I shared a little office at Richmond Road with Bill Sweetman but spent almost all my time with Chief Designer Harrier ‘Foz’ in his spacious office at the Kingston end of the design floor. It was a very special experience working with him and learning the how the design organisation functioned, being present at his meetings and going with him on presentations. He even took me with him for the launch of the ’through-deck cruiser’, HMS Invincible. It was a small aircraft carrier but that term was unacceptable politically at that time. He was a kind and thoughtful boss as well as being hugely knowledgeable about every aspect of aircraft design, able to discuss problems in detail with his specialist engineers; another story for another time.

Ralph Hooper, now Chief Engineer, had the office next door and frequently came in to talk about Harrier matters. Johns Farley (Chief TP) and Fozard had developed a close working relationship so John was often to be seen in ‘our’ office. Much of the Harrier’s success stemmed from this partnership. The Sea Harrier was Foz’s s main concern now so he was working closely with Sharkey Ward who was the aircraft’s project officer in the Dept of Naval Air Warfare (DNAW). Sharkey was very keen that the pilot’s rear view should be improved and wanted a bubble canopy for this fighter but the MoD would not pay for the change. However John persuaded them that the only way to find room for some of the essential new radar system black boxes was to put them under the seat which had to be raised about ten inches, just enough to give Sharkey his view. Other frequent visitors were journalists, Tony Lewis of the PR department and Colin Chandler, a future general manager.

    After this I went back to Dunsfold in 1976 as Head of Flight Test Services (new name) replacing Fred Sutton who had been promoted to be Manager, Dunsfold. New people had joined including Mike Sharland, Dick Poole, Trevor Davies, Brian Druce and Tony Smith. Sea Harrier and Hawk testing was in full swing so these were exciting times working with my excellent team and many brilliant test pilots including John Farley, Andy Jones, Mike Snelling, Jim Hawkins, Chris Roberts, Heinz Frick and Taylor Scott. However, my happy life was interrupted by a phone call from Chief Engineer, Ralph Hooper. He told me that the General manager, Colin Chandler, wanted to set up a project management organisation at Kingston and Ralph thought I would be a suitable candidate. He briefed me on the job and I said I would think about it. I decided it wasn’t for me so sent Ralph a short note saying “Thanks, but no thanks; it sounds like a short cut to an early grave”, thinking that would be that. Next day I got a call from Ralph saying that he had got my note but he had already volunteered me for the job! So, back to Kingston in 1980 as Hawk Project Manager (PM) with Ray Searle doing the Harrier job, leaving Mike Sharland in charge of Flight Test.
    Once Ray and I worked out how to deal with an entire aircraft project covering every department in the organisation, not just a bit of Design but also Production, Contracts, Product Support, and so on, in Brough as well Kingston, I began to feel less overwhelmed. Colin’s idea was that the PMs would have no staff except for a secretary and that each function would appoint a project chief, for example: project designer (Roger Dabbs), project production manager (Rory Quigley), project contracts manager (John Mowinski) and project product support manager (Eddie Hunt). The PMs’ task would be to coordinate the project work through these function project managers by means of regular project meetings and continual liaison. There was resistance to this change in some areas but in general it worked quite well. In time I had a couple of assistants, including the enthusiastic Mike Ball from Purchasing, which lightened my load, and the job almost became enjoyable; that is until a project director, Len Milsom, was appointed. This heralded the introduction of a full-blown Warton style department managing programmes and budgets with all the planning and reporting that was entailed. So the department grew ever bigger and the work less to my taste. By now the Hawk PM’s responsibilities covered all the export Hawks as well the RAF so there was a lot to keep track of. I was glad when the T-45 Goshawk was split off and Gordon Hodson was quite rightly given that job with which he was so familiar. The enjoyable parts were visits to customers including Finland, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Indonesia and towards the end, Saudi Arabia. When Kingston became the Weybridge Division of BAe Military Aircraft, Project Management was one of the departments which moved to Brooklands, the plan being to close the Richmond Road factory. However, the next BAe Managing Director reversed that decision and it was the ‘Vickers’ factory that was closed, many of the people moving to Kingston.
    Mike Hoskins was Chief Engineer when he came to see me in 1986 with a proposition. He wanted someone to be his overall technical department chief executive at Dunsfold and asked if I would like the job. Would I? You bet. At my final project meeting a number of my colleagues said appreciative words, especially Roger Dabbs, but Len Milsom remained silent. Then it was back to Dunsfold where I had been given no job description or terms of reference. When I mentioned this to Mike Hoskins he said I had better write them myself, then!
    The post had a number of names over time but the final and most easily understood was Chief Engineer Dunsfold. I had an office in the control tower with the pilots to start with but moved into an annex next to it. It was another coordination job, across the Dunsfold organisation working with Flight Test, now headed by Paul Rash (who had been preceded by Dick Poole), Avionics headed by Don Smith, the Test Pilots, Product Support and Production. Harrier GR5/7 and Sea Harrier FA2 were live projects together with the frequently troublesome Indian Sea Harrier. Big changes were happening in British Aerospace following full privatisation and it became clear to me that the CE Dunsfold position would disappear so it was no great surprise to be summoned to Kingston by Chief Engineer Mike Sharland to be given the “bad news”. As far as I was concerned it was good news; I was to be offered early retirement together with dozens of others over 55 at Kingston. Some did have bad news in that they were made redundant. Mike asked me to quit Dunsfold immediately and return to Kingston to work for him until the agreed departure date, some months ahead. Back to Kingston again!
    I had a nice office, at the Kingston end of the fine Richmond Road building, recently vacated by Dick Poole who had moved to Warton as Chief Engineer on Hawk successor projects. My new job was to draw up design organisation quality control documentation for Simon Howison, a totally stress free task. Once a week I went up to London to an outplacement agency employed by BAe to help those being let go to brush up their interview techniques, write career CVs and job applications (long forgotten skills); and to have a nice lunch. (I believe the real reason for this service was to salve the consciences of the BAe management who had chosen to dismiss so many outstanding and experienced people). I had no intention of returning to full time employment as the severance financial provisions were generous. After a month or so Mike asked me if I could stay on a bit longer to finish the quality job, which was nice. He again asked me to see him near my departure date and this time it was more serious; would I like to give up retirement and start a full time job as a department head? I said I would think about it. My reply was no. He was surprised until I explained the favourable tax position on our severance settlement. Instead I offered to return on a consultancy basis but this was rejected by the company. I was at Richmond Road when, after spending millions on updating and expanding the facilities, BAe management had had another change of mind and the factory was closed, so I spent a few weeks at the new Farnborough offices. I also witnessed the heartbreaking sight of the wrecking balls destroying the classical frontage of our famous factory, with its impressive marble entrance hall; since the 1950s ‘home’ to so many fine people and aircraft.
    Consequently in 1992 after 32 years (but not long compared to others) with the company in its many forms, I was actually leaving, aged 54. Looking back, the times with HAL, HSA and nationalised BAe were really enjoyable, and I count myself fortunate to have worked with so many co-operative, talented and likeable people, but with privatisation the Kingston organisation was progressively diminished, firstly with the removal of Hawk to Brough and then with the chipping away of departments like Contracts and Purchasing, and the overbearing domination of the Warton design management on Kingston. The precipitate retirement of Ralph Hooper and the sidelining of John Fozard, the two designers who made the post-1950s Kingston great, only compounded my disillusion. I spent my last days in the new Farnborough offices. If you were wondering if there was a Blunder number 4, there was. When I got my engraved 25 years service watch, my name was spelt incorrectly!
    As a post script I must say that I soon found a new niche, in the archives at the Brooklands Museum where over the last 30 years I have built up the Sopwith/Hawker/HSA/BAe Kingston collection with donations from many of my old ‘Hawker’ colleagues who fortunately ‘liberated’ quite a lot of material when they retired. Which is just as well as British Aerospace binned most of the extensive Kingston archive housed in the basement of the Richmond Road building. I was also a founder member, with Barry Pegram, of this excellent Hawker Association.