Up Up and Away with Walter Hill

Wed, May 27th 2020 at 12:50 pm - 2:00 pm

Civil Aviation experiences

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The Rotary Club of St Andrews introduced a new presentation method at its most recent virtual meeting. Member Walter Hill gave his presentation by video whilst remaining available to answer subsequent questions.

The talk was about the changes in civil aviation from the passengers’ perspective . It began with Imperial Airways’ pioneering flights in the 1930s. This included the still unbeaten 6049 miles non stop flying boat record from Dundee to Cape Town.

The UK continued to feature in aviation history with the first turbo prop, the Viscount, and the Comet which was the first pure jet. The world’s first supersonic airliner was Concorde an Anglo French design. Such collaboration continues with the first Super Jumbo, the Airbus 380, and the A320, the first to introduce computer controlled fly by wire to commercial aviation.

The talk covered personal experiences including being flown by the first woman in the world to captain the state of the art Boeing 777.

The talk ended with a look into the future. Qantas has recently flown its Boeing Dreamliner non stop from Sydney to London, a nineteen hour flight. This raises questions about the reaction of the human body and mind to such an experienceThis year Walter Hill celebrates the 60th anniversary of his first civil flight. He had previously flown in RAF aircraft and tried his hand at a Link Trainer during his time in the Air Training Corps.

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