Manfred Brennwald was born on 2 October 1932 in Zürich and passed away
on 24 October 2013.
In 1952 he started his basic
military training and became a maintenance crew member on the P-51 Mustang. He was then selected for pilot training and
got his wings in May 1954. He applied in
the professional wing of Swiss Air Force and was accepted. He then became an officer and flight
instructor. Four years later, the test pilot team at Emmen had a job opening
and Manfred was selected to become a test pilot. He started with production and acceptance tests
on Swiss built DeHavilland Venoms and soon with the acceptance tests on Hawker
Hunter in Dunsfold. That was the time
when the personal friendship with Bill Bedford started. Envelope expansion for several weapons and the
integration of a bomb delivery system were the next duties on the Hunter. At the same time, the Federal Aircraft Factory
started production of 60 Alouette III and Fred made production and reception
flights. In the Swiss Air Force he
became squadron leader of the first militia squadron operating the Hunter. In 1964 the integration of the Hughes TARAN
system on the Mirage III started on Holloman AFB to become the Mirage IIIS. Fred was responsible for the air to air part
and made several missile firings.
Fred became a member of SETP
in April 1965 and was active as a staff member on all European symposia held in
Switzerland and as a
participant in numerous other European and U.S. symposia.
Back home, the Mirage
Simulator was waiting for test pilots care. When the Swiss early warning radar and control
system Florida
went operational, Fred became an intercept director and later Chief Air Defence
in a militia function and was promoted to the rank of Colonel. Soon the project of a transport helicopter
came up and Fred took the lead in the evaluation of the French Puma and
Superpuma and the US Blackhawk and Bell
314 ST. He stayed current on jets, took
part in the OT&E program of the Swiss F-5E at Edwards AFB, made the cockpit
definition of the Hunter Trainer and was – at the beginning - project pilot for
the Hawker Sidley Hawk Mk 66, final assembly in Emmen. He was also project pilot for the Superpuma.
With his experience from the Mirage simulator he also became project pilot for
the simulators Hawk and Superpuma.