Reginald Marix

Air Vice Marshal Reginald Leonard George Marix, CB, DSO (17 August 1889 – 7 January 1966) was a British aviator, originally with the Royal Naval Air Service, and later to reach a high rank in the Royal Air Force.^[1] He is credited with being the first pilot to destroy a Zeppelin, when in 1914 he bombed the airship sheds at Düsseldorf.^[1]

Marix joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1912 and was one of the early naval aviators he gained his aviators certificate in January 1913. On 8 October 1914 he piloted one of three Sopwith Tabloid aircraft that attacked the airship shed at Düsseldorf, dropping a bomb from 500 feet onto the shed and succeeding in destroying Zeppelin LZ25 of the Imperial German Army, the first recorded destruction of dirigible by an aircraft.^[2] In 1916 he was testing an aircraft near Paris when it broke up in mid-air, injuring Marix so badly that he had to have his left leg amputated.^[1] Although no longer an active flyer he moved across to the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1918 when it was formed. During the Second World War he rose to the rank of air vice marshal until he retired in 1945.^[1]

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