Robert Smith-Barry

Robert Raymond Smith Barry (4 April 1886 – 23 April 1949) was an officer in the Royal Flying Corps and its successor, the Royal Air Force. His most notable contribution was in developing flying instruction methods. In December 1916 he masterminded a complete reorganisation of flying training methods at Gosport. This new training method later became known as the "Gosport System" and was adopted worldwide.

The curriculum combined classroom training and dual flight instruction. Students were not led away from potentially dangerous manoeuvres but deliberately exposed to them in controlled environments so they could learn to recover from errors of judgement. Choice of training aircraft used later settled on the Avro 504J.

Smith-Barry was later described by Lord Trenchard as the man who "taught the air forces of the world how to fly".

Smith-Barry was born on 1 August 1886 in Mayfair, London the son of James Hugh Smith-Barry and his wife Charlotte Jane. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge from 1904 although he left without taking a degree. He learnt to fly in 1911 at Salisbury Plain and was one of the first officers in the new Royal Flying Corps formed in August 1912. On operations in France. with No. 5 Squadron RFC, on 14 August 1914 his Royal Air Factory B.E.8 had an engine failure and it crashed killing his passenger, Smith-Barry had had two broken legs but on hearing of the immienent arrival of Germans he managed to get back to England on his own accord. In 1918 he was awarded the Air Force Cross.<

Retiring to Canock Manor near Upavon between the wars as a "country gentleman" he re-joined the Royal Air Force during the second world war as a ferry pilot and ground instructor.

Barry died in Durban, South Africa on 23 April 1949 aged 63 following an operation on his leg, which had troubled him since the crash in 1914.