Chris Wilson is a former Royal Air Force Airframe Technician having worked on Tornado and Hawk aircraft. Chris is now the Managing Director of Jet Art Aviation Ltd., its offices and workshops are in North Yorkshire.

Jet Art was founded in 2005 as a small business started in the back bedroom and garage. The company supplies ex-military aircraft for museum, display and instructional use, and specialises in restoring and preserving Harriers. Today Jet Art Aviation has for sale the most interesting and exciting ex-military aircraft that can be found anywhere in the world.

The aircraft that have passed through Jet Art Aviation's workshops that the Hawker Association members would be interested to hear about warrants a full 120 minutes presentation time so the plan is that Chris is expected to be back in the second half of 2023 to give a Part 2 presentation.

"Jet Art Aviation - An Aviation Adventure"
by Chris Wilson on 9 Nov 2022 updated 1Nov2022

An indication of the subjects that his talk will cover is as follows, excepting that in the next, reminder Calling Notice it’s expected there may be a revised summary.

Chris expects his talk to firstly briefly cover his time in the RAF as ground crew on Hawk, including a tour as a mechanic on the Red Arrows.  That tour encompassed the 1998 / 99 display season, including the 1999 Far East tour.

Moving on, Chris will relate how he started his aviation business from scratch, progressing to saving and restoring multiple aircraft types including 30 Harriers. Amongst those Harriers Chris nominates as highlights is restoring XV741 the Transatlantic Air Race Harrier, restoring the VAAC Harrier XW175 and multiple Harrier GR3 aircraft including XZ130 and XZ132. The top highlight he muses must be resurrecting Sea Harrier ZH798 to ground run and fast Taxi.