John William WIlson 1924-

John William WIlson joined the RAFVR in 1942 and trained on Tiger Moths. In 1943 he graduated and was posted to various flying instructor courses in Canada. In 1944 he joined OTU Debert flying Mosquito. In 1945 he was posted to 84 Squadron in India, Burma and Malaysia flying Mosquito VI's. In 1946 he was posted to 124 Squadron RAF Bentwaters and RAF Boxted flying Meteor III. In 1947 he was posted to 56 Squadron RAF Duxford flying Meteor's and was detached for Meteor tropical trials RAF Tengah Singapore.

In 1949 he resigned his commission in RAF as Squadron Leader and joined de Havilland as Experimental Test pilot. He undertook the flight testing of the DH98 Mosquito, DH100 Vampire, DH103 Hornet, DH104 Dove, DH106 Comet, DH110 Sea Vixen, DH112 Venom, DH113 Vampire Night Fighter, DH 114 Heron, DH115 Vampire trainer DHC1 Chipmunk and DH121 Trident.

He was the 2nd pilot for the first flight of the Comet Prototype with John Cunningham as Captain. In 1950 he undertook the first flights of the DH112/2 Venom Night Fighter and DH115 Vampire trainer prototypes. In 1951 he flew on the maiden flight of the Sea Venom Night fighter.
In 1957 he transferred to the design department as Chief Operations Engineer where he was responsible for Flight Deck layout for DH121 Trident and DH125. In 1968 he was responsible for development at Toulouse of the A300 flight deck for BEA.