RIP Reginald Turnill

[MartG]

Former BBC aerospace correspondent Reginald Turnill has died aged 97. For those growing up in the 60s he was known for his reports on the space race

http://astronomynow.com/news/n1302/12reg/

RIP Reg

[Eric Mc]

Good long life.

I have his Observer's Book of Spaceflight.

[MartG]

Eric Mc said:

I have his Observer's Book of Spaceflight.

Me too

[speedtwelve]

And me! Didn't know the old boy was still around TBH. I've an Apollo book of his on the shelf, "The Moonlandings: An Eyewitness Account". I remember him mostly from John Craven's Newsround in the 70s when I watched as a kid. Any space articles on the show: "Here's Reg..."

On a related note, it was Newsround that broke the Challenger Shuttle story on UK tv back in 1986. I had BBC on in the background when I caught an awful, soundless glimpse of the vehicle breaking-up on the telly. One of those "Where were you when it happened?" moments.

[Eric Mc]

He was interviewed on Radio 4 last year during the Queen's Jubillee Celebrations. It was Turnhill who was the BBC's radio reporter who covered the return of the new Queen from Kenya when she had to cut her safari holiday short on her father's death. Turnhill was the BBC aviation correspondent (they had one in those days) and he covered events at Heathrow.

What was interesting is, during the interview, that when he was recalling the scene at Heathrow, he mentioned the fact that "the Queen descended the steps of the Argonaut". Note that he just didn't say "aeroplane" or even "'plane" (as a modern reporter would). He was precise and accurate with the actual type of aircraft - as a professional aviation reporter should be. And he was 96 years old as he told the story.