David Mackay
David Mackay
bit fear heights
I do have a bit of a fear of heights. But I don't get scared of heights when I am flying a plane.
air apollo black classroom decided flying force found huge join landing later men obviously people remember school sets test tv watch white
I can still remember them wheeling the black and white TV sets into our classroom at school so we could watch the men landing on the Moon, and that obviously had a huge impact. I later found out those people flying Apollo were ex-military test pilots, so I decided to join the Air Force and become a test pilot.
pilot programme realised unlikely
Not long after I got my test pilot qualification, I realised there was no manned space flight programme in the U.K., and there was unlikely to be one.
commercial complex era flight hiatus hugely inevitable opportunity sad shuttle
It's very sad that there's going to be a hiatus in manned space flight from the U.S. The Shuttle was a fantastic, hugely complex vehicle. It was inevitable it would come to an end, but this is the opportunity for the commercial world to get involved. As the Shuttle era ends, another window of opportunity opens.
I want to get to the moon. I want to go to Mars.
chance military travel
I thought any chance I had of space travel would be military or government-controlled.
exciting exploring landing looked watched
I watched the moon landing as a boy, and I thought that was the most exciting thing ever, going into space, orbiting Earth and exploring other planets. That looked fantastic.
By my mid-30s, I just thought, 'This is not going to happen. I am never going to become an astronaut in the U.K.'
air aircraft area brought exciting lived lots lowly north
I was brought up in the north of Scotland, and where I lived was so lowly populated, it was used as a low-flying area by the Air Force, so lots of exciting aircraft used to fly over my village.
opportunity possible
I would say if you do have ambitions, don't just wait around. Go out and make yourself as well-qualified as possible so you can take that rare opportunity when it comes along.
age early fly
From a very early age, I wanted to fly aeroplanes.