Frank Samuel Preston

After house jobs Frank joined the Royal Navy, serving on aircraft carriers in the Far East. This experience forged his fascination with aviation medicine. On demobilisation he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, rising to the rank of surgeon captain, which led to his appointment as honorary physician to the Queen.

Following a brief dalliance with anaesthetics Frank opted for a career in occupational medicine, joining British European Airways (BEA), as it then was, as a junior medical officer with responsibilities for, among other things, aircrew health and safety. At a time of enormous expansion and technical development in air travel he embraced the health problems of both aircrew and passengers on long distance and high altitude flights and became an international authority on aviation medicine. Rising steadily through the hierarchy at British Airways he was finally appointed director of medical services, retiring in 1988.

During his career with BA he was seconded to the Concorde project in Toulouse to assess the possible effects of cosmic radiation and other hazards of high altitude on commercial flights. His applied research work also dealt with the more mundane problems of long distance travel, including the effects of time zone and climate changes, the incidence of food poisoning, the need for multiple immunisation, the frequency and duration of rest periods, the internal environment of aircraft, and the effects of ageing, injury, and illness on pilot performance. In these situations he was ever the pilots' friend, seeking to reduce stress, to improve performance, and to ease retirement, if that became necessary.

He travelled widely, visiting almost every country in the world and was as well known in aeronautical circles in Bangkok or Sydney as he was in Washington or Paris. In the United States he was vice president of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine and a fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association. He was also elected a fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society—an uncommon honour for a medical man.

He leaves a wife, Margaret; one son; and two daughters.

Frank Samuel Preston, former director of medical services British Airways (b Glasgow 1923; q Glasgow 1947; OBE, VRD, FFOM) died from carcinomatosis on 14 August 2003.