In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Bella Richards analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (May 2024) edition of the magazine. Special guest this episode is outgoing RAeS President Kerissa Khan. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
Listen to the Royal Air Force, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton in conversation with Air Marshal Sir Christopher Harper at a Royal Aeronautical Society Corporate Partners briefing, held on 9 April.
The ultimate test of the great powers’ pilots, aircraft and powerplants in the interwar period, the Schneider Trophy seaplane contest pushed forward aviation design to new heights and directly led to the Spitfire and Merlin engine. W. Cox, a member of the trophy winning Supermarine team, takes us through each contest, starting with the pre-World War II contests and highlights how the key technological developments in aircraft design were represented in the race. Please note, due to the age of th...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Bella Richards analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (April 2024) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
After being redeployed from Unilever to a small firm just outside Rugby in May 1940, Bob Feilden played a key role in the development of Whittle’s jet engine, working with his colleagues to transform the jet from theory into practice. Starting with the early history of Whittle’s jet engine and its early testing, Feilden takes us inside the firm to give us a first-hand account of the jet’s flight trials, in the Gloster E28/39 and how they overcame the technical challenges to develop the W1 engine...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson and Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater analyse recent aviation, aerospace and spaceflight news - and preview the next (March 2024) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
AEROSPACE Editor-in-Chief Tim Robinson and Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater sum up the 2024 Singapore Air Show
RAF turned Imperial Airways pilot, Captain Parker, gives us a flavour of what life was like working for Imperial in the 1930s. He tells us about operating the Handley Page HP.42 and recounts a story of being stranded in the desert after an aircraft was forced down. After flying landplanes he was transferred to seaplanes and gives us insights into life operating flying boats before and after the Second World War. Captain Parker was interviewed by David Jones in around 1975. This recording is part...
Captain Crowther operated the first service from Brisbane to Darwin and then onto Singapore in 1934 and recalls life flying a DH.86 on that route. He also describes the time when he was transferred to flying boats, including the period he flew between Australia and Ceylon during World War II. Crowther also gives us a view of managing the 'Kangaroo Route' in the early post-war years from his position as their Manager of the Western Region. Captain Crowther was interviewed by David Jones in around...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Bella Richards analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (January 2024) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
What’s in a name? This lecture takes us through the evolving picture of how manufacturers were required to name their military aircraft and engines and shows how different aircraft followed and deviated from the Ministry’s requirements. Gordon T. Wansbrough-White FRAeS addressed a meeting organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 28 November 1966. The lecture was introduced by J. L. Nayler FRAeS FAIAA, the recording was digitised thanks to a grant from the RAeS Foundation...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Bella Richards analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (January 2024) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
“Oh come on, surely it was the Wright Brothers who did this!” In his lecture Dr John Ackroyd FRAeS tries to persuade us that Sir George Cayley, not the Wright Brothers, defined the concepts behind the aeroplane and flew it in 1804. After exploring Sir George’s early life and some of his non-aeronautical designs of early tractors, engines and artificial hands, Dr Ackroyd explores Cayley’s key breakthrough, his discovery in 1799 that flapping wings would not lead to flight and what was needed was ...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Bella Richards analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (December 2023) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
AEROSPACE Editor-in-Chief Tim Robinson and Features Editor Bella Richards sum up the 2023 Dubai Air Show and speak to special guest Royal Aeronautical Society President, Kerissa Khan.
After service in World War I, Capt Allan moved to the other side of the world and joined the fledgling Australian National Airways. He retells stories of his time with the airline, including his experiences of flying Avro 10s between Australian cities, and shares his opinions of the company’s two guiding lights: Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm. Allan went onto play a part in many of the key events in spreading civil aviation across the southern hemisphere, including pioneering airmail fl...
Tapp joined Qantas when it employed 25 people, including just seven pilots. His path to Australia started after service with the Royal Air Force and a spell promoting the Westland Widgeon light aircraft. From there Captain Tapp heard about Qantas, wrote a letter to Hudson Fysh and, after a test with de Havilland, were off to Australia in 1928. He gives us a flavour of flying for the company in those years, tells us about the characters who worked for the airline, including engineer Arthur Baird,...
Aircraft not only need to fly, but also need to land safely. A. D. S. Murray spent his early years in Australia surveying the country or emergency and permanent landing grounds. In this interview, he describes some of the challenges he faced and characters he met during this part of his career.
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Bella Richards analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (November 2023) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
The Spanish Civil War came at a significant period in the development of aviation and foreshadowed aerial warfare in the Second World War. But how much was the Royal Air Force taking notice of what was happening on the continent and what lessons did they learn? In this lecture, Brian Armstrong challenges the impression that those in command of Britain’s air forces were blithely ignorant of the Spanish Civil War. He takes us into the world of British air intelligence to explore their work and the...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Bella Richards analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (October 2023) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
After training with the RAF just after the First World War and service in India, Capt Mollard made his way to Imperial Airways, and tells us about life at Croydon Airport and the London to Paris route. In 1929 Mollard was transferred to Cairo and, as Imperial flew further towards Australia, so did he. Here he co-piloted Captain Alger in the hair-raising first experimental mail flight to Australia in 1931 and delivered one of the first Armstrong-Whitworth Atalantas that would serve on the soon to...
The captain of the 1937 flying boat survey flight from Karachi to New Zealand explains how he became involved in the historic event and how they prepared for the flight, before retelling the story of the eventful trip. He also discusses the warm welcome they received in New Zealand and further afield. Captain Burgess was interviewed by David Jones in around 1975. This recording is part of the AeroSociety Podcast series, Development of Civil Aviation from the UK to Australasia, it was digitised t...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson and Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (September 2023) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
Captain Egglesfield commanded some of the earliest commercial flights over India and the Far East including the first scheduled service from Karachi to Calcutta in July 1933 in an Armstrong Whitworth AW.15 Atalanta, the first scheduled Karachi to Rangoon service, and the second survey flights on flying boats between Karachi and Singapore. In this interview he tells us about these pioneering flights, the aircraft he flew, the challenges he faced and gives us a flavour of what life was like flying...
In April 1931 Captain Alger was asked to fly the first experimental airmail flight between Karachi and Darwin in his de Havilland DH.66, the City of Cairo. In this interview Alger retells the story of this eventful flight. Captain H. W. C. Alger was interviewed by David Jones on 8 June 1975. This recording is part of the AeroSociety Podcast series, Development of Civil Aviation from the UK to Australasia, it was digitised thanks to a grant from the RAeS Foundation and the podcast was edited by E...
In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson and Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the next (August 2023) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
Was the incoming Labour Government right to cancel TSR-2? Was there a possibility of creating an Anglo-French military aircraft programme in the early 1960s? Who was the panellists’ favourite villain in the TSR-2 story? These and many other questions were posed to the conference speakers, and we hear their frank conclusions.
What lessons did the UK’s aerospace industry learn from TSR-2 and what key points can we take into today’s aerospace projects? As a student, Michael Pryce lived close to Ivan Yates, the man who Warton sent to liaise with Weybridge. In his retirement, Yates told Pryce about many of the mistakes that were made on the TSR-2 project and how he learnt from them on his later projects, most notably when he served as the UK’s man on the Jaguar, Tornado and Typhoon. Many of Yates’s observations are of ke...
What would have happened if Britain decided to keep TSR-2? Benjamin Goodlad explores the possible strategic and tactical use of the aircraft, discusses the gaps it would have filled and considers which aircraft it could have replaced. He also asks how the RAF armed with an operational TSR-2 would have looked from a bomber and strike command perspective. He also speculates on the impact a successful TSR-2 would have had on its international competitors. This session is followed by a short questio...
