Weybridge Research

Back in the 1970s/80s, I worked at BAe Weybridge, although it was still Vickers to everyone who worked there!

Anyway, the research department was quite extensive, and a Scottish friend who worked in the department told me about some of the new ideas they were looking into.

One I have wondered about for years, was the use of styrofoam to operate one-off emergency actuators. Apparently when the chemicals are mixed, the foam expands to hundreds of times the volume in microseconds, so a jack would operate very rapidly. Did this research go anywhere?

Other things they did was to fire dead chickens at windscreens, and do a great deal of research on carbon fibre.

Also they ‘cold tested’ all kinds of big things aeronautical (or not) in what was claimed to be the biggest cold chamber in the UK. Army vehicles and, I think, even diesel locos, were cold tested.

All this was carried out on a miniscule budget that would astound our American cousins. Far from Billions of Bucks!

Answers to my queries should be posted immediately! But info on any other unusual research at Weybridge is welcomed too.

Bri 😉