THE AIR-BRITAIN TRUST - Objects

The objects of the Trust are:

 

For the public benefit to advance education in UK and internationally by :

(a) promoting the history of aviation and improving public awareness, knowledge, understanding, and appreciation of aviation, aeronautical literature and aviation history;

(b) acquiring and maintaining archive and reference materials and to identify, preserve and produce materials which record and promote the history of aviation;

(c) publishing journals, books, pamphlets, articles and information on aviation literature and maintain scholarships and provide grants, prizes and financial assistance to students and writers and others with a view to promoting knowledge of aviation and aviation history and writing of aviation literature.

 

THE AIR-BRITAIN TRUST - Trustees

The trustees of the charity are :

 

A member of Air-Britain for over 35 years. I have contributed to aviation magazines since the early 1970s, initially air show reports to BAR and WLAG, then news items and articles to Aviation News. I worked for Midland Counties Publications and then Aviation News.
In 1985 I become self-employed and worked as Editor on Aviation News, Scale Aircraft Modelling, Scale Aviation Modeller and Air World International. I have contributed to books by Putnam and Jane’s, and compiled European Air Scene from 1979 to 1988.  From 1995 to 2019 I was part of the editorial team of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft, responsible for many light aircraft entries. I became editor of Air-Britain News in January 2010 and editor of our Civil Aircraft Registers of the British Isles in 2018. For 20 years from 1988 I was in the Media Team for RIAT, many of them as Press Officer.
Aside from aviation, I work for major publishers, including Oxford University Press, Macmillan, Pearson, the EU and OECD.

My interest came from the school being in the back garden of Battersea Heliport so to speak with the approach to Heathrow overhead.  Gone are those days when Aeroflot aircraft could be read off with the naked eye while playing football in the school playground.  I am now retired from a career in Air and Sea Logistics.  I joined Air-Britain Council in 1997 and fairly quickly took on the Travel programmes which enabled visits to many areas in the world.  I am also Chairman of the Services Committee.

I am a retired insolvency practitioner, living near Gatwick.  My interest in aviation stemmed from living near Croydon Airport and under the flightpath into Heathrow.  Initially a spotter, this grew into a love of lists and a throwaway remark by the late Denis Fox (in the early 60s) as to the impossibility of anyone compiling a complete history of every Tiger Moth led to my undertaking that task.  This completed, it has led to my continuous expansion into other production and register databases.  I am an obsessional collector of aviation books, magazines and paintings - resulting in several house extensions and the desire to help bring the permanent Air-Britain archive into existence.  I have been active in the management of Air-Britain and in particular its publishing activities for many years.

I have over 40 years of working in the aviation industry, in the commercial and contracts role, with an interest in aviation in general stretching back over 60 years.

One area that I desire to improve is to make the Air-Britain photographic archive available to members and other interested parties through scanning and storing same safely.

I joined Air-Britain in 1964, and immediately began contributing to the monthly Digest’s Readers’ Logs and military and civil aviation news sections. A few years later, I became a founding member of the Humberside Aviation Society and editor of its newsletter. Additionally, I found time to contribute to the now long-defunct Blackbushe Movements and South-East Air Review, notably on foreign military aviation subjects. After semi-professional contributions to Aviation News and Air Pictorial in the 1970s, and a series of books for Midland Counties Publications, I became a full-time aviation writer in 1979 — both in professional market research and intelligence, and enthusiasts’ publications and part-works. John W R Taylor invited me to join the compiling team of Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft in 1988 and I was appointed the book’s editor in 1994, filling that position until July 2019. I now edit the Air-Britain quarterly magazine, Aviation World and contribute aircraft technical drawings to the society’s publications. My ‘hobbies’ exclusively concern aviation photography and flying an Aeronca Chief.

Having been taken to airfields and airshows since being in a pram I  got my first "CAM" (still stored in the loft) when I was 7 years old. After regularly attending Stansted Branch meetings from the age of 13, I eventually became Branch Secretary, a post I held for 20 years until 2012. I joined the Air-Britain Council in 1997, initially as Branch Coordinator and then in 2001 I volunteered to take on the running of the annual Fly-In, roles I still hold. I am currently Chair of the Executive Management Team, lead the IT upgrade project, the Archive Project and I am a member of the Services Committee. I am a keen aviation photographer with a predominantly civil orientated bias. I have a special interest in the aircraft associated with Lloyd Stearman. In March 2020 I retired after working for 42 years in the Civil Service and established my own company that  specialises in project management and assurance.

My interest in aviation stretches back over 50 years, when I moved from spotting buses to aircraft. Having always lived near Heathrow my main interest is in airliners, but I enjoy seeing and photographing all types of aircraft. I am fortunate to be able to travel and this hobby has taken me to many different countries in pursuit of those exotic aircraft and interesting photos. Having retired from an accounting role, I have now taken on the position of Company Secretary & Finance and Business Director for Air-Britain, which involves a number of different tasks, particularly in areas of communication with members, including the Message Board and Newsletter.

My aviation interests now lie with photography of a range of more modern subjects. General aviation, especially the more esoteric, and civil aviation starting from the last days of the big pistons are my particular interests. I am not sure how and when this interest in aviation started; maybe it was the distracting sounds of USAF F-4's coming into land over my school. Flying lessons started when the opportunity arose and I was subsequently very pleased to gain my restricted PPL. I manage ABPic and serve on the Services Committee.

My aviation interests started in 1974 spending many hours watching the aircraft at Hurn airport.  I developed my interests into spotting and photography and in the early 80’s started researching aircraft histories, with Embraer aircraft.  After a break between 1982 and 1991 I resumed (initially to get the kids out from under my wife’s feet).  I re-joined Air-Britain and added Maule’s to my specialist list.  I have been the Chair of the Bournemouth Branch for over 20 years and I was Trustee at Bournemouth Aviation Museum for a couple of years.  I even managed to get involved in aviation at work for a brief spell, spending six months assessing the skills of the AAC Ground Handing students at Middle Wallop.  The majority of my working career was in Telecoms, then as an Assessor and Data Analyst with the Army, finishing up in the Automotive business before retiring in 2021.  I have been a member of the Services Committee since 2018 and became Branch Affairs Co-ordinator in 2021.