There was a BBC TV programme in the late '50s about 'scientific' subjects; the SK 1 appeared on one of these; I recall it couldn't be dismantled to transport it to the studio, so it was taken in one piece, angled over on the back of a lorry. (wonder if the BBC ever kept a recording of this programme; it was before the days of videotaping.) I heard tell it was stored in the United Biscuits blister hangar at Denham in the '60s.
I almost met Nat accidentally one day; I had paid a visit to Southampton ATC and was leaving when I nearly entered his office, I had meant to walk down the stairs to the ground floor and miscounted the number of flights of steps and ended up on the first floor.(they had escorted me up the stairs to avoid what they called the checkpoint!)
The guys there told me they were expected to do runway inspections in their own cars at their own expense, and he had just decided to pay them £25 /month for doing it!!
When I was at LATCC, one of the assistants there got highly dispirited with things, and asked a person in a bar if he had any jobs; said person was Nat, and said assistant landed a job (at least temporarily) as manager of Panshanger, which Nat owned at the time (early '70s).
Wasn't there a Peter de Savery connection between Nat's ownership of Southampton and BAA's?
Last edited by chevvron; 17th Mar 2008 at 20:01.