Thursday, November 08, 2012

George Wood 1927-1978



George Wood was born  in 1927 and educated at Manchester Grammar school. He joined the Royal Air Force  as a Flight Navigator in Bomber Command, serving on a B-29 Washington Squadron. After leaving the RAF he joined British United Airways.

He joined British Aircraft Corporation at Wisley, as a Flight Navigator in the flight test programmes of the Valliant, VC-10 and BAC 111. He joined the Concorde flight test programme and flew as operating navigator in Prototype 002 G-BSST prior to the; eventually successful, installation of Litton Inertial Nav systems. Subsequently he flew from Tangier, Morocco, in Concorde 01 G-AXDN during the engine air intake flight test programme when Mach numbers in excess of Mach 2.24 where first achieved. He continued to fly in many overseas Concorde trials until sadly in 1978 George was fatally injured on the M4 approaching Filton for another day in Flight Ops.