Originally presented on Tuesday 30th May 2023 to the RAeS Boscombe Down Branch.
Chris Taylor has enjoyed a very successful career as a Royal Navy officer, helicopter pilot, military/civilian test pilot and flight instructor. He is also an established author, having written and published two books. The first, Test Pilot, documents his experiences from his more recent career in test flying, however his recently-released second book, Experimental Test Pilot, covers his ten-year spell at MOD Boscombe Down and is the subject of this lecture.
In this talk, Chris discusses some of the anecdotes that are detailed in Experimental Test Pilot, such as his challenging first year as a flight test instructor (FTI) at the Empire Test Pilots’ School (ETPS), which included a flame-out in a Hawk, engine failure on his first flight in a Basset and an accident in the ETPS Scout helicopter. Chris’s time at the Experimental Flying Squadron (EFS), which saw him work on a number of cutting-edge research projects including ship-helicopter interface testing, will also be covered, along with his role as an evaluation pilot on types including the Hunter, Jaguar, Andover, HS748 and Comet.