Nat Somers
 

Does anyone know anything about the late J N 'Nat' Somers?
I've seen him variously described as a test pilot, an air racer and a businessman - maybe he was all three.

Link

I recall a Nat Somers having some connection with Southampton Airport in the late sixties, possibly as the owner . He also raced a Mew Gull (G-AEXF).

From what I can recall he was the owner of the airport when the concrete runway was installed.......late 1960s. No doubt made a few shillings when he sold the airport on to whoever (BAA?) or did they come later

From memory he owned Southampton airport and an airfield in Hertfordshire in the sixties. He also owned/flew Mew Gull G-AEXF in the late fifties.

Was he also the test pilot who flew the prototype Spitfire (K5054)?

I am not sure if it is the same person, but I also remember a friend of mine talking about a J. N. Somers Jewish educational trust.

Similar name, same location but it was Joseph 'Mutt' Summers who first flew the prototype Spitfire.

Nat Somers bought the land on which Southampton Airport, AND the Ford Transit factory, now stand. And a motorway. By the mid-1980's SOU carried some 1.5m passengers. But the operation was the ultimate shoe-string airport; Nat controlled all expenses, down to paper-clip purchases, by a hard-wired phone link from his office in Jersey. The terminal was an old hangar converted with the bare necessities. When it rained there was a concerted rush to get enough buckets under the known leaks in the roof.

He made a huge amount for money from selling half the land to Ford, some more, I guess for the M27, and of course from the income of the airport.

The fire service eventually reached the point in 1984/5 where unless Nat did something, like spend a bit, the CAA would close it down. So he leased the airport to Airports UK, wholly owned by BAA. BAA bought it some years later, having presumably overcome the terms of the Airports Act which would have limited their airport ownership in England to the 3 London Airports.

Passenger numbers took a dive, not only (but partly) because of BAA's management, but have since then recovered, although I don't know if they have reached the 1.5m it used to be.

Nat developed a civil jet single engine light aircraft, in the 1950's, I think. There was a lot of discussion about it on pprune not so long ago.

Nat also owned Panshangar, in the 1980s, but I haven't a clue about what happened to that. His son ran it at the time, I think.

Apart from anecdotes about Nat's meanness, which are many, there is one an uncle of mine used to tell. I cannot vouch for it, but as far as I remember it went like this; shortly after WWII my uncle, serving in the RAF, had just severely damaged a new aircraft (prototype? jet?) and himself while landing it. The Board of Enquiry, covered in gold braid, had convened round his bed as soon as he was able to speak, and had given him a very hard two hours. As they left the room, one of them hung back, and when the rest had gone pulled a bottle of whisky from under his coat. "Here", he said, "you deserve that. Not one of those fools has any idea about flying. Don't worry, I'll make sure you're OK". It was Nat Somers, and he did.

FL,
This search (sorry, not clever enough to smarten it up) brought up a few relevant hits.
Interestingly, there was an appeal a while ago on the White Waltham notice board at from someone looking for information on the Somers Kendall SK-1. IIRC, they had some bits of it.
Best wishes,
Chris

http://www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/re...7?_IceUrl=true

Apparently the SK-1 (G-AOBG) is currently owned by Peter Bishop and is being rebuilt in France.

(Coincidentally Chris, both FL and RETDPI also used to fly out of WW years ago)

stevef:

Thanks, you are right. I remembered it as I logged off earlier (will now go into totally embarrassed idiot mode). :\

I looked up the figures on that link for the SK-1....

Quite remarkable.

Edited version..


• Take-off to 50ft at 750 Kg 685 m.
• Landing from 50 ft. at 650 Kg 595 m.
• Max speed at sea level 288 kts (535 Km/h)
• Max cruise 242 kts ( 450 km/h).
• Climb 1850 ft/min.
• Vne 349 kts (645 km/h).
• Range 1160 km.
• Stress limits +/- 6 g
Empty weight 343 Kg.

White Waltham. Still, IMHO, the nicest aerodrome in the South East.
:ok:

SK-1 was a smart little aircraft, it would be nice to see it fly again.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v712/crun9/SK-1.jpg

There are snippets of Nat Somers in the latest "Propliner" magazine when he managed Aer Turas flights at Southampton airport.

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?

Yes there was, Chevron. Nat sold the airport company to P de S. It was the latter that sold it to BAA.

Nat Somers was a nit-picker, a detail man, and hence a successful man. It is not a quality appreciated these days, more is the pity. He as also a gentleman.

OK, one more Nat anecdote. Sparked by the T5 fiasco....

When he leased Southampton to BAA via Airports UK, the deal was proceeding swimmingly until BAA's Head Office decided it should take things over.

A little later, the lease was completed and Airports UK took over management.

At the end of the first quarter, a huge bill for "use of apron space for parking equipment" arrived in the post, second class, of course.

"Hang about" says AUK, "we leased the whole terminal and apron; you can't charge us for that."

"Look at the plan" says Nat, "you've got 7 days to pay".

He really meant that last bit.

The plan showed a strip of tarmac, about 2m wide, between the apron and the terminal, as not being included in the lease. This was where the ramp equipment was routinely parked, so that parked aircraft could get near enough to just avoid penetrating the obstruction slope.

The BAA Head Office muppets had not realised its significance. And that was shortly before the shopkeepers started taking over.

T5 planning? Not much has changed in BAA.

Southampton Airport
 

Yes!You are quite correct,Wily old Nat kept a piece of the Tarmac,and I gather will not sell it,so demands rent for it!!He did have Panshanger,which has been on/off a Licensed Airfield,but I am unaware of its state today.Of course,Mut Summers was the Supermarine Test Pilot,who was succeeded by Geoffrey Quill.The old Spitfire Assembly Hangars were meant to be listed,but a JCB mysteriously demolished part of them,making the rebuild not financially sound,so there remains very little of old Supermarine now extant.

chevvron.

Was the assistant at LATCC who got the job at Panshanger Dave Howles ?

C.

Yes! Couldn't remember his name, but you were there at the same time.

Nat was seen with pickaxe and spade digging trenches for runway lighting cables to save money at Southampton....a few years later Bill Bryce of Brymon ran the flying school before De unsavory had plans to sell off the field for development.