22nd April 1944 - 22nd July 2024. Air Marshal Sir Peter Norriss, an RAF Club Member of over 57 years, has died aged 80. He tested the Prince of Wales during his flying training before flying Buccaneer and Tornado aircraft. He went on to fill senior appointments in the MoD operational requirements directorate and the procurement executive.

 

By the time Norriss joined his first operational squadron, he had already established himself as an excellent pilot and flying instructor. As a member of Cambridge University Air Squadron, he was awarded the Hack Trophy as the best aerobatic pilot, his highly experienced flying instructor during his basic flying training assessed him as the best student he had taught, and later, when he was a flying instructor, in competition with fellow instructors, his aerobatic display won him the Wright Jubilee Trophy. With these achievements in the flying training environment, Norriss went on to become an excellent operational pilot in the strike attack role in Germany and in the UK.

 

The youngest of three boys, all of whom served with distinction as RAF pilots, Peter Coulson Norriss was born on April 22, 1944, in Bolton, Lancashire. After his family moved to east Yorkshire, he was educated at Beverley Grammar School where he was head boy and became a Queen Scout.  He read Modern Languages at Magdalene College, Cambridge where he joined the University Air Squadron. 

 

He joined the RAF in 1966 and immediately after gaining his pilot’s “wings”, he was selected to attend the Central Flying School to train as a flying instructor. On completion of the course, he trained flight cadets at the RAF College Cranwell.  During this period, he tested the then Prince of Wales, who was undergoing his pilot training at the College, on his navigation test which he assessed as “above average”. He continued to enjoy aerobatics and was a member of the College display team, the Poachers, and was the solo aerobatic display pilot.

 

It was common practice at the time that those who had been instructors on their first appointment were able to choose their next flying appointment.  Norriss’ father had been a production manager during the build of the Buccaneer at the Blackburn factory at Brough so, in 1971, Norriss elected to fly the Buccaneer.  

 

After completing his conversion to the strike/attack aircraft, he was posted to join No. XV Squadron based at Laarbruch on the Dutch-German border.  This was the first of three tours on the Buccaneer.

 

In September 1974 he was appointed the chief flying instructor (CFI) of the Buccaneer conversion unit based at Honington in Suffolk. In addition to training RAF students, Royal Navy pilots and observers attended the various courses. During his two years he was the official Buccaneer display pilot. For his services as the CFI, he was awarded the AFC.

 

After attending the RAF Staff College and serving as the personal assistance to the Under Secretary of State (RAF), initially James Wellbeloved followed by Geoffry Pattie, he returned to Laarbruch in April 1980 to take command 16 Squadron.  Nine months later, the Buccaneer force was grounded following an aircraft fatigue failure resulting in the loss of the two-man crew.  This was a testing time for a Buccaneer squadron commander as the future of the aircraft remained in the balance for some months.  Despite the uncertain integrity of the Buccaneer airframe, Norriss was required to maintain an aircraft at 15 minutes readiness in the nuclear role.  The squadron acquired several Hunter aircraft, and these were used to maintain the currency of the aircrew until the Buccaneer was cleared to fly again in July 1980.

 

In June 1982 he was tasked to provide a four-aircraft formation for the flypast to commemorate HM the Queen’s official 56th birthday flypast at the NATO headquarters at Rheindahlen.  Encouraged by this “requirement”, he formed and led the RAF’s only ever Buccaneer display team, which he called the “Black Saints” to commemorate the squadron’s formation at St Omer during the First World War.  The formation team performed at several air displays across Germany.

 

Under Norriss’ leadership, 16 Squadron deployed from Laarbruch to Exercise Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base in Arizona, without air-to-air refuelling, crossing the Atlantic from St Mawgan in Cornwall to Gander in Newfoundland via the Azores. The final leg from a base in Texas to Nellis was completed at low level and took the aircraft along the length of the Grand Canyon, before arriving in a diamond nine formation to impress their USAF hosts.

 

In January 1984, Norriss became Head of the RAF Presentation Team before assuming command of Marham in Norfolk, the home of two Tornado strike/attack squadrons and the Victor air-to-air refuelling force.  A popular station commander, he became operational on the Tornado and converted to the Victor, his first experience of flying a four-engine aircraft.  He was appointed ADC to the Queen.

 

In 1988, he returned to London where he started a long association with the world of procurement.  He served two consecutive appointments on MoD’s operational requirements staffs as both a group captain and an air commodore.  As Director of Operational Requirements, he became heavily involved in implementing a series of “urgent operational requirements” for all aircraft deployed for the First Gulf War.  Most notable was the installation of secure radios compatible with US forces, many electronic detection and counter measure systems and significant upgrading of helicopter engine protection to cope with the hostile sand environment.  The deployment of a thermal imaging airborne laser designating system, and the accelerated introduction of the air-launched anti-radiation missile (ALARM) were key operational enhancements.  The need to work closely with industry for the incorporation of these highly effective measures was a vital contribution to the eventual success of the operation. 

 

Norriss was surprised to be sent as a Director-General to the MOD Procurement Executive in 1991. By his own admission he had “no experience and no engineering or scientific experience”, and this influenced his views on the need for a more structured approach to RAF careers for those destined to fill key and important posts in these increasingly political, and treasury driven, appointments which also had a strong industrial foundation. He later commented; “The bottom line for me is that, despite the importance of equipment, the RAF did not attach sufficient importance to procurement appointments, and so projects often suffered.”

 

After attending the Harvard Business School, Norriss re-joined the Procurement Executive in November 1995 as Director General Aircraft Systems.  On promotion in October 1996, he became Controller Aircraft (CA) and Deputy Chief of Defence Procurement (Operations).  For the latter, he was responsible for procuring equipment for all three services and as CA he was a member of the Air Force Board responsible for delivering an airworthy aircraft to the services. 

 

Following retirement from the RAF in 2001, he undertook several reviews for the Office of Government Commerce. He was the non-executive chairman of Microturbo Ltd (later Turbomeca UK) from 2001 to 2007 and was a non-executive director of Chemring Group PLC. 

 

Norriss was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and served on several committees before being elected as president for 2003-04. This coincided with the 100th Anniversary of the first flight in 1903 by the Wright Brothers, an event that generated numerous additional engagements to his busy schedule.

 

Norriss never lost his love of flying and in 2003 he joined No 3 Air Experience Flight as a flying officer where he spent the next eight years giving air cadets an introduction to flying.

 

He was a founder member of the Buccaneer Aircrew Association and for over 30 years barely missed an annual reunion. He became president in 2015.  In May this year, despite the ravages of cancer, he presided at the association’s dinner in London and delivered a courageous and inspiring address.

 

A keen golfer, he arranged numerous meetings of his Buccaneer colleagues over the years and organised charity matches to raise money for Hope and Homes for Children and for the RAF Benevolent Fund. His other work to support charities included being a founding member of “Tickets for Troops” and he was the president of Guide Dogs for the Blind in the Bath area. A keen skier, he insisted on joining the annual family skiing holiday earlier this year.

 

Norriss was a highly professional pilot, a determined leader who commanded with a firm but relaxed manner.  He possessed an incisive and analytical intellect, which, allied to his sound common sense, proved invaluable at high-level meetings. He was appointed CB (1996) and KBE (2000).

Sir Peter Norriss died on 22nd July 2024. He married Lesley McColl in 1971, and she survives him with their two sons and daughter.