Mick Oakey

The son of an RAF wing commander pilot and a former American Overseas Airways stewardess, Mick has been passionate about aviation since early childhood in the 1960s.In 1979 he became a Ministry of Defence Student Engineer at RAE Farnborough and Bedford, and embarked on an aero-engineering degree course at Imperial College, London; but his predilection for the history and romance of aeronautics led him in 1981 to change direction and become a junior curator at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon. Two years later he joined Aeroplane, and in 1998 he succeeded Richard T. Riding as Editor, a post he held until he retired in 2010, after 28 years on the magazine. He is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society's Historical Group Committee, and in 2011 he received the Air League's prestigious Scott-Farnie Medal from HRH The Duke of Edinburgh for "most meritorious work in the field of air education" in recognition of his work on Aeroplane. On the odd occasions when he is not absorbed in aviation history, he is absorbed in Egyptology; he is a member of the Egypt Exploration Society and a founder member and committee member of Sussex Egyptology Society, a registered educational charity.