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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1913.PDF
718 FLIGHT International, 31 October 1963 Airline Profile / NUMBER TEN IN THE SERIES BEA Engineering By the Air Transport Editor BECAUSE BEA as a whole is probably familiar enough, this profile departs from the usual form of our series in that it treats of one part of an airline—an engineering department that employs more people than many of the corporation's smaller competitors. Its work typifies the quality-first approach that characterizes BEA's operations. Quality has its price, of course; but BEA's high break-even load factor must be viewed in the perspective of this quality and of the remarkable fact that the corporation last year slashed its engineering cost level by 13 per cent. This was partly attributable to higher productivity aircraft and partly to the BEA-Vickers-Rolls-Royce effort to overcome the Vanguard and Tyne development troubles. But it was also due to the implemen tation of a do-it-yourself policy which is revolutionizing the corp oration's engineering activities. Two initial impressions most forcibly strike the visitor to the BEA engineering base at London Heathrow. First, its size. It occupies 65 acres, represents an investment of nearly £10 million, and employs 4,000 people. By any scale this is an industry in itself. It is in fact a factory, producing safe and reliable flying hours for public consumption. Secondly, there do not seem to be all that many aeroplanes about—perhaps the best compliment one can pay to an airline engineering base. These are first impressions. To describe the base in detail, from planning and administration to the activities on the shop floor, is beyond the scope of anything but a book—perhaps a book of the sort that has been written by Mr C. van der Meulen, the corpor ation's electrical, instrument and radio superintendent.* BEA's well-earned self-esteem permeates the whole organization, and no department is more proud of a job well done, or more fortunate in having professionals of Shenstone, Morgan or Wilkin son calibre, than the department based in the big white buildings at London Heathrow placarded BEA ENGINEERING. Set apart from the airline's administrative and commercial HQ at Ruislip, with its soundproofed offices within jet-blast reach of the world's busiest international runways, BEA Engineering is the executor of * "Aircraft Maintenance," Heywood and Co Ltd, London, 120s. •BEA Engineering occupies 65 acres, represents an investment of nearly £10 million, and employs 4,000 people. By any scale this is an industry in itself"
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