Royal Aeronautical Society Podcast

In the latest podcast in the series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Dominic Ward analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the newest (November 2026) edition of the magazine.

Welcome to NOTAM News, a new podcast from the AEROSPACE team.

 

Editor-in-Chief, Tim Robinson FRAeS, is joined by Deputy Editor, Stephen Bridgewater FRAeS, and Features Editor, Dominic Ward, to discuss some of the latest news and hot topics from across aviation, aerospace and space – including flydubai, Airbus' A350F, ClearSpace and much more.

In this episode of AEROSPACE NOTAM Specialist Group Insight Seth Moffat, Chair of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Flight Operations Group (FOG) Specialist Group, is joined by Captain Steven Green FRAeS and Captain Thorsten Brandt FRAeS to discuss operational decision making. For more information on the Royal Aeronautical Society visit www.aerosociety.com

From water-ingestion and engine surge trials on Concorde 002 to flying eight of the ten Concordes built, Alan shares first-hand memories of the aircraft's flight test programme. He also recalls continuing to fly and train customers on the BAC 1-11 throughout the Concorde programme, and training the first British Airways Concorde crews. His flying career ultimately spanned more than 50 years, 75 aircraft types and over 18,000 flying hours.

In 1973, Alan Smith joined the Concorde flight test programme at Fairford, where he spent much of the year repeatedly driving Concorde 002 through water troughs on the runway to assess engine behaviour during water-ingestion trials. The programme later moved to Casablanca. By the end of the year he had qualified as an MOD test pilot on the Canberra and made his first Concorde flight on the 002 with Brian Trubshaw.

In 1974 he flew the third British Concorde, G-BBDG ("Delta Golf"), for the first time with John Cochrane, describing the experience as "simply the greatest". Delta Golf became the aircraft he flew most often, including participating on a record-setting test flight that reached around Mach 2.21.

From 1976, Alan became a Senior Concorde training pilot, co-authoring the British Airways Concorde training syllabus with Paddy Cormican and training the first BA Concorde crews in Toulouse and Filton. Remarkably, he notes that he never received a formal Concorde conversion course himself, instead learning through experience as a test pilot.

Alongside the “simply inspirational” Concorde programme, he continued flying and training BAC 1-11 crews worldwide, contributed to further Concorde flight testing on intake lip development, trained CAA pilots on the Concorde simulator, and later supported the Panavia programme by flying staff between Warton and Munich.

After leaving British Aerospace in 1986, Alan held flying and management roles with Channel Express, Air Metro and Rolls-Royce. He retired from full-time flying in 1993, but soon returned with the CAA Calibration Unit and later Air Bristol after the airline pilot age limit was raised, finally retiring at 65 in 1998.

Over a flying career spanning more than 50 years, Alan logged around 18,000 flying hours on 75 aircraft types, including 30 years on the BAC 1-11 and 3,000 hours on the DC-3. Throughout the interview he reflects on the many distinguished pilots, engineers and colleagues he worked with, offering a fascinating insight into Britain's flight test and commercial aviation industries during the latter half of the twentieth century.

A transcript of the recording is available on the National Aerospace Library catalogue: https://raes.soutron.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/RecordView/Index/4193691

Alan Smith talked with Julian Temple, Heritage Archivist for BAE Systems Heritage, on 19 March 2024. The recording was edited for podcast by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS and is published by kind permission of BAE Systems for the Royal Aeronautical Society/National Aerospace Library’s oral history project ‘If I only didn’t do it that way…….” Capturing history from the horse’s mouth to inspire today’s aeronautical professionals'.

In the latest podcast in the series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Dominic Ward analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the newest (October 2026) edition of the magazine.