​​8th October 2024

Aldon Ferguson - The Allied Invasion of Iceland

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After the Nazis had occupied Norway Britain was fearful that they would try to occupy Iceland and the Faroe Islands, so they made a ‘friendly ‘ invasion on 10 May 1940 when four British ships, full of Marines, landed unopposed at Reykjavik, without a single shot being fired and no loss of life.  Historian Aldon Ferguson explains how the British promised to stay out of Islandic politics and were quickly accepted and the war became known there as ‘The Blessed War’ as the British protected them from Nazi invasion but more importantly gave work to the locals in building roads, bridges, barracks, hospitals and everything necessary for an occupying army.  25,000 British troops were stationed there for a while but they were needed back in Britain after France fell, so Churchill persuaded Roosevelt to take over as guardian

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12th November 2024

Les Evans - Electric and Hydrogen Powered Aircraft

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Great strides are being made to develop aircraft which produce no carbon dioxide, but it is not an easy road to travel. Popular speaker Les Evans will explain the various technologies that are being explored; pure battery-powered, hydrogen fuel cell-powered, hydrogen jet-powered. He will outline the advantages and difficulties that each of them brings, and look at the types of aircraft that we may see in the future. These range from electric training aircraft such as the Pipistrel, electric eVTOL taxis, shorthaul electric prop aircraft and finally, normal looking hydrogen jet airliners

See more....

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10th December 2024

Chris Brockbank - RAF Bomber Command in WW2 - The People

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The history of war is sometimes described as stories seen through the eyes of the winners. Chris Brockbank is an interviewer for the Digital Archive of the International Bomber Command Centre, and in his talk tonight much of the narrative does fill that description - but for very good reason: some narrators are still with us.

Chris speaks about a wide variety of intriguing tales related to him over recent years. His sources were members of Bomber Command aircrew and ground personnel who really did experience the dangers, the terror, the pain, the humour and some delights of the WW2 air war

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14th January 2025

Alan Biggins – On Foot in the Intelligence Zone – The Many Voices of the Whaddon Web

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Alan Biggins' background is in the Royal Air Force, computing and languages. His talk tonight is based on a chapter from his book The Intelligence Zone. It is about The Whaddon Web – MI6's  wartime communications sites spread across 20 locations, mainly in North Buckinghamshire.

The breadth and complexity of this network of spies, saboteurs and command can best be seen from the map that he commissioned -

click here....​

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​11th February 2025

Michael Napier - Airline Flying Career

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Michael joined British Airways in September 1997 after a 19-year career in the RAF. His first appointment was as a First Officer on the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 flying routes to the USA, Africa and the Middle East. After the DC-10 was retired from service in 1999, Michael converted to the Boeing 777 which he flew until 2003 when he changed types again and moved to short-haul flying on the Airbus A319/A320/A321 fleet. In 2006 he was appointed as a captain, remaining on the Airbus short-haul fleet flying all across Europe as well as some Middle East destinations. His final aircraft type was the Boeing 787, which he flew from 2016 until his retirement in 2019. 

In his talk, Michael will seek to correct all those misconceptions about airline flying like “the simulator must be fun,” “you must fly the same route all the time,” “aircraft land themselves these days” and many others!

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11th March 2025

MKAS AGM & Photo Competition

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8th April 2025

Rod Dean – Flying The Hunter and Other Things – Part 1

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Rod Dean returns with a look back at his 39 years (and nearly 3,000 flying hours) involvement with the magnificent Hawker Hunter, including his time flying the aircraft in Aden, as a very young 20 year old, Bahrain and Oman as well as at RAF Chivenor and Brawdy and, more recently, flying the civil registered aircraft.  Being in two parts allows Rod to look in depth at many of the highlights of this period of his flying life; most of which are quite light hearted and humorous

 

13th May 2025

Rod Dean – Flying The Hunter and Other Things – Part 2

 

10th June 2025

Neil Chattle - The History, Heritage and Engineering Excellence of Rolls-Royce

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Neil Chattle was formerly Head of Corporate Heritage and Chief Executive of the Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust (RRHT).  During his lecture tonight, Neil will summarise the major events in the design, development and manufacture of Rolls-Royce aero engines and applications over the past 118 years

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