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Air Marshal ‘Black’ Robertson CBE BA FRAeS FRSA flew all the RAF’s front-line fast jets and also qualified as a helicopter pilot. Now retired, he also completed five tours in Whitehall, which he describes as his time as a ‘Whitehall Warrior’. He is a well published author, including ’Fighters in the Blood’, ‘A Spitfire Named Connie’ and ‘From Spitfires to Vampires and Beyond’.

Garth Barnard joins us to talk about his work cataloguing Bomber Command OTU’s during WWII around Central England.  Aerodromes such as RAF Barford St John, RAF Bicester, RAF Chipping Warden, RAF Croughton, RAF Finmere, RAF Hinton-in-the-Hedges, RAF Silverstone, RAF Turweston and RAF Upper Heyford.

A new biography is being written on Claude Grahame-White. One that this will give more depth to the story behind the man who was a British aviation legend in his time and one who was sadly downtrodden and outcast by the government of the day. Joining us today is Alison White who has taken on the task of correcting the historical record and resetting our perception of the man.

Although we finished the main content of the Cold War Coastal Command series in the last chapter, a story emerged that we just couldn’t resist. Stephen Bridgewater, Deputy Editor for Aerospace Magazine and good friend of the show mentioned that he had in fact purchased an RAF Nimrod directly from the RAF back in 2010!

In our final Chapter of the Cold War Coastal Command series, we are honoured to speak to Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge, KCB, CBE, ADC, FCMI, FRAeS. Sir Brian takes us not only through flying the Nimrod and Nimrod operations in the Cold War period, but also explains how the Nimrod was used strategically in theatres such as the Falklands War, Operation Telic and the Iraq War, as well as drug running in the Caribbean.

Nimrod XV250 is based at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington near York. She was dedicated by the Archbishop of York to stand as a permanent tribute to the 14 British servicemen killed in Afghanistan when Nimrod XV230 crashed near Kandahar in September 2006.

For years the Air Staff and Ministries had argued over what type should replace the Shackleton, including variants of the Vulcan, Britannia, VC10 and Trident, before settling for the Nimrod in 1964.
We return to Chris Gibson, author of the brilliant book ‘Nimrod’s Genesis’, to learn how the process unfolded.

There is a Shackleton that still ‘Growls’ and this chapter features Shackleton MR2 WR963, currently based at Coventry but with a major project underway to move her to Elvington and the Yorkshire Air Museum.

In this feature we talk to Ian Chisolm, Secretary of the Coastal Command and Maritime Air Association, about the RAF’s Avro Shackleton.

At the end of World War Two RAF Coastal Command faced the same challenges of all the British military services, one of reduction, cutbacks and a return to a peaceful world. The threat from the axis powers had been effectively squashed but there was a new threat emerging, in the form of the Soviet Union.

Ever wondered how you go about marketing one of the worlds premier airshows, an air display act, or an airport? Helen Webb, Founder and Director at International Airshow Marketing, joins us to tell us how it all fits together.

We speak to the inspirational founder of Elevate(Her), Katherine Moloney. Katherine eloquently speaks up for a more diverse workforce across the aviation sector.

We talk to Chris Wroblewski and Garth Barnard about their in-depth investigation of the 1943 B-24 Liberator crash that killed Polish General Sikorski, and dispel the myths and conspiracies around assassination or accident being the cause.

The Xtended team finally all assemble to talk about 200 episodes of the podcast, recent sad news from the aviation world, Ellie’s trip to Normandy for the D-Day 80th commemorations and more.

Amanda Harrison has always wanted to recreate the footsteps of Amy Johnson, flying solo in a Tiger Moth from the UK to Darwin, Australia in just 20 Days.

Mick Oakey, Robert Forsyth and Chris Gibson come back to the History Round Table to answer listener questions. We discuss what books do not get written, what they would love to read, their proudest work and what do they think about graphics and photos in books and articles.

There is a new podcast focused on RAF Bomber Command in World War Two hosted by writer and military historian Jane Gulliford Lowes and historian and co-host James Jefferies. It is of course ‘Never Mind The Dambusters’! 

Samuel de Korte is a graduate student of Utrecht University, where he studied an MA in the Cultural History of Modern Europe. He wrote his Master’s thesis about the representation of black Americans during the Second World War. His new book ‘Tuskegee Airmen – Dogfighting with the Luftwaffe and Jim Crow’ is published by Pen and Sword. 

Finalising our focus on how the use of AI, data and machine learning is changing the sector, we are joined by Andy Taylor, the Chief Solutions Officer at NATS.

In 2023 Dave Homewood from the Wings Over New Zealand podcast visited the UK to record and document Kiwi aviation involvement in World War Two by visiting some of our historic aircraft, museums, airfields and memorials. Dave is returning in 2024 but with a slightly different agenda. We caught up with Dave as he planned the return ‘Wings Over Britain’ visit.

Steven Bailey discovered that the story of the U.S. Navy airstrikes on Japanese-held Hong Kong during the final year of World War II had never been told. Operation Gratitude involved nearly 100 U.S. Navy warships and close to a thousand aircraft. His new book ‘Target...

Dr Tony Redding is a military historian and author with a particular interest in RAF Bomber Command. He joins us to talk us through the operational capability and credibility of Britain’s airborne nuclear deterrent during the peak years of the Cold War.

Continuing our focus on how data and technology has changed the aviation sector we welcome Diana Franganillo Luque from Indra and Udi Segall from Intell-Act to discuss an exciting project to integrate all airport, airline and air traffic data using AI to streamline the ‘Perfect Aircraft Pit-stop. 

Ryan Noppen joins to help us understand the overlooked air battle between the Netherlands and Germany that thwarted the German invasion of Holland in 1940 for five days. 

Paul Beaver joins us to talk about Britain’s Greatest Test Pilot, Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown.  

We welcome back Brain Harvey to talk us through the history and evolution of JAXA and the Japanese Space Programme.

This updated edition of Paul Crickmore’s classic Lockheed Blackbird: Beyond the Secret Missions is based on 850 pages of documentation and images declassified by the CIA covering the A-12 Oxcart programme. Paul joins us to talk about the A-12 and SR-71, the missions and their challenges, but also to discuss the changes in this new edition which includes a 40% increase in words, three new chapters and an additional 60 new photos.  

In 2000 a team of retired pensioners set about building Scotland’s only World War One aircraft, the Sopwith Strutter. That airframe is now ready to fly and Ellie is in the prime position to test fly it. Find out why they built the aircraft, the challenges they faced and how the team now go about taking her to the air. 

Legendary battle of Britain fighter ace Stanford Tuck is the subject of a new book by Helen Doe.  ‘Stanford Tuck Hero of the Battle of Britain, the life of the great fighter ace’, is published by Grub Street and is available now. 

Rowland White joins us to discuss his new book ‘Mosquito: The RAF’s Legendary Wooden Wonder and its Most Extraordinary Mission’.

Tomislav Lang, Managing Director of FlyVbird joins us to talk about the pioneering tech airline model that will revolutionise airline travel in the future. The methodology is based upon a low cost, on demand air service, driven by proprietary algorithm and software architecture.

This episode we start a new focus on how data has, and continues to change, the aerospace and aviation sector. We will have a few episodes that will come out over the next month or two that specifically challenges our guests to talk about how data, the cloud, AI and machine learning are changing the aerospace sector.

In 2021, Xwing made history by completing the world’s first autonomous cargo flight.  During the demonstration — Xwing’s CESSNA 208 Caravan backed out of its gate, taxied onto the runway, took off, flew a predetermined mission, landed, and returned to its gate. All...

What happens when you put three authors and publishers around a table to discuss the challenges of writing historical aviation content? Find out in this fascinating insight on what it is like to research, write and publish accurate and compelling historical aviation books and magazines. 

We continue our Test Pilot series with Commander Nathan Gray, who joins us to talk about his book ‘Hazard Spectrum’. With over 140 combat missions to his name, he is among the most decorated pilots in the British armed forces and we share Nathan’s journey to the top of the Fleet Air Arm, from student to F-35 Test Pilot.  

Mark Lardas joins us to talk about the ‘The Kamikaze Campaign 1944–45 – Imperial Japan’s last throw of the dice’ his book published by Osprey. Mark of course was a major part of our Coastal Command series, nominated for an International Aerospace Media Award. 

Dave Homewood from the ‘Wings Over New Zealand’ podcast took on the almighty task of a 35-day tour of as many UK aviation heritage locations as he could squeeze in. All in the spirit of recording a new podcast series called the ‘Wings Over Britain’!  Hear Dave’s view of how lucky we are in the UK to have such a rich source of aviation history right on our doorstep. 

The true story of the largest polar rescue mission in history is pretty much unknown in most aviation circles. Until now! 
Mark Piesing author of the book N4 Down joins us to discuss this almost unbelievable story of human suffering and tragedy, political drama, incompetence and heroism. This story has everything! 

In the book ‘Royal Navy Cold War Buccaneer Pilot’, author Simon Kershaw helps us relive the story of his father Steve Kershaw flying the mighty Buccaneer in Fleet Air Arm service.  

As we continue our focus on features across aerospace, let’s take a look at the hovercraft, which brings up the question of ‘where exactly does it fit in?’ To help us answer that question we are joined by Ben Avery. Ben is the Chief Pilot at Griffon Hoverwork and a Trustee and Head of Operations at The Hovercraft Museum.

Find out in this episode with Kerry Bennett why the sky is NOT the limit. Dream big, work hard and take risks and you can achieve your dreams and goals. 

Artyom Liss is a UK qualified general aviation pilot and was host of the fabulous aviation podcast ‘Two Thousand Feet’. In this episode we find out what it is like to deliver Piper PA32 Saratoga SP N505WC from the UK to Lithuania, the challenges, adventures, and experiences of this fabulous cross-country flight. 

Rachel Ramsay is a UK qualified private pilot, with licences to fly helicopters, small planes and motor gliders. Rachel has a fabulous flying and travel blog and we wanted to find out about; multi-licence flying, writing for both a blog and an aviation publication and issues like…. favourite hotel to fly to and what does it take to fly down the River Thames in Central London?

Graeme Rendall has appeared on Xtended before to talk about such diverse topics as Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon and the history of RAF Morpeth. On both occasions these episodes proved popular and we teased you with mention of a plane spotting trip Graeme made to Russia in 1992, just six months after the fall of the iron curtain; a trip that even until today has never been repeated. Graeme is back to tell us all about the journey recorded in his book “To The Ends Of The Earth: A Snapshot Of Aviation In North-Eastern Siberia, Summer 1992” the amazing and rare aircraft he saw and the whole post-Soviet Union aviation experience. 

Only 54 examples of the iconic and much-adored Vickers VC10 were built, yet it went on to become an innovator and market changer for international long-haul travel. Great British technology and its suitability for multiple roles lead it to have an extended life with the RAF as an airlifter and tanker.  In this feature we talk to Jelle Hieminga, an expert on the VC10, and webmaster for the highly entertaining and detailed web portal and encyclopedia for the VC10 – VC10.net  

With the UK leading aerospace company Reaction Engines now leading the way in technology application from space rockets to Formula 1 and into today’s market for sustainable flight, we have an exclusive opportunity to speak to Mark Thomas, Reaction Engines Chief Executive Officer, about the company, its products and its exciting future innovations.

Chris Taylor has had a successful career as a Royal Navy officer, helicopter pilot, test pilot, instructor and as an internationally acclaimed civil certification test pilot. His latest book ‘Experimental Test Pilot: Military Aircraft Research Flying’ is his account of his ten years’ service as an experimental test pilot, at MoD Boscombe Down, the UK’s tri-Service home of military aircraft testing and evaluation.

‘Confessions of a Flying Instructor: Teaching the RAF’s Fighter Pilots’ is Tug Wilson’s second book and he joins us to discuss the time in his career teaching new fighter pilots. As always, Tug is great company with Gareth in this sometimes hilarious, and at other times frightening, story of his time as a flight instructor.

On our Journalist’s Roundtable discussion in Ep.161 (Trust Me I’m an Aviation Journalist), Rich Cooper mentioned the visit to a North Korea Airshow. We wanted to find out more and Rich introduced us to author and photographer, Gerry Manning, who was there. Gerry joins us to share the experience and we talk airliners and fighter jets as well as helicopters, cargo lifters and microlights. All sourced from behind the ‘iron curtain’!

In the second part of our feature Sree (KS Nair) talks to us about IAF Training, aircraft types and ground attack tactics. We expose some of the challenges around motivation as well as culture and work through the quote from many at the time that “The Indian Air Force was an experiment that was never meant to succeed”.