Speakers
Edward Downs
Editor, Jane’s Avionics
The Editor of Jane's Avionics, Edward Downs, is a former Royal Air Force pilot, retiring from the Service in 1997 after tours of duty as a frontline Tornado GR1 pilot, (31 Squadron, RAF Bruggen), a Qualified Weapons Instructor (Tornado Weapons Conversion Unit, RAF Honington) and finally as an operational test pilot at the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), Boscombe Down. While at Boscombe Down, he was involved in weapons and Electro-Optic systems development for RAF ground attack aircraft, including the Tornado GR4, Harrier GR7 and Jaguar GR3.
Currently a civilian pilot with a UK international airline, a Night Electro-Optic flight instructor and director of an aerosystems consultancy specialising in Aviator's Night Vision Imaging System (ANVIS) integration in fixed- and rotary-wing platforms, Edward has accumulated over 3,000 hours in military aircraft and 8,500 commercial hours flying a number of aircraft, including the Airbus A340-300 and -600.
Moderator: Mike Gething
Editor, Jane’s Electro-Optic Systems
Michael J Gething has been an aviation/defence journalist and editor since 1973, when he joined the staff of the Royal Aeronautical Society's publication Aerospace. In October 1976, he moved to DEFENCE magazine where he spent 17 years, eight of them as Editor, before joining Jane's Information Group in December 1993 to edit Jane's Defence Systems Modernisation. In 1997, this evolved into Jane's Defence Upgrades. With the incorporation of JDU in International Defence Review in June 2003, he became IDR's Upgrades Editor and began work on Jane's Electro-Optic Systems. Since the re-organisation of the editorial department, he works through the Air Desk, contributing to the spread of Jane's defence titles as appropriate.
Between 1972 and 1979, Michael produced the aircraft modelling and aviation interest pages for Air Cadet News, newspaper of the Air Training Corps, in which he served as a Flying Officer in the Training Branch of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (1972–1986). He was also the last editor of the Airfix Magazine in 1993. Together with Günter Endres, he has produced three editions of Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide (the most recent appearing in July 2007), and among his other solo published works are Sky Guardians — the Air Defence of Great Britain, Air Power 2000 and F-15 Eagle.
An Associate Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Journalists, Michael also belongs to Air-Britain and the Air Power Association. He is married with a son (in the RAF) and a daughter and lives in deepest Sussex.
Sara Morgan
Publisher, Defence Equipment and Technology and Transport
Sara Morgan is Jane’s Publisher for the Defence Equipment and Technology and Transport portfolios. This includes the iconic Jane’s Fighting Ships and All the World’s Aircraft on the reference side, as well as International Defence Review, Navy International, Missiles and Rockets and Airport Review on the news side.
Sara graduated from Warwick University with a BA in English and European Literature and has pursued a career in business to business publishing over a number of years managing both product development and editorial functions at a senior level in Wolters Kluwer and latterly at Jane’s Information Group. At Jane’s Sara has recently spearheaded the launch of Jane’s Unmanned Ground Vehicles in a range of formats, which now forms part of the tripartite Unmanned Systems desk.