WING COMMANDER R.C. KEAN

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28728, 28 October 1958, Page 12

WING COMMANDER R.C. KEAN

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON, October 27. Wing Commander Roy C. Kean, former Chief Inspector of Accidents, Air Department, died at his home at Island Bay, Wellington, recently. He w r as aged 68. Wing Commander Kean had a long career in aviation, dating back to 1916, when he joined the Royal Flying Corps. He retired from his last post, as Chief Inspector of Accidents, at the end of 1955.

As an inspector of aircraft accidents, both for the Royal New Zealand Air Force and Civil Aviation, he made many emergency trips into difficult Country. He was in England furthering his engineering studies when World War I began. He was commissioned in the South Lancashire Regiment, but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps. He served in France, and later was attached to the Aeroplane Armament Experimental Establishment, a unit still in existence.

After the war he was an engineer on the Otira tunnel project’s electrical work. In 1936, Mr Kean joined the Defence Department as the first inspector of aircraft appointed in New Zealand. 'ln World War II he became director of aircraft production, and in the early and difficult days of civil aviation in New Zealand he played a notable part in bringing to attention the need for proper standards of maintenance and inspection of civil aircraft.