Worked as a Medical Adviser for T. Wall & Sons (Ice Cream) Ltd., London

The Air Ministry was created to oversee the formation of the Royal Air Force an amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service. As well as overseeing and managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force it also issued specifications for aircraft to aircraft companies. The prototype aircraft would be tested by the Ministry who would then assigned it with a name.

The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was formed in June 1918 when the Royal Aircraft Factory (RAF) was renamed, partly to avoid its abbreviation being confused with the newly formed Royal Airforce. In addition to this renaming there was also a shift away from the production that had previously been undertaken on the Establishment’s Farnborough site, and an increased focus on the research and development that was seen as its main role in the aviation industry, although a small number of aircraft continued to be constructed on site until the end of the war in November 1918. As part of this the sites function was defined as being to conduct experimental and development work on aeroplanes and engines, the testing of experimental instruments and accessories, undertaking flying instrument development for which there was little commercial demand, investigating failures within aircraft and components, liaison with industrial contractors for research purposes, technical supervision during construction of experimental machines, being available for approach for approval of designs and stressing of new aeroplanes, and the issue of airworthy certificate and of technical publications. The first director of the newly renamed RAE was W. Sydney Smith, who had replaced Henry Fowler as head of the RAF in April 1918. With the new focus on research and development he brought about some reorganisation of the departments with some being established or changed to focus on specialist areas including aerodynamics, engines, physics, instruments, metallurgy, mechanical testing, chemistry and fabrics. With the end of the First World War the RAE underwent a large reduction in staff and resources, with the numbers employed falling from 5,052 in November 1918, to 1,380 by the mid-1920s. There was a similar reduction in funding, with only 3.9% of the Air Estimate being allocated to the site in 1922, but research would continue to be conducted despite these difficulties. In 1919 there was also a shift away from purely military work as several companies approached the RAE for assistance with the design and handling characteristics of their new civil aircraft. The first Certificate of Airworthiness was also issue to a civilian aircraft at this time. As well as this 1919 also saw the beginning of the early helicopter work undertaken by Louis Brennan. Based in one of the airship sheds on the site he continued testing until 1925 when it crashed during a demonstration and the Air Ministry cut the project’s funding. In 1920 the Wireless and Photography department was formed, illustrating the growing importance of these technologies, and more sophisticated equipment was installed in the structures department to test wing loading, replacing the previous method of using sandbags to weight aircraft components. The research activities of the RAE continued throughout the 1920s. These included comparisons between the results gains from full scale flight tests and those from models tested in wind tunnels as well as theoretical studies of stability and other flight characteristics. Other work included the development of an early variable pitch propeller and the testing of many of the new types of aircraft that were being developed by numerous companies. The development of oxygen systems for aircrews was also undertaken due to the increased altitudes that were being encountered both in tests and in everyday flight. Also, during the 1920s a great deal of research was undertaken in the development of aircraft catapults. These used a compressed air and hydraulics to launch aircraft and would be later developed for use on the Royal Navy’s large warships. Further work would be undertaken on inflight refuelling and 1927 would see the start of experiments to develop turbine engines by Alan Arnold Griffith. There was also a great deal of work undertaken on the RAE Larynx, an pilotless aircraft designed as a guided anti-ship weapons and seen as a predecessor to both cruise missiles and modern drone aircraft. Seven of these were produced and tested and, although it did not enter production, it was the start of the development of numerous drone aircraft that were used for gunnery targets, such as the Queen Bee that was used by the Royal Navy during the 1930s. The development of photographic equipment was an important area of development in the interwar period and in 1929 the RAE produced the first of its F24 aircraft cameras. This was fitted to many aircraft during the Second World War for aerial reconnaissance and would continue to be used until the mid-1950s. An Instrument and Photographic Department was also formed to help with the development of equipment for aerial photography, reflecting its growing importance both in military and civilian circles. The problem of spinning in aircraft was also tackled at this time with the production of a 12ft wind tunnel in which to conduct tests. This was followed in 1935 by a 24ft tunnel that was used to test air and water-cooled engines and other full size components. A 660ft tank was also built to test the hydrodynamics of seaplane hulls. Finally, in 1937 an additional wind tunnel was constructed that was able to operate at 600mph, reflecting the growing performance of aircraft at the time. The declaration of war in August 1939 ““made little fundamental change in the policy and work of the Establishment since it was the expected culmination of what was known as the ‘Expansion Scheme’ which had been going on progressively since the adoption of a national rearmament policy in 1935”. Despite this there was a great deal of expansion with the number of staff increasing to 6,000 and new runways and hangars being constructed, which brought the airfield site up to 800 acres. Despite the site’s importance, the RAE was only bombed once during the course of the war. This occurred on 16th August 1940 when eight aircraft dropped a total of 20 bombs, although only half hit the site with the rest falling on nearby houses. Three members of staff were killed, and work was disrupted for three days but would then resume, with some operations being dispersed to other sites. During the war a large number of new systems were developed, including a gyro gun-sight that improved the accuracy of fighter aircraft and early forms of airborne RADAR, which were tested by the Radio Department. Tests on captured enemy aircraft were also undertaken as were early tests on models of the Gloster E28/39, Britain’s first jet aircraft. Advances were also made in aerial photography and a new bombsite was also developed as was a rocket propelled catapult designed to fire aircraft from merchant ships. In August 1941 Beatrice Shilling, known as Tilly, developed the R.A.E. Restrictor, better known as Miss Shilling’s Orifice. This was developed to prevent loss of power in aircraft performing negative ‘g’ manoeuvres during combat and was a simple washer fitted to the fuel pipe that prevented the engine from being flooded by fuel. Although it did not completely solve the issue it did allow for quick low ‘g’ manoeuvres to be conducted and bought time for a more permanent solution to be developed by Rolls-Royce, in the form of pressure carburettors. With the end of the Second World War in 1945 the RAE again underwent a reduction in staffing. From a wartime peak of around 6,000 this dropped to approximately 3,000 as many of the site’s personnel returned to the civilian industry. Also, in March of the same year research into piston powered aircraft ceased and all attention was focused on jet propulsion. In November 1945 the RAE was opened to the public in order to illustrate the site’s war work. Not only was the site opened but there was also a display of British and German aircraft which drew a great deal of attention. In the immediate post war years research continued, although at a much reduced intensity, and included a great deal of research into transonic flight characteristics. Some of this was undertaken using rocket propelled models dropped from aircraft in flight. Some research was also conducted on the Miles M.52 prior to this project’s cancellation. A further area of investigation at this time was the installation of flexible decks on aircraft carriers. This hope to replace the undercarriage of aircraft with a sprung rubber deck on ships. It was hoped that this would increase the performance of aircraft, but it was never implemented in service. A more successful design was the angled flight deck, which was proposed by the Naval Aircraft Department and, after a model was produced and refinements implement, this was adopted as standard for all aircraft carriers at the time. In 1948 the Society of British Aircraft Constructors moved their annual display to Farnborough. This would continue to be held annually on the site until 1962, when it changed to a biannual display in partnership with the Paris Air Show. Although initially this was only open to British designs from 1974 it became the Farnborough International Airshow. In 1952 the air show was the site of an major accident when a de Havilland DH110 broke up during a display and crashed into the crowd, killing 31. During the 1950s a substantial amount of testing was undertaken on many new civilian designs if aircraft and, even though some of these did not enter service, a great deal of technical information was gained from the experiments. Helicopters also began to undergo testing at the RAE with numerous aspects of their design being tested. 1952 also saw the arrival of an Avro 707 which was used to examine the aerodynamic properties of delta wings, data that would be later used in the design of Concorde and the Avro Vulcan. Following the loss of two Comet aircraft in 1954 the RAE was the site of a major investigation into the causes of their loss. Parts were salved from both of the crashes and brought back to Farnborough where they were pieced back together. Further to this a large water tank was built where a complete Comet body was repeatedly pressurised to investigate the effect of repeated pressurisation and depressurisation. Other Comets were also sent to the RAE to conduct flight trails and other investigations. All of these tests found that the aircraft had been lost due to the failure of the structure and led to a redesign of the type, as well as a greater understanding of the science of metal fatigue. By 1958 the structure of the RAE had developed to have the following departments: Aerodynamics, Armament, Armament and Instrument Experimentation, Carrier Equipment, Chemistry, Electrical Engineering, Experimental Flying, Guided Weapons, Instruments, Instrument and Photographic, Mathematical Services, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgy, Naval Aircraft, Radio, Rocket Propulsion and Structures. 1958 also saw the beginning of calculations on the TRIDAC analogue computer as well as the launch of many of the rocketry projects that the RAE was involved in. These were the Skylark and Black Knight rockets that were both tested at the Woomera facility in Australia. During the 1960 the RAE was involved in a number of projects ranging from the development of the UK3 satellite, the first UK satellite, and the TSR2 aircraft to the invention of high strength carbon fibre. RAE scientists would also be present at the first launch of the Blue Streak rocket in 1964. This period also saw work undertaken as part of the development of Concorde, including testing the airframe for the effects of heat and stress. In 1970 the Royal Aircraft Establishment was involved in the launch of the R1 satellite by the Black Arrow rocket from the Woomera test site. This was the responsibility of the space department and built on the work they had undertaken on the previous Black Knight system. They would also have design authority for the Prospero satellite that was launched in 1971 and the Ariel IV, launched in 1973.`` 1970 also saw the opening of the RAE Museum on the site. For the rest of the 1970s the RAE was involved in the development of satellite and senor systems, for both military and civilian uses. The increase in importance of the satellite research was demonstrated in 1988 when the RAE changed its name to the Royal Aerospace Establishment. On 1st April 1991 the Royal Aerospace Establishment merged with the Admiralty Research Establishment, the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment, the Royal Armament Research and Development Establishment and the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment to form the Defence Research Agency. This brought together all of the previously independent Defence Research Establishments before it was itself merged with other departments to form the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in 1995. Research flying would continue at Farnborough under these new institutions until 1994 when this end and in 2003 all Ministry of Defence operations on the airfield ceased.

Ian B Wright worked in the Development Division of Frankenstein and Sons Ltd, a waterproof clothing manufacturing company based in Manchester. Along with his colleague Steve Sullivan, Wright was involved in the designing and testing of a full pressure suit in collaboration with A V Roe & Co Ltd and the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down. The suit was intended for use by pilots of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command flying V Bombers at very high altitudes. The development of ultra high altitude protective clothing came to an end in Britain when the V-Bomber force operations changed to relatively low altitude interdiction.

Steve Sullivan worked in the Development Division of Frankenstein and Sons Ltd, a waterproof clothing manufacturing company based in Manchester. Along with his colleague Ian B Wright, Sullivan was involved in the designing and testing of a full pressure suit in collaboration with A V Roe & Co Ltd and the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down. The suit was intended for use by pilots of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command flying V Bombers at very high altitudes. The development of ultra high altitude protective clothing came to an end in Britain when the V-Bomber force operations changed to relatively low altitude interdiction.

(fl 1930-2006), aviation engineer John Allen was educated at state schools in London, taking a BSc in aeronautical engineering at London University; he earned top prizes in his discipline. A student apprenticeship with Handley Page honed his practical skills. Allen was science officer with the Marine Experimental Research Establishment (MAEE) at Rhu, Scotland. When the unit returned to Felixstowe in 1945 he was appointed head of its technical office. John supervised the ballistics and aircraft integration of Blue Danube, Britain's first atomic bomb, at Farnborough from 1950 until 1954. From 1960 he was deputy director of Avro's new weapon research division, working on development of the hydrogen bomb. In 1969 John was appointed chief future projects engineer with Hawker Siddeley, involved particularly with development of Harrier and Hawk aircraft that for decades made an impact while training or giving displays with the Red Arrows formation team John married Peggy Heath in 1948 and they had two sons who became engineers, and four grandchildren. Peggy died in 1987.

Air Vice-Marshal Professor John Ernsting was recognised worldwide as a leading authority in aviation medicine; his pioneering work led to the development of special life-support equipment allowing military aircrew and civil aircraft to operate at extreme altitudes. Ernsting was commissioned into the RAF Medical Branch in 1954. For 25 years he worked in the altitude division of the Institute of Aviation Medicine (IAM) at Farnborough, and he specialised in studying the physiological aspects of flying at high altitudes, including protection against hypoxia and decompression sickness, leading teams carrying out the research and development of specialised pressure suits, helmets and breathing assemblies needed for new higher flying aircraft. The work he co-ordinated at the IAM on cabin pressurisation also led to an acceptance that the cabin pressure in Concorde should be 6,000ft, rather than the internationally-agreed 8,000ft for airliners operating at lower altitudes. His finding also influenced the design of emergency oxygen supplies in airliners, and also influenced the size of the cabin windows in Concorde. In 1971 he was appointed its head, with responsibility for research, teaching and the direction of the specialist staff. During the late 1960s he was the RAF's aeromedical project officer for the development of the British versions of the American-built F-111, Phantom and Hercules aircraft. He also conducted research into a system of generating an oxygen supply in a combat aircraft. During a sabbatical year at the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, he worked on a development of the idea, which was eventually installed in the later marks of the Harrier aircraft. He returned to the IAM in 1980 as deputy director of research. He was chairman of the aeromedical and life-support system working parties for the Tornado and for the formative phase of the Eurofighter project. In 1988 he was appointed commandant of the IAM, a post he held until his retirement in December 1992. He remained a civil consultant for the next two years. He also placed great emphasis on correct and realistic training, and played a key role in the creation and development of the RAF's Aviation Medicine Training Centre. On leaving the RAF he moved to King's College, London, to teach and conduct research in human and aviation physiology. He was the honorary civil consultant in aviation medicine to the RAF, aeromedical adviser to BAE Systems and a past president of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine. Ernsting was a member of numerous specialist and international working parties, and chaired a number of Nato committees and workshops. He wrote many professional papers and was the co-editor of Aviation Medicine, the standard reference for all civil and military aviation medicine practitioners. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, of the Aerospace Medical Association and of the Royal Aeronautical Society and was awarded many national and international prizes. He was appointed OBE in 1959 and CB in 1992.

John Billingham was born on 18 March 1930 in Worcester, and after earning a degree in physiology at Oxford University, he started clinical studies at Guy’s Hospital in London, qualifying in 1954. He also attended meetings of the British Interplanetary Society. In 1956 Billingham joined the Royal Air Force as a medical officer, training as a surgeon and rising to the rank of squadron leader. His research at the Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine in Farnborough was particularly focused on climatic physiology, and included the impact of heat stress on pilots. In 1963 Billingham joined NASA after being headhunted from the Institute becoming the head of environment physiology at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. He was hired to improve space suit design, with an early project being to develop water cooled underwear which the RAF Insitute had already been long working on. In 1965 Billingham moved to Ames Research Center, where he led the first comprehensive study on a permanent lunar laboratory. He was eventually named chief of the Life Sciences division. He supported the search for intelligent and microbial extraterrestrial life with a major programme including workshops, research, papers, and a major conference in 1979 later published as a book, Life in the Universe.

The Royal Air Force Institute of Aviation Medicine was a Royal Air Force aviation medicine research unit active between 1945 and 1994. It was first located at Farnborough Airfield in Hampshire, and was successor to the wartime RAF Physiological Laboratory. The Institute conducted theoretical and applied reseach in support of flying personnel with divisions for acceleration, altitude, biochemistry, biophysics, personal equipment and teaching. The IAM obtained a decompression chamber (moved from the Physiological Laboratory) in 1945, supplemented by a climatic chamber in 1952, and a human centrifuge in 1955 (the latter facility is still in operation and was designated a Grade 2 Listed Building in August 2007). Additionally, the Institute was responsible for a number of mobile decompression chambers and the training of operators for chambers deployed at certain RAF operational stations with the object of familiarising flying personnel with the effects of annoxia at operational altitudes. The IAM became a world leading centre for aviation medicine research in the 1960s and 1970s, gaining additional facilities, and continuing an active flight research programme that commenced in World War II. Research into protection against the effects of high altitude, high G force, heat and cold stress, noise and vibration, sleep and wakefulness, spatial disorientation, vision, aviation psychology and human error, and aircraft accident investigation dominated activities at the IAM. Much work was done to develop and improve aircrew life support equipment. The IAM ceased to exist in 1994, when many research staff and facilities were transferred to the DERA Centre for Human Sciences.

The Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA) was founded in 1929 by Louis H. Bauer, M.D., the first medical director of the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce (which later became the FAA). The Association was founded to share information on aeronautical medicine with the american public and aircrew to generate further progress in the field, with annual meetings held, first national growing to international by the 1940s, and the production of a quarterly journal from March 1930. In 1942, the society first started appointing fellows to the society and in 1944 created an award for achievement in the field In 1950, the Space Medicine Branch of the AsMA society was formed, following the U.S. Air Force School of Aviation Medicine establishing a Department of Space Medicine the previous year. In November 1960 the association’s executive council permitted a group of American Air Force flight surgeons to form a constituent organization called the Society of U.S. Air Force Flight Surgeons. The organization continues to the present day and serves as a forum for men and women in the career field to socialize and discuss key issues. In the mid-1970s the U.S. Navy formed a similar constituent organization. Through the decades the organization has expanded to include researchers, physiologists, nurses, and many other aerospace medicine professionals.

Worked in the Climatic Research Laboratory, RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine c.1950-1960

Worked in the Oxygen Section, Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough c.1955-1980.

Worked for the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine.