Vice Admiral Sir Peter Austin
Sea officer who after the war trained as a pilot and became professional head of the Fleet Air Arm
April 16, 1921 - May 13, 2005
Thursday June 16 2005, 1.00am, The Times
WHEN he retired in 1976 from the Royal Navy’s senior operational flying post, Flag Officer Naval Air Command, Peter Austin had been flying for 30 years, amassing nearly 3,000 flying hours and more than 500 carrier deck landings at sea. Described by a contemporary as “tough and resolute, happy to upset the applecart of convention, an excellent games player, in his youth a bit of a cowboy”, Austin was, however, a most professional pilot.
His early sea experience was as a midshipman in the cruiser Cornwall in the Far East. At the outbreak of war Cornwall moved to the Atlantic to take part in Operation Menace, supporting Free French troops in the failed attempt to capture Dakar for Allied use.