sahara After Attempting to Break the England-Cape Town Flight Speed Record

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The mummified remains of the pilot lay beneath the framework of a wing that had once provided shade. Dried by the desert air, the corpse’s exposed skin was like parchment. Above the right eyebrow a gaping cut sustained during the crash could still be seen. Nearby, on a leather-bound fuel card, was a final message: ‘So the beginning of the eighth day has dawned. It is still cool. I have no water….I am waiting patiently. Come soon please. Fever wracked me last night. Hope you get my full log. Bill.’

The wreck was discovered by a French army motorized desert patrol on February 12, 1962, 29 years after those last words were written. Heading across the Sahara on a routine sweep, the patrol sighted the wrecked plane 37 miles off the trans-Sahara track, in the Tanezrouft area–the desert’s heart, which even the wandering Bedouins avoid. They call it the ‘Land of Thirst.’ In order to survive in its searing, dehydrating heat a person needs 2 gallons of water per day.

Only the buckled skeleton of the small, single-engine biplane remained. Severely damaged during a crash landing, the aircraft lay on its back. Wrapped in fabric and wired to a wing strut were the aircraft’s log book and other documents, including a passport and a wallet containing a photo of a smiling woman wearing a flying helmet and goggles.

A brief inspection disclosed that the dead pilot was Captain Bill Lancaster, who had vanished in 1933 while attempting to set an England-Cape Town speed record in a tiny Avro Avian biplane. The story of the events that led to his agonizing death alone in the desert reads like a Hollywood screenplay.

Born in Birmingham, England, in 1898, Lancaster emigrated to Australia before the outbreak of World War I. In 1916 he enlisted in the Australian army, and he served in the Middle East and France before transferring to the Australian Flying Corps for pilot training. Following the Armistice he joined Britain’s peacetime Royal Air Force (RAF).

The square-jawed Lancaster was a champion amateur boxer and an accomplished horseman. Brash and rebellious, he incurred his commanding officer’s displeasure by getting married in 1919, at the tender age of 21. (To discourage officers from marrying under the age of 25, Britain’s military services denied them the customary marriage quarters and pay allowance.)

Lancaster’s RAF tour of duty came to an end in 1927, after service in India as a fighter pilot. Flying jobs were hard to come by, and he decided to try to make his name by flying to Australia in an Avro Avian. Powered by an 80-horsepower ADC Cirrus engine, the 900-pound two-seater was one of the new breed of British light touring planes. A.V. Roe and Co. Ltd. agreed to provide a special long-range Avian at a reduced price, and Shell offered him free fuel. Even so, Lancaster could not find sufficient funds to make the flight–until a chance meeting that changed his whole life.

While partying in London, Lancaster was introduced to Jessie Miller, a petite Australian woman. Known by her friends as ‘Chubbie,’ she was then living apart from her Australian journalist husband. Chubbie yearned to become the first woman to make the long flight to Australia, and she persuaded Lancaster to carry her as a passenger, offering to provide half the funds required for the flight.

Lancaster’s wife agreed to the plan and saw them off at London’s Croydon Airport on October 14, 1927. Bound for Darwin in the Avro Avian Mk.III Red Rose, Lancaster had no plans to set any speed record. It was just as well, for five months elapsed before they reached Australia. Their flight, a 14,000-mile marathon, was punctuated by bad weather, mechanical problems and finally a crash landing on an island off Sumatra, part of Indonesia.

While waiting for their damaged machine to be repaired, they were passed by another Avro Avian en route to Darwin. ‘Hustling’ Bert Hinkler–Australia’s Lindbergh–was nearly home on his pioneering first solo flight between England and Australia.

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Tags: Adventurers & Trail Blazers, Aviation History, People