Xtended

We talk to Rod Dean about ‘Fifty Years of Flying Fun’ which covers his half-century career in the air, from joining the RAF in 1962 to his work as a general aviation and airshow pilot. Over his career Rod logged more than 7,000 hours on 59 different types of aircraft, including military jets like the Hunter and Jaguar, as well as vintage planes such as the Spitfire. This is a fascinating reflection from flying fast jets through to warbirds.For full show notes visits www.aviation-xtended.co.uk

Colonel Mike Mullane flew three Space Shuttle missions as a Mission Specialist and is a retired US Air Force weapon systems operator, flying 134 combat missions in Vietnam. He wrote the award-winning children's book Liftoff and the outrageously amusing and often times tragic “Riding Rockets”. He is a speaker on leadership, teamwork, and safety. He uses his experiences to explain the "normalisation of deviance," the tendency to take shortcuts and accept lower standards under pressure. Listen to Gareth’s interview with Mike, on the best and sadly some of the tragic elements of being a Space Shuttle astronaut.

This is a moving interview with Earl Moorhouse, crash survivor and author.‘Wake Up, It’s A Crash – The Survivors’ Stories’ is his account of the world’s first Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet disaster, in November 1974.For full show notes, visit:www.xtended.co.uk

In this episode, Tim talks to Award-winning aviation historian Victoria Taylor about her new book ‘Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain’. Recorded 9th April 2025 For full show notes and imagery please visit https://aviation-xtended.co.uk/

In this episode we have Mike Napier back to talk about his latest book ‘Over Cold War Seas - NATO and Soviet Naval Aviation, 1949–89’ - a fascinating review of Cold War naval aviation. Mike shares his approach to the topic, explains the evolution of naval technology and how the conflicting cold war scenario’s lead to new evolving aviation developments.And, of course there are aircraft galore. Some new, some well known and some not so well known or successful! predominantly in the northern hemisphere.Recorded 8th May 2025 Buy a copy from the Xtended Bookshop andsupport the podcast and a donation to local book shops in the UK https://uk.bookshop.org/a/11161/9781472865526 For photos and full show notes please visit:https://aviation-xtended.co.uk/