Royal Aeronautical Society Podcast

From working on the Miles Marathon and an early drone for ML Aviation to certifying the Boeing 747, Derek Ruben enjoyed a remarkable and distinguished career as an aeronautical engineer. Inspired as a schoolboy in the 1920s by the sight of airships over London and further encouraged in the 1930s by seeing Alan Cobham’s ‘Flying Circus’. Now 104 years old, Derek recalls starting aeronautical enginee...

In the latest podcast in series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor Jack Richardson analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (August 2025) edition of the magazine. In this episode, in the Specialist Group Insight segment, Flight Operations Group Chair...

From British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) and into BAE Systems (BAe), as one of BAe’s senior lawyers, Philip Riley FRAeS was well positioned to witness the people, the projects and the issues that shaped the British aircraft industry from the mid-1960s to the early years of the present century, living and breathing the roller coaster of amalgamations, nationalisations, mergers and privatisations tha...

After leaving Ferrari, Arthur struck-out on his own as an engineering consultant, with projects ranging from trolley buses in post-Cold War Hungary to designing MRI scanner beds and defence work. One of clients, St Bernard’s Composites, liked working with him so much that they offered him the role of Technical Director with a seat on the board. Arthur recalls some of the interesting projects St. B...

When John Barnard was tempted to join Ferrari there was only one man that he wanted to cook-up his carbon fibres and do the stressing – Arthur Webb. They had a year to create the Guildford Technical Office (GTO) before the car needed to reach the grid. Of course, Arthur also had to go to Maranello and get the thumbs up from the great man, Enzo Ferrari. Eur Ing Arthur Webb FRAeS was interviewed by...

After not liking the way the nationalised BAC was going, Arthur Webb left Weybridge and headed to the small, secret and innovative special projects office of ML Aviation then onto Marconi Space. Here he tells us a little about working on drones, the JP233 anti-runway bomb for the Tornado, Skynet 4 and ESA’s Eureka project. Eur Ing Arthur Webb FRAeS was interviewed by Tony Pilmer FRAeS in 2024 as p...

In the latest podcast in series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson and Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater are joined by freelance author Charlotte Bailey to analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (June 2025) edition of the magazine. In this episode, we also interview incoming RAeS President Alasdair Wood...

When a young John Barnard was appointed as McLaren’s designer, he decided that carbon fibre was the future of Formula 1, but who should he ask to help him with his design? The answer was Arthur Webb of BAC. For a bit of fun in his own time, Arthur became McLaren’s unofficial carbon fibre consultant. Over the next few years, John and Arthur designed, tested and constructed the first carbon fibre sh...

After marching up to the front gate of the BAC Weybridge factory and demanding to see the Chief Stressman, Arthur Webb was given the job of finding something useful to do with the new magic composite material discovered at the Royal Aircraft Establishment – carbon fibre. In this part of his oral history interview, Arthur explores how he led a team to design the first certified civil aircraft compo...

Stressing the 3-spar wing Armstrong-Whitworth Series 220 Argosy and the massive Lockheed C5 Galaxy wings was a fascinating way for an aero engineer in his twenties and early thirties to begin his career. As well as describing the design challenges, including the Argosy’s early use of bonded composites, Arthur shares what it was like during the brain drain: firstly working on the Galaxy for a UK co...

In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor, Jack Richardson analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (May 2025) edition of the magazine. In this episode, we also interview outgoing RAeS President David Chinn FRAeS. Find out more at www....

From the sonic booms of Concorde to the cockpits of fighter aircraft, noise has always been a problem for aviators. Dr Graham Rood spent a fascinating career reducing the negative effects of sound, including groundbreaking research into helmet-based noise cancelling systems, and, in retirement, has joined colleagues at the Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) to safeguard the legacy generations o...

Pat Pearce has enjoyed a truly remarkable 39-year career in aviation flying with BOAC and British Airways, beginning as a stewardess and rising to the position of Cabin Services Director. Her journey, which includes experience on aircraft ranging from the DC-3 to the Boeing 777, reflects the evolution of air travel over the decades. Among the many memorable moments from her time in the skies, Pat...

In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor, Jack Richardson analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (April 2025) edition of the magazine. In this episode, we also have the Specialist Group Insight with Seth Moffat, Chair of the RAeS Fl...

Former Royal Aircraft Establishment Officer Dr Kit Mitchell gives a detailed account of his aeronautical career, describing the key challenges he overcame to improve various aircraft, from Concorde to his own light aircraft. He starts off with one of his early achievements whilst still at Cranfield University where he solved the Morane-Saulnier Paris jet trainer's elevator flutter issue, an accomp...

In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor, Jack Richardson analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (March 2025) edition of the magazine. In this episode, we also have the Specialist Group Insight with Seth Moffat, Chair of the RAeS Fl...

If you were to choose your desert island book from the shelves of the National Aerospace Library, what would you choose? For World Book Day, the National Aerospace Library asked aviation historian and academic Prof. Keith Hayward FRAeS, to do just that. Find out why he chose the unpublished memoirs of two of Britain's great aircraft designers: W.E.W. Petter and Sir Freddie Page.

alta Mentoring is a free mentoring platform designed by women, for women working in the aerospace industry. alta users have access to training modules to support them in their mentoring journey. In this podcast, Prof. Susan Durbin, Alessandra Badino and Liz Mulhall discuss the latest module which is focused on Intersectionality.

After their formal oral history interview, former MOD Director of Aircraft Sir Donald Spiers and former Royal Aircraft Establishment officer Roger Cansdale sat down to mull over the past and future of aviation. In their fascinating wide-ranging discussion, Roger and Donald swap stories on the closure of the RAE and its apprenticeship programme, successes of private venture aircraft, retiring at 60...

As well as working at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) for many years, Dr Kit Mitchell worked at what became the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) at various times from 1970 to 1994. During this part of the interview, Kit talks about his work researching public transport and the effects of transport policies and provision on different groups of people, including elderly and disabled people...

In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor, Jack Richardson analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (February 2025) edition of the magazine. In this episode, we also have the Specialist Group Insight with Seth Moffat, Chair of the RAeS...

The pioneer of modern-day hot air ballooning takes us through how he and a group of friends came up with the idea of building western Europe’s first modern hot air balloon from his 1970s basement flat in Bristol, before transforming his hobby into Cameron Balloons which, for over 50 years has become one of the world’s largest and most innovative producers of hot air balloons. Don regards the devel...

In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor, Jack Richardson analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (January 2025) edition of the magazine. In this episode, we also have Specialist Group Insight with Seth Moffat, Chair of the RAeS Flig...

In this podcast series from the Royal Aeronautical Society's monthly AEROSPACE magazine, Editor in Chief Tim Robinson, Deputy Editor Stephen Bridgewater and Features Editor, Jack Richardson analyse recent aviation, aerospace and space news - and preview the latest (December 2024) edition of the magazine. In this episode, we also have Specialist Group Insight with Seth Moffat, Chair of the RAeS Fli...

Former Engineering manager at BOAC and British Airways and Engineering Director at Cathay Pacific, Stewart takes us through the challenges of selecting and keeping aircraft in the air in both the Far East and in the UK. Though starting life as a BOAC apprentice, Stewart spent his early years on secondment to Kuwait Airways and Malaysia-Singapore Airline and he tells us about life living away from...