EngTech Visionary 2018: Alistair Cooper
Flight Lieutenant Alastair Cooper is the 2018 Engtech Visionary Award winner, having won the award for his “personal effort and commitment to promoting professional recognition by RAF aeronautical engineering technicians”.
“It was a big surprise,” he says. “And it was fantastic when the letter came through the post to be recognised by an institution outside of the Royal Air Force for the work that I have done.
“We have lots of internal honours awards, but being recognised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers is really fantastic.”
During his time working with young engineering technicians in the RAF, Alistair has overseen a 600% rise in professional registrations and he says the work he does is important for aligning the RAF with civilian standards.
“I see about 800 people coming through the school every year, and my work is about sowing the seeds with these apprentices and promoting the EngTech registration for the guys that come through our courses,” he says. “This work is important because it is great to see the RAF aligning itself with civilian standards.
“It reinforces with our technicians that they are at a level comparable to our civilian counterparts and it is also important for people when they leave the RAF as they retain those qualifications and it gives them an opportunity to look at what is out there [once they leave the RAF].”
Alongside his role of helping young engineers reach their full potential, Alistair still works as officer leading a team of engineering technicians, and he says he still enjoys using the problem solving skills that are needed for maintaining an operation-ready fleet of aircraft.
“I really like the problem solving side of my engineering work – getting into what’s going wrong, fixing it and putting in solutions and mitigations to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he says. “The engineering that we do is different to a manufacturing company, we maintain aircraft, and at the end of the day we need to know that the pilot can jump in the aircraft and fly safely, whether that be humanitarian work or on operational duties.”