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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1739.PDF
FLIGHT, 13 October, 1949 AIRWORK COMES of ACE Twenty-one Years of Enterprise Founded on a Faith in Aviation's Future IN the late nineteen-twenties, that remote age whenAvro Avians and Blackburn Bluebirds might still occa-sionally rub wings with World War I veterans like D.H.9S, two young men were joint owners of a Gipsy I Moth. Their names were Alan Muntz and Nigel Norman. Besides sharing the Moth, they also shared an unshakable faith in the future of aviation, so much so that they were prepared to forsake the already assured positions which both of them held in the engineering profession. They started planning. If, they argued, aviation was to achieve the future they visualized, people must have better facili- ties for practising it. Not that they entertained any golden visions of "flying for the million"; they were already sufficiently astute business-men to recognize the rocks on which other men's treasure-ships had foundered. With the necessary financial backing, they proceeded to acquire a goodly slice of the market-garden belt that then stretched rather drearily over the hinterlands west of Hounslow, Middlesex ; and presently the beetroots and broccoli began to give way to a level sweep of firm grass, and buildings to arise along its southern boundary. The two were, as has been said, engineers, and they had imagination. No wooden huts or glorified Nissen-huts for them; instead, there presently arose England's first all- concrete hangar. Nor were they satisfied with just plain tarmac; before the hangar they laid a vast apron of pre- cast concrete slabs, dovetailed diamon.dwise. Other build- ings were erected: a smaller hangar divided into lock-ups for private owners; a clubhouse; a control tower. In a few months, Heston Air Park was in being. During 1930, radio and Customs facilities were installed 5O3 and, not long after, a complete airfield-lighting installation. The aim was to make Heston the gateway to the Continent for the aircraft private owner and the charter operator; and, deliberately, the layout was closely integrated to pro- vide an ideal '' municipal airport'' which could be shown to provincial authorities interested in the idea of providing similar facilities in their own localities. ^ If the cliche may be forgiven, Heston soon became a 'hive of activity." King's Cup Races had already been flown from it; tenants opened their own aircraft-and- accessory sales premises; the private owners' lock-ups were soon filled to capacity. By the end of 1930, nearly a hun dred pupils were under instruction at the flying school. Instruction was not cheap—it cost four guineas an hour, dual or solo, high rates in those days—but it was good, and many now distinguished pilots owe their skill to the sound teaching of the instructional team led by Capt. V. H. Baker and his deputy, Brian Davy, who in 1936 succeeded him as C.F.I. The late Lord Londonderry, Air Minister at the time, became a proficient pilot at the hands of Capt. Baker after a not-too-successful first venture with a Service instructor, who had probably, and understandably, lacked the necessary candour. Unhappily, Baker was to lose his life while testing a fighter during the war. Instruction at Heston was given, first on Moths and latei on a fleet of Avro Cadets ; in view of the fact that good ser- vicing facilities for in-line engines had already been estab- Above and below are the twofounders of the firm, the late Sir Nigel Norman and Mr.Alan Muntz. On the right are the pre-war Heston buildings
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