Sqn Ldr Duke was also a record-breaking test pilot

Mourners paid their respects to Sqn Ldr Neville Duke, 85, at his funeral service at St Andrew's Church in Tangmere, near Chichester on Tuesday.

He flew 485 sorties achieving 28 air combat victories, including seven aircraft shot down in seven days.

During the service he was described as a man who "pushed against boundaries."

A Hawker Hunter carried out two fly-pasts over the church as a tribute to his aeronautical exploits.

The Reverend Roger Pullen said: "It seems clear that his spectacular wartime service contributed significantly to the peace, stability and freedom that many of us have enjoyed since.

He was a very modest man, he was quite unlike today's heroes that we hear so much about David Lockspeiser In pictures: Pilot remembered

"His work breaking new ground in aviation must have contributed greatly to progress and to safety for the benefit of many people."

As a fighter pilot, Sqn Ldr Duke was shot down twice, including once by the German ace Otto Schulz.

After the war he became a celebrated test pilot for Hawker, flying the Hunter fighter to the world speed record. He also flew the Harrier.

In 1953 he broke the then world air speed record achieving 727.63mph.

'Encouraged young pilots'

Fellow pilot and friend David Lockspeiser, who first met Neville Duke in 1962, said: "He was a very modest man, he was quite unlike today's heroes that we hear so much about.

"His interest really was in flying, he joined the RAF when he was quite young, and he was an extremely successful pilot in World War II. He's done an awful lot for aviation in Britain."

There were two fly-pasts as a tribute to Sqn Ldr Duke's exploits

In December 2005 he auctioned, his medals and memorabilia - including his Distinguished Flying Cross with two bars, his OBE, his wartime diaries, his mother's scrapbook of newspaper cuttings - for �138,000 because of security and insurance fears.

Mr Duke, from Lymington, Hants, was taken ill after landing his aircraft G-Zero at Popham airfield near Winchester on Saturday 7 April.

He died at St Peter's Hospital in Chertsey, Surrey, in the early hours of the following day after suffering an aneurysm.