I heard back from Paul and he was still in the RAF in '59. He came out in '60 and returned to work.. being sent to the Bitteswell Old site working Shackleton wing refurbishment and Vulcan elevons when they started coming in for the Mk2 upgrade. He says.. they finally realised his worth in '63 and made him redundant From here he went to BEA ('63) and that was the first time he actually touched an Argosy! His total time with the 'old' firm was '54-'63 punctuated by a spell of national service ;-)
Hi Dave.
Its great that you have kept her going, I know that this type of project develops a camerarderie that is hard to define and the sence of family is very strong.I actually envy you as few people experience what you have.Keep up the good work and may the funding keep rolling in.
Dave
Thats why I did'nt know him,we were in different factories most of the time.After AWA Baginton closed in '64 I spent four years with Dunlop aviation control making everything from maxarett brakeing systems to Concord fuel system components ie electropnumatic control valves,I then went to Bitteswell and remained there untill arround 1981,afterwhich I decided to go it alone and I set up my own building company.
Rgr that mate ;-) I found out yesterday that the first aircraft Paul worked on was the Sea Hawk. Apparently, the Indians wanted an additional UHF set fitting so they set about sorting the best place for the blade AE and associated wiring. Paul did the wiring bit and all looked well.. until they folded they unfolded the wings.. snip! On to plan B! We were on a course at Brooklands yesterday.. Making Your Aircraft Safe.. and the instructor was pointing out various areas to look out for. The course content was 90% aimed at military aircraft so irrelevant to us but one section dealt with control locks/ground pins of which examples were shown that included a variety of carrier aircraft and out popped the Sea Hawk radio story! Fortunately.. we all kept quiet at the 'Any Questions' times and got away 30mins early ;-)
From here he went to BEA ('63) and that was the first time he actually touched an Argosy! His total time with the 'old' firm was '54-'63 punctuated by a spell of national service ;-) 
