Shuttleworth House, with all its opulence and grandeur, can feel somewhat imposing at the best of times, but never so more than today. It's 1 October 2022, and I've been offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interview as a display pilot for one of the most famous aviation collections. I walked through the front door, my head crammed with facts and figures from several days of revision. Reflecting on those who had gone before me, I promptly felt like an imposter. My interview was with some of the more recent well-known names: Paul Stone, Shuttleworth's chief pilot and among the few to have flown the Boeing X-32; Jean-Michel Munn, the collection's chief engineer, and himself a highly proficient display pilot; and Tim Routsis of Formula 1 fame, a longstanding vintage aviator, and above all the man who holds the keys to the hangars as Shuttleworth's aviation trustee.
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