Sydney Cotton
Sydney Cotton (1894-1969) was an Australian-born aviation pioneer and adventurer. He developed British Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, originally working for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) after the Royal Air Force (RAF) initially decided there was no need to take photographs of Germany before the Second World War. He flew weapons into Pakistan and other crisis areas after the war.
Early aviation
Before the war, he was a barnstormer in Queensland, and a Royal Naval Air Service pilot. He developed the Sidcot Flying Suit, and worked in marketing an early color photographic process. [1]
World War II
Under F.W. Winterbotham. SIS supported his clandestine photographic operations in 1939, beginning with overflights of Italian colonies in Africa and later over Germany. Landing in Germany , he was introducd to Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe. anding at Berlin's Tempelhof airport.[2]
Both in technology and operations, he was an innovator in photoreconnaissance. When the RAF's cameras would fail to operate, he solved a freezing problem by directing warm air onto them. By fine-tuning the streamlining of aircraft, including moving to smooth gloss paint, he added 20-30 mph to the speed of his reconnaissance platforms.
References
- ↑ Jones, R. V. (1978), The Wizard War: British Scientific Intelligence 1939-1945, Coward, McCann & Geohegan, p. 130
- ↑ Michael Smith (12 June 2000), "MI6 agent's pre-war spy plane is for sale", Telegraph (UK)