Pizzas galore!

On January 22, 1942, Cooper-Slipper shot down two Mitsubishi G3M bombers (the type that had sunk the Prince of Wales and Repulse). Over the next few days he claimed three more G3Ms.

As Singapore fell, Cooper-Slipper escaped with the few remaining aircraft to Palembang in Sumatra. But Japanese forces very soon afterwards arrived here too, parachute troops descending on the island on February 16, 1942, the day after the fall of Singapore. Cooper-Slipper managed to slip away by night to Batavia (Jakarta) in Java. There he was seriously injured by a bomb blast, but was fortunate not to fall into the hands of the enemy. He was evacuated to Ceylon by the last hospital ship to leave Java. From there he was sent to hospital in Poona.

Recuperating from his wounds there, and in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, he was later posted to the Middle East as chief test pilot at RAF Aboukir, in Egypt. There, as commanding officer of the Special Performance Spitfire Flight, he took part in the development of the famous Battle of Britain interceptor for the different requirements of high-altitude photo reconnaissance and low-level tactical recce sorties. This development flying involved plenty of contact with the enemy’s reconnaissance aircraft — Ju88s and Ju188s. Cooper-Slipper carried out many interceptions at well above 30,000ft, the most remarkable being an interception of a Ju188, which he attacked and inflicted damage on at 44,100ft.

Returning to England after this appointment, Cooper-Slipper ended his war as chief test pilot at RAF Lichfield.

He retired from the RAF in 1946 and in the following year emigrated to Canada. There, in 1948, he joined Avro Canada at Malton, Ontario, as an engine fitter. But it was not long before he was appointed the first test pilot to be hired by the company after the war. There, among the aircraft he tested was the CF100 Canuck, Canada’s home-grown jet fighter, which was to become the mainstay of the RCAF’s all-weather interceptor force for ten years. In this testing he was joined from 1952 by another emigrant from the UK, the Polish Battle of Britain pilot, Jan Zurakowski, who died this year (obituary February 24).

When Avro’s jet engine division was hived off to form Orenda engines, in 1955 Cooper-Slipper became its chief test and development pilot. As such he became the only pilot to test the Orenda Iroquois engine which was destined as the power plant for the advanced twin-engined Mach2 CF105 Arrow fighter. The flight testing of the engine was done in a specially modified B47 bomber lent by the USAF. But the engine was destined not to see service in the CF105. When the prototype made its maiden flight (piloted by Zurakowski) in 1958 the Orenda was not yet ready, and the Arrow took to the air powered by American Pratt and Whitney engines. Thereafter the Canadian Government cancelled the aircraft before subsequent Orenda-engined prototypes could be tested.

After 1959 Cooper-Slipper turned to another career, in aircraft sales, for companies including de Havilland and Field Aviation. In 1972 he joined the Ontario Ministry of Industry and Trade, and travelled widely promoting Canadian-built aircraft throughout the world. He was instrumental in the creation of the Ontario Aviation Consortium. In 1986 he retired to Victoria, British Columbia, where he enjoyed photography and driving his vintage Alfa Romeo.

He is survived by Rita, his wife of 63 years, and by their son.

Squadron Leader Mike Cooper-Slipper, DFC, fighter ace and postwar test pilot, was born on January 11, 1921. He died on February 23, 2004, aged 83.