On 9th February John Parker gave an engrossing and witty
talk, delivered in his inimitable style, on some of the less
well known Kingston sales campaigns.
Prior to joining Hawkers John had a varied and fascinating
career in the RAF which he joined straight from university in
1942, undergoing flying training in South Africa before
joining a Hurricane OTU in Palestine. 1944-45 was spent with
208 Squadron in Italy flying fighter-reconnaissance on
Spitfires. Next it was to a Communications squadron in
Heliopolis, Egypt, flying a variety of aircraft from the
Fairchild Argus to the Lodestar, Ventura and Dakota. From
1947-53 he flew Meteors with 263, 245 and 601 Squadrons and
instructed at the Chivenor fighter OTU. In 1953 he was posted
to Malaya during the Emergency as Senior RAF Intelligence
Officer, Air HQ, returning to the UK and Staff College in
1957. He was then delighted to be given a command; but
extremely disappointed to find that it was a helicopter
squadron, No. 275 Search & Rescue, equipped with
Sycamores.
REMINISCENCES OF A SALESMAN
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However, on arrival he found that the helicopter world was
urgently in need of development so it turned out to be a
challenging posting. Helicopter operations were very much in
their infancy with accident and death rates higher than front
line fighters. From 1959-63 he joined the Air Ministry
Operational Requirements office covering OR.345 and Hunter
Mks 9 and 10, and in 1964 was appointed Wing Commander Flying
at Odiham and was awarded the AFC for his work on developing
helicopter operating techniques and flight safety. From
1966-67 he was Station Commander at RAF Sharjah before moving
to the British Embassy, Washington DC where he made all the
logistical arrangements for the operation of the Harriers
during the Transatlantic Air Race.
In 1969 John retired from the RAF to join HSA Kingston where
Bill Bedford had begun to put together a proper sales
department to take the place of the previous one which had
consisted solely of John Crampton. In spite of trying to sell
a product costing a million pounds a copy the lack of
facilities "beggared belief." Potential customers had to be
briefed in the Executive Lounge with a temporary screen and
projector. There was no adequate office space and apparently
nobody cared. This prompted Bill to assemble his team under
umbrellas on the flat roof outside his office and to send a
photograph to John Glasscock saying "This is what we have
been reduced to." JLG returned the photo' inscribed "Why
aren't they out selling?" Gradually they became better
equipped but it was several years before a proper
presentation theatre was built.
John continued with stories of many sales campaigns but
space has forced your editor to select just a few.Ecuador
provided a good example of highs and lows experienced, and
the complex manoeuvres required, when campaigning for a sale.
Firstly the Ecuadorian Air Force (EAF) had to be persuaded
that the Harrier was suitable for defending the border with
Peru. Secondly a means of payment had to be devised which
would reduce the strain on the national budget and this was
tackled by investigating a counter-trade deal involving
Ecuador's biggest export; bananas. Commonwealth Preference
protected the West Indian banana trade so increasing UK
imports was not possible. However, and this was before the
Berlin Wall came down, there were Eastern Bloc markets,
particularly in Hungary. From there, by arranging trades, it
would be possible to finish up in a usable currency. The EAF
top decision makers were equally divided between Harrier and
Jaguar but the C-in-C favoured Harrier. However, the C-in-C
retired and was replaced by a Jaguar man. Also, the BAC agent
was the technical representative who had come with the EAF
Canberras, had stayed on and 'grown up' with the officers who
were now in senior positions, so his influence was
considerable. Nevertheless John continued to push the
Harrier, but no decision was made. One day John awoke to find
soldiers in his hotel foyer and tanks in the streets; there
had been a coup - with excellent results for Kingston. The
new C-in-C was Col. Morejon, the Air Attaché from
London, who considered the Harrier essential. He was quickly
made Minister of Defence; even better! Soon John was asked
meet him and flew out to Ecuador and called at the Air
Attaché's office to get an update on local affairs.
Apparently Morejon had paid a formal farewell visit to the
airbase near Guaquil where the base commander gave him a
Meteor to fly himself back to Quito. He spun in on the
approach and was killed. His successor was pro Jaguar and the
Harrier's fate in Ecuador was sealed.
In Venezuela, after nearly two years of hard work, Vernon
Lidstone and the Minister of Defence signed a contract for 24
Hawks on 25 March 1982. As is normal a period of 30 days was
allowed before the first payment was due. Unfortunately, on
1st April, Gen. Galtieri invaded the Falklands and the
president of Venezuela, in a gesture of Latin American
togetherness, witheld payment while he waited to see what
would happen. By the time the dust had settled, the
Venezuelan government found that, despite exporting 1.8
million barrels of oil per day, they had a cash flow problem
and the Hawk contract was cancelled. Vernon and John worked
hard to recover the situation but eventually had to let it
go. The saga was reported in 'Zeta', the Venezuelan
equivalent of 'Time' or 'Newsweek'. On 1st August 1982 the
headline ran "The Government bought Hawk secretly and now say
they haven't the money to pay for them." The article
continued "All this year 'Zeta' has followed the movements of
John I Parker, the BAe Hawk representative. On the day
following Gen. Narvaez Churion taking up his post as Minister
of Defence, Parker submitted to his office a demand for
payment in respect of the contract signed secretly by Gen.
Leal Pucchi one week before the outbreak of the Falklands
war." 'Zeta' continued "The Hawk is a project that is
characteristic of a decadent British industry. It is operated
only by such countries as Zimbabwe and Kenya. On the other
hand the Alphajet is fully accepted in Europe and seems
superior to the Hawk in every respect. Finally the Alphajet
package is 30 million Bolwares (£ 40m) cheaper than
that from England where their industrial inefficiency results
in higher costs." They didn't buy Alphajet either!
John's last big job was on the 1988 Hawk Far East tour which
took in Australia. An order eventually materialised 12 years
later, an example of the long time scales involved in selling
military aircraft. However, the record is held by India
which, John said, took 15 years.
Looking back over 20 years at Kingston, John said his main
memory was the support given by various departments. After an
initial period of suspicion it was realised that the only way
to stay in business was to sell the product profitably,
resulting in unstinting support - except for the shop
steward's mafia at Dunsfold. Whenever there was an aircraft
to go to an air show or sales tour they conducted running
battles with management over the make up of and conditions
for the ground crew, threatening to boycott the deployment if
their demands weren't met. Nevertheless, John considered
himself greatly privileged to have represented two first
class aircraft on the world's markets and to have mixed with
the people who created them. But there was another side; long
periods away from home, hours wasted in airport departure
lounges, standing around baggage carousels and sitting in
hotel rooms waiting for the 'phone to ring. As for these
hardships, John quoted an old RAF maxim: "If you can't take a
joke, you shouldn't have joined!"
After many questions the vote of thanks was given by Les
Palmer who noted than John had always been a master of
understatement.