Airwork E-Book

Keith McCloskey

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 606

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Airwork Ltd/Airwork Services, now owned by VT group plc, has a long and distinguished history. It played an important role in defence support services to the RAF, Fleet Air Arm and overseas air forces, as well as in the development of civil aviation. Created at Heston in 1928, it maintained Whitley bombers and de Havilland Tiger Moths in the 1930s and established the precursors of the post-WW2 airlines of Egypt, India and Rhodesia. Post-war it was the first airline to be awarded a troop flying contract and expanded into civil aviation, developing flights to Africa and the US. The main independent airline in the 1950s, it became part of British United Airways in 1960, also establishing many airlines around the world, including Deutsche Flugdienst (Condor), Misr-Airwork (Egyptair), and the Sudanese National Airline. Here Keith McCloskey presents the first history of this important airline and reveals its impact on aviation history.

Leseprobe

AIRWORK

AIRWORK

A HISTORY

KEITH MCCLOSKEY

For my daughtersAmelia, Camilla, Laura

Cover illustrations. Front, top: AS.4 Ferry G-ACFB (via Peter Amos);front, below: A Vickers Viking at the Gatwick open day, 10 July 1948(Royal Aero Club). Back: Spitfire F.22s and a de Havilland Hornet atGatwick, c. 1952 (Tom Pharo via Air Britain)

First published in 2012

The History Press

The Mill, Brimscombe Port

Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 2QG

www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2013

All rights reserved

© Keith McCloskey, 2012, 2013

The right of Keith McCloskey to be identified as the Author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 9459 3

Original typesetting by The History Press

CONTENTS

Foreword

Acknowledgements

EARLY DAYS

1   Airwork’s Founders

2   Company Development

3   Associated Companies

4   Heston

5   Whitchurch

6   Barton

7   Gatwick

AIRLINE & ASSOCIATED CIVIL ACTIVITIES

8   622 Squadron RAuxAF

9   Blackbushe

10   Airwork Atlantic

11   Deutsche Flugdienst GmbH

12   Fison-Airwork

OVERSEAS

13   Aden & Yemen

14   East Africa

15   Ecuador

16   Indian National Airways

17   Middle East Oil Work

18   Misr-Airwork

19   New Zealand

20   Nigeria

21   Oman

22   Rhodesia

23   Saudi Arabia

24   Sudan

RAF, RN, ARMY TRAINING & MAINTENANCE

25   Booker & Denham

26   Dunsfold

27   Flying Training: RAF, RN, ERFTS, EFTS, AONS

28   Hurn

29   Langley

30   Lasham

31   Loughborough

32   Perth AST 1936–91

33   RAF St Athan Tornado Contract

34   Renfrew

35   Ringway

36   Royal Navy Training

37   Speke

38   University Air Squadrons &Britannia Flight

MISCELLANEOUS

39   Miscellaneous Contracts

APPENDICES

Sources & Further Reading

FOREWORD

The story of Airwork and its numerous activities and undertakings is an extremely large one. So large, in fact, that many of the thirty-nine chapters in this book could be easily expanded into books in their own right. It is the story of the vision of two men, Alan Muntz and Nigel Norman, who saw that there was more to just flying planes for pleasure and taking passengers from one place to another. They were in the right place at the right time to capitalise on the huge public, commercial and military interest in flying, primarily by focusing on providing the facilities and opportunities for everything that was needed to get an aircraft into the air, from providing flying lessons to selling the aircraft to engineering support to even designing the airports they would use.

In interviews of former Airwork employees for this book (several in their eighties and nineties), time and again the same expression would be used: ‘Airwork were a cut above the rest.’ The pride of Airwork employees, from the apprentices of 1930s Heston to the ‘Airworkies’ of Saudi Arabia in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the ‘Thumrait Thuggies’ of the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s in Oman, is quite apparent.

Frederic Alan Irving Muntz 1899–1982. (Mrs Nicolette Baring)

Sir Henry Nigel St Valery Norman 1897–1943. (Sir Torquil Norman)

Some areas are well covered and there is little to add; I have drawn on the works done in these areas with the kind permission of their authors. I have also uncovered previously unpublished information gained from former Airwork employees and the private papers of Alan Muntz, very kindly provided by his youngest daughter Mrs Nicolette Baring, to whom I am deeply grateful. Overall what I have tried to do is to put together the first published account of Airwork from its beginnings to the present day and to include employees in that account. The company still exists and continues (mainly in Oman), although it has more or less passed into history.

Airwork became Britain’s largest immediate post-war airline; in a different political climate to the one in which they operated in the post-war era (i.e. one which did not suffocate private enterprise), one can only guess at what they might have achieved and what form the company would be in today without the dead hand of the state hampering virtually their every move.

Airwork had always been an organisation that involved itself in the social side of aviation. This was prevalent at both Heston and Misr-Airwork. Perhaps not quite as grand as some of the Heston or Cairo evenings, the annual Airwork dinner dances held for employees at the various depots were very much enjoyed by staff. Sports were another area in which employees showed great enthusiasm, from the Airwork Renfrew football team of the 1940s to the Airwork Rhodesia football team in the 1960s. Airwork Rhodesia presented the air force with a trophy for six-a-side soccer to be played for each year.

The book is also a tribute to men who worked in arduous conditions overseas and whose feelings can be summed up by one Airwork employee, Tony Allen, in Saudi Arabia in the early 1970s, who said:

I have to say that I did get home sick and lonely at times despite having made many friends. On occasion, two or three of us would stroll down to the Airport terminal building on a sultry evening, with no alcohol we would take our Mirandas and Seven-Ups to the viewing veranda and wait for the weekly arrival of BOAC’s VC10, a little reminder of England. We would watch the unlucky ones disembark and the lucky ones make their way across the apron to the luxury of the airliner in its smart blue and white livery and the speedbird logo on the tail fin. To see it lift off and climb away in the dusty evening sky was a melancholy feeling and did nothing to alleviate home sick blues.

Keith McCloskey

Berkshire

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I must firstly mention Mrs Nicolette Baring. Nicolette is the youngest daughter of Alan Muntz and she has given me complete access to her late father’s papers, diaries and photographs. Many mysteries were cleared up for me and this would have been a far lesser book without her kind and tireless help. I would also like to mention Louis Curl who has laid all the groundwork for an in-depth study of Airwork; John Hancock of Babcock International – the guardian of what little remains of Airwork’s history; and Alan Holloway who has kindly given me full access to his late father’s (Sydney Holloway) remarkable photographs and unpublished manuscript of his autobiography The Prototype Man: A Profile of S.A. Holloway and his Aviation 1932–1992.

I would like to thank Jennifer Scanlan for permission to reproduce some of the Ecuador chapter, John Havers for permission to reproduce the 1947 Taif Mission section, and R.A. Scholefield for the Barton and Sabre repair material. I would like to specially mention Major General Angus I. Ramsay CBE DSO and the Beit Trust for full access to their archives and their very kind financial assistance in the preparation of this book.

I have been given photos and help on a number of chapters from Peter Amos, Maurice Wickstead, Malcolm Fillmore; also Paul Becker for help with his late father’s work for the Alan Muntz design team, Carole Brooks for her kind help with RUAC and Zimbabwe, Bryan Collins for the labyrinth of Airwork company history and Fison-Airwork, John Odlin, Peter Gray, Helen King and Ted Weinel. Also, Neil Aird, Geoff Ambrose, Norman Anyon, Martin Val Baker (Valentine Baker’s grandson), Helen Balkwill-Clark, John Barnes, Rob Belcher, Sqn Ldr J. Blanche (RAuxAF Historian & Archivist), Peter Carter, Peter Casling, Tom Cooper, Madame Mimi Di Castro, Bob Crouden, Antoin Daltun, John Davis, Andrew Dawrant (Royal Aero Club), Ian Doig, Mike Draper, Karen Dunn (Crawley Observer), Allan Ellis, Peter Farrow, Anthony Fitzgerald, Barry Flahey, Peter Foster, Nick Gardner, Peter-Michael Gerhardt, Les Ginger, David Griffin, William Guinness (the son of Loel Guinness), Guy Halford-MacLeod, Mike Hamence, Peter Hamlin, Dave Hann, Reg Havers, Ian Hawkridge, Dave Homewood, Ray Hooper, Lester Hope, Rita Huggins (for her brilliant detective work), Tony Hyatt, Markham Jackson, G.A. Jones, Bjorn Larsson, Clive Laudham, Barry Leeming, Chrissy McMorris of The History Press, Dave Newnham, Sir Torquil Norman (son of Nigel Norman), Peter Norris, Robin Norton, Mike Phipp, Brian Powell, Bob Pugh, Eleanor Pulfer (Slough Museum), Douglas Revell, Air Vice Marshal Sir John Severne, Ray Shoebridge, John Skinner, Jonathan Smith (Archivist & Modern Manuscript Cataloguer, Trinity College, Cambridge), Peter Smith, Major Gary E. Sparks (Ret.), Brian Stead, Les Steel-Smith, Ron Tannock, Bill Taylor, Dennis ‘Rusty’ Theobald, Iain Todd, Phillip Treweek, William Turnbull, Steve Twigg (Marketing Director, Capita Symonds), Bill Van Heerden, Guy Warner, Dave Welch, Tom Wenham, Martin Wieuest and Allan G. Williams.

Also Carl Bastin and Leah Monahan for help with the technical side of PCs and photos, and Triona McCloskey for proof reading.

Last but not least, I want to mention two remarkable men who have provided valuable background: Joe Connolly and S.J. (John) Smith. Joe joined Airwork at Heston in 1938 and John joined the Alan Muntz Company in 1940. Joe is the last living person of the original batch of thirty-plus Airwork employees that went up to Renfrew from Heston on the day war broke out. John is also one of the very few left from that time and recalls being bought his first beer in the RAF mess in the Heston Jackaman Hangar by Squadron Leader A.E. Clouston.

EARLY DAYS

1

AIRWORK’S FOUNDERS

Both founders had followed similar paths: they went to Cambridge University; both served in the army in the Great War; both described themselves as engineers; and, importantly, both were fascinated by flying. In respect of flying, they were both involved in aviation tragedies, the first taking the life of Nigel Norman himself and the other taking the life of Alan Muntz’s son.

Before either of them had reached the age of 30, they both left secure, well-paid jobs to follow their vision. Despite their many detractors, their idea was to create the best aerodrome near London.

FREDERIC ALAN IRVING MUNTZ1

Alan Muntz was born on 7 June 1899 at Leek in Staffordshire. His parents were Albert Irving Muntz (who was an army major) and Jessica Challinor.

The Muntz family were émigrés who were persecuted landowners and aristocracy originally from Poland, and left that country to move to eastern France. With the French Revolution, the family again moved and settled in the Birmingham area. Alan Muntz’s great-grandfather and great-uncle were both Birmingham-based industrialists and Members of Parliament. George Frederic Muntz, his great-grandfather, was MP for Birmingham from 1840 until his death in 1857 and his great-uncle Philip Henry Muntz was also an MP for Birmingham from 1868 to 1885. Philip Muntz was the second mayor of Birmingham. George Muntz owned Muntz Rolling Mills which was very successful and Muntz steel plates were used in a wide variety of areas but particularly in sheathing ships’ bottoms. One notable ship that was sheathed in Muntz metal was the Cutty Sark. A report issued by the Cutty Sark Society on 31 December 1963 mentions the pressing problem of replacing the ‘wasted Muntz metal plates on the bottom of the ship’. These original plates had been on the vessel for eighty-five years. When replaced, sections of these original plates, along with engraved certificates, were sent to surviving members of the Muntz family including Alan Muntz, with each section carrying the original stamp of the Muntz name.

Alan Muntz attended Horris Hill prep school near Newbury followed by Winchester College where he performed well.

During the First World War Alan Muntz joined the Royal Engineers as a second lieutenant on 30 March 1918 and saw service in France. Although the war had interrupted the studies of many young men, he went on to study for a BA in Mechanical Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1919, gaining his degree in 1922. Previous to gaining his degree, an announcement in the London Gazette on 19 September 1921 stated he had relinquished his commission with the rank of second lieutenant. He had spent six weeks in the summer of 1920 undertaking practical work in the Horseley Bridge & Engineering Company in Tipton gaining engineering experience in the fitting shop, pattern shop and foundry.

During his time at Cambridge he was to meet two people who would become good friends and business partners, namely Nigel Norman and Roderick Denman. He was a classical scholar but unusually also possessed a keen mathematical mind which he put to good use in his engineering work. His profession in his passport was given as ‘Engineer’.

After gaining his degree, he joined the Anglo-Persian Oil Company on 18 September 1922 at their Croydon branch on a salary of £250 p.a. (per annum) during his training period. This position was arranged through the Appointments Board of Cambridge University. Upon completion of his training period he was appointed circuit manager at the Croydon branch on 30 April 1923, at a salary of £350 p.a. He went on within the Anglo-Persian Oil Company to work with the company (which later became the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company and then British Petroleum) in Basra, Iraq, gaining knowledge and contacts that would serve him well in future years. He left the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1928 to join Nigel Norman in building the Airwork organisation.

Family Life

Although he lived in a number of locations in Britain including London and Amport near Andover, he spent a large part of his early life (over twenty years) at Ecchinswell House near Newbury, where his father was closely involved in local life as a district councillor and vice-chairman of Kingsclere and Whitchurch Rural District Council (amalgamated into Basingstoke District Council in 1974) for many years, resigning in 1944. Alan Muntz himself had political ambitions in 1944 and entertained the idea of putting himself forward as a prospective Conservative MP in a constituency within reach of London. However, although he completed a candidate’s form, he never proceeded with the application.

He was married three times. His first marriage was to Mary Harnett in July 1923. They had three children: Scilla (b. 2 January 1925), Jasmine (b. 8 July 1927) and Colin Lee Irving (b. 23 March 1929). His son Colin was to follow Alan into aviation, gaining an RAeC (Royal Aero Club) Aviator’s Certificate (No. 26754) on 12 September 1950 at the London Aeroplane Club. Colin then joined the RAF and was posted to 600 (City of London) Squadron at Biggin Hill with the rank of flying officer. He was tragically killed in a flying accident near Chelsfield in Kent on 25 April 1953 at the age of 24. He was flying Gloster Meteor F.8 WF747 when the aircraft lost its hood and the ejector seat operated. The aircraft flew on but then dived into the ground. Colin Muntz was found in the ejector seat 7 miles away from the aircraft crash point. He is buried at Biggin Hill Cemetery (Grave No. 189).

Alan Muntz (right) with HRH Duchess of York, the late Queen Mother, at Heston during the King’s Cup Air Race in 1934. (Royal Aero Club)

Alan Muntz’s second marriage was to the daughter of the 7th Marquess of Londonderry, Lady Margaret Frances Anne Vane-Tempest-Stewart on 21 November 1934. Lord Londonderry was the Secretary of State for Air at this time. It was not a happy union and they divorced in 1939. The divorce caused a certain degree of animosity between Alan Muntz and his former father-in-law, particularly as Lord Londonderry had refused to give his permission for the marriage.

His third marriage and, as it turned out, his happiest, was to Marjorie Strickland in October 1948. His third wife was eighteen years younger than himself and had grown up in Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka). They had a daughter, Nicolette Mary Irving (b. 23 December 1950), and he also gained two stepsons (Anthony and Jonathan Fitzgerald) whose father had tragically died. It is a measure of the kind of man Alan was that he took on his new wife’s bereaved sons and brought them up as his own, paying for them to be educated at Ampleforth.

In his private life Alan Muntz was considered to be a quiet and gentle man by everybody who met him. He generally trusted everybody he met. It was often said that he was a gentleman in both senses of the word.

He enjoyed playing golf, becoming a member of Berkshire Golf Club, Ascot and Swinley Forest Golf Club, where he made a hole-in-one at the eighth hole on 15 April 1957, an achievement of which he was rightly proud.

Career

Alan had always been interested in aviation although his astigmatism had prevented him from joining the Royal Flying Corps. His attendance at the Light Aeroplane Show at Lympne in the summer of 1926 persuaded him to start flying. He became an associate (No. 19) of the Royal Aeronautical Society on 13 April 1926.

He learned to fly with the Henderson School of Flying at Brooklands in 1927, gaining A Licence No. 1534 on 5 August 1927, and bought his first aircraft the following year, DH.60X Moth G-EBWT, which he registered in March 1928. Alan Muntz flew as many visiting Heston aircraft as possible. He also had DH.60X Moth G-EBQH and DH.80A Puss Moth G-ABNC registered in his name.

He was a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

In 1954 he was awarded the silver medal of the Institute of Marine Engineering and in 1958 was admitted to the Freedom of the Guild of Airline Pilots and Air Navigation and to the Livery and Freedom of the City of London.

Final Years

Alan Muntz retired in 1974. He was an ardent Francophile and in his own words he ‘emigrated’ to France in early 1976 to live in Seillans in Fayence. In his final years he returned to live first at Amport near Andover and finally in Canon Street, Winchester, where he died of heart failure on 7 March 1985. He was cremated and buried at his beloved Winchester College at St Michael’s church, Culver Road, Winchester.

SIR HENRY NIGEL ST VALERY NORMAN2

Nigel Norman was an exceptionally gifted and driven man. Born in London on 21 May 1897, he was the only child of Rt Hon. Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet of Honeyhanger, Surrey, and Menie Muriel Dowie. He had a half-sister, Rosalind, and two half-brothers, Willoughby and Anthony, children of his father and his second wife, Lady Fay Aberconway. As well as being a former MP for Blackburn and a JP, his father, Sir Henry, had a number of aviation interests and was a founder member of the Royal Aero Club. He had also dined with the Wright brothers and was a member of 601 Squadron (Auxiliary Air Force) City of London. Both Nigel Norman’s mother and father were also writers and explorers.

He was educated at Horton School, Chipping Sodbury, before going on to Winchester in 1910.

Family Life

Nigel Norman himself became 2nd Baronet of Honeyhanger in 1939. He married Patricia Moira Annesley (the eldest daughter of Lieutenant Colonel William Annesley DSO CMG) in 1926 and they had three sons (Mark, Desmond and Torquil).

Each of his sons made their mark in aviation. His eldest son Mark (b. 8 February 1927 and who inherited the family title) flew with 601 Squadron as a pilot and later became sales director of Britten-Norman.

His second son Desmond (b. 13 August 1929) attended the de Havilland Technical School in 1947, where he met John Britten. He qualified as an aeronautical engineer in 1950 and completed his National Service in the RAF (including demonstrating the Gloster Meteor F.8 and serving in 601 Squadron, going on to SBAC as a test pilot). In 1953 he founded Britten-Norman with John Britten. With another partner, Jim McMahon, they started the successful company, Crop Culture, developing the revolutionary Micronair rotary atomiser. Another company they formed was Hovertravel and a significant amount of research was carried out on hovercraft by the company. Desmond Norman went on to design aircraft, the Britten-Norman Islander being his most well-known aircraft. There was also the Trislander, the BN.3 Nymph (redeveloped as the Freelance) and the later Firecracker (which was beaten by the Embraer Tucano in the competition to become the RAF trainer) and the Fieldmaster Cropsprayer in 1981. Like his father before him he became a CBE in 1970. He died on 23 November 2002.

Nigel Norman’s third son, Torquil (b. 11 April 1933), also served in 601 Squadron and was involved with the music world in the 1960s, owning the Roundhouse theatre at Camden Lock. He established the company Bluebird Toys which has been very successful. He too has a great interest in aviation and flies DH.90 Dragonfly G-AEDU, which is based at Rendcomb.

Nigel Norman with his sons Desmond (seated) and Mark (turning propeller) playing with a model aircraft he had built for them in which they were often seen at Heston. The registration G-WAWP stood for ‘God Willing And Weather Permitting’. (Royal Aero Club)

Nigel Norman was a sensitive and thoughtful man as shown in his passion for writing poetry (a passion he shared with Alan Muntz). He also had a great interest in the countryside and enjoyed fly-fishing and deer stalking.

Career

The advent of the First World War interrupted Nigel’s education. After attending Sandhurst he served in the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant (he was commissioned on 27 October 1915) in France. He was commissioned as a lieutenant on 6 March 1918 and was attached to the army Signals Service (then part of the Royal Engineers). In 1919 he left the army and went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in Mechanical Sciences in 1921. He was awarded the MA in 1939 (MAs were normally awarded as a matter of course after three years from the BA, but the long gap to 1939 is unexplained). From 1922 to 1928, he worked for the Metropolitan Railway, but aviation was to become an overriding passion.

Although Nigel Norman had been at Winchester at the same time as Alan Muntz, Nigel was three years older than Alan and was in a different house. They did not become firm friends until they met again at Cambridge University. They shared the running costs of a second-hand Avro 504K until they could both afford their own aircraft.

Nigel became a private aeroplane owner in 1926 and he held the Royal Aero Club Aviator’s Certificate No. 8000. This was gained at the de Havilland School of Flying at Stag Lane, Edgware, on 4 June 1926. The type flown was a DH.60. The index card states his then current address as 3 Rex Place, South Street, London W1. His profession was given as ‘Engineer’.

He joined the Auxiliary Air Force in 1926 as a pilot officer and served with 601 (City of London) Squadron. He became a squadron leader in November 1931. In March 1940 he became a temporary wing commander and was promoted to temporary group captain in June 1942. In the following year he was appointed acting air commodore.

On the civilian side, Nigel Norman was asked in early 1943 if he would consider becoming the first chairman of BOAC. His response was to say ‘Come back after the War’. He also owned a number of aircraft including Avro 548 G-EBPJ, DH.60G Moth G-AAHI, DH.60 G-EBWY (fitted with Handley Page slots), DH.80A Puss Moths G-AAZM and G-AAZN, and DH.85 Leopard Moth G-ACNN.

He became a director of Aerofilms Ltd, Britain’s first commercial aerial photography company which had been founded in 1919. Aerofilms were later involved with the PRU (Photographic Reconnaissance Unit) at Heston during the war. Additionally, he was a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a member of the Aviation Committee of the London Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Council of the Air Registration Board, on which body he sat as chairman of the Design & Construction Panel.

Nigel Norman with DH.85 Leopard Moth G-ACNN which was registered to him from November 1933 until 12 May 1940 when it was impressed as AX861. (Royal Aero Club)

In the same year in which he was tragically killed (1943), Nigel Norman was awarded a CBE.

His partnership with Alan Muntz was to give great impetus to their impact on the aviation world. The formation of Airwork and the establishment of Heston Air Park are covered separately in later chapters. However, despite the energy expended on these enterprises, Nigel Norman still found time and energy to become a co-partner with Alan Muntz and Graham Dawbarn in the firm of Norman, Muntz and Dawbarn Aeronautical Consulting Engineers (see Chapter 3).

Crash of Lockheed Hudson IIIA FH168, 19 May 1943

It is tragic that Nigel Norman met his death through aviation. In 1943, he was being flown to North Africa from Netheravon. He had just been appointed to Air Chief Marshal Sir A.W. Tedder’s staff and was to attend an Airborne Forces Planning Conference in the Middle East to help prepare for the invasion of Sicily. Air Commodore Norman possessed particular expertise in parachute and glider assaults. On 19 May 1943, he boarded Lockheed Hudson 111A FH168 of 38 Wing RAF at RAF Netheravon. 38 Wing had been formed at Netheravon to provide a link with the 1st Parachute Brigade at Bulford Camp. The Hudson crew were mainly French-Canadians (Royal Canadian Air Force personnel). The pilot was Flight Lieutenant R.H. Jesse, navigator Pilot Officer Arthur Rotenburg and the wireless operator/air gunner was Flight Sergeant G. Russell. The four other occupants were passengers and included Wing Commander R.W. Hurst, Squadron Leader E.W. Armstrong and Corporal H.A. Palmer.

The journey was a long one and the Hudson landed at RAF St Eval in Cornwall to top up with fuel. After take-off the Hudson encountered difficulties with the port engine catching fire. About 7 miles south of RAF St Eval, two local farmers observed the aircraft dipping to the left and losing height. The Hudson attempted a landing in a field at Crugoes Farm, Blackcross, about 180m south-west of the St Columb Royal Observer Corps post. The aircraft just cleared a hedge, hit the ground, bounced and slewed across the field. A wing broke off, as did part of the tail, and the aircraft ended up partly on top of a hedge. Initially there was little fire, although the left-hand wing was broken and beginning to burn. The right-hand wing was almost over a gate, which caused part of the aircraft to be off the ground. The two farmers who had witnessed the crash were quickly on the scene, as was Royal Observer member George Gregory. Two occupants exited the aircraft through a hole in the underside. Fire was beginning to take hold while the farmers looked after two injured survivors. George Gregory rescued four additional crew members. George’s promptness in obtaining medical aid no doubt helped save lives. All the survivors were suffering from broken limbs. After the rescue of six occupants, the aircraft burst into flames.

One of the farmers, Bill Richards, claimed that he remembered seeing the remaining occupant, Nigel Norman, fighting to get out of the burning cockpit. Thereafter, Bill Richards always maintained that Nigel did not die in the crash itself and with courage it may have been possible to save him. However, as the fire had taken hold, no further rescue attempts were made and Nigel Norman died in the blaze. It is believed that, having been seated in the cabin, he went forward to the cockpit to help when the engine problem started, thereby putting himself in jeopardy and most likely would have survived had he stayed in the cabin.

It was a tragic end and had Nigel Norman survived the war one can only guess at how he could have brought his talent and energy to focus on the fortunes of Airwork.

His ashes were scattered in Clifferdine Wood near Rendcomb, an area he had grown up in and loved. An oak memorial bench with an inscription to his memory can be found at the Main Ride, Clifferdine Wood. It can be reached by a short walk from the A435 Cirencester to Cheltenham road.

1 Referred to in this book as Alan Muntz.

2 Referred to in this book as Nigel Norman.

2

COMPANY DEVELOPMENT

1928–1960

Alan Muntz had been given £5,000 by his father to finance his time at Cambridge University and further education, but by 1928 he still had this sum intact and available. Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz considered they needed a total of £50,000 to establish the company and Heston. Promises had been obtained for a further £20,000 to add to the £5,000 sum held by Alan Muntz when Nigel Norman’s stepfather, Major Edward Fitzgerald, offered to put up the balance of £45,000 on condition that he was the only other shareholder and that Nigel would be part-time chairman in the new company. Alan Muntz spoke to the other potential backers and then proceeded with Major Fitzgerald’s offer. Airwork Limited came into being on 2 September 1928 and was officially registered on 11 October 1928 with a capital of £45,000 in £1 shares. Listed as first directors were H.N. St Valery Norman and F.A.I. Muntz with F.A.I. Muntz also shown as company secretary. The solicitors were Pettit, Walton & Co. of Leighton Buzzard. Airwork Limited were listed as ‘Manufacturers of and dealers in aeroplanes, flying machines, airships and aerial conveyances of all kinds, and the component parts thereof, garage and hangar keepers, aerodrome proprietors, cinematograph proprietors and film makers, etc’.

While Heston Air Park was being prepared for operations, the office for the new company was Albion Lodge, Albion Road in Cranford, Middlesex.

Additionally, Roderick P.G. Denman joined Airwork in the autumn of 1929 and was appointed a director in June 1931.

However, within a relatively short period of time, the problem of financing was to appear again.

Since the establishment of the company, Airwork had expanded rapidly. Major Edward Fitzgerald had promised an addition of £30,000 to pay for the additional buildings at Heston as a result of the new business since the official opening in July 1929. These buildings were under construction with the injection of funds to pay for them due in October 1929. However, Major Fitzgerald became caught up in the stock market crash in the USA at the end of September 1929 and was unable to pay. Lord Cowdray and his finance company Whitehall Securities stepped in and provided the funds, along with further injections of finance when required. Later, Lord Cowdray’s brother, the Hon. Clive Pearson, would form British Airways, with its headquarters at Heston. As a matter of interest, at the time of Lord Cowdray’s assistance, his daughter Yoskyl was learning to fly with the Airwork School of Flying.

The other saviours of Airwork were the Guinness family. Despite the financial help from Lord Cowdray and Whitehall Securities, further problems had arisen in the autumn of 1929, with the formation of National Flying Services, created by the government to provide subsidised flying tuition, which was serious competition for Airwork. A lean time followed with both Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz paying themselves £700 p.a. for a number of years. In April 1933, Alan Muntz flew to France with Nigel Norman’s half-sister Rosalind. She suggested they call in on Benjamin Guinness at Piencourt in Normandy (which had its own airstrip). As a result of this visit Alan Muntz met the presidents of two French industrial conglomerates (see Chapter 3) who would be of great help to the Alan Muntz Company and, importantly, Benjamin Guinness put a very substantial amount of capital into Airwork with his son T.L.E.B. Guinness (known hereafter as Loel Guinness) also providing further capital and joining the Board of Directors. Loel Guinness joined the Airwork Board of Directors in January 1935 along with the Pearsons/Whitehall Securities representative John Lister Walsh.

Loel Guinness, of the banking and brewing family, was an important addition to the Board of Directors, being deeply passionate about flying as well as having the necessary business acumen to help take the company forward. He was a member of the Royal Aero Club and his aircraft were maintained by Airwork. Airwork design staff had also made a personalised modification for his DH.90 Dragonfly by extending the aircraft’s control wheel downwards so that he could rest his forearms on his knees and keep one or both hands on the wheel whilst in flight. Loel Guinness was to stay with Airwork and help guide the company through to the merger with Hunting Clan, joining the Board of Directors of BUA (British United Airways) in due course.

John Walsh (who was already a director of Whitehall Securities Corporation Ltd) from the Pearson Group also had a great interest in aviation and the Pearson Group had numerous other aviation-related business interests including United Airways. Whitehall Securities played a significant role in aviation in the 1930s. The corporation was owned by the Pearson family and run by Lord Cowdray, who continued to run the very profitable business established by his father.

Engine work at Heston had proved to be a useful source of income and Airwork Engine Service Ltd was established on 31 May 1932 to concentrate on that activity.

The running of Heston itself was not financially sustainable and eventually Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz were able to convince the Air Ministry to buy Heston on 25 November 1937 for £220,000. Airwork were granted a seven-year lease on certain hangars and buildings so they could continue to operate the aircraft-servicing and repair organisation and provide ground services to other operators. The Air Ministry’s plans were to use Heston as an alternative to Croydon and as a terminal for British Airways services to Scandinavia and Paris, and basically to allow Airwork to manage it.

After the purchase of Heston by the Air Ministry in 1937, Alan Muntz resigned as managing director and was replaced by Myles Wyatt. Alan Muntz took on the role of deputy chairman and was still very active in Airwork activities, but was starting to focus more on getting the Alan Muntz Company established.

Airwork General Trading Co. Ltd

On 23 December 1936, Airwork General Trading Co. Ltd was registered with a nominal capital of £100 in £1 shares to take over the company’s engineering and servicing work. The registered address of the new company was Heston Airport but the principal base was to be at the new premises later taken on in 1938 at Gatwick, with further facilities at Whitchurch and Heston. The founding directors of Airwork General Trading Co. Ltd were Henry N. St V. Norman, F.A.I. Muntz, Roderick P.G. Denman, Loel Guinness and John L. Walsh (all Airwork Ltd directors).

The official objectives of the new company were ‘To carry on the business of manufacturers, assemblers and repairers of aircraft, aero-engines etc., and to enter into an agreement with Airwork Limited’.

In effect, the forming of the new company was a reorganisation and expansion of the Airwork Service Department. All the equipment and personnel were transferred to Airwork General Trading and a new plant for general engineering, sheet-metal work and machining was purchased. F.H. Hinton, who was previously manager at Whitchurch and later works manager at Heston, was made general manager. In February 1937, W.G. Andrews who was managing director of Airwork Engine Service Ltd, was made managing director of Airwork General Trading Co. One of the main intentions in forming Airwork General Trading, however, was also to seek work outside the area of aviation, although many of Airwork’s most lucrative contracts were to continue in aviation maintenance and contracting work. Nevertheless, some employees of the organisation did not view it as a step in the right direction, with particular criticism levelled at ‘the production of baby carriages’ (Dunkley Prams). However, the company was doing well at this stage. By 1938, the Airwork sales organisation was the largest of its kind in the British Isles and the looming war gave plenty of scope for work on behalf of the government.

The War Years & Beyond

With the pressure on facilities at Heston in 1939, Airwork had to move their offices to Fernleigh, Wood Lane, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, in October 1939 prior to moving in October 1940 to much larger facilities at Westbrook House, 134 Bath Road in Hounslow. Here they set up offices and workshops but were close enough to Heston to maintain their link with the airfield and their smaller representation there, including the Alan Muntz Company which had remained at Heston.

During the war, the Airwork organisation employed a total of 2,400 staff and the untimely death of Nigel Norman in 1943 saw Loel Guinness replace him as chairman.

Post-war, Airwork established a head office at 15 Chesterfield Street, London W1, with overspill offices at nearby Queen Street. In January 1947, part of the management team moved from the Chesterfield Street offices and from Westbrook House, 134 Bath Road, Hounslow, to Langley airfield, where the company had established itself with airline activities based at Blackbushe from 1947.

A new head office was opened at 35 Piccadilly, London W1 in 1957 with a small showroom on the ground floor promoting the West African services (which came under the control of Markham Jackson, the Brompton Road Town Terminal manager). The Piccadilly offices passed on to BUA with Myles Wyatt having his main office there.

The mid-1950s saw a flurry of activity of shipping lines investing in various independent airlines. In February 1954 the shipping line Furness Withy (who operated to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Mediterranean) bought a 60 per cent shareholding in Airwork. This was carried out in association with another shipping company, Blue Star Line Ltd, who in June 1954 announced that it had bought a substantial share in Airwork and appointed two directors to Airwork’s board. Blue Star Line operated to Australia, New Zealand, South America, South Africa and the North American Pacific coast.

In early 1956 Sir Archibald Hope (who joined in 1945) stepped down as joint managing director, leaving Myles Wyatt as sole managing director and chairman. The reason he gave for stepping down was the ‘continuing restrictions on the activities of private airlines’. He remained on the Board of Directors, however.

In September 1956 Airwork took over Transair, with Transair continuing to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary company. Two Airwork representatives (Airwork directors Myles Wyatt and R.L. Cumming) joined the Transair Board of Directors.

In 1957 Airwork Services Ltd was created to acquire and concentrate on non-airline activities which had previously been undertaken by Airwork General Trading Ltd.

In 1958 Freddie Laker decided to sell Channel Air Bridge, Air Charter and Aviation Traders to Airwork for £600,000 cash plus a further £200,000 subject to stock valuation. The sale was concluded in 1959 when the three companies joined the Airwork group.

In November 1958 Morton Air Services were bought out (along with their subsidiary Olley Air Services) by Airwork but continued with the same identity, and the routes and services remained unchanged. There was speculation at the time that Morton were looking for a financial injection due to the added costs in establishing themselves at Gatwick after having to leave their Croydon base. A statement by Morton’s chairman, Captain T.W. Morton, in December 1958 repudiated this, although he was not prepared to give the reason for the takeover by Airwork.

Airwork moved to Hurn in 1959 from Langley and Blackbushe, from which time Hurn became the main base. Also in 1959 the company acquired the entire share capital of Bristow Helicopters.

By 1959, Airwork had become the largest privately owned UK airline and, combined with Transair, were operating a large European freight, mail and passenger network.

Formation of BUA

The year 1960 was one of major changes for Airwork’s airline and air transport activities. In April 1960, the merger was agreed between Airwork, the British & Commonwealth Shipping Group and Hunting Clan’s air transport activities, which were to be formed into one new company named British United Airways Ltd, with over 3,000 employees and a fleet of fifty-two aircraft. Air Charter, Transair, Morton Air Services and Olley Air Services were absorbed into the new BUA. In addition, the Fison-Airwork and Bristow Helicopters operations were eventually merged with a total fleet of fifty-four helicopters (Fison had already relinquished its interest in Fison-Airwork, which became Airwork Helicopters). Alan Bristow was asked by Myles Wyatt to manage Airwork Helicopters. Both Airwork Services Ltd and Airwork Services Training retained their identities and continued to operate as individual entities.

The original shareholding companies which made up the Air Holdings Group. Some of the companies forming the group joined after its formation. (Leah Monahan)

The official date of the formation of BUA was 1 July 1960, although Airwork had changed its name to British United Airways on 19 May 1960, with the other airlines coming in on 1 July 1960. The name for the new airline had come from the original United Airways (later becoming the first British Airways with the amalgamation of United Airways, Hillman’s and Spartan Airways), which Whitehall Securities allowed to be used with the addition of ‘British’. Shipping lines held 72 per cent of the shares in the new group. The lines were Blue Star and Furness Withy from the Airwork side and British & Commonwealth from the Hunting Clan side. Meanwhile, Loel Guinness owned 10 per cent and Whitehall Securities owned 10 per cent, while the balance of 8 per cent was held by the Hunting Group. The dominant shareholders were the Cayzer family through their British & Commonwealth holding. The main board members (representing the largest shareholdings) were Sir Nicholas Cayzer, the Hon. Anthony Cayzer and Clive Hunting.

Myles Wyatt became the chairman and Freddie Laker became the managing director. Departures from the new organisation included Maurice Curtis, the managing director of Hunting, Gerald Freeman who had founded and run Transair, and the co-founder of Airwork, Alan Muntz. On 20 May 1960, Alan Muntz tendered his resignation from the Board of Directors and offered the company the opportunity to purchase his 3,000 Airwork shares, which was accepted.

Post-Merger

At Hurn the new headquarters building was occupied in October 1961. With the changes brought about by the formation of BUA and the Air Holdings Group, Airwork at Hurn were known as Airwork Services Ltd. In addition to the FRU (Fleet Requirements Unit) activities, Hurn became the company’s new headquarters.

The Air Holdings Group was incorporated on 3 November 1961 as a holding company for the entire share capital of BUA and British Aviation Services, together with their former subsidiaries. The Group’s headquarters was the former Airwork Ltd Head Office at 35 Piccadilly in London. The eight main companies which made up the Air Holdings Group were: Airwork International Ltd; Airwork Services Ltd; British Aviation Services Ltd; British United Airways Ltd; Channel Air Bridge Ltd; Morton Air Services Ltd; Silver City Airways Ltd; and Straits Air Freight Express Ltd of New Zealand.

On 23 January 1962 an announcement was made to the effect that the shareholders of British Aviation Services stock would exchange their shares for Air Holdings shares, with the result that Silver City Airways was absorbed into BUA. Jersey Airlines also became part of the Air Holdings Group on 20 May 1962.

In 1967 British Air Transport Ltd became British Air Transport Holdings, which became the holding company for Airwork International.

In March 1968 Airwork International, which was the parent company of Bristow Helicopters, merged with BUA and British & Commonwealth. Whilst remaining part of British & Commonwealth, Bristow Helicopters ceased to be part of the Air Holdings Group (of which Airwork formed the major part).

In May 1976 the aircraft design and modification facilities of Aviation Traders (Engineering) Ltd began to trade under the name of Britavia Ltd (separated from Avialift Products) based at Southend, still under the control of the Air Holdings Group.

In January 1980 Airwork Services Ltd changed its name and reverted to the original Airwork Ltd.

Bricom bought all the aviation companies including Airwork from British & Commonwealth in 1988 for over £380 million. British & Commonwealth then bankrupted themselves with the purchase of Atlantic Computers Ltd. Bristow Helicopters bought themselves out of the Bricom Group in 1991 and also bought AST (Air Service Training) Perth at the same time, as Bricom wished to dispose of it.

Short Brothers Ltd of Belfast, which was part of the Canadian Bombardier group of companies, became the new owners of Airwork Ltd in October 1993, with Airwork becoming part of Bombardier Defence Services Ltd.

A further takeover by the Vosper Thorneycroft group in June 2000 saw Airwork come under the VT Aerospace umbrella. VT Aerospace was itself taken over when it became part of the Babcock Wilcox Group, with Airwork coming under Babcock International. Since the mid-1990s, the Airwork name has all but disappeared, other than for the ongoing Oman contract.

3

ASSOCIATED COMPANIES

Both Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz had various business interests and held directorships outside Airwork, the following being the most significant.

NORMAN & DAWBARN

In July 1933 the partnership of Norman, Muntz and Dawbarn was formed by Nigel Norman and Alan Muntz with the architect Graham Dawbarn. They established their offices at 43 Grosvenor Place, London SW1. They had already designed the layout and buildings at Heston and a number of other airports. The intention of forming the architectural partnership was so that this side of the business would be kept separate from the business operations of Airwork Ltd. Alan Muntz left the partnership in 1937 to concentrate on his new company.

The partnership was involved in the planning of UK airports at Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Brooklands, Portsmouth, Perth, Manchester (Ringway), Jersey, Guernsey and the Gatwick Beehive, as well as in a report prepared in 1933 on a suitable civil airport for Edinburgh which recommended Gosford Park to the east of the city.

The partnership worked with Essex County Council in 1936 for airport planning for the county, which centred on a ‘Class I’ airport at Fairlop Plain, Ilford. The scheme included a relief airport at Berechurch near Colchester and extended Southend to a Class I airport with subsidiary airports at Chelmsford and Bishops Stortford. Reservation of Class II airport sites at Brentwood, Billericay, Clacton and Braintree were proposed along with a suitable site to serve Tilbury, Orsett and Grays Thurrock to be identified and provisionally reserved.

Nigel Norman travelled extensively to Africa, India, Europe and North America in the course of his work for Norman & Dawbarn, designing airport terminals at Lydda (Palestine) and Lusaka, among many others.

The partnership continued with Nigel Norman’s name after his tragic death in 1943. In April 2005 Norman & Dawbarn was acquired by Capita Symonds and renamed Capita Norman & Dawbarn. The Capita Norman & Dawbarn name was dropped in 2007 when all the architecture practices were merged under the same brand name, Capita Architecture. The business continued to grow as a major UK consultancy and all the businesses and divisions were consolidated under the Capita Symonds name in January 2011, dropping the Capita Architecture name.

ALAN MUNTZ & COMPANY LTD

During a visit to Benjamin Guinness in France in April 1933, Alan Muntz was introduced by a guest, Count Horodyski, to the president of the large French industrial group Société Alsacienne de Contructions Mécaniques and the president of the Société Lyonnaise des Eaux et de l’Éclairage (this was later nationalised to become Électricité de France). Alan Muntz was to work closely with both of these groups with the formation of the Alan Muntz Company in 1937, initially in the free-piston engine invented by the Paris-based Argentine lawyer and inventor Raul Pescara (fully Raul Pateras Pescara de Castelluccio, Marquis of Pateras-Pescara). Alan Muntz was keen to continue development of the engine and establish his own patent for it. Work had already been carried out on the engine by both French groups and the Alan Muntz Company provided technical assistance (particularly in regard to internal combustion). Both French companies were cut off by the war but Alan Muntz was able to gain British Government support along with assistance from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company’s engine research branch.

Leslie Baynes was the chief designer for the company. He was known at Heston as ‘The Baron’. The nickname related to an anecdote involving Baynes in his car (a Lagonda) talking his way out of an awkward situation with the local constabulary by giving his name as ‘Baron Baynes’. Once the police ‘realised’ he was a baron (he wasn’t) he was allowed to proceed without further ado. Baynes was assisted by a talented team which included Viv Billings and Richard Becker; they produced many interesting designs and concepts.

Initially, the Alan Muntz Company design offices were located in the loft area/upper floor of the Jackaman Hangar and accessed via outside stairs on the east side. After the RAF moved in, the stairs on the west side gave access to the RAF mess. The RAF eventually took over the whole of the Jackaman Hangar and the Alan Muntz Company relocated to a small factory-type facility on the north side of Heston Aerodrome, with the design team working from a blister hangar on the south side.

A development contract from the Admiralty allowed the use of the Admiralty Engineering Laboratory at West Drayton for developing a free-piston gas generator (US75) capable of one-third of the output of the French unit (GS34) for use in motor torpedo boats. A later development contract from the MAP (Ministry of Aircraft Production) was given for a similar unit (CS75) to be developed for use in long-range aircraft. Leslie Baynes came up with a design for a flying boat which was larger than the Short Sunderland in which the CS75 would be installed. Whilst the flying-boat project was not proceeded with, it led to the development of Muntz Direct Flow Air Valves.

The Engine Design Office of the company moved to factory premises in Feltham to enable testing work to be carried out, although the aircraft design work continued at Heston under Leslie Baynes. The company moved to Langley Aerodrome in February 1952.

A number of interesting projects were worked on. Among them were: a contract from the Ministry of Supply to design and modify Rolls-Royce Merlin engines to run on gas; the Converter plane, also known as the Baynes Heliplane which never passed beyond the design stage; the prototype Carden-Baynes small twin-pusher light aircraft employing Carden modified Ford engines (work halted with the outbreak of war); the Baynes Carrier Wing (also known unofficially as the Bat) which started as a concept to add wings to a Vickers-Armstrong light tank. Leslie Baynes’ approach to this concept was to take away the tail and have the vertical control surfaces incorporated in the wingtips, which was, in effect, a flying wing without any need for a fuselage or undercarriage as the vehicle’s tracks or wheels would be enough undercarriage in itself. The controls of the wing were projected into the tank and the wings would be dispensed with upon landing. The aerodynamic properties of flying wings had not been fully studied at this stage. The Air Ministry did not like the concept because of the lack of a tail and rejected the idea. However, Lord Beaverbrook overruled the decision and a contract was given for a one-third-size scale model (eventually given the serial RA809). Although Baynes, Richard Becker and Viv Billings of the Alan Muntz Company had carried out this portion of the research, the actual construction of the wing was given to Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd of Kirkbymoorside with the testing carried out at Sherburn-in-Elmet. Despite useful trial flights undertaken by Robert Kronfeld and Eric Brown, nothing further came of the project. Richard Becker from the design team made a number of trips to Kirkbymoorside to supervise the building.

Only one prototype of the Youngman-Baynes Hi-Lift G-AMBL was built under the auspices of the Alan Muntz Company. Syd Holloway was responsible for the wind tunnel tests and the aircraft was handed over to Heston Aircraft Ltd for completion with its first flight on 5 February 1948.

Another project was a very large ground searchlight, developed in conjunction with GEC Wembley. This particular project, like the Turbinlite (see below), was overtaken by the development of more accurate and reliable centrimetric airborne interception.

The Turbinlite/Aerial Target Illumination

The idea for the airborne searchlight to equip night fighters came from Sidney Cotton who enlisted the help of William Helmore and they took out joint patents on the idea (Patent Nos GB 574970 & GB 574118). Patent No. GB 575093, also taken out jointly by both men, was for navigation lights to help accompanying aircraft keep station, which was adopted for the Turbinlites. Air Commodore Helmore took over the development work to improve the concept into the Turbinlite.

The design team at the Alan Muntz Company was tasked with producing a design for a searchlight to be placed in the nose of a Douglas Havoc carrying the primitive air interception unit and used in conjunction with Hawker Hurricanes to act as night fighters to hunt German bombers. The fighters would keep on station with the Havoc with the aid of station-keeping lights, shining directly on to white strips on both sides of the Turbinlite’s mainplane.

First flight of Boston Turbinlite Prototype W8254, July 1941. L to R: Richard W. ‘Dick’ Becker, Dennis Roberts, Leslie ‘Baron’ Baynes and Bruce Benson, all Alan Muntz Co. design team. Squadron Leader A.E. Clouston is in the cockpit. (Paul Becker)

Under Leslie Baynes, the design work was carried out by chief draughtsmen on the project, Viv Billings and Richard Becker. The project was originally known as Air Target Illumination (ATI) but then became known as the Helmore or Helmore Turbinlite or just Turbinlite, before finally ending up as the Hunter.

In conjunction with the research laboratories at GEC (General Electric Corporation), they came up with a workable plan to fit what was at the time the most powerful searchlight in the world into the nose of a Douglas Havoc. This required forty-eight 12v batteries (manufactured by Peto & Radford), weighing 1,920lb (870kg), to be fitted into the bomb bay of the aircraft. The batteries were designed to discharge in under twelve seconds. The power consumption of the light was 1,400 amps (compared to 150 amps of the later Leigh Light). A para-elliptical reflector projected a horizontal sausage-shaped beam of 30 degrees divergence, 950yds (868m) wide at a range of 1 mile (1,609m). At the suggestion of Leslie Baynes, the flat nose of the aircraft had a ‘Townend’ ring fitted to counteract turbulence and drag along with the resulting speed reduction. Wind tunnel tests at RAE Farnborough showed that with the ‘Townend’ ring fitted the loss of airspeed was only just over 5mph (8km/h).

A.E. Clouston’s 1422 Flight at Heston carried out the flight development phase. At this point, Clouston had been promoted on 1 June 1941 to acting squadron leader. The first four aircraft (Douglas Boston IIIs) were fitted out by Airwork at Heston by the end of July 1941, with a further sixteen completed shortly afterwards by the Heston Aircraft Company. Components were provided to Airwork by the Heston Aircraft Company and Vickers-Armstrong. The remaining aircraft were modified and fitted out at the Burtonwood repair depot. Nine flights were established to undertake training at Heston and ten squadrons comprising almost 100 aircraft (Douglas Havocs and Bostons) were formed.

The Turbinlite was not a great success, however, and was superseded by centimetric airborne interception fighters which could get within firing range without the aid of a searchlight. Only five intercepts were made from the five squadrons equipped with the Turbinlites.

Turbinlite Mosquito

The drawback of the Havoc Turbinlite was the aircraft’s lack of armament. As de Havilland Mosquitos entered squadron service, one (W4087) was made available for conversion to a Mosquito Turbinlite. Again, the nose of the aircraft was flat with a fairly small oval shape with a ‘Townend’ ring. The standard cannon installation was retained, however, with the alignment of the guns depressed forty minutes to miss the nose structure which was scalloped around the gun ports. The carbon arc was reflected from a para-elliptical mirror which projected a sausage-shaped beam. Small elevator movements allowed the pilot to sweep the beam above and below any potential target.

As with the Havoc Turbinlite, the batteries for the Mosquito version were a considerable weight (half a ton) and were located in a removable box suspended below the main spar by means of latches to a cross tube which projected from both sides of the box. Latches at the front and rear of the box kept it in place. The box itself could be replaced with the aid of a scissors torpedo trolley in between flights.

As a concept, the Mosquito Turbinlite was not proceeded with and did not enter service unlike the Havoc Turbinlite.

Helmore 39in Torpedo

The Channel dash (Operation Cerberus) on 11 February 1942 of the German pocket battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau prompted Helmore to go into the offices of the Alan Muntz Company the following morning and suggest methods of sinking them. What developed from this was a proposal by GEC to use a charge fitted to a torpedo which would lift the torpedo over torpedo nets. This, however, was not practical and the project aim was changed to have the torpedo dive below the nets using radio commands.

The torpedo was restricted in size to the capacity of a Lancaster bomb bay, which meant a diameter of 39in (1m) and a weight limit of 5 tons. The torpedo was to be capable of being dropped by air with a warhead of 1 ton of RDX explosive and having a 25-mile (40km) range. The torpedo was to be dropped by an Avro Lancaster with a de Havilland Mosquito acting as a command aircraft, controlling the torpedo by radio.

A scale model using a 21in (53cm) Torpedo was modified to develop the control system, with the test being conducted at the Queen Mary Reservoir at Staines. An RAF rescue launch being used for recovery was holed above the water line when the model went off course.

One of the problems that had to be overcome was that the torpedo used a 550bhp Meteor tank engine (developed from the Merlin engine) which required fuel and air. In order to maintain trim, a system using a bag and valve was designed to replace the fuel used with sea water.

In addition, the Alan Muntz design team produced a retractable tubular mast with inflatable tubular shutters which were activated by water pressure switches on the mast. The pressure switches on the mast controlled the air shutters on the masthead when water threatened to spill down into the engine. Once the ambient air was cut off by the shutters, air was released from 2,000psi air bottles. This compressed air feed was necessary to keep the engine running through waves and its final dive below nets.

After the torpedo had been launched, the mast was rotated to the erect position so it could be controlled by the Mosquito. The top of the mast carried a hemispherical radio antenna with the hydraulic actuator for the mast acting as a shock absorber in case of impact and rotated the mast 90 degrees so it lay flush with the body of the torpedo after the command to dive was given.