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Our team

Patron and Ambassadors

Air Marshal Cliff Spink CB, CBE, FCMI, FRAeS, RAF (retd)​​

Patron
More about Cliff

Mike Ling MBE​​

Ambassador
More about Mike

Paul Bonhomme​

Ambassador
More about Paul

James Holland

Ambassador
More about James

Mark Greenfield​​

Ambassador
More about Mark

Project team

The Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group is formed of three trustees. Their responsibility is to safeguard the legality of the charity and ensure, through the appointment of a Director and subsequent forming of a team, that the aims of the charity are being met. Without the trustees the charity would not exist. They, along with all the team members, are volunteers, giving their time freely in the pursuit of this endeavour. Moreover, they are friends, doing something in their spare time that many have previously said is impossible.

Sam Worthington-Leese

Trustee

More about Sam

Andy Sheridan

Trustee

More about Andy

Mark McMurrugh

Trustee

More about Mark

The project team is led by the Project Director. He leads a dedicated, all volunteer team who in their spare time are working towards achieving the charity’s aims. The project would not be where it is today without this small, but passionate and hardworking team, who all sacrifice a great amount to ensure the continued success and progress of the project.

More about Cliff

Air Marshal Clifford Rodney Spink, CB, CBE, FCMI, FRAeS is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer. In 2019, following almost three decades of Warbird display flying, he retired, performing his last display at the Duxford Battle of Britain airshow. He is currently the only known person in the world to have flown every airworthy mark of Spitfire. Cliff is widely regarded as one of the most experienced Warbird pilots in the world and joined the Project as Patron in 2020, bringing with him a wealth of experience and contacts.

More about Mike

Mike, or “Lingy” as he is more commonly known, was the longest serving Red Arrows pilot which included three years flying and six years commentating, supervising and consulting on overseas tours. Many on the global air show scene will recognise his voice with his commentary becoming synonymous with the Red Arrows display. He survived a mid-air collision and ejection in 2010, becoming a member of the Martin Baker Ejection Tie Club in the process, and in 2017 he was formally recognised for his outstanding service to the RAF and the community by HRH The Queen in the New Year’s Honours, where he was made a ‘Member of Most Excellent Order of the British Empire’ (MBE). Lingy has displayed in front of tens of millions of people, all over the world.

More about Paul

With over 45 podiums, 19 race wins and an unmatched three World Championship titles across 10 seasons, Paul Bonhomme is the most successful pilot in Red Bull Air Race history. Paul has been flying for 40 years, is a Captain with British Airways on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, as well as one of the most respected Warbird pilots in the world. Paul is an Aircraft Restoration Company pilot and has a huge amount of experience on Hawker types, as well as other high performance piston warbirds.

More about James

James Holland is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning historian, writer, broadcaster and podcaster. The author of a number of best-selling histories, he has written and presented a large number of television programmes and series. James is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Research Fellow at Swansea University. He is hugely passionate about the Typhoon, so much so that he commissioned a giant replica Typhoon, in RB396’s colours, to sit atop the hill at the 2019 Chalke Valley History Festival, an event which he set up and now chairs. He runs the “We Have Ways” podcast, with his co-host Al Murray, and they can regularly be heard “talking Typhoon” on there.

More about Mark

Mark Greenfield is the founder and CEO of the Ultimate High Flight Academy based at Goodwood, West Sussex. A longtime flight safety and aerobatics instructor and an Unlimited level Air Display pilot in the Extra 300, Mark is passionate about getting RB396 airborne as a legacy to all those who played a part in the Typhoon’s history. After flying in the RAF, Greeners moved to the Investment Banking world, finishing as  Global Head of Risk Management for a major US bank. Mark ran the Empire Test Pilot School at Boscombe Down for QinetiQ from 2009-2011 and represented the U.K. on the European Aviation Safety Committee that mandated improved flight safety training for commercial pilots from 2019. He is also an aviation journalist and very much looks forward to covering RB396’s first flight!

More about Sam

As a result of the 2010 Defence Review, Sam left the RAF in 2012 as a low hours trainee. Qualifying as a commercial pilot, he spent six years as a professional flying instructor at Shoreham and Goodwood where he flew the Harvard IIb and other vintage aircraft, as well as being the first Non-Qualified Service Pilot to be selected to fly for Ultimate High. During this time, he qualified as a Display Pilot. In 2018 he was asked by John Romain, founder of the Aircraft Restoration Company, to join their team at Duxford, where he now flies the Spitfire. Since November 2018 he has been flying the 737NG for TUI Airways. He co-founded the HTPG in 2016 as a result of researching his Typhoon pilot grandfather. Parts of his grandfather’s Hawker Typhoon, whose final mission in WWII was from Goodwood, are to be incorporated into the rebuild.

More about Andy

Andy recently retired from a 30-year career in Medical Communications. After building his career in two leading agencies, he joined Oxford PharmaGenesis in 2004 and later took part in a management buyout, becoming a member of the global leadership team. He played a key role in building the company, from 25 people when he joined,  into one of the leading agencies in the sector with six offices in the UK, USA and Australia. His passion for aircraft began as a child visiting airshows at  RAF Stafford, a couple of miles from his home. Reading World War II comics in the 1970s brought the Hawker Typhoon to his attention and he is passionate about returning this forgotten legend to flight.

More about Mark

Mark has been an aviation enthusiast from a very young age, with his step-father being a commercial pilot, safari pilot, float plane pilot and owning flight training centres in the UK, Portugal and in the USA. Mark has been particularly interested in ‘warbirds’ and the World War II era of flight. Professionally Mark has had a long career in IT working with IBM in their Consulting Services Division here in the UK, Europe and Asia. Mark has been responsible for large complex programmes working with clients in many industries, as well as being responsible for leading various IBM business units. Outside of IBM, Mark owns a golf driving range and was until recently Chair of the Board for a local sports club with various sports, fitness, bar and restaurant facilities.

Mark brings to the charity sound business acumen and experience, a passion for historical aviation and various necessary IT skills to support the internal operations which are key to the efficient and effective operation of the charity side of this fantastic endeavour.

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