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...
Jan 17, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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
Jan 02, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast “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 ...
Dec 27, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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
Nov 28, 2023•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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.
Nov 17, 2023•44 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Nov 14, 2023•51 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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,...
Nov 14, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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.
Nov 14, 2023•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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
Oct 31, 2023•52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Oct 10, 2023•2 hr 54 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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
Sep 29, 2023•37 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Sep 11, 2023•23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Sep 11, 2023•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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
Aug 29, 2023•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Aug 16, 2023•28 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Aug 16, 2023•15 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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
Jul 28, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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.
Jul 11, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jul 11, 2023•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast 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...
Jul 11, 2023•32 min•Transcript available on Metacast The cancellation of TSR-2 left a large gap in the RAF’s armoury, but how should the gap be filled? Samuel Hollins explores the immediate procurement dilemmas faced by Britain upon the death of TSR-2 and examines the viability of the procurement options that presented themselves prior to Tornado. He then goes onto suggest that the Europeanising turn in defence procurement that Britain took from the late-1960s onwards was a partial consequence of the opportunities that emerged in a world without T...
Jul 11, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast How did those in the corridors of power see the development of the TSR-2 project once it had been awarded? Clive Richards explores the political and strategic debates that took place within Whitehall between 1957 and the cancellation of the project in 1965.
Jul 11, 2023•29 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this new 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 (July 2023) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
Jun 30, 2023•1 hr•Transcript available on Metacast Listen to the AEROSPACE team sum up the 2023 Paris Air Show.
Jun 23, 2023•58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Happy Pride Month! Supporting LGBTQ+ people in the industry is so important, in this podcast we spoke with Zac Brown, the President of the European Pride in Aviation Network about all the amazing work they’re doing to support LGBTQ+ people in aviation! For more information about EPAN you can go to their website: www.prideinaviation.org/ and to find out more about Diversity at RAeS you can visit our website: www.aerosociety.com/diversity
Jun 21, 2023•21 min•Transcript available on Metacast How effective would the Royal Air Force have found a completed TSR-2 compared to its rivals? Paul Stoddart compares the aircraft’s actual and potential performance data with its competitors in the international military aircraft market: the F-4C Phantom, BAC Buccaneer S.2B, Mirage IVA, RA-5C Vigilante and GD F-111C.
Jun 14, 2023•40 min•Transcript available on Metacast Keith Hayward explores the politics and personalities behind the TSR-2 project, which, at its heart, was a tension between two separate design teams in two different companies, with the young pretenders at English Electric headed by Frederick Page and the shrewd Sir George Edwards heading the team at Vickers. Pressure was added to the relationship as the TSR-2 contract was used to encourage the rationalisation of the UK aerospace industry, with the Vickers and English Electric on to form the cor...
Jun 14, 2023•30 min•Transcript available on Metacast Tony Buttler takes us through the runners and riders that competed with the combined Vickers/English Electric design that became TSR-2, chief amongst them a proposal from Hawker Siddeley. He then goes onto explore TSR-2’s path to the first flight, highlighting aspects of the aircraft’s advanced design.
Jun 14, 2023•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Clive Richards explores the debate within the Air Ministry and Ministry of Supply on the need to procure a replacement for the English Electric Canberra bomber, culminating with the release to industry of General Operational Requirement 339 in 1957.
Jun 14, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this new 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 (June 2023) edition of the magazine. Find out more at www.aerosociety.com
May 30, 2023•48 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
