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...

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.

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.

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. | 🛩️ ⚔️ 🥇

"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...

Boomless supersonic airliners & Mach 2+ superfighters - why there is nothing new under the sun - IF you know where to look. #avgeek ow.ly/i1yG50XI3Ag

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...

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.

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

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-...

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.

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.

Maximum Harrier

Maximum Harrier

The coolest secret fighter Britain ever cancelled? Volunteers at Brooklands Museum installed the Hawker P1121 'Hurricane II' earlier this week. If the P1121 had flown, there would have been no Harrier. My forthcoming book tells the tale penguin.co.uk/books/468411...

It's 65 years since the first Harrier hovered. Jump jets seem old, but the Harrier has a secret. Modern digital tools say the Harrier is impossible. Even AI. Digital tech can clip your wings. The Harrier shows you how to fly free. Find out more: penguin.co.uk/books/468411...

It's 65 years since the first Harrier hovered. Jump jets seem old, but the Harrier has a secret. Modern digital tools say the Harrier is impossible. Even AI. Digital tech can clip your wings. The Harrier shows you how to fly free. Find out more: penguin.co.uk/books/468411...

65 today and even the grandkids are near retirement! Soon the secret story of the Harrier can be told at last. penguin.co.uk/books/468411...

You can now pre-order my book, Jump Jet: The Secret History of the Harrier, out July 2026. Short version: Digital is not enough to make a jump jet. You need exceptional people. penguin.co.uk/books/468411... From V-1s in 1944 to the #F35 in 2008, it's a big story, never told before.

"Such a [tech demonstrator] may be particularly important with stealth... Stealth is conceptually straightforward but it makes everything else bloody difficult." How the UK's new Flying Combat Air Demonstrator will de-risk #GCAP #avgeek #Tempest ow.ly/ZbjY50Wt6ww

"He was Icarus, for sure. But when it mattered, boy did he fly." www.theguardian.com/music/2025/j...

Lovely to be quoted in this article.

That one of the characters in Andor goes on to be in Return of the Jedi shows what a weird project it is. Like watching There Will Be Blood and realising the lead character becomes the Fat Controller in Thomas The Tank Engine. Adult origin stories for kids’ movies are a strange commercial impulse.

1. And probably of operating an older aircraft design, though if I remember right the SHar /was/ still better than the GR.1/GR.3 when it came to SAS etc. Either way, amusing that they included the Typhoon. Bonus image, T.4N/T.8 not having the best of times:

Comparing the SHar to the GR.7/GR.9, this gives a pretty decent illustration of the increased danger that comes from naval operations[1], I /assume/ the 80-84 4.41 is from the Falklands War though. Alternatively, the take away from this is that the RAF should not have been trusted with the Jaguar.

Most people think of helicopter rotorwash as a steady flow, but it's actually quite unsteady, as this cool animation from a new UK CAA study shows: youtu.be/YHIIL-AQ6ZI For @theaircurrent.com, I wrote about the study's implications for the eVTOL industry: theaircurrent.com/feed/dispatc...

TSR2. Was it an eagle or a turkey?

Sixty years ago today the TSR2 was cancelled. Was it the turkey we all say it is now? Or was it really as great as the hype? My talk @rafmuseum.bsky.social Cosford youtu.be/6yOwK_Uvwek?...

A Jetsons-style future envisages #eVTOL air taxis picking up passengers like Ubers. But what about the turbulent downwash? A CAA study aims to improve safety #avgeek #rotorcraft ow.ly/GF4E50Vuv4U

Blown away - new tools make potentially fatal downwash at heliports and vertiports visible #avgeek #eVTOL #helicopters #airports ow.ly/EFPH50VuvJp

MUST READ for anyone building #eVTOL and #AAM vertiports - how next-gen modelling and simulation makes complex rotary downwash visible #avgeek www.aerosociety.com/news/an-ill-...

We used the Navier-Stokes equations to 'see the air' and make the future of flight safer You can see the air too, in the video in this article bsky.app/profile/raes...

New content on Aerosociety! 'An ill wind - making helicopter and #eVTOL downwash visible' #avgeek #safety #rotorcraft www.aerosociety.com/news/an-ill-...

Great to see this getting the attention it deserves, and a sensible take from @elanhead. No one has innovated air, so understanding what it does matters. Talk of hurricanes is dramatic but does not really help understanding.

Sixty years ago today Britain cancelled its supersonic jump jet. A great loss? We got the Harrier instead. My talk from 2012: www.aerosociety.com/news/audio-c...

Vale Roy Huxley, artist. Best known for his excellent, evocative Matchbox model box artwork, he did a lot more. His legacy well documented by publisher Wing Leader, but sad we don't have the man himself 'in command' any more. www.facebook.com/share/p/1BAw...

Looks familiar. www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/mcdd...

Having your work quoted by The Woracle (HS Kingston, Flight, AvWeek) is very cool! The CAA report mentioned is here www.caa.co.uk/our-work/pub... with another, CAP 3075, out soon.

Lost and found.

Book news: www.johnsonandalcock.co.uk/new-page-1 Just had the first big, whole book editorial meeting with my editor, Rowland White. Feels real now!

how is it only day seven of the Advent calendar hangar door thing? we will get though this, people.. today's is a doozy - we're opening up a unique "teepee" portable storage device, to reveal the Convair XFY-1 Pogo V/STOL tailsitter! note the different levels within, for servicing

I, I just took a ride In a silver machine

First day of winter.

Almost rivals my all time favourite: *Really* great choice to scan this one in black and white.