Don't be ridiculous. Students don't read books anymore.
25.02.2026 13:23 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Don't be ridiculous. Students don't read books anymore.
25.02.2026 13:23 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
61 years since the Hawker Siddeley P.1154 supersonic jump jet got the chop.
The Labour government minister that cancelled it called the British aircraft industry "mentally retarded children"!
More in my book: penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
Ralph Hooper in front of a Harrier trainer
Born in Essex 100 years ago today, Ralph Hooper OBE is the unsung giant of British aviation. 🇬🇧 As the Chief Designer of the Harrier Jump Jet, he gave the UK a technological edge that changed the course of history in the Falklands.
30.01.2026 07:50 — 👍 10 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0So the Grauniad will take over the world?
30.01.2026 11:22 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Ralph Hooper in front of a Harrier trainer
Born in Essex 100 years ago today, Ralph Hooper OBE is the unsung giant of British aviation. 🇬🇧 As the Chief Designer of the Harrier Jump Jet, he gave the UK a technological edge that changed the course of history in the Falklands.
30.01.2026 07:50 — 👍 10 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0*Where's*
26.01.2026 15:09 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Where the bloke with the suitcase heading off to behind those Harriers?
26.01.2026 09:05 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
My book has a cover.
www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
We've heard that paper 📄 is making a comeback. Dr. @mikepryce.bsky.social, writing for the @aerosociety.bsky.social, makes the best case we've heard so far supporting this assertion. This, and the thought of that evocative 'old paper' smell, which we raiders find oddly intoxicating. | 🛩️ ⚔️ 🥇
09.01.2026 16:28 — 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 1The idea was for a ship to track the Sea Harrier using IFF, telling it where to drop things, including WE177 against a sub. I don't know of any trials though.
26.12.2025 09:38 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I have a photo somewhere of a Sea Harrier with a Stingray on a pylon.
26.12.2025 09:36 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Thanks for the pre-order Rudy. I work around eVTOL and there are lots of challenges. It's not in my book, but someone should write one about it all.
12.12.2025 22:10 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
It needs human interpretation.
Lots more like 'Stiletto' in my forthcoming book www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
"Almost none of the material in archives is available online. It is invisible to artificial intelligence and large language models" How today's aerospace designers can learn from the past #avgeek www.aerosociety.com/news/raiders...
12.12.2025 16:30 — 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Some of them have Harrier pilots working for them, and one at least has a supersonic jump jet designer.
All can read about some truly new/old V/STOL concepts in my forthcoming book www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
Boomless supersonic airliners & Mach 2+ superfighters - why there is nothing new under the sun - IF you know where to look. #avgeek ow.ly/i1yG50XI3Ag
12.12.2025 20:30 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Nice to see this out.
Much more archive goodness in my forthcoming book www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
A fighter jet based on Concorde?
Read all about it, and other treasures from the archives that can speed up innovation in the skies.
www.aerosociety.com/news/raiders...
More such stories in my forthcoming book www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
12.12.2025 09:19 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A fighter jet based on Concorde?
Read all about it, and other treasures from the archives that can speed up innovation in the skies.
www.aerosociety.com/news/raiders...
The wing has now been added too.
03.12.2025 20:42 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Great to see my article on aviation archives and innovation in this month's Aerospace.
Like Firefox, except you had to think in a Brizzle aaaccent.
The article gives a taste of my forthcoming book too. Pre-orders now open. www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
The British Firefox? Revealed for the first time - a Mach 2 BAe Concorde-fighter from the 1980s - ONLY in the latest issue of AEROSPACE - December 2025' #avgeek ow.ly/jiKr50XAuOH
02.12.2025 13:30 — 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 0
Britain's Firefox, the BAe Stiletto.
My article on the secrets still in aviation archives, and how to learn from them, in this month's Aerospace magazine.
Much more in my forthcoming book www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
Britain's Firefox, the BAe Stiletto.
My article on the secrets still in aviation archives, and how to learn from them, in this month's Aerospace magazine.
Much more in my forthcoming book www.penguin.co.uk/books/468411...
Hugely honoured to be awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society Team Silver Medal with Dr Richard Brown for our work on helicopter and eVTOL downwash and outwash.
www.aerosociety.com/news/an-ill-...
Hawker Hurricane flying over Brooklands in 1985
1/3. Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of the Hawker Hurricane's first flight.
Only it wasn't.
New archive discoveries by volunteers at Brooklands Museum show it flew on the 5th of November, not the 6th.
The prototype Hurricane flew after taxy trials. Sydney Camm was furious.
Hawker test pilot George Bulman smiling in the cockpit of a Hurricane
3/3. Hawker's test pilot, P.W.S 'George' Bulman, didn’t have flying gloves, but he had borrowed some motorcycle gauntlets and decided to go for it anyway.
The rest is history, hidden for 90 years.
I have a feeling George was not too bothered by what he had done.
Pilots, eh?
Hawker Hurricane prototype
2/3. Neither Camm, or the 'man from the ministry', were present. To calm them down, the Hurricane's second flight, on the 6th November 1935, has gone down in history as the official first flight.
That was when all the bigwigs were at Brooklands to see it fly.
Hawker Hurricane flying over Brooklands in 1985
1/3. Yesterday was the 90th anniversary of the Hawker Hurricane's first flight.
Only it wasn't.
New archive discoveries by volunteers at Brooklands Museum show it flew on the 5th of November, not the 6th.
The prototype Hurricane flew after taxy trials. Sydney Camm was furious.