I could not resist drawing attention to this obit. to the late Major Warburton who was the quietly spoken ops manager for Ferranti at Gatwick and subsequently Shoreham.
It gives a good idea of the calibre of personnel Bob Smith had in his team. (The outfit positively reeked quality ) It is poached from here
Untitled Document and I sincerely hope they do not mind me using it to draw attention to the memory of this modest and kind English Gentleman. RIP Sir.
Major Herbert `Warby' Warburton M.B.E. D.F.C. CdeG
Army pilot who directed artillery fire in North Africa from a slow and unarmed spotter aircraft
MAJOR HERBERT "WARBY" WARBURTON, who has died aged 82, distinguished himself during the Second World War as an Army observation pilot in North Africa, Italy and Burma.
After the Operation Torch landings at Algiers in French North Africa in 1942, "Warby" - a nickname which reflected his warm and colourful personality - was quickly in action spotting artillery with 651 Squadron.
It was a perilous occupation, pottering about over enemy positions in an a fragile, unarmed, single-engined Auster that seemed more suited to a flying club than to the hazards of war. Derived from the American Taylorcraft, this light monoplane cruised no faster than 100mph, and was restricted to a range of 250 miles.
As the First Army made its bold but unsuccessful dash for Tunis, there was a constant demand from Air Observation Post (Air O.P.) crews for tactical information. Careless of the risk, Warburton circled enemy positions and directed artillery fire. Constantly attacked by enemy fighters, he was also highly vulnerable to ground fire. But Warburton became known as "The Artful Dodger", so canny was he in manoeuvring his Auster until German pilots were forced to break off their attacks for lack of fuel.
He was awarded the Croix de Guerre in recognition of the operations he had flown in support of the Free French 19 Corps around d'Oum El Abouab, where his courageous observation in the face of enemy fire made possible the destruction of an ammunition dump and artillery battery.
Herbert Bradley Warburton was born at Amersham, Buckinghamshire, on July 26 1916, and educated at Hymers College, Hull. While still at school he learned to fly with the Hull Flying Club. Afterwards he joined the Civil Air Guard and the Blackburn Aircraft Company.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Warburton enlisted in the Royal Artillery, and in 1940 was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 52nd Anti-Tank Regiment.
He volunteered as an Air Observation Post pilot. Awarded his Army flying badge in 1942, he was posted in the rank of captain to 651 Squadron. The next year, after the end of the Tunisian campaign, Warburton, by now a flight commander, moved to Sicily and Italy.
Posted home from Italy in 1944, Warburton qualified as a flying instructor at the Central Flying School. The next year he joined No 656, a sister Air O.P. Squadron, taking part both in its support of the 14th Army in Burma and in Operation Zipper, the liberation of Malaya and Singapore.
Following a brief spell as an instructor at the RAF Staff College, Warburton returned to the Far East, where he commanded 656 Squadron in the messy attempt to help the Dutch recover their East Indies colonies, much against the wishes of the Indonesian people. He was awarded the D.F.C. in 1947.
Amid the chaos and general sense of frustration, Warburton raised spirits by declaring a weekly "Swiss Navy Day", when officers were encouraged to wear caps back to front and to drive their jeeps in reverse.
While sharing an airfield with a Spitfire squadron, he was piqued by a young RAF pilot who bragged that soldiers flying Austers would stand no chance against a well-handled fighter aircraft. Warburton challenged the young blood to a dogfight, and in a dazzling display of evasive flying made a complete ass of him in front of spectators from the station. That night he ostentatiously wore his spectacles, and fumbled his way to the bar, where the drinks were on the RAF.
On his way home to be demobilised, Warburton served briefly in Palestine with his former squadron, 651. Back at home, he ran Warby's Wine Store, the family shop, for a while, but fretted to return to the service. His opportunity came with the outbreak of the Korean War, when he was posted to No 1903 Air O.P. Flight.
He returned to Malaya in command of 656 Squadron, where his experience and unconventional command - especially with his flight's Austers - contributed crucially to the defeat of jungle guerrillas. He was appointed M.B.E.
At much the same time, his Auster floatplane trials off Singapore, which involved take-off runs of up to a mile, indicated his potential as an experimental pilot.
Much of Warburton's operational success was due to his gift for bringing on new pilots. They might find him forbidding at first, but they soon recognised his incomparable experience and innate kindness and generosity of spirit.
Warburton returned home as a major to command No 663 Air O.P. Squadron of the Royal Artillery (sic) Air Force at Liverpool, before training in America in 1957 as a helicopter pilot.
Subsequently he joined the Joint Experimental Helicopter Unit at Middle Wallop as a trials pilot, flying Whirlwinds and Sycamores, and became a founder member of the Army Air Corps. As part of his work with the development of Army helicopters, he helped introduce the troubled Scout helicopter into service.
While second-in-command of the helicopter test squadron at Boscombe Down, he tested an open seated Wallis-Benson auto gyro for altitude, wearing an Irvine jacket, muffler and thick boots. An astonished Boeing 707 pilot called the Wiltshire experimental station and reported he had just passed under a teddy bear flying a curious motorcycle at 11,000 feet.
Warburton also undertook high-risk icing trials with the Wessex helicopter at Fort Churchill, Hudson Bay. He was attached to the Royal Norwegian Air Force to advise on icing trials.
After a spell working on the Lynx helicopter and other projects at Army Aviation HQ, Warburton retired in 1971 as the second-longest serving Army pilot.
But there was no break from helicopters. Warburton immediately joined Ferranti Helicopters as flight operations manager at Gatwick, and held similar posts with British Caledonian and British Airways.
When he finally retired, his career had embraced 42 fixed-wing and 24 rotary types, involving respectively 4,075 and 2,200 hours flying.
Latterly, Warburton enjoyed trout fishing on the Wiltshire Avon, though his activities were restricted by bronchial problems deriving from his time in the desert.
In 1974 he was elected Freeman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, and the next year he received a Ministry of Defence award for his work on the Scout and the invention of the Warby Weight Computer. Warburton was also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
In addition to his wartime medals, he was thrice mentioned in dispatches.
He is survived by his wife Joan. © Daily Telegraph (London) 14/7/99
Savoia PM on its way in due course.
W