Tim Ellison

Tim’s life was changed forever in 1992 after the RAF pilot was involved in a horrific accident from which he was lucky to emerge alive. The engine failed in his Harrier jump-jet as it hovered at RAF Wittering, and after plunging 120ft to the ground it erupted in flames. Tim was left with a spine shattered in five places, both legs and ankles broken and, when he did regain consciousness after two weeks, doctors said he’d never walk or fly again. Confined to a wheelchair in a paraplegic state, they were right on one count. But with phenomenal perseverance, Tim went to the USA to learn to fly a specially adapted aircraft. Having obtained his top-flight Airline Transport Pilot’s Licence he worked as a forest firefighting pilot before setting off on his round-the-world flight – the first disabled British pilot ever to complete one – covering 30,000 miles at the controls. Later on in 2012, and inspired by the Paralympic Games in London that year, Tim achieved another airborne feat when he became Europe’s first hot air balloon pilot with a major disability, for which he co-designed a specially adapted chair in place of a basket.