About Dr Victoria Taylor

At a Glance

✈ Award-winning aviation historian - specialises in the Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe (interwar/WWII); has also covered USAAF history & WWI air forces (Luftstreitkräfte/Royal Flying Corps)

✈ Seasoned media professional - has appeared in dozens of historical TV and radio documentaries for the BBC, Channels 4 and 5, the Smithsonian Channel, National Geographic, ZDF, History Hit, SBS Australia)

✈Unique skillset - was formally trained in TV presenting; professional experience in script-writing and narrating for radio programmes; has experience in assistant producing for documentaries; German language skills

✈ Accomplished writer - author of the much-anticipated Eagle Days (coming 2025); frequent contributor to magazines such as BBC History Extra, History of War, Britain at War and Iron Cross magazines; has also published academic book chapters, articles & reviews

✈ Renowned historical consultant - has advised on historical airpower for exhibitions (the RAF Benevolent Fund, the Imperial War Museum); historical projects (military and historical charities, air marshals, Spitfire AA810 Project in the House of Lords); Ambassador for the National Spitfire Project & the RAF Charitable Trust.

✈ Highly requested public speaker - has appeared at a number of history festivals (Chalke Valley, We Have Ways Fest, Chelsea History Festival) and spoken at a number of institutions (Imperial War Museum Duxford, RAF Museum, House of Lords, Caledonian Club, All Souls College Oxford, Royal Aeronautical Society)

Full Bio

Dr Victoria Taylor, BA (Hons), MRes, AFHEA is an award-winning aviation historian, broadcaster and writer who completed her PhD thesis on the Luftwaffe and National Socialism in the Third Reich at the University of Hull and Sheffield Hallam University. Her main historical focus is on British and German aviation during the interwar period and the Second World War. In recognition of her PhD research, she was awarded the 2020 Royal Air Force Museum Doctoral Academic Prize in 2021.

She also completed her Masters in Historical Research (MRes) on Britain’s wartime and post-war mythologization of Operation CHASTISE – better known as the ‘Dambusters raid’ – at Hull, for which she was awarded the Royal Air Force Museum’s RAF Centenary Master’s Academic Prize in 2019. In 2020, Victoria served as narrator, co-writer, and historical consultant on ‘Inside the Battle of Britain’: the second series of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund podcast series ‘All Stations’.

This five-part series was nominated for a Best Independent Podcast award by the Radio Academy in 2021. She has contributed to popular history magazines such as BBC History Extra, Iron Cross Magazine and Britain at War, along with publishing in academic journals and volumes. Her work has spanned everything from traditional airpower subjects and military aircraft, to aviation diplomacy, combat motivation, and the ethics of aerial bombardment.

Since 2018, she has widely featured as an onscreen and offscreen expert in history documentaries made for BBC Two, Channel 4, Channel 5, the Smithsonian Channel, History Hit, National Geographic, and SBS Australia. In 2020, she presented and co-wrote a programme on Supermarine's development of the Spitfire for BBC Radio 4 (‘Spitfire: From The Ashes’), in addition to serving as an expert contributor alongside Diane Morgan and Matthew Parris for the 'Great Lives' episode on Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding.

More recently, she served as an assistant producer, historical consultant, and on-screen expert for Series 11 of the Smithsonian Channel’s flagship aviation programme ‘Air Warriors’. A clear reflection of her passion for breaking new ground within historical programming is illustrated by her recent venture into creating her own exclusive online content: ‘Afterburners™’. This project was launched in June 2024 - transforming ten of her previous academic lectures on various airpower history subjects into a uniquely immersive audiobook series.

Victoria sits on the Advisory Board for the cross-party Spitfire AA810 restoration project in the House of Lords and is an Assistant Editor for the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Journal of Aeronautical History. She formerly lectured in the Department of History at the University of Hull, before moving to the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London in 2023. There, she delivered teaching on historical and contemporary air power to junior RAF officers as part of the Joint Services Command and Staff College courses at the Defence Academy, Shrivenham. She is an Ambassador for both the National Spitfire Project and the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust.

Victoria is available to take on media and public appearances, journalism and print commissions, consultancy work and archival research. For all consultancy and archival work, please contact her directly using the ‘Contact’ tab at the top of the page or DM her on Twitter at @SpitfireFilly. For all press and media enquiries, she is represented by the esteemed London-based agency Georgina Capel Associates - please follow this link to find their contact details: https://georginacapel.com/authors/victoria-taylor