Safety is No Accident: From V Bombers to Concorde

Flying is generally regarded as the safest means of transportation. Yet for that to be the case an enormous amount of testing is undertaken. Central to this, of course, are the test pilots, who fly the aircraft, but it is the men behind the scenes who deal with the technical aspects of the aircraft, the flight test observers and engineers. 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. Advancements in the understanding of aerodynamics and an increasingly professional approach to risk management improved safety, but it would never be risk-free. Several of the author's close friends and colleagues died in flight test accidents; all on civil aircraft types. It is because of such people millions of flights undertaken each year are trouble-free.