J N Somers - Any info please

[Murray Galvin]

I wonder if anyone is able to provide any info on the late Mr Somers,
who was '... a long-time Liveryman of the Guild [GAPAN], airport owner
and well-known sporting pilot of the 1950s and '60s...' as described in
Pilot - Nov 1999.

Any background would be much appreciated, Cheers.
--
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Murray Galvin + mur...@blakeney.demon.co.uk +
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Vic Smith]

In article <38517E...@blakeney.demon.co.uk>, Murray Galvin

In the late 1940's, J.N. Somers founded the "Throttle Benders Union" with a
small group of regular air-racing pilots, originally in an attempt to
develop sponsorship for their racing. There is a short item about this in
"Tails of the Fifties", compiled by Peter Campbell and published by Cirrus
Associates in 1967

At various times Somers raced the Percival Mew Gull G-AEXF, Percival Proctor
G-AGWV, Miles Gemini G-AKDC, and was involved with the Somers-Kendall SK-1
jet-powered racer G-AOBG, built in 1954-55. His aircraft seem to have been
always based at Elstree, but whether he actually owned the airfield, I can't
say.

By 1967 the J.N. Somers Trophy was being awarded to the top-scoring novice
racing pilot of the season

HTH

(Posted and mailed)

Vic Smith

--

E-mail to vics...@argonet.co.uk
Civil Aviation History Web Site at www.argonet.co.uk/users/vicsmith/
Using an Acorn Strong Arm RISC PC, the Connoisseurs Computer

[tgw...@gmail.com]

On Friday, 10 December 1999 09:00:00 UTC+1, Murray Galvin wrote:
> I wonder if anyone is able to provide any info on the late Mr Somers,
> who was '... a long-time Liveryman of the Guild [GAPAN], airport owner
> and well-known sporting pilot of the 1950s and '60s...' as described in
> Pilot - Nov 1999.
>
> Any background would be much appreciated, Cheers.
> --
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> + Murray Galvin + mur...@blakeney.demon.co.uk +
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As a Young child I was introduced to a man named Nat Somers who owned at least 2 possibly 3 Motor spares retail shops, the one I met him in was stuated along the Edgware Road and the other was more central London. As my father also had a motor spares shop in Northampton we were there to buy stock and most of it was ex government war supplies such as nuts & bolts, automobile light bulbs and many other parts. Nat was a very interesting man to talk to especially to a approx 12 / 13 year boy, He was the was the only person to drive a new Jaguar that I had met and he told me this was the latest one as all the others had been stolen and used in bank raids, If my memory is correct he rebuilt a Spitfire and when it was finished he flew it up to Coventry Airport Baginton I suspect where he left it for some work to be done and it caught fire and burnt out. He then decided on building a private jet but didn,t have any better luck with that. All I can say is he was a very pleasant man to spend so much of his time with a Young lad that he had never met before and I never saw him again and the last thing I Heard was that he had sold his Shops and bought Southampton Airport. If you have any further iinformation on Mr Nat Somers I would love to hear it. I hope this helpful and if I can be of any assistance please dont hesitate to contact me. Yours faithfully Tony Cox. tgw...@yahoo.co.uk