Perhaps best known as the architect of the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS), which pioneered the use of confidential incident reporting, Charles E. Billings had an entertaining and inspiring career in aviation medicine. Taking the story of his career ‘as he lived it’, Dr Billings tells his audience his path from music college to aviation medicine, his service as a flight surgeon in the US Air Force, his work as an academic and at NASA’s Ames Research Center. Throughout his career he worked on a wide range of pioneering projects including studies on suddenly placing people into high altitude conditions, how the human body responds to endurance flying, how increasing amounts of automation effects safety and a project that tested the effects of alcohol on pilots. He also tells us how the ASRS system was created and the wide-ranging effects the project has had, both in improving aviation safety and further afield.

Dr Billings finishes his lecture with some wise words for those who follow him into aviation medicine, including the importance of always learning new things and that ‘retirement can be very dangerous to your health.’ The lecture concludes with a vote of thanks from AVM John Ernsting FRAeS.

Dr Charles Billings MS MD FRAeS gave the RAeS Stewart Memorial Lecture on 17 March 2009. The podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.