Wing Commander John Davis, test pilot, flying instructor and expert on air displays – obituary

John David Davis was born on March 23 1934 at St Marylebone, London. Soon after the outbreak of war he was evacuated to the Bahamas but returned later to attend Stowe School.

He joined the RAF in September 1952 and trained as a pilot. He converted to the Canberra bomber and served at Gütersloh in Germany with 103 and 59 Squadrons. After attending the Central Flying School (CFS), he instructed cadet pilots at the RAF College Cranwell, before returning to CFS to train future flying instructors.

In 1963 he attended No 22 Course at the Empire Test Pilot’s School before joining the Weapons Flight at Farnborough. He flew a wide variety of aircraft, testing the carriage and release parameters of air-delivered weapons and their effectiveness.

Davis’s test-flying career continued for a number of years. In 1971 he was appointed deputy superintendent of flying at the A&AEE, Boscombe Down, co-ordinating the test flying programme of aircraft ranging from light aircraft and helicopters to heavy transport aircraft and a wide range of high-performance fighters and ground-attack aircraft. He took the opportunity to fly and test most of them himself.

In December 1976 he joined the Defence Intelligence Staff in MoD, specialising in technical intelligence, in particular making assessments of the performance of foreign aircraft. At the end of the Falklands War in 1982 he was on one of the first aircraft to land at Port Stanley after the Argentine surrender. It was his task to make an initial assessment of the military equipment, weapons and aircraft left on the island.

In November 1984 Davis headed for Budapest as the Air Attaché for Hungary and Romania. On his return to the UK in May 1987 he spent a year in MoD dealing with test-flying policy in support of the defence procurement organisation before retiring in 1988 and joining the CAA. He had flown for almost 4,000 hours, piloting 64 different types of aircraft.

A good tennis and squash player, Davis represented numerous RAF establishments. He was also a keen philatelist, and for many years he assisted in the production of RAF-associated First Day Covers to raise funds for the RAF Benevolent Fund. After his visit to the Falkland Islands he produced a booklet, The Falklands War: Postal History and Stamps of the Argentine Occupation. A display based on his research was held at Stanley Gibbons in London.

In 1965 John Davis married Margaret, an air hostess. She survives him with two sons and a daughter.

John Davis, born March 23 1934, died April 30 2023