When I was in the sixth form at school we had compulsory Arts Club and Science Society on alternating Friday nights - Arts Club was generally naff (in my humble yet strangely philistine opinion) and to be bunked off, yet SS was often good. One night it was something like "The Invention of Carbon Fibre" and it was presented by one of the Farnborough scientists who had been part of the team. My memory is of a little bloke who decidedly resembled Mr Honey as visualised by Nevil Shute rather than as portrayed by the rather tall James Stewart... Anyway his presentation was easily the most entertaining and interesting I ever attended - "me and the boys were sitting around one morning wondering what to do when one of us suddenly said 'let's invent carbon fibre!' - so we did..." Informal chat afterwards with coffee and biccies.
The payoff was that a dozen or so interested sixth formers were subsequently invited to Farnborough to see round the portacabin (well, it might have been a slightly more substantial building but not much) where it had all happened and shown the processes, artefacts and so on. I remember there was a beautiful glass fibre scale model of a Slingsby Kestrel or similar; I presume the real thing has a carbon fibre main spar? There wasn't enough space for all of us to do whatever the second part of the visit was, so I generously volunteered to be part of the smaller group and visit Farnborough's control tower - we had a chat with the airfield controllers and also with the wizened troglodytes manning Farnborough Radar a floor or two below, which (allegedly) me and my spotting school mates listened to avidly on our airbands when whiling away weekend afternoons watching the skies. While I was talking to the duty controller, G-ABLS or a similar reg called up "What on earth is that?" said the controller after initial acknowledgement. "It's a Puss Moth" said knowledgeable me... Who knows, I may well have met Chevvron of these pages. Great afternoon out!