Having flown an astonishing 400 different aircraft, as a licensed
Category 1 test pilot and flight test instructor for both airplanes and
helicopters, Chris Taylor is arguably one of the best qualified and
widely experienced test pilots working today anywhere in the world.
After obtaining his private pilot's license at the age of just 17, Chris
began his service flying career with the Royal Navy. He duly flew Wasp
and Lynx helicopters from warships around the world under all kinds of
circumstances.
After five years instructing, the author then became a test pilot flying
numerous types of experimental aircraft for research and development
purposes, before returning to the Empire Test Pilot's School as a tutor.
Having served at Boscombe Down for 10 years he joined the UK's Civil
Aviation Authority as an airplane and rotorcraft test pilot. With the
closure of the CAA's Flight Test Department, he went on to form his own
company and has continued to test fly a wide variety of aircraft ever
since.
Rather than just the usual cutting-edge fast jets one associates with
test pilots, Chris Taylor's book covers general aviation aircraft,
including testing homebuilt airplanes, helicopters and autogyros. It
also features the testing of ex-military jets and warbirds such as the
Fieseler Storch, Sea Fury, Spitfire and the Mustang.
As the author is someone who teaches test pilots how to become flight
test instructors, the reader is privileged to be able to share in, quite
literally, the ups and downs of aviation testing with one of the
foremost test pilots of his era. Somehow, he still manages to find time
to be a helicopter examiner and instructor for helicopters, airplanes
and autogyros.
While Test Pilot will appeal to pilots of every era, it is
particularly aimed at the general reader, who will be taken on a journey
across the skies in almost every conceivable type of civil aircraft
involving almost every imaginable flying incident.
