Editing Gary Numan (section)

== Aviation career ==
Numan joined the Air Training Corps as a teenager, when he wanted to be either a pilot or a pop star. In 1978, he started learning to fly at [[Blackbushe Airport]], but the success of his music career in 1979 meant that obtaining his pilot's licence was delayed until 17 December 1980.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/443479/Who-d-have-thought-it-Gary-Numan-loves-taking-a-flight-of-fancy|title=Who'd have thought it…Gary Numan loves taking a flight of fancy|last=Numan|first=Gary|date=17 November 2013|website=Daily Express|language=en|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927124932/https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/443479/Who-d-have-thought-it-Gary-Numan-loves-taking-a-flight-of-fancy|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="numanme1">{{cite web|url=http://www.numanme.co.uk/numanme/Numanair.htm|title=Numanair|website=numanme.co.uk|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927124930/http://www.numanme.co.uk/numanme/Numanair.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The following day; 18 December 1980, Numan bought his first aeroplane for £12,000; a [[Cessna 182 Skylane]]. On 1 July 1981, Numan founded Numanair, a small charter flight company operating from Blackbushe, and acquired a [[Cessna 210 Centurion]] (registered G-OILS) and a [[Piper PA-31 Navajo]] (registered G-NMAN). He also indulged his passion for motor racing in 1981 by sponsoring Mike Mackonochie who drove a [[Van Diemen]] RF81 in Numanair livery in the [[Formula Ford]] 1600 class.<ref name="numanme1"/>

In November and December 1981, Numan successfully flew around the world in his Piper PA-31 Navajo with co-pilot Bob Thompson on their second attempt. The first attempt, in the Cessna 210 Centurion, had ended in India with Numan and Thompson being arrested on suspicion of smuggling and spying.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/9386584/World-of-Gary-Numan-musician.html|title=World of Gary Numan, musician|last=Dehn|first=Georgia|journal=The Daily Telegraph|date=9 July 2012|access-date=27 September 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0307-1235|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927124929/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/9386584/World-of-Gary-Numan-musician.html|url-status=live}}</ref> This aircraft was written off on 29 January 1982 when it ran out of fuel near Southampton and made a forced landing while Numan was a passenger.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/9386584/World-of-Gary-Numan-musician.html|title=World of Gary Numan, musician Singer Gary Numan talks to Georgia Dehn about his daily routine, flying around the world in his Piper Navajo and the importance of marriage|last=Dehn|first=Georgia|date=9 July 2012|website=The Telegraph|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927124929/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/9386584/World-of-Gary-Numan-musician.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=166739|title=Incident Cessna T210L G-OILS, 29 Jan 1982|last=Ranter|first=Harro|website=aviation-safety.net|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927124947/https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=166739|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1984, Numan bought a [[North American T-6 Texan|Harvard T-6]] trainer aircraft registered G-AZSC and had the aircraft painted to resemble a Japanese [[Mitsubishi A6M Zero|"Zero" fighter]]. He also gained a display pilot's licence and flew the machine on the UK air display circuit. He and friend Norman Lees, who also owned a Harvard, formed the Radial Pair, performing synchronised aerobatics from the 1992 air display season. Later they teamed up with other Harvard owners to fly up to five aircraft as the Harvard Formation Team<ref name="postcards-from-slough1">{{cite web|url=http://www.postcards-from-slough.co.uk/home/slough-s-famous-people/gary-numan/|title=Postcards from Slough – Gary Numan|website=postcards-from-slough.co.uk|language=en|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927170318/http://www.postcards-from-slough.co.uk/home/slough-s-famous-people/gary-numan/|url-status=live}}</ref> with Numan choreographing their aerobatic routines.<ref name="NumanHarvardT6">{{cite web|last1=Turner|first1=Luke|title=GARY NUMAN: A MAGNIFICENT MAN AND HIS FLYING MACHINES|url=https://www.t6harvard.com/uk-harvards/g-azsc/|website=T6 Harvard Ltd.|publisher=Sysgage|access-date=27 January 2023|archive-date=27 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127010917/https://www.t6harvard.com/uk-harvards/g-azsc/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Numan held licences for piston and turbine helicopters and had a fixed wing multi engined rating. He was an aerobatic flying instructor and was appointed by the [[Civil Aviation Authority (United Kingdom)|Civil Aviation Authority]] as an air display pilot evaluator.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.numanme.co.uk/numanme/Radial-Pair-display-team.htm|title=Radial Pair display team|website=numanme.co.uk|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=27 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190927200856/http://www.numanme.co.uk/numanme/Radial-Pair-display-team.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> Then in 2005, after several of his friends and colleagues were killed in unrelated flying accidents, he gave up flying. In an interview in 2009 he said "I loved going to air shows, you'd bond really tightly with your team mates – it's an extreme thing to be doing, and you trust your life to them. And then it ended. I'd turn up and not know anyone. It got depressing. I'd sit down in the pilot's tent and there'd be all these people I'd not recognise. You'd look forward to someone turning up to have a chat with them, and they'd be dead."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thequietus.com/articles/03240-gary-numan-interview-pilot-a-magnificant-man-and-his-flying-machines|title=Things I Have Learned {{!}} Gary Numan: A Magnificent Man And His Flying Machines|website=The Quietus|date=17 November 2009|language=en-us|access-date=27 September 2019|archive-date=4 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230704150302/https://thequietus.com/articles/03240-gary-numan-interview-pilot-a-magnificant-man-and-his-flying-machines|url-status=live}}</ref>

Numanair continued operating but after 31 years, with Numan and his family emigrating to the US, it was dissolved on 18 June 2013.<ref name="postcards-from-slough1"/>