Hubert Broad

Hubert Stanford Broad
Broad (right) and A. Butler at Berlin-Tempelhof during Challenge International (1930)
Born	(1897-05-18)18 May 1897 Watford, Hertfordshire, UK
Died	30 July 1975(1975-07-30) (aged 78) Basingstoke, Hampshire, UK
Nationality	British
Occupation	Military & civilian test pilot
Awards	MBE AFC

Captain Hubert Standford Broad, MBE, AFC (1897–1975) was a British First World War aviator and noted test pilot.

Born at Aston Lodge, Watford, Hertfordshire on 18 May 1897, the son of Thomas and Amelia Broad (née Coles), his father was a solicitor; he was educated at St. Lawrence College in Ramsgate, Kent.

Broad learned to fly in 1915 at the Hall School of Flying at Hendon. Flying a single-engined Caudron he received Pilot Certificate No. 2,044, after which he joined the Royal Naval Air Service at Eastchurch. After training he was posted to operations with No. 3 Squadron RNAS based at Dunkirk, France flying the Sopwith Pup. Broad was wounded in the neck during one World War I mission escorting bombers and returned to England to become an Instructor whilst he recuperated.

For his second operational tour Broad was seconded to No. 46 Squadron of the Royal Flying Corps flying the Sopwith Camel. At the end of the Great War, Broad became an instructor at the Fighter Pilots Flying School, Fairlop.

After leaving the RNAS Broad flew joy-riding aircraft for Avro and in 1920 he flew joy-riding flights in the United States with two Avro seaplanes. In 1921 he came first in the Aerial Derby air race around London, flying a Sopwith Camel. This gained the attention of De Havilland which took him on in October 1921 as chief test pilot at Stag Lane. Given the scarcity of test pilots he was tasked with flying a wide variety of De Havilland aircraft as well as Handley Pages and Glosters.