Edward (Ed) Strongman 1949-2016

Ed Strongman, Eric Isorce, Didier Roncerary, Ignacio Lombo, Gerard Leskerpit, and Jean-Philippe Cottet - First Flight Crew of the A400M

Maiden Flight of A400M from Seville, 1th December 2009

Edward "Ed" Strongman is Chief Test Pilot Military with responsibility for the development of the A400M and Airbus military derivative aircraft. He captained the aircraft's maiden flight alongside his colleague Ignacio "Nacho" Lombo. Having joined Airbus in 1995, he was initially Project Pilot for the A330/A340 family and was particularly closely involved with the development of the A340-600 which he piloted on its maiden flight in April 2001. Subsequently he worked on all Airbus aircraft and participated extensively in the A380 flight test development programme.
Mr Strongman is today a veteran test pilot who was selected to attend the United States Air Force Test Pilot School (USAFTPS) at Edwards AFB, California in 1979 after five years of operations flying the Lockheed C-130 Hercules for the UK's Royal Air Force.
After graduating from USAFTPS Mr Strongman served for six years at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Bedford, UK flying a wide range of transports, fighters and helicopters. In 1986 he left Bedford as Commanding Officer of the Test Squadron to join the UK CAA as a certification test pilot involved in the regulatory approval of numerous jet and turboprop aircraft.
Mr Strongman has some 11,000 flight hours of which more than 7,000 have been in flight test.
Born in Cornwall, UK in 1949 Ed Strongman has an engineering degree from Bristol University .