Lord Brabazon of Tara, the first man to hold a Royal Aero Club pilots’ licence and one of the great characters of the first 50 years of powered flight, gives a masterclass on how to put together an after-dinner speech, all be it at the expense of his proposer and his hosts.

Lord Brabazon of Tara was giving an after-dinner speech at his 80th Birthday Dinner organised by the Royal Aero Club, February 1964. The toast was proposed by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

The RAF’s pilots and the codebreakers of Bletchley Park have been heralded as saviours of the nation for their work during World War II, but how did the work of Bletchley and other sources of intelligence effect the air war? In his controversial lecture, Wg Cdr Stubbington argues that a significant amount of damage was caused by the Whitehall figures whose duty was to act as the conduit between the intelligence and air services, most notably to the reputation of Bomber Command.

Wg Cdr John Stubbington addressed a meeting organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 24 November 2011. The lecture was introduced by Dr Kit Mitchell FRAeS and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

The dangers of losing consciousness whilst flying has been a continual danger for airmen. ‘Spin Doctor’ Wg Cdr NicholasGreen gives a fascinating and entertaining history of G, G-protection and the medical and other uses of the centrifuge; a story that starts with Erasmus Darwin and Sir Harim Maxim, before moving onto the work of AVM Bill Stewart, the work of aviation medicine researchers at Farnborough and further afield and how centrifuges were used for pilot training, before making predictions for the future.

Wg Cdr Nicholas Green MRAeS gave the Royal Aeronautical Society’s 2011 Stewart Memorial Lecture on 15 March 2011. The lecture was introduced by Air Cdre Richard Broadbridge FRAeS & AVM C. B. Morris and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

The material and information contained in this lecture are UK Ministry of Defence © Crown copyright 2011 and the recording is the copyright of the Royal Aeronautical Society 2011.

Test pilot and aero engineer David Lockspeiser designed and built a prototype multi-purpose aircraft that could be simply built and maintained in agricultural regions across the world; and all done on a shoestring. The Boxer’s removable payload module enabled easy conversion between tasks and its rear-mounted pusher engine meant it could fly at low speeds for transporting people, livestock and cargo, as well as being used for crop spraying.

In this entertaining lecture, Lockspeiser discusses the design ethos behind his aircraft, before taking us step-by-step through the design, development and testing processes, as well as marketing, its first flight at Wisley in 1971 and the tragic ending of the project. The recording concludes with a question and answer session in which an experienced audience discuss many aspects of light aircraft design and development through the late twentieth century.

David Lockspeiser FRAeS addressed a meeting organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 2 February 2008. The lecture was introduced by Dr Kit Mitchell FRAeS and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

UK born astronaut, Dr Piers Sellers, talks about his experiences as an astronaut, flying on the US space shuttle and working on one of the last assembly missions for the International Space Station (ISS).

Dr Piers Sellers gave the Royal Aeronautical Society’s 99th Wilbur & Orville Wright Memorial Lecture on 9 December 2010. The lecture was introduced by AVM D. C. Couzens FRAeS and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

This recording has been made available by kind permission of NASA.

One of the early aero engine pioneers, Air Cdre Rod Banks takes us through his eventful career. Banks fell in love with aircraft as a boy when his father took him to watch Farman fly in 1909 and it was Farman’s test pilot that first took him up in an aircraft a few years later. Too young to join the air services in World War I, Banks entered the Navy, snatching assignments with engines throughout his service, before joining the aero engines industry with Peter Hooker Ltd after the war. Banks then specialised in fuel and became famous after concocting special fuel cocktails for the Schneider Trophy contests. At the beginning of World War II Banks was headhunted by the RAF and, most notably, helped to boost production and then supervised development of the new jet engine. He was called back into Government service in the early 1950s and once again advised on the use and development of jet engines.

Air Cdre. F. R. Banks was interviewed by Lt. Dr. W. Tuck at the Science Museum in 1969. The podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.

Looking back at a career dominated by the use of flight simulation as a tool for operational training, Wg Cdr Eastman gives personal insights into flight simulation from the viewpoint of an RAF pilot, a commander of a training unit and a purchaser for the Ministry of Defence using the Public Finance Initiative. Eastman also shares his experiences of the technology used to train pilots to fly many of the aircraft used by the RAF in the last half of the twentieth century, including the BAC Jet Provost, Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, SEPECAT Jaguar, BAE Systems Hawk, the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, and ending with the Eurofighter Typhoon. The lecture concludes with Eastman making predictions on the future of his topic and the lecture is threaded with tributes to the pioneer of flight simulation, Edwin A. Link.

Wg Cdr Dick Eastman OBE gave the Royal Aeronautical Society’s 2012 Edwin A. Link Memorial Lecture, organised by the RAeS Flight Simulation Group, on 30 May 2012. The lecture was introduced by Gordon Woolley FRAeS and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

The Falklands, Bosnia and the two Gulf Wars presented the Royal Air Force with a myriad of different challenges. The then Chief of the Air Staff gives his audience an insight into the air power aspects of the RAF’s actions during the quarter of a century that started with the Falklands conflict, before examining the trends that dominated the period and finishes his lecture by examining what this history could teach us about the future.

Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy FRAeS delivered the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Sir Sydney Camm Lecture on 11 June 2007. The lecture was introduced by the then President of the Society, D A A Marshall CBE CEng FRAeS, and edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

This lecture is UK Ministry of Defence © Crown copyright 2007 and the recording is the copyright of the Royal Aeronautical Society 2007.

In this personal history of the man and the aircraft company, the grandson and namesake of the founder of the Blackburn Aircraft Company gives an insight into the achievements of one of the ‘greats of early modern aviation’, talks through a selection of designs and explores his early life.

Prof. Robert Blackburn QC, LLD, FRHistS addressed a meeting organised by the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 11 October 2012. The lecture was introduced by Peter Elliott and the podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS.

This webinar will be delivered by Dr Michael John Pryce MRAeS, Senior Air Systems Analyst of Future Projects Research. Mike will explore the challenges in meeting the future needs for combat aircraft across the globe.

He will also look at enduring issues that challenge the development and support of future combat aircraft, and how to overcome them within resource constraints and political limitations.

Three main areas will be explored:

- Design for Combat Air

- A Low Cost Industry

- Combat Air Transformation

These build on work done as an advisor during the development of the UK Combat Air Strategy. The webinar will take into account recent developments in the United States, Europe and East Asia, where public debates are rapidly evolving, and explore their implications for the UK.