Air
Commodore James Uprichard CBE RAF.
Born in 1943,
James learned to fly with the Queen's University Air Squadron in 1962 before
joing the RAF in 1965. In 1976, he was awarded the Queen's Commendation
for Valuable Service in the Air. He subsequently commanded 101 Squadron
operating the VC10K and he and his crew still hold the world record for
the fastest time from UK to Australia. As Station Commander at RAF Waddington,
he brought the AWACS force equipped with the new E3D Sentry aircraft to
operational status and deployed it for the duration of the war in Bosnia.
Awarded the CBE, he was promoted to Air Commodore and completed his career
in 1998 as a Director in the Central Staff at the Ministry of Defence.
