Treadigraph is right so far as I know.
I remember suggesting to Robin Balmer (Aerodynamicist who later was type designer of one of the Harriers) that only a company whose main factory was without an airfield would design an aeroplane that didn't need one! I was told they had once run an engine up in the carpark and the local populace reacted in rather a hostile manner.
Even the use of St Pancras coal yard for the Paris Air Race stirred the public up a bit.
John Farley can probably tell more.
Last edited by Allan Lupton; 4th Sep 2013 at 13:49.