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Captain John Leonard Percival Chorley FRAeS

John was a British Concorde Captain who holds several supersonic world records.

Early Life

John was born in Orsett, Essex. He attended Brentwood School where he was a member of the RAF combined cadet force and the scouts - during this time he was awarded the Queens Scout award. Following school he was offered a Flying Scholarship in 1952, leading to the granting of a Private Pilots Licence after learning to fly the Tiger Moth at Marshall's Airfield at Cambridge.

Shortly afterwards, in January 1953, he was called up for National Service in the RAF, and spent two years being trained as an "all weather fighter pilot" leaving with the rank of Flying Officer. He remained a member of the RAF reserves for the majority of his career.

Following National Service, John attended the University College of Estate Management, then at Lincoln’s Inn.

Growing up, John was a great friend of Sir John Whitmore, who regularly invited John to aviation and racing events, most notably with Steve McQueen.

Aviation Career

John joined BOAC in 1956. As was normal then he had to go through the lengthy training and qualifying as a Navigator. This was the transition period when specialist Navigating Officers, and Radio Officers were being phased out as technical advances were being made in flight deck technology. He then spent about two years navigating only, mainly on the Comet Fleet to the Far East, India and Australia.

Eventually, he became a pilot again, joining the Britannia 102 and 312 Fleets. This led to operating on the East, West, and South African routes, and on 312's to the United States and the Caribbean.

In 1964 he was posted to the VC10 Fleet flying on world-wide routes, slowly being promoted to Senior First Officer, and eventually in 1973 to Captain. Then in 1977 the big moment came with a posting to the new Concorde Fleet, and the extensive six month conversion course at Filton. Operating and handling Concorde was very different from previous passenger aircraft; the training was therefore extremely thorough and very few people were successful in passing the training.

A very interesting and enjoyable period followed with many first visits by Concorde to airports all over the World but mainly in the United States. A pleasant three months was spent based in Singapore operating the joint British Airways/Singapore Airlines service via Bahrain to London. He was also fortunate to command three Round the World charters in the 1980s. In 1985 he flew the Colombo to Perth leg of Concorde's World Record flight from London to Sydney. He also holds the world record for fastest supersonic flight from London to Cairo.

In addition to flying Concorde commercially, John was also involved in military exercises involving Concorde. He notably was engaged by the RAF in a training exercise over the North Sea, when using his previous air combat training, managed to outmanoeuvre and lose the RAF tornadoes. He quotes in saying that the pilots were “most embarrassed”. He was also responsible for assisting in training of SAS Officers for emergency incidents relating to Concorde.

In 1985 during Live Aid Captain John flew British Pop singer “Phil Collins” from London to New York in a televised feat which saw Phil Collins perform on two different continents.

October 1989, when Captain Chorley reached the British Airways retirement age, he said it appeared far too quickly.

Following Concorde, John became a private pilot for Robert Maxwell, Mohammad Al Tajir and Mohammad Al Fayed; giving them a year each.

In retirement, John gave lectures about aviation all over the world and also developed property in Milford on Sea.

Personal Life

John married Valerie Scott in 1962. They had two children. John was an avid sailor and an active member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club. He also enjoyed skiing in Europe and North America. He retired to Wardour, Wiltshire.