BAe Woodford, end of an era

[Krystal n chips]

Many on here are / were familiar with the location....and certain adjacent hostelries of course..... hence I am posting this link simply for interest, the political aspects of the closure havnig been extensively covered elsewhere.

BBC News - Woodford Aerodrome site proposals go on display (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13822520)

Despite the pious, condescending, unctious and wholly cosmetic utterances about "consultation", it requires no thought as to how these 103 acres will eventually be developed into a combination of expensive houses and industrial units.....bit like Hatfield in fact...but I do wonder if any of the buildings are listed...Flying Club for example..and what, if any, form of memorial will recognise the contribution the site made and the types produced over the years.

[manccowboy]

I thing the original A.V.Roe hangers are listed but they have been moved before so unless they feature in any new development I should imagine they will be preserved somewhere.

AVIATION NORTH-WEST - WOODFORD AERODROME (http://www.edendale.co.uk/ANW/WFD.G2.5.html)

I believe the clubhouse and restaurant closed its doors for the last time this Friday gone 17th June 2011.

[tonker]

Blow up the sim whilst your at it:E

[BSweeper]

Does anyone know what will become of the Vulcan there, the Vulcan cockpit in the shed and the new Olympus stored there?

[jamesdevice]

good riddance
If over the last 20 years there had been a ban on placing major contracts with BAe / BAE / GEC then the MOD budget overspends would have been much reduced and we wouldn't be in the current budget problems
BAe themselves weren't too bad, but after the amalgamation with the rump of GEC to form BAE Systems, the rot became complete. Remember GEC under Weinstock made its money by asset-stripping, not by manufacture, and the GEC management method held sway after the merger

[Dengue_Dude]

Hmmm, end of an era.

I remember 3 unhappy years working there . . .

Lovely little airfield though, apart from the tall trees on finals - and the helpful guy that owned them.

[JimmyTAP]

Blow up the sim whilst your at it

Sims are still there - nothing to do with BAE anymore.

[Tankertrashnav]

Just been watching a DVD on the Vulcan, with lots of archive stuff, including the maiden flight. Amazingly low key, with just a handful of bods in sports jackets and pens in their top pockets watching from outside the hangars.

Just another airfield going the way of several hundred others around the country :(

[igarratt]

Got over to Woodford yesterday before we loose it for good, had a fab time, some vid's and pics on a GA thread at http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/459681-woodford-visit-before-closes.html

Vulcan looking very tired and unloved in comparison to what is was like when I was working there for 3 years, would so love to save this aircraft from being crushed just because it looks so awesome and there is just nothing else like it, anyone got a big garden and a tone of white paint? .... I'd be there ! :)

[walter kennedy]

jamesdevice
<< Remember GEC under Weinstock made its money by asset-stripping, not by manufacture, and the GEC management method held sway after the merger >>
I worked for Marconi (GEC) for 9 years and agree with your point wholeheartedly. Funny how people like him get a peerage for dismantling essential industry - says a lot about government.

[jamesdevice]

I believe he was a major contributor to Conservative Party election funds


I'm no socialist, but for one the Socialist Internation boys hit it right on the head in their obit for him
Lord Weinstock and the near terminal decline of British industry (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jul2002/wein-j27.shtml)

"Lord Weinstock, the former managing director of GEC, Britain’s premier engineering corporation, died Tuesday July 23 at the age of 77 years. Variously eulogised as “Britain’s best manager” in the Financial Times and a “giant of industry” in the Guardian, it is instructive to review his career to understand what constituted his much vaunted success.

For more than three decades until he retired in 1996, Weinstock presided over and profited from the demise of Britain’s electrical engineering industry at the expense of hundreds of thousands of workers in Britain and countless more in the former British Empire.

His career epitomises the economic decline of British capitalism, its corporatist approach, its dependence upon the state owned industries and the Ministry of Defence in the post-war period, and latterly its bankruptcy in the face of global capital. Weinstock pioneered the hostile takeover in the 1960s, which he used to create a monopoly position in the electrical engineering and defence electronics industries. His obsessive concern with ruthless cost cutting, rationalisation and sackings in search of profits made him a role model for other CEOs. Never a self-publicist like other members of the nouveaux riches, he became the trusted advisor of four prime ministers, from Labour’s Harold Wilson in the 1960s to the arch-Conservative Margaret Thatcher until 1984."

it goes on to detail how he destroyed to destroy a large part of British manufacturing industry

[J31 MAN]

Last movements today. G-CPTM last ever aircraft to land and depart........... by flight.

XM603 remains....for now.

[manccowboy]

Indeed sad day for British aviation, I noticed a vid on YouTube last night showing a very empty main assembly hanger :{

Woodford - Home Of The Nimrod MRA4 - YouTube (http://youtu.be/28ph6UetXiY)

If only BAE hadn't pulled out of EADS there's a chance the new A320NEO extra line could have gone to Woodford :ugh:

[Doptrack]

That vid is really sad

I keep remembering that hangar with four aircraft in, thinking been in those offices, been up those stairs, was there for the first flight party . . .:{

[NutLoose]

Second auction is up for the tooling.......... including the snooker tables..

BAE Systems - 3 UK Sites - Peaker Pattinson (Auctioneers) Ltd [PP2] (http://www2.ppauctions.com/auction.php?thisPage=1&id=42&perPage=10&sort=1&search)=

First auction had a 32 foot boardroom table and chairs! went for £600

[Sir George Cayley]

I'm sure many Woodford staff will have lots of memories triggered by the vid and also a lot of sadness too. However, it looks like a fantastic opportunity for an Exec FBO. The space reminds me of TAG's Farnboro' hangars.

I can't believe that a firm like Ocean Sky hasn't considered it.

SGC