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In the early seventies I was working as a Resident Engineer on site, supervising the structural work on a large public building in London for the consulting engineers. Several hundred tons of steelwork were being fabricated by Boulton & Paul Ltd in Norwich, and I paid several works visits for progress and quality control reasons. On my first visit I was received by one of the company directors, not long in that position. Over lunch I mentioned their extensive work on aircraft over the years, but he was adamant that they had never manufactured any aircraft to his knowledge. So out of politeness I dropped the subject.

If only the internet had been available 50 years ago, I could have provided him with this information ...

http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/Museum/ ... onPaul.htm

If you'd quizzed him harder, would he have become defiant?

Ben Gunn would be turning in his grave with that denial. He was Boulton Paul's Chief Test Pilot for 17 years. He ejected inverted from the P120 when he lost an elevon. I came to know him when he was Airport Manager at Shoreham Airport in Sussex in the mid/late 1970's. A very jovial and pleasant guy although at Shoreham he was a lot more rotund than his photo in this blog!
Ben Gunn - Test Pilot

In our last village the museum was made by Bolton Paul. It was dated about 1885 and was factory built with all mod cons.

https://www.cottagemuseum.co.uk

In fairness to the Boulton & Paul director who appeared ignorant of the aviation history of the company, he was actually a structural steelwork specialist, in a venerable concern with many varied manufacturing roles. He may also have not been aware that they were known in the house-building industry for supplying high-class joinery products, as well as factory-made museum buildings! "Horses for courses", as they say.

Must thankyou 603DX for a most interesting read.

Glad you enjoyed it Mrs Ex-Ascot, I quite enjoy finding little gems like that.

I think that Boulton and Paul also built Dutch barns just after the war, I seem to remember being surprised that the aircraft manufacturer went on to do something as mundane.

om15 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 20, 2019 10:49 am

I think that Boulton and Paul also built Dutch barns just after the war, I seem to remember being surprised that the aircraft manufacturer went on to do something as mundane.

In the early 70's I had a customer that was using the old Gloucester Aircraft premises. The glass doors still had the old Gloucester logo ground into the glass.

The company was making Tea & Coffee dispensing machines.

I've not come across a Gloucester Aircraft company ian16th, one of the many things of which I'm ignorant no doubt! However I do remember the Gloster company, who made thousands of Meteor jets. I was brought up not far from RAF West Malling in Kent, which had several squadrons of their Marks 4, 7, 8, NF11 and NF14 aircraft, which were falling to earth with alarming frequency in the 1950s. Incredibly, I believe that approximately 800 RAF Meteors crashed in total, with 400 aircrew fatalities. If these figures are correct, that seems to put the aircraft type into a similar category to the notorious "widow maker" flown by the Luftwaffe! It got so bad at one stage, with one or two lost in the same week, that the local newspaper the Kent Messenger actually suggested the possibility of sabotage at the West Malling station.

Just in case people doubt Ian's recall:

https://www.baesystems.com/en-dk/herita ... ft-company