Author: Xtended

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”.