Mosquitos, so putting the unit's theory into practice. He claimed two Junkers Ju 88s shot down during 1944. Later in 1944, he was sent to the British Air Commission Washington DC, where he tested various prototype aircraft and evaluated airborne radar equipment. He also served at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. By the end of the war, he was a lieutenant commander. In 1945, he attended No. 3 Course at the Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS), then based at RAF Cranfield. and then went to the Naval Squadron at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down. Civil In 1946, Twiss joined Fairey Aviation as a test pilot and flew many of the company's aircraft, including the Fairey Primer, Fairey Gannet, Fairey Firefly, Fairey Delta 1 and the Fairey Rotodyne compound-helicopter. In 1947, he entered the Lympne Air Races flying a Firefly IV, winning the high-speed race at 305.93 mph. He worked for two years on the Fairey Delta 2, a supersonic delta-winged research plane. On 17 November 1955, the FD2 suffered engine failure and consequently hydraulic power loss on a test flight, but Twiss managed to crash-land at Boscombe Down. He received the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air for this feat. The aircraft was repaired and, flying it on 10 March 1956, Twiss broke the World Speed Record, raising it to 1,132 mph (1811 km/h), an increase of some 300 mph (480 km/h) over the record set the year before by an F-100 Super Sabre, and thus became the first jet aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph in level flight. Later career In 1960, Fairey Aviation was sold to Westland Aircraft, a helicopter manufacturer, which was not Twiss's area of expertise. Twiss left after a career in which he had piloted more than 140 different types of aircraft. Twiss joined Fairey Marine in 1960 and was responsible for the development and sales of day-cruisers. He appeared in the film From Russia with Love, driving one of the company's speedboats. His work as a marine consultant led to directorships of Fairey Marine (1968–78) and Hamble Point Marina (1978–88). In 1969, driving the Fairey Huntsman 707 Fordsport, he took part in the Round Britain Powerboat Race, including among his crew Rally champion Roger Clark. He also appeared in the film Sink the Bismarck, in which he flew a Fairey Swordfish. Twiss was for several years a