I left the Fleet Air Arm after 12 years in 1960 and joined AWA in July of that year working as an instrument technician in the instrument test lab under the management of Reg Fletcher. This work involved the testing of all of the flight instruments and fitting them into the cockpit panels ready to go into the various aircraft, Argosy, Seahawk, Meteor.
One of the unusual jobs was to visit all of the sites around the country which handled the Blue Steel stand off bomb. This was done on a three month rotational basis to test and certify all of the gauges used, to in turn certify that the weapon was ready for flight. I also had a hand albeit very small in the design and build of a six phase puddle welder for the stainless steel aircraft also built at Baginton
Sea Dart
This work all continued until we were all made redundant. I was one of the fortunate ones that had the right background and qualifications to be offered a transfer to AWA Whitley (Hawker Siddley Dynamics) where I worked on the Sea Dart missile and its launch system.
This again saw me all over the place doing test work, including a spell at Rosyth preparing and operating a huge steel barge moored just above the Forth Road Bridge in the centre of the stream. It was here that we fitted the booster to the Sea Dart into its launch trolley, both of which were covered in strain gauge instrumentation with the trolley sitting on train rails welded to the base of the barge. We then slung a small depth charge on cables under the barge and then detonated it from a safe distance. Cables ran from the barge to a small tug where we had all of the instrumentation and recorders, the latter being B&K 12” paper recorders running at 100s of feet a minute in order to get a quality recording. Our main problem was if the edge of the paper touched you, it would at the very least result in a very serious cut.
Leaving Whitley
All very exciting, but having been close to redundancy once it was not difficult to recognise redundancy approaching at Whitley. I therefore left and joined Dunlop Aviation as a field engineer. This job took me to around 80 different countries over a 30 year period, but that is another story.
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This picture does not include Baginton village. This view is from Stonebridge Highway towards the village. On the left is the Alvis plant next to the airport.
My dad (Ron Brooks) worked in the flight shed at Baginton on the Meteor and Argosy. His claim to fame was stopping the inaugural flight of the Argosy after spotting a stress fracture in the tail plane. He too had been in the Fleet Air Arm on board HMS Implacable. When redundancy loomed in the early sixties he tried to get on the list for a pay out. However this did not materialise so he moved with our family to work at RAE Llanbedr on Meteors and Jindivik’s. These were his happiest days.
As a 23 year old I started working at A.W.A. Baginton in 1960 having just completed an Apprenticeship at Folland Aircraft, Hamble Hants and been made redundant through loss of a contract in 1960, single men and women first. It was best move I ever made financially, wages were double Hambles rates at about £25 p.w. Worked on the Hawker Siddeley 748 Turbo Prop Wing leading edges. Originally the AVRO 748 the aircraft was taken under the HS Wing and later to become the ATP under BAe. After a year there I transferred to Argosy build at Bitteswell airfield near Lutterworth Leics for my second year 1961, the tear my extra wages paid for getting married.
Both my father, Eric Cox, and grandfather, Percy Willoughby, worked at AWA. Also my mother, Peggy Willoughby and aunt, Doris Willoughby who was a secretary. My dad was in the Tool Room being a skilled machinist who had served his apprenticeship at Alfred Herbert and my grandad was in the Valve Section. Grandad retired before the closure but my dad stayed until the end. I have great memories of the flying displays every year especially the excitement of the Kings Cup air race. I wonder what happened to the Flying Wing that used to be by the Main Gate. I can remember my aunt telling me about how all the girls had to wash themselves in the washbasins at Baginton during the war as there wasn’t any water supplies after the Blitz! Ah the good old days!!
I am searching for background information about a women from Northamptonshire who ‘painted lorries at an aerodrome’ in the early 1950s, could this have been at Baginton?
Did you know my father, Brian Long. I believe he helped design the Argosy
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