Tony Blackman

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Anthony Lionel Blackman OBE FRAeS (6 April 1928 – 13 August 2024) was a British aviator who was Chief Test Pilot for Avro.

Blackman was the son of the radiologist Sydney Blackman (7 December 1898 – 1971) of Kensington Court, one of the principal developers of panoramic radiography in dentistry, and the son of Polish emigrants, educated at the Grocers' Company School (later known as Hackney Downs School). His parents Sydney and Lena Goodman had married in 1923 in Hackney.^[1] His sister Rita Mason (1925 – 25 March 2008) was also a dental radiologist (oral and maxillofacial radiology), with her father at the Royal Dental Hospital, attending Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb. His father helped to found the British Society of Dental and Maxillo-facial Radiology.

Blackman attended Oundle School. When at Oundle he saw many damaged US bombers returning to RAF Polebrook and RAF Deenethorpe in Northamptonshire. Later he studied Physics at Trinity College, Cambridge.

From October 1948 Blackman started his National Service at RAF Padgate near Warrington. He joined the RAF, in December 1948 as a Pilot Officer, training for 12 weeks at RAF Wellesbourne at the RAF School of Education^[2] becoming a Maths and Physics instructor at No. 1 Initial Training School at RAF Wittering, then learned to fly from January 1950 at RAF Ternhill^[3] with 6 FTS (No. 6 Flying Training School RAF) on the Percival Prentice, on the No. 38 Pilots Course.

His service saw him fly the Vampires and Venoms with Nos 5 and 11 Squadrons, RAF.

Blackman joined the Empire Test Pilots' School (ETPS) as a prelude to working at the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE), with B Squadron, until August 1956.^[4]

A contemporary of such distinguished aviators as John Cunningham, John Farley and Peter Twiss, Blackman formed part of a post-war cadre of a new breed of test pilot — one who could analyse the characteristics of the aircraft they were flying, but also work as an equal with the scientists and engineers trying to solve problems in aeronautical performance and design. A former fighter pilot who was a brilliant mathematician and had a degree in physics from Trinity College, Cambridge, Blackman was able to husband the unique attributes of exceptional pilot and first class engineer.

Blackman tested all three of Britain’s nuclear bombers — the Handley Page Victor, the Vickers Valiant and the Avro Vulcan. He also played a significant role in the development of the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, a maritime patrol aircraft.^[5]

Blackman joined Avro as a test pilot, becoming chief test pilot, and flying with Avro from 1956 to 1973.^[6] He tested 105 of the Vulcans that were built.

Although the original bomber, the Vulcan B1, had been in service since 1956, Blackman delivered the first of the B2s — a massive upgrade on the original aircraft — to an operational squadron at RAF Waddington on July 1, 1960.^[7]

Avro won a contract to build the Mach 3 Avro 730, and he was to be the test pilot; the project was cancelled in 1957. He was offered to become a Concorde test pilot. He did fly Concorde (G-AXDN, now at Duxford) once, taking the place of Jock Cochrane at RAF Fairford. He was the test pilot for the Hawker Siddeley HS 748 (Avro 748) and the Hawker Siddeley Nimrod (designed by Gilbert Whitehead).^[8][5][7]

Blackman later worked for Smiths Industries.

Blackman married Margaret in late 1956.^[9] He had a son in 1964 (who married in 1998, with grand-daughters in 2000 and 2003) and a daughter in 1961.

He was made an OBE in the 1974 Birthday Honours. When deputy chief test pilot of Hawker Siddeley in Cheshire, he was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air in the 1970 New Year Honours.

Highly acclaimed for his aeronautical knowledge and a distinctly articulate writer, Blackman wrote a series of books about the aircraft he had tested, including Vulcan Boys: From the Cold War to the Falklands — True Tales of the Iconic Delta V-Bomber, in addition to a series of aviation novels featuring an insurance investigator called Peter Talbot.^[5]

Blackman's books are widely regarded as an aviation classics. His autobiography, Test Pilot. My Extraordinary Life in Flight. is considered as an authoritative work and essential reading for anyone aspiring to develop a knowledge of test flying.

Blackman died on 13 August 2024, at the age of 96.^[10]

• Avro Heritage Museum
• John Allam (1924–2019) of Handley Page, deputy test pilot of the Handley Page Victor, chief test pilot of HP from 1965, who first flew the Handley Page Jetstream in August 1967

• Biography
• XM603 at Woodford