Signed portrait of Captain Clive Collett MC, who was born at Spring Creek, near Blenheim and joined the Royal Flying Corps in England in 1914. Following a serious crash in 1916, he became a test pilot, his experimental work including a jump from a BE.2c in January 1917 wearing a prototype parachute. Later that year he commanded a flight of No. 70 Squadron, flying Sopwith Camels, and was credited with the destruction of seven enemy aircraft and a further four sent down ‘out of control’, including one shared. Wounded in September, he returned to test flying and died in an air accident while flying a captured German Albatros fighter over the Firth of Forth on 23 December 1917.
Air Force Museum of New Zealand
Accession number: ALB933604a
Permission of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand must be obtained before any reuse of this image.
