One of the original 16 pilots of Imperial Airways in 1924
11 September 1926: "AIRMAN'S DASH TO LONDON. JUST IN TIME FOR TRIAL AFTER FORCED LANDING NEAR PYRENEES. Captain R. H. Macintosh, an Imperial Airways pilot, who is flying a D.H. Napier air special in Captain Alfred Lowenstein's private air fleet at Biarritz, had a remarkable series of adventures while making a dash back to London in order to attend the Old Bailey as witness.
Captain Lowenstein asked him to go from Biarritz to Lerida to locate a landing ground there, where the whole air fleet could alight, but he could find nothing suitable and finally running out of petrol, had to alight near Barcelona for further supplies. As the time for his appearance the old Bailey was now getting near, Captain Macintosh decided to fly back to Biarritz in straight line right over the Pyrenees in order to catch a train for London.
Having attained a height of 8,000 feet, and while still climbing to cross the mountains, he was suddenly enveloped in a terrific thunderstorm and was trapped between clouds and mountains. In desperation he climbed to height of 12,000 feet and headed northward through the storm. Once again he ran short of petrol, and risking everything dived down through the clouds, luckily alighting in a small field which suddenly loomed ahead.
He discovered he was at Lartes-de-Riviere about five miles north of the Pyrenees, and, after pegging down his machine and leaving it in charge of his mechanic, rushed to the station to get a train to Touloise to catch the Paris express. At the station a further difficulty arose, they would only accept French money and Captain Macintosh had only English. Going back to small hotel he met there a Mrs Edridge and her two daughters who asked him if they could help him in any way, and who, by a strange coincidence, turned out to be residents in Croydon who had recognised the Imperial Airways pilot's uniform, which is a familiar sight in that town. . .
This meeting smoothed the last of Captain Macintosh's difficulties and travelling night and day he arrived at the Old Bailey in time, after travelling 750 miles by air and nearly 700 by rail and boat in two days without sleep, only to find that his evidence would not be needed."
Feb 1927: "FLOWN 500,000 MILES. Captain Mcintosh's Record. Captain R. H. Mcintosh, the Imperial Airways pilot, on Wednesday completed eight years of continuous flying between London and Paris. He has carried approximately 8,000 passengers between the two cities, and, at 32 years of age, must be one of the most travelled men of his age, for, in addition to flying over half million miles, he also spent four years in the mercantile marine visiting almost every part of the globe.
Captain Mclntosh was one of the youngest recipients of the Royal Humane Society's medal and certificate, which he gained for saving life at sea when he was only 16½ years old."
9 Mar 1927: "NEW AIR RECORD. LONDON TO BERLIN IN 4¾ HOURS. Captain R. H. Mcintosh, an Imperial Airways pilot, on Thursday created a new air record by flying non-stop from London to Berlin in 4¾ hours. The average speed for the 620 miles flight was 130 miles per hour.
Captain Mcintosh is one of the veteran pilots now flying the Handley Page-Napier and Argosy air liners of the Imperial Airways between London and the Continent, and has just completed eight years' continuous flying between London and Paris. He left London at 8.5 a.m. on Thursday on a special flight to Berlin, where he arrived 12.50 p.m."
8 Jul 1927: "ENGLAND—NEW YORK FLIGHT. PILOT'S ARRANGEMENTS MADE. R. H. Macintosh, the Imperial Airways pilot, announced yesterday that he had completed arrangements for an attempt to fly non-stop from England to New York within the next few weeks.
He will fly a Fokker monoplane, driven by a 500 h.p. Bristol Jupiter engine carrying petrol for a non-stop flight of 4400 miles, and will be accompanied by a navigator.
Capt. Macintosh was originally associated with Lieut-Col. F. F. Minchin, another Imperial Airways pilot, who, however has now joined Mr Leslie Hamilton in a projected attempt to fly non-stop to Ottawa, Canada."
November 1927: "NON-STOP TO INDIA. Capt. Mcintosh Out to Beat Record. Capt. R. H. Mcintosh, the Imperial Airways pilot, has completed arrangements to start on an attempt to fly non-stop from England to India early next week on a Fokker-Jupiter monoplane.
If successful he will break the world's non-stop long distance flight record of 3,905 miles set up by Chamberlin and Levine.
Capt. Mcintosh intends to start his flight from Uphaven on Tuesday or Wednesday, when there will be a full moon to assist him. With him will be Mr Herbert Hinkler the test pilot who created a world's long distance record for light 'planes recently by flying non-stop from London to Riga in an Avro-Avian of 30 h.p.
The airmen will follow the route taken by Flight-Lieut. Carr, who, piloting a big Hawker Rolls-Royce bombing 'plane, flew non-stop from England to the Persian Gulf last May."
... "Should they accomplish this, they intend make another non-stop flight from India either to Singapore or the Dutch East Indies, finally reaching Port Darwin, in North Australia, by a third non-stop flight. The total distance is just over 10,000 miles, and should be accomplished in about 110 hours' flying."
April 1928: "NEW AERIAL RECORD. Capt. R. H. Mcintosh created a record yesterday by flying from Berlin to London, a distance of 600 miles, in four and a half hours. The flight was made in a Fokker-Jupiter aeroplane. The machine used was the same in which Captain McIntosh and Mr Bert Hinkler made their unsuccessfull attempt to fly non-stop to India last year."
At the 1948 Gatwick Air Display, in an Airwork Viking [RaeC]
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