John Dowling (pilot)

Wing Commander John Reginald Dowling, MBE, DFC, AFC (1922 or 1923 to 2000) was a British helicopter pilot famous for placing the spire on the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral on 22 April 1962. He was a Lancaster bomber pilot during the Second World War, and the author of RAF Helicopters: The First Twenty Years, a comprehensive overview of the RAF's early helicopters and their uses.