News from the British chapter of the Vertical Flight Society of the passing of one of its more illustrious members who after training at RAF Halton would go on to work as the flight-test engineer at Fairey and then Westland, where he was involved in practically every development.
Books on the Rotodyne are as few as its remaining parts, but what is clear is that the Harrier aside this ~ circa 1960 ~ was the last purely home-grown aerospace initiative to emerge from the UK. Westland, who took it over, chose to manufacture helicopters from elsewhere before needing rescue by foreign ownership.
Invariably this stems from the fact that ruling classes in the UK are drawn from arts instead of sciences, which are viewed with suspicion despite having been the basis of national prosperity. Margaret Thatcher was an exception to the rule (Chemistry), those like Liz Truss hoping to emulate her studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics...
...the essential subjects for people given more to talk than torque.
