COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER TWELVE ELONGATED BALLS
before an early departure - to other lesser establishments in the area.
It was like a brief wartime interlude all over again. There were even
two ex Typhoon types amongst the senior captains. Bob Hornall, who
went on to become senior Vice President of Middle East Airlines, had
flown with 245 Squadron and Rex Mulliner had commanded 198, on
123 Wing, alongside Pinkie Stark's 609.
The pressures of impending matrimony had been a sharp reminder
about career prospects with an independent airline. For BEA and
BO AC were then at the height of their monopolistic powers, and who
knew what the future might hold for such as Hunting Clan. So I
decided regretfully to look elsewhere.
Elliott Brothers was certainly different. The name of the company
meant nothing to me and this, despite their confidently worded
advertisement for control system engineers to work on new supersonic
aircraft, suggested that they might be short on practical aviation
know-how. The positive response to my letter sent on spec - referring
to an RAF background, ETPS, and an engineering degree - confirmed
that this was so.
Before long I was installed at Borehamwood. In a dark and scruffy
works building, fronted by a brick office block, which served as the
company's research laboratories. The whole set up had a part worn
look about it, suggesting an acute shortage of funds for capital
expenditure and non essential maintenance.
In one respect these impressions were correct. For the triumverate
which ruled over Elliott Brothers, Hungarian Jews, brilliant as they
were unconventional, were in permanent danger of overtrading. The
Chairman, Leon Bagrit, later to be knighted and to become known as
'Mr Automation 1 , was master behind the scenes, rarely seen. In earlier
times, when the cash position was even tighter, legend had it that he
would strip the company of its component stocks - selling these off
one day and buying them back the next - in order to pay the wages.
Dr Ross, Managing Director, some time graduate of the Officers'
School in Berlin, a cultured, gifted, and eccentric character was the
accelerator. Fortunately there was a calming influence too - the
Financial Director, balding 'Curly' Herzfeld alias the brake.
The building at Borehamwood - there were others at Lewisham in
south east London and at Rochester in the old Short Brothers factory
- was a hive of activity behind its seedy image. Divided into separate
cells by internal partitions, or sometimes just chalk marks on the floor,
it reflected the operational and organisation policy of a dynamic, free
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