A Little VC10derness

It would be nice to hear from any of the design office staff that might remember me in the VC10 and Concorde design teams.
I see with sadness the death of sir Freddie Laker.
I met him during the final preparations for the route proving of the BUA VC10 when one of his Rolls Royces was eventually manoeu'ved
into the cabin.. the lift platform used was then dismantled and stowed in the rear freight hold for use at each port of call on the route.
My massive involvement was to design a vent system to connect to the fuel tank to prevent fumes entering the cabin.
Its sad to see the last flying VC10 being retired (super tanker).
one of the last jobs I had before leaving weybridge for Sperry Gyroscope in Bracknell was to reposition the underfloor systems and route the doublewalled fuel lines for the conversion to tanker role of both super and standard versions.

Hello Vivbest

I worked briefly in the drawing library of the Weybridge Main DO during either 1970 or 1971. I was a keen racing cyclist at that time and had very short hair, which concerned on the the Asian draughtsmen, as he wondered if I might be a 'skinhead'; there being some agression between that breed and the Asian community in those days.

I used to chat with Ernie Marshall when he came to the library counter to collect a drawing or two.

I went to be interviewed at the Apprentice School, as I wanted to get out of the library and onto the drawing board but I was not offered a place. I then left to become a junior draughtsman in a steel fabricators and, after several career moves, I have been running my own Chartered Building Surveying practice near Bath, for 34 years.

I may well have seen you at the library counter. Do you remember the head of the library, a shambling chap whose name I can't remember. Also a very well dressed, tall gent who had once been in charge of a coffee plantation in Brazil; quite how he ended up in the Weybridge DO drawing library I have no idea.

Best regards

Dave Simmonds

Would any of you have known John Ayres? he used to drive a 1930's open Lagonda