Brian Lecomber was a professional aerobatic display pilot for 25 years. He has been British Freestyle Aerobatic Champion, a best-selling author, and was recently voted Aviation Journalist of the Year. Brian watches the Bloodhound project from outside the box…
What is the most common comment to be heard in a car or aircraft workshop?
Well, let me tell you. Smoothing out certain common technical expressions in order to preserve the ears of the young or fastidious, it goes like this:
There is a momentary lull in the visitors, and I gratefully sink onto a stool.
When a seven-year old girl has a life-changing question in mind on a January evening she may exhibit wisdom far beyond her years. She will catch Dad in mellow mood in front of the fire, wriggle onto his lap, and light up the innocent blue eyes and the serious face.
It is maybe 2,000 years ago. Or anything up to 6,000, depending on which historian you read. You have a roof over your head, but oddly enough it still gets nippy in winter.
Like most pilots, I live in a certain awe of engineers, and especially design engineers. On the one hand they create wondrous machines which oafs like me then get to fly while they themselves mostly don’t – or anyway not usually as pilots. I can never quite get my head around this.
