Concorde pilot Captain John Tye delivers inspirational guest lecture at BNU
Born into uncertainty, Captain Tye was given up for adoption but found love and support in his adoptive family. Despite managing a rare medical condition affecting his legs, John became one of only 134 British Airways Concorde pilots. His 46-year career in aviation took him to new heights, and he shared his remarkable experiences with final-year students from the School of Aviation and Security.
The session was part of the university’s mission to work with industry experts and offer real-life experiences to enhance students’ employability and personal resilience to becoming successful professionals. John discussed the Concorde operation and later delved into the ‘Human Factors’ aspects, including the competencies assessed during airline training.
Also of note was the coincidence that John Tye was previously recruited by Alison Dalton early in his aviation career. Alison is a Senior Lecturer in Aviation Tourism at BNU. Both John and Alison hadn’t remained in touch, and it had been years since they had seen each other. Looking back, John recalls receiving a call from Alison telling him that Dan-Air would be willing to take a chance on him and offer him a job flying a Boeing 727. This was the first time this was done and was a departure from the norm, where inexperienced pilots were initially brought on to operate a turboprop to accumulate experience. Only afterwards were pilots able to progress to a bigger jet such as a Boeing 727, which was performance—and experience-dependent.
Alison commented:
"I was working in HR and part of my remit was Pilot recruitment in Dan Air in 1987 and interviewed pilots as part of a panel with senior training and technical pilots. After pilots had gone through all their assessments, we held extensive wash ups against success criteria. John was short on hours to go straight onto a jet course, but his test results and sim session were outstanding. After much consideration we offered him a jet course rather than the normal turbo prop entry level and that was his first step towards an outstanding flying career.
"It was emotional to meet him again after so long and to realise that I featured in his book! He wrote '“You changed my life in 1987”'. Sometimes you don’t realise the impact that you can have in supporting and helping people. I have come full circle now lecturing in HR and Leadership as part of the School of Aviation and Security for the past 3 years when I too left British Airways."
John has written a book about his incredibly inspiring journey, ‘Life of a Concorde pilot: from the orphanage to the edge of space’ which you can purchase here.
