Colin Bennett Email & Phone Number

Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States

Lead instructor for the ‘Galactic 01’ and ‘Galactic 05’ commercial spaceflight missions. Carried out all customer training and preparation and flew with the crew in the cabin on both occasions. Secondary instructor for five other spaceflight missions carrying out tasks such as cabin readiness walkthroughs, boarding/disembarkation activities and real-time flight monitoring in mission control.Development and continual refinement of the customer training program and associated procedures and documentation in partnership with the customer experience team and various operational departments. Pre-flight preparation activities including customer training schedule integration, mission rehearsals, cabin configuration control and providing status updates at mission readiness reviews and flight briefs.Post-flight analysis of cabin operations and presentation at debriefs and mission reviews. Coordination of proposed changes to vehicle hardware, training content and operational procedures for future flights.Participated in Virgin Galactic astronaut community events and future sales initiatives.

Gained Flight Director qualification, led the Mission Control team during flights and simulated training sessions and trained a core team of additional Flight Director console operators.Coordinated Mission Control team training activities, developed mission rules and emergency response procedures, tracked console qualification status and oversaw control room upgrades.

Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States

Flew as a Mission Specialist on the ‘Unity 22’ spaceflight in 2021 and co-authored the cabin test report. Participated in press interviews, in-house media production, customer events and outreach initiatives.Supported Spaceship Unity’s flight test program from start to finish. Wrote test plans, analysed flight data using MATLAB, built IADS displays in Mission Control and operated the Aero and Flight Controls consoles.Logged 45 flying hours in Mothership Eve as the onboard Flight Test Engineer. Trained flight crew on ingress/egress procedures, emergency equipment and operation of comm systems and data displays.Led the payload integration team for several years with duties including customer liaison, process document development, flight timeline planning, hardware integration and cabin manifest coordination.Managed the Ops Engineering team with the primary objective of preparing for commercial operations. Managerial tasks included recruitment, budgeting, performance reviews and career path planning.

Crawley, Uk

Onboard Flight Test Engineer for multiple A330 and B787 customer acceptance flights. Developed lease return flight profiles for A330/A340 and B747 aircraft and undertook recurrent flight simulator training. Participated in the test program of a new Airbus A330/340 flight simulator, involving comprehensive assessment of pre-programmed malfunctions, aural warnings, handling qualities and visual cues. Managed the configuration of the B787 onboard performance tool and take-off software for legacy fleets. Developed aircraft performance company policy documents and conducted routine flight crew training.

Managed a substantial B747 cabin retrofit project. Tracked supplier progress against key milestones and coordinated entry into service requirements with stakeholders to mitigate post-modification issues.Supported a B787 cabin customisation project by managing schedules, budgets, risk registers and status reports to ensure that project teams and senior management were informed of developments.

Participated in an overseas Apache Mk1 flight test detachment, authored the handling qualities report and conducted data analysis to substantiate a clearance for asymmetric stores at high density altitude. Performance analysis of a Chinook Mk3 Operating Data Manual update to support the ‘Release to Service’.Technical manager for an Apache Mk1 increased load factors assessment.

Rotary Wing Evaluation Services - Aircraft Dynamics & Performance / Air Launched MunitionsSupported a Chinook Mk3 handling qualities flight test program by preparing test briefs, flight cards and load sheets. Logged ~20 flying hours as a Flight Test Engineer and conducted post-flight data analysis.Business Development/Operations (QinetiQ Inc – Arlington, VA)Developed an understanding of the processes involved in US defence contracting by producing capability analysis documents, supporting contract proposals and representing the company at trade shows. Project Management (Fast Jet Evaluation Services)Managed a key £1.2M aircraft evaluation project for an overseas military customer from inception to delivery. Tasks included forecasting costs, holding project reviews and completing risk assessments.

Meng, Aerospace Engineering

Activities and Societies: Major projects included: - 'Performance and stability analysis of a heavy lift model aircraft' - 'Flight.

3Rd Year Exchange Programme, Aerospace Engineering

Activities and Societies: Studies were focused on a comprehensive 'Aircraft Concept Design' project