COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER TWELVE ELONGATED BALLS
For Jack and Bill Alexander had long since won their battle with
Monk and Broadbent. The aviation activities at Borehamwood,
Lewisham and Rochester had been brought together, under their joint
management, and had spawned a whole family of divisions. There
were already almost a dozen of them, concentrated in a couple of
modern multi-storey blocks on the edge of Rochester Airport.
Together they had become a highly profitable business and a growing
power in the world of aviation.
So far this had been in the United Kingdom only and Jack and
Henry Pasley-Tyler, the main board director to whom the Flight
Automation divisions reported, were determined to become
international.
P-T was a character. Commander RN (Retired) he almost literally
strode the quarter deck, addressing all and sundry as "M'boy!" He
could talk you off the face of the earth, switching his attention quite
ruthlessly when he had something better to pursue, and was a martyr
to catarrh and hay fever. Due to his affliction he had a disconcerting
habit of stopping in full flood, usually about salesmanship being the
origin of all wealth, a favourite topic, to dose himself liberally with
the latest in decongestants.
P-T was another accelerator like Dr Ross, if in rather a different
mould. Despite his equally eccentric behaviour, most of us respected
him for his drive and single mindedness, and recognised his
considerable value to us. I met him first, when being interviewed at
Borehamwood for the Guided Weapons job, and in formal discussion
found him intolerant and demanding. It was a view which I never
revised. Yet his behaviour on many other occasions revealed a ready
understanding and sympathy for his subordinates. P-T wasn't such a
bad type behind the bull.
During my absence at British Oxygen Ron Howard had set up the
Transport Aircraft Controls Division and successfully exploited the
Bendix relationship to secure the VC10 flight control system. It was
audacious buccaneering stuff in the face of fierce opposition from
Smiths.
Ron and his team used the basic Bendix PB 20 autopilot computers,
and some sensors, with evidence of a licensing deal and back up
support, to demonstrate soundly based know-how in the civil field.
From this beginning they evolved an integrated system with coupled
approach, autoflare, and ultimately autoland, capability. The duplicate
monitored channels and the integrated electro-hydraulic controls, were
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