Watch the TSR2 test flight

A test pilot for English Electric who had done important work introducing the Mach 2 Lightning fighter to the RAF, Jimmy Dell has his niche in aviation history as one of only three test pilots to have flown the TSR2 attack bomber. This was controversially cancelled by the Labour Government of Harold Wilson as part of defence cuts in 1965, after its first prototype had made only 24 flights. Of these Dell flew 12.

A high-speed strike bomber reported to be far in advance of anything else in existence at the time, the TSR2 was to be capable of Mach 2.5 in level flight and to be able to perform completely automatic sorties without visual reference. On only its fourteenth flight it had achieved Mach 1.2 without afterburning, and it later completely outpaced the Lightning that was acting as chase plane on only one afterburner, when the Lightning was operating reheat on both its engines. On another flight it had demonstrated its terrain-hugging capabilities by making a high-speed pass at 200ft.

Although the aircraft had considerable teething problems, with aspects of its technology being competely unproven, its cancellation was nevertheless regarded within the aviation community as being a body blow to the British aeronautics industry. In order to ensure that the project was not revived, partly completed airframes were scrapped, all tooling was cut up with blow torches, and technical publications on it were ordered to be destroyed. “We were devastated when it was cancelled, as we knew we had a world beater,” said Dell some years later. “It was a great privilege to fly it.”

Born in Liverpool in 1924, James Leonard Dell joined the RAF in 1942 and did his basic flying training in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe). He spent the remainder of the war there as an advanced flying instructor.

After the war he tested many of the early jet types, including the Gloster Meteor and the De Havilland Venom, and later the Hawker Hunter. In the 1950s he led an RAF team in the US and there tested a number of the first supersonic generation of jet fighters that emerged in the decade, including the F100 Super Sabre, the F104 Starfighter and the F105 Thunderchief. In France he evaluated the Mystère 4 and Mirage 3.

In 1957 he was detached as Fighter Command liaison officer to English Electric where he worked on the air fighting development of the Lightning, an important role in bringing this awesomely fast jet into effective squadron service.

In 1959 he retired from the RAF with the rank of wing commander, and was appointed English Electric's deputy chief test pilot, working under the wartime fighter ace and chief test pilot Roland Beamont, who was to make the first flights in the TSR2 in 1964. Dell made the last flight of the TSR2 on March 31, 1965, a week before its cancellation was announced. He was appointed OBE later that year.

Beamont retired in June 1965 from what had by then become the British Aircraft Corporation, and Dell succeeded him as chief test pilot. He subsequently worked on such projects as the Saudi Lightning programme and the Anglo-French Jaguar collaboration.

He finally became director of flight operations responsible for all the test flight activities connected with the Tornado in the UK, Germany and Italy. He retired from BAC in 1989.

In 2005, at the Imperial War Museum Duxford, he and Don Knight, who had made two test flights in TSR2, took part in the unveiling of a TSR2 prototype, XR222, which had never flown and had been restored for the museum's AirSpace building.

His wife Marjorie and his elder son, Keith, predeceased him. He is survived by his younger son, Kevin.

Wing Commander Jimmy Dell, OBE, test pilot, was born on August 23, 1924. He died on March 25, 2008, aged 83