Roly
 

Not sure if this link has been posted before, but I stumbled on it tonight - an interview with the great man not long before his death..

The Beamont Files

Well worth a read.

Great stuff
 

Thanks BOAC

And what a read, M. I enjoyed that. He did that interview just two or three weeks before he signed the TSR2 prints. I and another PPRuNer enjoyed lunch with him in a Wilton hotel on the signing day and when asked he spoke freely about his exploits - trouble was it was around a 2 hour lunch and I was happy to go for dinner, breakfast and lunch again next day and the day after!

Once question I posed was that of fear. Ah he said! "I always had a guardian Angel to look after me." Well, maybe he did - and who is to say he didn't?

He died soon after in April 2000. Lovely man, lion hearted but gentle as a lamb.

Given the Harrier news I have been interviewed live on the radio by several programmes of late. Sooner or later they always ask on the lines of "Were you frightened at the thought of what you had to do". My answer is (always) "No. Aeroplanes are just machines that can be studied and understood and so you can decided what it is sensible to do with them. They are not like women or horses that have minds of their own."

It is surprising how many seconds of silence then follow.