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Just heard the sad news that Jim Morley passed away on Sunday morning.
Jim was one of the pioneers of helicopters in the early days in the UK, and his models introduced a lot of pilots to the joys of rotary wing flight.
He won the first helicopter competition held in the UK for home-built machines, and started producing "plan-packs" based on that design to allow the non-rich community to get into helicopters.
The home-built contest winners (l to r) Arthur Ambrose (3rd), Jim Morley (1st), Peter Valentine (2nd) and K.Sinfield (most innovative). (Courtesy RCM&E)
My first helicopter was a Morley 2B, built from one of these plan-packs, back in 1974.
I taught myself to fly with that (!) and have never really looked back. I still have on of his later Bell 47s:
Jim had had a mild stroke at the beginning of the year, but seemed to be on the mend, which makes his sudden passing all the more shocking.
He was one of the original pioneers, and the whole helicopter community in the UK owes him a lot!
--
Pete
Jim was one of the pioneers of helicopters in the early days in the UK, and his models introduced a lot of pilots to the joys of rotary wing flight.
He won the first helicopter competition held in the UK for home-built machines, and started producing "plan-packs" based on that design to allow the non-rich community to get into helicopters.
The home-built contest winners (l to r) Arthur Ambrose (3rd), Jim Morley (1st), Peter Valentine (2nd) and K.Sinfield (most innovative). (Courtesy RCM&E)
My first helicopter was a Morley 2B, built from one of these plan-packs, back in 1974.
I taught myself to fly with that (!) and have never really looked back. I still have on of his later Bell 47s:
Jim had had a mild stroke at the beginning of the year, but seemed to be on the mend, which makes his sudden passing all the more shocking.
He was one of the original pioneers, and the whole helicopter community in the UK owes him a lot!
--
Pete
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