"The French Connection"...
- Sep 28, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Croydon Airport, Southern England, 1923. Aviation was still pretty new, with planes made mostly out of plywood and canvas. Crossing the channel could be done from the deck of a luxury liner, or for a daring few, in a propeller-driven tent, with 2 leather seats and a sense of direction. The pilots were just mechanics with benefits, but they had an understanding and a kinship with their craft. Radios crackling, announcing Ginger was trying to get in touch with Biffo, navigating not with satellites but with sightlines and basic instinct.
Part of this brave, new world was a chap called Frederick Stanley Mockford, an ordinary duty radio officer, who was given the task of solving a deceptively simple problem. "What do we say when we have a serious problem?"



