{{Short description|British test pilot}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}} {{Use British English|date=January 2018}} {{Infobox aviator |name = Jimmy Dell |full_name = James Leonard Dell |birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1924|08|23}} |birth_place = Liverpool, United Kingdom |death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2008|03|25|1924|08|23}} |known_for = The BAC TSR-2 test programme |air_force = Royal Air Force |rank = Wing Commander }}
Wing Commander '''James Leonard Dell''' OBE (23 August 1924 – 25 March 2008) was a British test pilot. He is best remembered for his involvement in the BAC TSR-2 test programme, being one of only three test pilots to fly the aircraft before the project was scrapped in 1965.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080517081808/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3668875.ece Wing Commander Jimmy Dell | Times Online Obituary<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
James Dell (known as Jimmy Dell) was born in Liverpool in 1924 and joined the Royal Air Force in 1942. After pilot training in Rhodesia he became a flight instructor. Dell remained in the RAF until 1959, retiring with the rank of wing commander, to join English Electric as their deputy chief test pilot.
Dell appeared in a 1962 episode of "Look at Life", in which his work as a test pilot is portrayed.<ref>{{Citation|title=Look at Life Vol 2 Military Test Pilot 1962|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UGykxVtNQ8|language=en|access-date=2021-04-21}}</ref>
Dell, along with chief test pilot Roland Beamont, was responsible for the TSR-2 test programme until it was controversially cancelled by the then Labour Government in 1965. Following Beamont's retirement in 1965, Dell became BAC's chief test pilot, and was later involved in the Jaguar and Panavia Tornado projects. He retired as director of flight operations for British Aerospace in 1989.
Jimmy Dell died on 25 March 2008.
==References== {{Reflist}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080517081808/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3668875.ece Obituary: ''Times''] *[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/2044882/Wing-Commander-Jimmy-Dell.html Obituary: ''Telegraph''] * https://web.archive.org/web/20100125160620/http://www.airsceneuk.org.uk/hangar/2006/tsr2/tsr2.htm
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dell, Jimmy}} Category:1924 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Military personnel from Liverpool Category:Royal Air Force wing commanders Category:British World War II pilots Category:English test pilots Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire Category:British expatriates in Southern Rhodesia