Description

My adventures while working in the airline business

by Bob Cooper

Having been “Born & Bred” in Copthorne and being close to Gatwick Airport, my interest in
aircraft started at an early age. I became an “Aircraft Spotter” and used to visit the airport on
my bicycle most nights. My parents’ back garden faced north, and the approach to Runway
27 (now Runway 26L) was not far away from the garden. Needless to say, I saw many of the
old airliners on the approach, one of the most memorable being the Air France Lockheed
Super Constellation. The sound of those engines as the power settings varied was something
else.

I knew then that I wanted to work on aircraft, so when I left school, I would frequently visit a
company called Air Couriers at Gatwick to ask for a job as an apprentice aircraft engineer.
As the answer was initially “nothing at the moment”, I had to get a job somewhere as my
Father told me that if I thought I was sitting around at home all day, then think again! So I got
one at Crawley Handicrafts, where a Mr Nippers was the owner. Eventually, in January 1963, I
got a job at Air Couriers, and cycling to Gatwick each day during that awful winter was quite
an achievement. Aircraft Types included Douglas C54’s, DC-3, DC-6, Vickers Viking, &
Canadair Argonauts, to name but a few.

From Air Couriers in November 1964, I moved to British United Airways at Gatwick and
worked on the modern jetliners of the day, the BAC1-11 & Vickers VC10. My first Aircraft
Engineers Licence was on the Rolls-Royce Conway engine in January 1969. I married in
September 1972, we had our first child in January 1974. I left what was then BCAL in
July 1975 to join East African Airways (EAA) in Nairobi, working as an Inspector on Super
VC10’s and Douglas DC-9’s. EAA collapsed in March 1977, so we (now with another child)
returned to the UK, where I got a job with IAS Cargo Airlines as a Licensed Aircraft
Technician working on their fleet of Douglas DC-8 freighters. A better job came up as Station
Engineer at Gatwick for Air Malawi in July 1978, looking after the VC10, which is where I stayed
until they ceased to operate the VC10 in October 1979, so I was redundant once again.

I then joined Tradewinds in December 1979, helping to look after their fleet of Boeing 707
320 freighters; however, a better job came along in January 1981 at Air Europe as an
Engineering Shift Supervisor, which is where I stayed until they too ceased trading in March
1991, and now I am redundant once more. However, I then joined GB Airways as Station
Engineer in London up until August 1994, when I was offered a job to help set up a new airline,
British Mediterranean Airways (BMED) at Heathrow Airport as their Technical Director. I
jumped at the chance as it was an exciting challenge. I then left BMED in January
1998 and became a Consultant, which is where I took on many different projects, one of
which was to help start up another airline in Bournemouth this time. Other projects took me
travelling to various countries, including the USA. One of the most interesting was with XL
Airways as a Project Manager, helping them with their new aircraft deliveries from Boeing,
spending time in Seattle. So you see, with so much history, when the Covid Lockdown
happened, I decided to put it all down in a book.

326 pages, 364 images of people, places and planes, airports – and of course memories