Tony Blackman

Tony Blackman was educated at Oundle School and Trinity College Cambridge, where he obtained an honours degree in Physics. After joining the Royal Air Force as a Maths and Physics Instructor, he learnt to fly, flew Vampires and Venoms in Germany, trained as a test pilot and then joined A.V.Roe and Co. Ltd. where he became Chief Test Pilot. During his time at Avros/Hawker Siddeley/British Aerospace, he helped develop the Vulcan, Nimrod, Victor Mk 2 tanker and the Avro 748/RAF Andover.

Tony was an expert in aviation electronics and was invited by Smiths Industries to join their Aerospace Board, initially as Technical Operations Director. He helped develop the then new large electronic displays and Flight Management Systems.

After leaving Smiths Industries, he was invited to join the Board of the UK Civil Aviation Authority as Technical Member.

Tony is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Fellow of the American Society of Experimental Test Pilots, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation and a Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.

He now lives in London and spends his spare time writing aviation books, both fiction and non-fiction. His non-fiction books are about the aircraft he helped to develop and his fiction books are mystery stories and feature Peter Talbert, an insurance investigator. When things go wrong accident investigators are only interested in the reasons and how similar accidents can be avoided; however, there are always financial implications which are outside the remit of the accident investigators and Talbert is engaged by insurance companies, airlines, pilots or other interested parties to look after their interests. Tony goes to great pains to make sure that his fiction books are technically accurate, which is a real challenge since aircraft these days are incredibly safe.