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Council Members
Vice President - John Farley
John joined the Royal Aircraft Establisment, Farnborough, as a student apprentice in 1950. During his time at RAE he flew as a Flight Test Observer on various programmes and so got to know several of the test pilots “in a master/slave sort of way”. This made him determined to become a test pilot “when he grew up” – indeed he wangled an interview with the commandant of ETPS (Group Captain Sammy Wroath) while he was still an apprentice. Sammy told him his technical backgound meant he was just the sort of young chap they liked to have at the school but that he would have to go away and learn to fly first. Therefore, at the end of his apprenticeship, John joined the RAF for pilot training.
After a first tour on Hunters in RAF Germany, he was posted to the CFS course in 1960 and became a Jet Provost instructor at Cranwell. Half-way through this tour, he was sent to Strubby to do a Meteor twin jet conversion course before joining 22 Fixed Wing course at ETPS in 1963.
During his subsequent test flying tour as a Flight Lieutenant on the Aerodynamics Research Flight at RAE Bedford, he was lucky enough to fly all the UK research aircraft then flying. As RAE project pilot on the P1127 prototype in 1964 he started what was to become 19 years of Harrier programme test flying. He left the RAF and joined Hawkers at Dunsfold as a company test pilot in 1967, and was appointed Deputy CTP in 1971 and CTP in 1978.
He converted the first two USMC pilots to the Harrier in 1967 - two years before the aircraft was ready for RAF service “with no two seater and no simulator - happy times!”
As the USMC programme developed, John spent increasing amounts of time in the US and particularly enjoyed 1982 when, during engine trials on the AV-8B, he managed over two hours of gliding in the Harrier - an aircraft not renowned for its soaring capabilites – albeit in over forty separate episodes and with zero angst thanks to the huge Edwards lake-bed below.
John has flown over 80 different types and, in 1990, he became the first western test pilot to fly the Russian Mig-29. He retired from test flying in 1996 but continues to consult on flight test programmes, is a visting lecturer at several universities and runs courses to encourage 16-18 year olds to join the aerospace business – see www.aerospacechallenge.org
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