Ferranti Helicopters
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 3
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From: MAYO
Came across your site again while surfin.
I have been back to Massbrook recently and memories of Denis deFreeanti were revived.
Has your project re the deFerranti family been completed?
I am now [email protected]
I have been back to Massbrook recently and memories of Denis deFreeanti were revived.
Has your project re the deFerranti family been completed?
I am now [email protected]
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 943
Likes: 0
From: Gold Coast, Queensland
I had a great time flying Denis' Jet Ranger in 1976 in the south of France where he had a fantastic house in Rion de Landes. He was a vintage car enthusiast & had the money to indulge to the max! I think he had about 70 cars & bikes. When he finished his time there, we all climbed into his MU2 & flew to North Ireland. He showed me his hangar set up, very James Bondish & also took me to look at the huge house his pilot would live in! He drove me around in a Bentley convertable about a 1925 to 1930 model, just like new! How he did everything with only 1 eye was remarkable. An amazing man, 68 at the time, & had a charming wife & family.
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 3
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From: MAYO
Ferranti at Massbrook.
While working as a painter there in the early to late 70s engineers would arrive from Helicopter Maintenance and dismantle whichever machine was due an inspection. There was a Mick Walsh and a Malcolm Abbott/Ebbett. We often got trips following the service, we were regarded as "load/ballast" for landings without power!!
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 55
Likes: 2
From: langerland
While working as a painter there in the early to late 70s engineers would arrive from Helicopter Maintenance and dismantle whichever machine was due an inspection. There was a Mick Walsh and a Malcolm Abbott/Ebbett. We often got trips following the service, we were regarded as "load/ballast" for landings without power!!
Joined: Apr 2018
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
From: MAYO
Correct. My memory of 50 years back not great. Among the pilots there I remember Ian evens and Brian danger and a gentleman named Donoghue who lived in Castlebar. He flew the Mitsubishi out of a very short runway. It was quite an event to watch a takeoff with the engines at full throttle and brakes on. Loads of memories of Denis and his lady wife Bobby/Germaine. Worked for them there for almost 30 years.
Barry
Barry
Joined: Dec 2005
Posts: 1,581
Likes: 73
From: England
Malcolm Ebbet (Ebbut?) worked for Ferranti for a long time as as an aircraft engineer. Going back to the time when they had an amphibian.
Lots of good stories. Last saw him about 1982.
Lots of good stories. Last saw him about 1982.
Last edited by ericferret; 29th June 2020 at 09:44.
Joined: Mar 2023
Posts: 1
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From: France
Denis' Daughter?
New here and very little to contribute but that, in 1970, I was working in Dubai on the construction of the Rashid Hospital. The supervising architect for the job was a chap called Tony Lodge. He was married to a girl whom we rarely saw, surprisingly, such was the claustrophobic environment in which we found ourselves. We, contractors and consultants, were all living on site although, for professional reasons, we tended not to mix socially. Lodge's wife (Jan? Sian?) was said to be a de Ferranti and to have connections to Pontoon in Co. Mayo. I remember this because my father was from Foxford, only a few miles from Pontoon. She was also said to have been, rightly or wrongly, the first female in Britain to have obtained a helicopter PPL. I believe that, years after her sojourn in Arabia, she'd been on some sort of adventure and had written a book about it - I did find it on Amazon many years ago.
I know nothing of the naturist tendencies described earlier - not likely to have been encouraged in Dubai in those days and certainly not now! Lodge never gave the impression of being the flamboyant type but you never know with these arty types!
Ring a bell with anyone?
I know nothing of the naturist tendencies described earlier - not likely to have been encouraged in Dubai in those days and certainly not now! Lodge never gave the impression of being the flamboyant type but you never know with these arty types!
Ring a bell with anyone?
