Fernando Alonso was named as Head of Military Aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space on 29 January 2015 and took up the position on 1 March 2015. He is a member of the Airbus Defence and Space Executive Committee and on 1 July 2015 was appointed to the Group Executive Committee. Previously he was Senior Vice President Flight and Integration Tests, Head of Flight Operations since September 2007, and, before that, Vice President Flight Test Division since February 2002.
 
Fernando Alonso began his professional career with McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach, California in 1979 as a performance engineer in the company’s flight test department. Three years later, he joined Airbus as a performance engineer in the flight division.
 
While remaining with Airbus, he graduated as a flight test engineer at l’Ecole du Personnel Navigant d’Essais et de Réception (EPNER) in 1990, and then became a flight test engineer responsible for aircraft performance of the A330, A340 and A321.
 
Between 1995 and 2002, Fernando was responsible for the development of flight controls and handling qualities during the flight test programmes of the A319, A330- 200, A340-500 and A340-600. Subsequently, he was deeply involved in the organisation and coordination of the flight test campaign of the A380.
 
During a career at Airbus that has spanned more than 30 years, Fernando has accumulated more than 4,300 hours of flight tests. He was a flight test engineer on the maiden flights of A340-200 in 1992, the A319 in 1997, the A380 in April 2005 and most recently the A350 XWB in June 2013.
 
Born in Madrid, Spain in 1956, he obtained a degree from the Polytechnic University of Aeronautical Engineers in Madrid in 1979. He is a keen skier and tennis player. He and his family are also actively involved in the French charity Pour un Sourire d’Enfant, fundraising and organising summer camps for underprivileged children who live in a municipal dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
 
Fuente: www.airbus.com