03.12.2019
03.12.2019
My day is spent liaising with a variety of the great engineers and programme managers to work on improving the performance, with respect to cost, of a baseline air vehicle structural standard. This involves integrating with the supply chain, design houses and our internal engineering team to get the best solution for Airlander. One moment I can be talking about fitting an engine in the aircraft and the next it’s about how I am going to build the payload module.
I’ve always been interested in aircraft and while studying in Edinburgh I particularly like the applied engineering elements of my mathematics degree. When I left university I was accepted for a number of roles but it was an aerospace engineering role that I took.
I started my career in 1989 with a large aerospace company as a Junior Stress Engineer. I always knew I wanted a career in the aerospace industry. I worked on a variety of different programmes such as the new Eurofighter platform, looking at Carbon Fibre Composites and metallic design.
During the start of my career I took on an exciting opportunity to circulate around different disciplines. In a two-year period, I was doing detailed design drawing clearance, check stress, loads generation and weight optimisation of the Typhoon CFC wing. I also managed to spend six months in Munich doing Nodal Load provision for the Typhoon Fighter.
The most exciting part of my job is when you sign off an airframe to fly and you get to watch the parts and structure that you and your team have designed, built and certified flying around and satisfying a customer’s needs.
I was made aware of an opportunity at HAV which provided a different technical challenge to my previous experience. This, together with the prospect of being part of a team involved in developing a world class product early in its lifecycle led me to apply. However, the main influencing factor was the enthusiasm and passion that I experienced in the first three hours of meeting an element of the engineering team during my interview. I liked what I heard and during the drive home I thought, if the guys are interested in my skillset then I’m seriously interested in the role.
The role has the potential to offer a full through-life product development experience in what is a niche aircraft programme. An opportunity I have not experienced in any other roles. Also the deviation from my fixed wing background and the significant learning opportunities and challenges like no other make this a very different role for me.
I like the motivation of the team and the range and depth of skills of the people that yield quick decision making on the best way forward.
As a kid I used to sail under the Forth Rail Bridge and that was engineering for me. They can build longer and higher, but they will never outdo that.
From an aerospace perspective the DH Mosquito. It’s amazing what you can do with a couple of Merlin engines and some wood.
To be part of a team that is on the cusp of producing an aircraft that has such high functional and financial potential is very exciting indeed.
Don’t leave your career to ebb and flow with the demands of a business. Understand what excites and motivates you personally, lay some basic plans and most importantly act on them to achieve your goals.