His first flying experience was in 1907 in a balloon race in Berlin, and in December 1908 he flew with Wilbur Wright in Le Mans.[1] At the start of 1909, he began a co-operation with the Short Brothers to develop heavier-than-air aviation in Britain.[1] McLean owned the ground on which the aerodromes at Leysdown and then Eastchurch were built.[1] He was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviators Certificate Number 21 after flying a Short S.27biplane at Royal Naval Air Station Eastchurch on 20 September 1910.[4] Between 1909 and 1914 he owned sixteen different aircraft, all but one built by Short Brothers.[5]
In February 1911, he offered to let both the Admiralty and War Office use the aircraft and airfield at Eastchurch to teach naval and military personnel to fly heavier-than-air machines.[1] Although the War Office had declined, the Admiralty accepted and started to train the first naval aviators.[1]
In 1914, he made a flight following the course of the Nile between Alexandria and Khartoum in a specially built four-seater aircraft, the Short S.80The Nile. Beset by mechanical problems, the flight took from 2 January until 22 March. Upon the outbreak of the First World War in August he was commissioned in the Royal Naval Air Service and carried out patrols in the English Channel before becoming chief instructor at Eastchurch. He transferred to the Royal Air Force when it was formed in 1918 but resigned his commission in 1919. McLean was a founder member of the Aero Club of Great Britain (later the Royal Aero Club) and was Chairman in 1923-24 and again from 1941 to 1944.[1]
He died on 11 August 1955 in London after a long illness.[1] His name is listed on a memorial on the Isle of Sheppey commemorating thirteen pioneer aviators.[1] The family of Sir Francis McClean have loaned his papers to the Fleet Air Arm Museum.[7]
3 July 1926 – King's Birthday Honours: Lieutenant Colonel Francis Kennedy McClean was conferred the honour of a knighthood for services to aviation;[8]
