‘Final flight’ for MAF founder

‘Final flight’ for MAF founder

On the day Mission Aviation Fellowship celebrated 75 years since its inception, it also recorded the sad death of one of its founders – 98-year-old Stuart King.

Stuart had joined the RAF in 1941 in the early days of the Second World War and was hoping to be a pilot. However, because he had a degree in engineering, the interviewer told him that, while men could be taught to be a pilot in six months, it took three years for them to become an engineer.

When he left the air force after six years he rejected a call to take up a permanent commission in the RAF to join a small group of people determined to provide support for missionaries in isolated areas – Mission Aviation Fellowship.

It was only then that he learnt to fly, in a de Havilland Tiger Moth. With Jack Hemmings, a war-time pilot, they took off from Croydon Airport on a rain-swept day in January 1948 for the first flight in a MAF aircraft – a twin-engine Miles Gemini. It was to be a nine-month survey flight across Africa, surveying isolated areas to which MAF would eventually be flying. The pair went to Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Kenya and what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo to prove that aircraft could make a difference.

MAF, a regular exhibitor at CRE, now flies to more than 1,400 remote locations in 26 developing countries – more destinations than the six largest airlines in the world combined –supporting more than 2,000 missionaries and humanitarian aid organisations. Every four minutes an MAF plane is taking off or landing somewhere in the world

Stuart was to become a leading figure as MAF UK expanded, taking part in surveys in Kenya, Ethiopia, Chad and Tanzania. He worked for 12 years in Sudan before returning to the UK to become the mission’s president emeritus in 1987.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rev Justin Welby, said of him: ‘Stuart’s tremendous contribution to the founding of MAF has had a profound impact on the ministry of many people across the world and in the Anglican Communion.’

Stuart’s experiences are recorded in his book Hope Has Wings (Marshall Pickering).

Click here for more information

• Mission Aviation Fellowship will be exhibiting at CRE South Wes 2021 (Westpoint, Exeter 17-18 Mar 2021)

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