Leslie Sansom (Aviation Photographer) 1913-1972

Aviation has been fortunate that its photographers have been artists first and
shutter-clickers a long way second. Charles Brown, John Yoxall, Charles Sims, Cyril Peckham and Leslie Sansom come immediately to mind-men of character and resource who, in pioneering their art, also founded a tradition.
His work on Vickers aircraft was memorable and was often done in the discomfort of an open cockpit or from a crouching position at the door sill of a chase plane which had no door. Leslie was essentially a mild and patient man, but blessed with an iron
determination to get, on every photo sortie, just the wing-angle, the sunglint
and the cloud formation he had visualised before taking off. He was,as he had to be, a master at coaxing 'just another' run from test pilots not yet attuned to the need for publicity and promotional photography. The successful results of that coaxing
have adorned the pages of Flight and its sister magazines world-wide over many years.