Captain Concorde 

Tennis event changes direction of supersonic pilot’s life

Piloting over 800 Trans-Atlantic flights at supersonic speed is not something many of us can boast about.

Career peak

But Captain Brian Walpole has it all recorded in his logbook, and though the story of his engagement with the heavens is certainly an uplifting one, it is his flight to faith that he credits as being of far greater importance.
 
A former RAF officer from Surrey, England, Brian began flying in a two-seater Tiger Moth biplane and progressed to flying jets in aerobatic displays before switching to commercial aviation.
 
But captaining Concorde for British Airways, flying at 1,350mph (twice the speed of sound) and at one time being boss of the entire supersonic operation, was clearly the peak of his career, as he recounts so enthusiastically in his recent autobiography Captain Concorde (2024).

Journey to faith

Yet it was not the highpoint of his life. For it was only after he committed himself to Christ in his late forties that Brian was able to fully appreciate the magnificent vista of the curvature of the earth from an altitude of 60,000ft. And whereas he had to use the stars for navigation for crossing the Pacific when flying Boeing 707s, they now spoke to him of the awesome beauty of the Creator he had come to know and worship.
 
Although befriending the RAF chaplain early in his career led to a habit of carrying a small copy of John’s gospel wherever he went, and his father was a great example of a devout believer, God was very much off Brian’s radar – until tennis stopped him in his tracks!
 
His daughters Julie and Shelley were high achievers (he also has a son, Graham), Shelley once beating the legendary Steffi Graf and also playing Chrissie Evert in the opening round of the US Open (that was less successful).

This triggered a long search for answers, Brian’s scientific mind needing to analyse the truth or otherwise of the gospel.

It was at a tennis dinner that their proud dad got chatting with the well-known commentator Gerald Williams, eventually accompanying him to the Guildford Baptist Church. This triggered a long search for answers, Brian’s scientific mind needing to analyse the truth or otherwise of the gospel.
 
And it was largely thanks to a book called Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell that Brian was finally convinced that Jesus had indeed been raised from the dead and he was forced to agree with C S Lewis that “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important”.

Steadying the ship

Though by his own admission his journey to faith had been pedestrian and gradual, Brian’s beloved wife Rosemary got there at supersonic speed via a ‘Damascus Road’ encounter with the Holy Spirit on a visit to church while her husband was away flying. Shelley subsequently married the pastor’s son, also a Baptist minister, with whom she is now serving God in Canada.
 
Brian turned around the fortunes of Concorde, which in its early days was billed by some as a ‘commercial corpse’ losing money hand over fist. But he steadied the ship into a profitable venture and was awarded the OBE.

But he steadied the ship into a profitable venture and was awarded the OBE.

It was not until well after Brian’s retirement that the brilliant Anglo-French piece of engineering wizardry was itself retired in the wake of New York’s 9/11 atrocity, which effectively ended the commercial viability of supersonic flight, coming as it did just a year after the disastrous Air France crash on take-off in July 2000.

Devoted disciple

Now past 90, Brian continues to be a devoted disciple of Jesus (Rosemary died suddenly in 2017) and, asked what advice he would give, particularly to young men, he says: “Investigating Jesus and what he did for us on the cross is the most important thing any of us will ever do in our life.” (The bold is his).
 
The advice given in the little gospel he carried around in his early days had been so apt, that “what the compass and instruments are to the naval officer and the ordnance map is to the field officer, so the Bible is to us in our journey through life”.
 
I highly recommend this book, and certainly not just for those of us familiar with flying or keen on sport (though I only wish my own dad - a lifetime flyer - could have read it).
 
‘Captain Concorde’ is a heart-warming testimony to the power of God vastly outmanoeuvring even the most brilliant achievements of human endeavour.
 
Captain Concorde: The True Story of One Man's Remarkable Journey of Flight and Faith (216 pp) is published by Grace and Down Publishing and is available from Amazon for £10.24 (inc p&p).