Study for ‘Take Off’: Flight Engineer Quadling (1943)

Dame Laura Knight

For her Official War Artist commission to paint a bomber crew, Laura Knight was stationed at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, home to No.15 Squadron, operating Stirling bombers.

For her painting ‘Take Off’, Knight posed the Stirling’s crew in daytime as if setting off on a night raid. She made detailed studies of Flight Engineer Alexander Quadling, the composition’s focus. In the painting’s foreground, behind the pilots and navigator, he operates a switch on the Flight Engineer’s panel.

Quadling’s expression is serious and pensive. Stirlings were a challenge to fly, incurring many accidents and losses and were withdrawn from operations against Germany several months later.