Aerobility supports John McFall in his journey heading towards space

A Hampshire doctor who could become the world's first astronaut with a physical disability is preparing for his ground-breaking mission by learning to fly.

John McFall, 44, has returned to Hampshire to train with Aerobility at Blackbushe Airport, taking a break from his astronaut training at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany.

The former NHS surgeon, who worked across hospitals in Basingstoke, Winchester, Southampton and Portsmouth, moved to Germany in 2023 after being selected by the European Space Agency for a pioneering study on astronauts with physical disabilities.

In 2024, he achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first person with a physical disability to be medically cleared for long-duration missions to the International Space Station.

After losing his right leg in a motorcycle accident at 19, he channelled his determination into sport, winning bronze in the 100m sprint at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics before qualifying as a doctor.

Now the father of three is working towards his Private Pilot's Licence with Aerobility, a charity that helps people with disabilities learn to fly.

John, who works for the UK Space Agency, said: “It’s great being back in the UK and back down here in Hampshire. I haven’t been back in Hampshire for this length of time since I moved to Germany a couple of years ago. The weather has been really kind to me which means I’ve had loads of opportunity to get flying this summer, which has been great.”

He began training with Aerobility in June and hopes to have completed his Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL) by October.

John said: “Aerobility have given me a huge amount of confidence in my journey to being able to fly light aircraft and that's what's so important about that opportunity, about learning to fly - that freedom, that independence that you get from doing that. Aerobility provide a platform for people who may not think they have the potential to fly because they have a disability and all of a sudden they can get into an aircraft, learn to fly, and that's a huge confidence builder for them. So for me it's been a great challenge and a great confidence builder.”

Aerobility’s Chief Flying Instructor Al Rosser said: “It’s been really fun teaching John. He has come here with a real mission, and that’s to try and understand a little bit about airmanship, decision making, priorities, hand-eye coordination, communication – all the good things that they’re looking for in the astronaut programme. And learning how to fly has given him an opportunity to see that at the very lowest, basic level.

“Obviously John has come here with a prosthetic on his right leg which means that we’ve had to adapt the way that we fly with him, as we do with everybody else – everyone comes with a unique challenge. So although our aeroplanes are adapted for people with no lower limb mobility and we can use a hand control for the foot operated rudder peddles we can work out how it works for John, with the angles, the size of his body and where the peddles are etc, so it’s been really fun trying to find what works for him.”

Neil Tucker, a Trustee for Aerobility, added: “This is the first time we’ve trained an astronaut but it’s not the first time we’ve had an astronaut with us. Buzz Aldrin opened our hangar in 2015 and Buzz is also a patron of the charity. So we do have space in our DNA.”

Looking ahead John said: “The dream now is to go to space, to be assigned to a mission. So now, the feasibility study has been a success we are in the mission ready phase, getting myself to a stage where should a mission become available, I am assignable to such a mission.”

Aerobility on the BBC supporting John’s journey