HE was know for his immaculate handlebar moustache, polka dot cravat, and leather flying helmet.

Captain John Hackett was well known in Southampton as the epitome of a high flying pilot.

So it came as no surprise when it was announced he would be at the controls of an English Electric Canberra twin-jet bomber on a special mission.

Captain Hackett was the pilot as the plane as it tackled a dawn-to-dusk record attempt to fly from London to New York and back again.

In the 1950s the 32-year-old chief pilot for Silver City Airways had also been route manager for the company based at Southampton (Eastleigh) Airport.

On an August day in 1955 Captain Hackett and navigator Peter Moneypenny climbed into their flying suits.

The pair then settled themselves into the Canberra’s cockpit for the long haul flight of 6,920 miles.

Interest in the record attempt was intense and even the smallest details about the flight were eagerly read by the public.

For instance the Daily Echo’s front page story included the fact that Captain Hackett, who had a home in Otterbourne, was carrying his “lucky” rabbit’s foot mascot.

His wife, Betty, had given him it in 1941 during the Second World War and he would eat chicken, Spam and egg sandwiches, which she had packed for him, during the flight.

Unfortunately Betty Hackett was not at the airfield to wish her husband “good luck”.

Traffic had delayed her arrival for the scheduled departure although she was able to send him a radio message as the Canberra climbed away to begin its Atlantic crossing.

The blue painted Canberra left London at 7.10am and flew over Croydon, in order to obtain the necessary mileage, exactly seven minutes and 53 seconds later.

Captain Hackett was a pilot with more than 8,000 flying hours in his log-book, and He was also the and holder of several unofficial Canberras records.

He said: “We shall fly well above the clouds at 30,000 feet.

“I expect to spend about an hour in New York refuelling.

“There are headwinds on the west-ward trip and we should do about 500 miles an hour going out and about 600 coming back.”

As it turned out refuelling took only 35 minutes on the ground in America before the Canberra and its intrepid crew took off back to London.

Later that same evening crowds waiting for the aircraft to arrive back broke through police cordons to welcome the bomber as it came to a stop.

As the jet engines wound down, three records were claimed to have been broken by the Canberra.

The first was a new record for the east-west crossing of more than 3,457 miles in seven hours, 29 minutes, 56 seconds, an average speed in excess of 461 miles per hour.

The second a record was for the return trip of six hours, 16 minutes, 59 seconds, an average of more than 550 mph.

The final record was for the round trip of 14 hours, 21 minutes, 45 seconds, an average of 481 mph.

Two months later the records were confirmed by the International Aeronautical Federation, reported the Royal Aero Club.

The following February, as a result of the record, the pilot and his navigator were awarded the Britannia Challenge Trophy.

It was awarded by the Royal Aero Club, whose members considered the record-breaking trans-Atlantic flight as the “most meritorious performance in the air by British aviators”.

Captain Hackett, who had previously flown Winston Churchill after the war, was also given the club’s Geoffrey de Havilland Trophy for his achievement.

This was awarded to the pilot making the fastest speed during the year in an official British record or race.

Among his previous speed records were trans-Atlantic flights to Venezuela and Newfoundland.

But one attempt to be the first pilot to fly the Atlantic with film of the Coronation failed when his fuel feed on his Canberra broke shortly after take off and he had to return to Blackbushe airport.