Caymanian Brian Walters always dreamt of flying and today the 24-year-old is reaching new heights as a flight test engineer at aircraft powerhouse Bombardier.
Walters, originally from Savannah in Grand Cayman, joined the Bombardier team in March and has been working on the company’s new Global 8000 private jet.
“The aircraft can go to 51,000 feet and I was able to go up there for the test, and going up so high, you actually get a special pin… So that was pretty cool and very rewarding,” he said.
Walters was part of the test team on the first fully configured flight for the Global 8000.
“That flight was almost seven hours in the air, so it was a nice long flight testing,” he told the Cayman Compass in a recent Zoom interview.
According to aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, the Global 8000 is the world’s fastest and longest-range purpose-built business jet.
Walters, who said he could not share more about the work he has been doing on the aircraft due to commercial sensitivity, said looking at where he has landed in his career he could not help but be grateful.
“I’m still early in my career and I can’t wait to see what’s to come,” he said.
A passion for aviation
Walters said he has been fascinated with flying since he was a child.
“Aviation is a passion for me. I just love it. Growing up in Cayman just looking at the planes taking off I just gravitated to it even at such a young age. As I grew, I just wanted to learn so much about it. That’s why I chose the aerospace route and the flying route,” he said.
Walters attended the University College of the Cayman Islands and then earned his private pilot’s licence before completing a bachelor’s degree in 2021 in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology. The following year, he earned a master’s degree in flight test engineering, also at FIT.
Flight scholarship
He knew his path to the cockpit would be expensive, he said, and though he worked hard to turn his dream into a reality, he needed additional financial support.
He received that extra help from the Zak Quappé Flight Scholarship.
Walters was among the last to receive the benefit of the scholarship that was set up by family and friends of the young flight instructor, who tragically lost his life in 2013.
It was an emotional moment for JetBlue pilot and mentor Jeff McGlashan as he reflected on how Quappé’s passion for flying eventually led to Walters’s achievements.
“I think Zak would be more than pleased and honoured by where the scholarship took these students from start to finish,” he said.
“The importance of it all… it’s having that passion and having that ability to fly and giving the opportunity to somebody who’s deserving of it. That’s the legacy, that’s the gift… being able to pass that torch along,” McGlashan said.
He added that both he and the Quappé family, who worked together on the scholarship, are proud of it and what it represented. McGlashan donated to the fund through Trees4Life, which he founded with his wife Kelly.
McGlashan was also part of the Cayman Islands Flying Club through which students participate in a “discovery flight” to determine if they want to pursue flying.
He described the flight as a first opportunity in “a real aircraft to take the wheel and fly here”. Though one must pay to take the 30-45 minute flight, it offers a chance “to be able to get up into the air and test your wings, if you will”, McGlashan said.
Walters took that flight and McGlashan said from the get-go, he knew flying was what the student wanted to do.
“Brian was so young and eager and hungry to fly… now here he is out in Wichita, Kansas, which is a mecca for aviation in the US, working for Bombardier as a flight test engineer,” he said, adding that Walters is also working as a flight instructor on the side.
“[He is] doing exactly what I was doing 10 years ago. It’s humbling and it’s quite honouring to be able to be a part of that,” McGlashan said.
He also expressed pride in the Clifton Hunter Flight Club, which received the remainder of the Zak Quappé scholarship fund last year.
Walters, who was also part of the Clifton Hunter club, said he wants to pay it forward with the blessings he received by giving back to local students.
He credits the support he had from his parents Marcia Robinson-Walters and Hopeton ‘Denny’ Walters, along with the scholarship team, for pushing him to be the best.
His advice for young Caymanians looking to a career in aviation is simple – work hard and do not give up.
“You’re going to have roadblocks. There’s days I felt like ‘This is a waste of time… why am I doing all this?’ I did not see the outcome of what [was] to come,” he said, adding that if someone told him a year ago that he would be flight testing the world’s fastest jet at high altitudes, he would not have believed it.
“You just don’t see it. But just take it day by day. Learn as much as you can and then just focus on your goals and just go through the process,” he said.
Related Videos
