Flight Testing to Win: An autobiograpghy of a test pilot

by Tony Blackman

Overview

No aircraft is absolutely safe. This book is about Aviation, from learning to fly, becoming a test pilot, flight testing, demonstrating on some of the third world's worst airfields, then specializing in Avionics and finally joining the Board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority, helping to formulate the regulations that the author had spent so many years living by. Many stories are told, including flying with the legendary Howard Hughes when the world thought him a mad recluse, and testing many aircraft including all three V Bombers, an almost unique experience. The book, well illustrated, makes the point that flying is inherently risky, that regulations always try to quantify acceptable risk, that safety is a cost, and that test pilots have to sell their aircraft and should not try to make an aircraft safer than the rules require. It emphasizes the almost unbelievable changes in aviation in one working lifetime, whilst painting a picture of a much simpler world, now gone beyond recall.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781612001746
Publisher:	Blackman Associates
Publication date:	09/30/2005
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	13 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Tony Blackman was educated at Oundle School and Trinity College Cambridge, where he obtained an honours degree in Physics. After joining the Royal Air Force as a Maths and Physics Instructor, he learnt to fly, flew Vampires and Venoms in Germany, trained as a test pilot and then joined A.V.Roe and Co. Ltd. where he became Chief Test Pilot. During his time at Avros/Hawker Siddeley/British Aerospace, he helped develop the Vulcan, Nimrod, Victor Mk 2 tanker and the Avro 748/RAF Andover. Tony was an expert in aviation electronics and was invited by Smiths Industries to join their Aerospace Board, initially as Technical Operations Director. He helped develop the then new large electronic displays and Flight Management Systems. After leaving Smiths Industries, he was invited to join the Board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority as Technical Member. Tony is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Fellow of the American Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and a Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators. He now lives in London and spends his spare time writing books.