Safety is No Accident: From 'V' Bombers to Concorde: A Flight Test Engineer's Story

Numerous books have been written by Test Pilots, but few, if any, from the perspective of an Aeronautical Engineer working as Flight Test Observer/Engineer in partnership with the Test Pilot. This book is an account of the author's flight-testing career, from the 1960s to early 1980s, at Avro and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). During the author's time at Avro, he flew on the development and certification test flights of the Avro 748, 748MF, Shackletons, Nimrod and Handley-Page Victor tanker. In the CAA, his role turned to regulation, making flight test assessments of manufacturer's prototypes and production aircraft, to check compliance with the CAA's flight safety requirements. The scope ranged from single-engine light aircraft to large civil transport aircraft. It involved frequent visits to foreign manufacturers and also included his participation in the CAA's Concorde certification flight test programme.