Keywords
Citation
(2006), "Brian Trubshaw: Test Pilot", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 78 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2006.12778fae.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Brian Trubshaw: Test Pilot
Brian TrubshawSutton PublishingStroud2006ISBN 0 7509 4494 3304 pp.paperback, £8.99
Keywords: Passenger transport, Aircraft industry
“Brian Trubshaw must be one of the last of a line of what were perceived as the intrepid test pilots.” From the foreword by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
When the British prototype Concorde took off from RAF Fairford on 9 April 1969, at the controls was Captain Brian Trubshaw. This historic occasion marked two significant milestones – one technological and the other personal. It was the British maiden flight of the world's first supersonic passenger transport aircraft, and for Trubshaw the crowning glory of his lifetime's work as an experimental test pilot. His close involvement with the Concorde flight-test programme saw him become a household name overnight.
Brian Trubshaw: Test Pilot is the captivating story of Brian Trubshaw's life as an experimental test pilot, written from his own unique viewpoint on the flight deck. His thrilling descriptions of breaking the sound barrier for the first time in Concorde are interwoven with some telling insights into the manoeuvrings of politicians, industrialists and trade unions which led ultimately to the decline of the British aircraft industry in the 1970's.
Trubshaw relates his early days as an RAF bomber pilot in the Second World War, followed by service with Transport Command and the prestigious King's Flight. It was after he had left the RAF in 1950 to join the staff of Vickers- Armstrongs (Aircraft) at Weybridge as a test pilot that his career really took off. In the years that followed he was closely involved with the flight-test programmes for the Vickers Valiant nuclear bomber, and the BAC One- Eleven and VC-10 airliners. In 1965 he became Chief Test Pilot for BAC/BAe.
Brian Trubshaw retired from BAe in 1986, but maintained a close and active involvement with the world of aviation from his home in Gloucestershire, right up until his death in March 2001.
Sally Edmondson has written regularly on a freelance basis. She first met Brian Trubshaw in 1970 and in 1972 he became her stepfather. Sally lives in Jersey.
Details available from: Victoria Carvey, Tel: +1 (0)1453 732 423.