I remember the consternation that arose when Ford (for whom I worked) booked a large, sumptuous conference room at Jaguar’s Castle Bromwich plant for a ‘summit’ conference involving the very senior management from the UK and Germany. I drove our American Chief Engineer up there from Essex and we were the first to arrive (I think he was the instigator) to set up at around 6:30am.

Most of us are aware of Castle Bromwich’s heritage on this forum. Lets just say the room had to be hastily changed from the Lancaster Conference room after I raised concerns over the feelings of our Cologne based VIP’s. Nice room though – lots of great paintings of Lancs in action over Germany…

You have my sympathies.

The procedures were introduced as there were a few nasty individuals who were bigoted and evil making peoples lives hell. It has however, gone too far now. Good natured banter and mickey taking is part of life and one would hope that those that take it too far are censured by their peers these days.

As an aside, our bullying and harrassment contact was removed from post for bullying and harrassment. You couldn’t make it up

+1 to the Spifire comments! That aircraft has such an aura it would be criminal to do anything but carefully dust it.

One would hope the IWM have an apprecation of the significance and provenance of the exhibit.

As regarding promoting engineering, I beg to differ.

We are not talking about teaching pros about 50’s tech, rather getting young people interested how things work, why things work and what we engineers are capable of. Engineering is such a wide field and not limited to hi tech arenas and a 14 year old being inspired to look further into engineering as a career has got to be a good thing – basic materials science, stress analysis, thermodynamics, etc. are as relevent now as they were in 1950. Apprentices still have to turn material stock into a usable object. I don’t suppose the engineers working on the design in the post war days were fresh faced yoofs armed with the latest technology breakthoughs, rather seasoned pros who cut their teeth on Ansons, Manchesters and Lancasters (and probably Tutors and Cadets as well).

Sounds like a good plan – anything to get kids making stuff rather than looking forward to working in a call centre or stacking shelves in Tescos gets my vote.

These youngsters might well be fixing our beloved classics and keeping them in the air in 30 years time, so invest in the future and engage them.

Err, was that a rant? Sorry 🙂 It’s frustrating trying to find good (any actually) engineers these days. It’s not seen as glamourous or a good career and now that youngsters are forced to pay their own fees we will either see a drop in graduates in general or Universities only providing courses that they can sell.

The Vulcan is awesome – I have donated in the past and will again and it should play it’s part in the big picture. See what I did there? Back on thread, is there no end to my talent…

Apparently the HTP engine on Bloodhound has run satisfactorily with the F1 engine powering the fuel pump running at around 3/4 max power. They should be doing test runs late in the year and the record attempt site in South Africa is being cleared.

Not sure I trust the F104 idea too much – the UK effort seems to have a little more thought behind it, not to mention the experience gained in Thrust SSC at transonic speeds on the ground.

I am watching with interest!

One my favourite books of all time is about the 4th FG at Debden – Tumult in the Clouds by James Goodson. Gives the details of Kid Hoffer and Vic France plus others.

Lent it to someone, need to replace it!

I need to find out from my parents what happened to them with regard to the evacuee situation. I know my father’s family took in an evacuee from London in Norwich, but my mother was evacuated to Cambridshire from Norwich. Go figure. Dad remembers being strafed by an FW190 while playing in the street in Norwich. so it wasn’t that safe.

My father’s family stayed in Wellingarden City at the end of the war as my grandfather worked in electronics (possibly Marconi?) and dad remembers the Vampire being tested at Hatfield – he referred to it as the Squirt.

Interesting thread Prof 🙂

Pish! If I can do it in Cliffs of Dover, the real thing should be easy 😉

Seriously, one would assume that all the necessary risk assessments and control plans were in place before the insurance company would even consider it.

As for the repeated starts, I can’t see many punters coughing up the fee and I would hope that a cost benefit analysis is extant to cover the costs.