Brian Trubshaw was the first test pilot of which famous plane?

Brian Trubshaw was born in Liverpool in 1924, although he grew up in Llanelli where his parents lived at the time. He was educated at Winchester College. He signed up for the RAF in 1942 at the age of eighteen and went to the United States where he trained as a pilot flying Stearman biplanes. He joined Bomber Command in 1944, flying Stirlings and Lancasters, transferring a year later to Transport Command.

After the War he joined the King's Flight, piloting George VI and other members of the Royal Family. Then in 1949-50 he taught at the Empire Flying School and the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.

Trubshaw then went to Malaya when he was given permission to leave the RAF to take up a role as test pilot for Vickers Armstrongs, where he remained for 30 years; he succeeded G R 'Jock' Bryce as chief test pilot by 1964, and was director of test flighting from 1966. Trubshaw worked on the development of the Valiant V-bomber, the Vanguard, the VC10, and the BAC One-Eleven, and test flew all of these.

He shot to public attention when he first flew Concorde on 9 April 1969 on a flight from Filton to its test base at RAF Fairford. He emerged from Concorde 002's futuristic cockpit with the words: "It was wizard - a cool, calm and collected operation." Weeks earlier he had piloted an early test flight of the identical French prototype Concorde 001, commanded by André Turcat. Trubshaw and Turcat were both awarded the Ivan C. Kincheloe Award in 1971, for their work on Concorde.