Factory/Company Visits

[scran]

Planning at trip in Sept to visit following companies/locations (Govt visit):

Bell-Fort Worth
Sikorsky-Stratford, CO
Eurocopter-Marignane, Fr
Westland- Yeovil, UK

Would appreciate any advice as to good locations for Accommodation, Dining and "Entertainment" near those locations. Thanks!

[widgeon]

Fort Worth :
Arlington Hilton , Bell have a good rate there. Be sure to visit Trail Dust but take off you tie first unless you want it surgically removed
Startford Dunno.
Marignane , Sofitel if someone else is paying , Best Western if you are , rent a car if you want to get around , allow at least 30 minutes to get into the factory , be sure to get a pass if you are taking in a laptop , guards have no sense of humour.
Yeovil , Four Acres in West Coker sounds good in Yeovil , normally I stay with friends but I dont think they would put you up.

[Flight Safety]

I tried to visit the Statford CT plant last year as a civilian, but was unable to get past security, and toured the little museum up front instead. The museum was nice, but didn't take long to go through. I didn't contact anyone ahead of time, perhaps I should have.

Scran, I stayed at the Comfort Inn in Mystic CT (a nice Comfort Inn with frig, microwave, etc. immediately north of I-95), about an hour and a half from Stratford. I spent some time at the old Mystic whaling seaport (very nice) and I also took a tour of the submarine museum at Groton (near GD's Electric Boat Division) just a few miles west of Mystic. The museum was great and I also toured the retired nuclear submarine Nautilus.

You'll need some extra time to be located this far from Stratford for side tours like this. Otherwise Bridgeport and New Haven are nearby.

I would dearly love to know how to get a tour of the Stratford plant as a civilian, without talking to a saleman about buying a helicopter.

[Flight Safety]

Scran, thanks for the message, I thought your circumstances were similar to what you mentioned, since you posted (Govt visit).

Sikorsky supplies mostly to goverment customers (the majority of those begin military) and as such the Stratford plant is a government secure plant. I'm just not certain how they normally treat civilian non-customers (who plan to be customers later). All I know is that I didn't get much response when I showed up last year in May, but given the nature of the plant, I wasn't too surprised. I imagine trying to get a tour of the Lockheed Martin tactical fighter plant here in Fort Worth would be similar. You need a reason to be there, which you have.

The hotel in Arlington Texas that widgeon mentioned is in a very good location. It's located next to I-30 near the intersection of I-30 and Hwy 360. I-30 is one of the main highways between Dallas and Fort Worth and is the main travel route between the downtown areas of the two cities (Bell is located near I-30 not far from the hotel). There's much to do in Arlington, and the hotel is located close to most of those attractions and is close to many fine restaurants. Given the tourist location of the hotel, I'm sure that many local "attraction" brochures will be available in the hotel's lobby for Arlington, Dallas, Fort Worth and the surrounding cities, so you can pick and choose your entertainment. The Trail Dust widgeon mentioned is a nice steak house that doesn't like ties, as they will cut it off with scissors if you wear it in (just below the knot).

[ 16 July 2001: Message edited by: Flight Safety ]