Royal Aeronautical Society Podcast

An interview with…… Mike Savage on selling with BAC

Touring the world in Concorde was a key part of Mike Savage’s public relations work for the British Aircraft Corporation. After explaining why he chose to leave the ailing Handley Page Limited, he tells stories of his early days at BAC including selling the BAC 1-11 to Gulf Aviation and why a Japanese man fell through a toilet floor, before moving onto his part in promotional and endurance testing flights in the Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde, including conversations with the Archbishop of Canterbury, going to and from Beirut by different forms of transport and dealing with 106 litres of whiskey at Gander.
Mike Savage FRAeS was interviewed in January 2019 by Bill Read FRAeS and the podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

An interview with…… Mike Savage on selling with Handley Page & his de Havillands apprenticeship

Aerospace public relations legend Mike Savage tells stories about his apprenticeship at de Havillands, including his interview that ended up with Mike, Geoffrey de Havilland and the entire interview board firing off toy rockets and being part of a recording-breaking team to break the long-distance record for driving a lawnmower from Edinburgh to London. After his time at Hatfield and a spell in the RAF, Mike’s move to Handley Page's public relations department created more anecdotes including a bid to sell Handley Page Heralds to Air Bremen was spectacularly lost during a dinner reception and a plan to dig a swimming pool for Sudan Airways.
Mike Savage FRAeS was interviewed in January 2019 by Bill Read FRAeS and the podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

Classic Lecture Series: Samuel Cody, the flying cowboy by Peter Reese

An American showman turned member of the British Army’s Balloon School, Samuel Franklin Cody used his imagination for aviation, endless courage and engineering virtuosity to become the first man in Britain to fly in an aircraft of his own making and to stand beside the Wright Brothers as the first people to be awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society’s medals.
In this podcast historian Peter Reese tells the story of how a man moved from performing a Wild West Show to becoming an aeronautical pioneer by firstly building man-carrying kites and then to build and fly the first British aeroplane, before showing how, once the War Office declared against constructing aeroplanes in favour of airships, Cody continued to build and race award winning aeroplanes on his own behalf and outfly other aviators of the period.
The podcast was produced by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and recorded specially for the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Podcast series during 2019.

Classic Lecture Series: Flying aircraft in the First World War and beyond by Sir Vernon Brown

World War I RFC pilot and interwar RAF Officer Sir Vernon Brown describes the aircraft that he flew and managed during the World War I and into the interwar period. Packed with anecdotes, including becoming one of the first men to survive an aircraft spin, Sir Vernon takes us through his thoughts on aircraft of the period including the Maurice Farman Longhorn and Shorthorn, the Vickers FB5a Gunbus, the Royal Aircraft Factory BE2a and BE2c, the de Havilland DH1 and DH2 and Sopwith’s Triplane and Strutters, together with his views of the seaplanes and flying boats of the period. He also reminisces about his time learning to fly in 1915, commanding 84 Squadron during the 1920 Iraqi Rebellion and working alongside Sir Henry Tizard, Lord Cherwell and Prof B Melvill Jones.
Sir Vernon Brown gave the lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 10 February 1969. The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

Classic Lecture Series: The first 50 years of aeroelasticity by A. R. Collar

Roderick Collar was at the centre of aeroelastic research during the interwar period and during World War II. In this lecture he shows an audience of historians how he and his fellow scientists unravelled the mysteries of how aerodynamics, elastic and inertia forces interact.
Staring off by showing how the Wright Brothers overcame the problems in their kites and aeroplanes and how Griffith Brewer used an 1913 article in Flight to described how monoplanes wings collapsed in flight with often fatal consequences, he then explains how he and his fellow scientists explored the problems around flutter in the 1920s and made other theoretical advances in later years to explain many aeroelastic problems including vibration, flutter and quasi-static deformation.
Prof Collar gave the lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 13 December 1977. The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

Ups and Downs - 10 Years Flying with the Red Arrows

Squadron Leader Mike Ling MBE RAF, discussed:
- His background in the Royal Air Force
- A brief history of the Red Arrows
- Team constitution/pilot selection
- Who makes up the entire Red Arrows unit and what does it take to become a pilot?A
- The Red Arrows Hawk TMk1
- An explanation of the Hawk and how those Hawks used by the Red Arrows differ
- Flying the Red Arrows display
- The techniques involved and how the display sequence is designed
- Highs and lows during Sqn Ldr Ling's 10 seasons in the Team
- Experiences (good and bad) as a Red Arrows display pilot and supervisor

Hall, Stewart & Gardner on rotorcraft, aero medicine & the first 50 years of British powered flight.

This episode begins with Geoffrey Hall of Fairey Aviation looking to the future of rotorcraft and V/TOL aircraft, followed by Air Cdre W. K. Stewart, the then Director of the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine, describing the different ways that research on humans at high altitudes has affected flight. The then Director of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Sir George Gardner, looks towards the future of aviation.
This is the sixth and last episode of Powered Flight, the British contribution to flying. It was first broadcast by the BBC Overseas Service in 1959 and was introduced by Charles Gibbs-Smith. The recording was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS, was licenced from BBC/Getty Images and was digitised and released thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation and a bequest from E. H. J. Pallet.

Edwards, Cunningham & Lombard on the jet engine, the Vickers Viscount & the de Havilland Comet.

This episode begins with Rolls-Royce’s head of aero engines, talking about the gas turbine engines of the 1950s, including the Rolls-Royce Tyne, before Raymond Baxter asks Sir George Edwards of Vickers about the turboprop generation of aircraft. The episode concludes with Gp. Capt. John Cunningham on test flying the de Havilland Comet series of aircraft.
This is the fifth episode of Powered Flight, the British contribution to flying. It was a BBC Overseas Service documentary first broadcast in 1959 and was introduced by Charles Gibbs-Smith. The recording was supplied by the BBC/Getty images, was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and was digitised and released thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation and a bequest from E. H. J. Pallett.

Watson-Watt, Coryton and Constant on radar, developments in World War II and the jet engine.

This episode begins with AVM Sir Alec Coryton explaining how the Second World War spurred-on many technical innovations that the moved aeronautics rapidly forward, then Hayne Constant, a member of A. A. Griffith’s and Sir Frank Whittle’s teams, telling the story of the early development of the jet engine and finishes with the father of radar explaining the science behind the technology and how he and his team developed the technology that was so important to the British war effort.
This is the fourth episode of Powered Flight, the British contribution to flying. It was first broadcast by the BBC Overseas Service in 1959 and was introduced by Charles Gibbs-Smith. The recording was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS, was licenced from BBC/Getty Images and was digitised and released thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation and a bequest from E. H. J. Pallet.

Cobham, Jones & Sutton on the first long-distance and commercial flights and the weather

This episode begins with Sir Graham Sutton, Director General of the Meteorological Office, on the impact that the weather has on flying and how the science of aviation meteorology has evolved over time, before Raymond Baxter asks Sir Alan Cobham about the greatest problems that confronted him on his pioneering flights across the world and the establishment of the first aircraft charter company. The episode finishes with Captain O. P. Jones, recounting tales of flying the early scheduled aircraft routes.
This is the third episode of Powered Flight, the British contribution to flying. It was first broadcast by the BBC Overseas Service in 1959 and was introduced by Charles Gibbs-Smith. The recording was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS, was licenced from BBC/Getty Images and was digitised and released thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation and a bequest from E. H. J. Pallet.