Report - British aircraft corporation - weybridge surrey 1988

[soylent green]

I suppose this should be classed as my first explore, i had done my apprenticeship here as an Aircraft woodworker! In 1987 the factory closed and i moved into F1! Sometime in 1988 i went back to check out how the factory looked, if i had known then what i know now i would have spent a lot longer looking around! The factory was huge and i only took a few pics of my department and the main hanger! The factory was build within the Brooklands race circuit and unlike the factory, a lot of Brooklands still remains! Still a lot of good bits to explore there The pictures aren't that great but it gives you some idea of what it was like

A bit of history

In World War II, the site was again used for military aircraft production, in particular the Vickers Wellington, Vickers Warwick and Hawker Hurricane and was extensively camouflaged. Trees were also planted in some sections of the concrete Track to help conceal the Hawker and Vickers aircraft factories there. Despite these efforts, the Vickers factory was successfully bombed by the Luftwaffe and extensively damaged on 4 September 1940 with nearly 90 aircraft workers killed and at least 419 injured. The Hawker factory premises were also bombed and damaged two days later, but with no loss of life or serious disruption to Hurricane production. On 21 September 1940, Lt John MacMillan Stevenson Patton of the Royal Canadian Engineers risked his life when he and five others manhandled an unexploded German bomb away from the Hawker aircraft factory at Brooklands and rolled it into an existing bomb crater where it later exploded harmlessly - his bravery was subsequently recognised by the award of the George Cross. The crucial role of Brooklands in the Battle of Britain of 1940 is now explained in an exhibition at Brooklands Museum.



Vickers factory at Brooklands.
After the bombing of Brooklands in September 1940, the Vickers-Armstrongs Design Department with Rex Pierson, Barnes Wallis and several hundred other staff was dispersed to a secret location at the nearby Burhill Golf Course, just East of St George's Hill in Hersham and the Experimental Department led by George Edwards was relocated to temporary premises at Foxwarren in Redhill Road, Cobham. These two facilities played a crucial part in the successful development of the 'Upkeep' mine - better known today as the 'bouncing bomb' conceived by Barnes Wallis and deployed to such devastating effect by the 'Dambuster' Avro Lancasters of 617 Squadron, RAF, led by Guy Gibson against Germany's Ruhr Valley reservoirs on the night of 16-17 May 1943.

After the war, the circuit was in poor condition and it was sold to Vickers-Armstrongs in 1946 for continued use as an aircraft factory. New aircraft types including the Viking, Valetta, Varsity, Viscount, Vanguard and VC10 were subsequently, designed, manufactured and delivered from there.

In 1951, construction of a new hard runway required a section of the motor circuit's famous Byfleet Banking to be removed to allow Vickers Valiant V bombers to be flown out to nearby Wisley aerodrome which offered a longer runway and less built-up surroundings than Brooklands. This airfield opened as a flight test centre for Vickers in 1944 and used until 1972 (latterly by the BAC).

After considerable expansion with increasing commercial success in the 1950s, the Vickers factory expanded to its peak size in the early 1960s in preparation for the VC10 manufacturing programme and became a major part of the new British Aircraft Corporation in 1960. Substantial investment in the site at this time saw many new buildings constructed and also existing premises modified. First, in the mid-1950s, came a new assembly hall for the Vickers Viscount known as 'B.1' (presumably as it consisted of a number of standard war-time B.1 type hangars re-used (together with some T.2 hangars too) and rebuilt as one long double bay structure parallel to the runway. A large new 60,378 sq ft VC10 flight shed hangar was ready to house the prototype VC10 airliner by 1962 and a second even larger (98,989 sq ft) flight shed was added alongside this by 1964. The latter was probably the largest aircraft hangar in Europe at the time and became known locally as 'The Cathedral' hangar while the smaller shed was called 'The Abbey'. The huge factory at Brooklands went on to design and build the BAC TSR.2, One-Eleven and major assemblies for Concorde. Unfortunately, the Labour government's cancellation of TSR-2 in 1965 and the disappointing lack of significant orders for VC10s and Concorde saw the factory contract from the early 1970s; it became part of the newly-formed British Aerospace in 1977 and finally closed in 1988-89, although BAE Systems still retain a logistics centre there today.

Some pics

This is the site map! I worked in the building marked Aircraft laboratories and the main hanger is VC 10 WING ASSY

My department before closure

Main hanger in its heyday

And after closure

The back of the main hanger

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After closure

Thanks for looking

 

[mikecawood]

I worked in various departments there as an apprentice, then went to the Design Office as a Draughtsman.

 

[soylent green]

Hi Mike. I wish I’d spent more time looking around back then in the late 80’s. I spend quite a bit of time a few years ago finding old bunkers and barrage ballon sites around the Weybridge site. It’s still an amazing place to go have a look round. Good to hear from a fellow Weybrigde old boy

 

[JohnG]

Sorry to be a bit late to this thread, I've just joined. 1st post.

I joined BAC in 1964 as an electrical apprentice.
Back then the VC10 was in production and so I got to work in various parts of the factory, mainly the hangers, for a couple of years.
Inside the cockpit, in the radio bay and so on.
After two years I changed jobs and started to work on early ICL computers there, first as an operator and then as a programmer.
I saw the TSR2 being wheeled out of the hangers onto the runway and cut into pieces. A sad end to what could have been an excellent aircraft.
I think, during my time there, I walked around most of the old track and visited many of the various workshops and offices.
Both hangers, the electrical test, the mould loft, the main building, the fitters, the wing shop and others.

When I first joined Barnes Wallace was still there, he worked on the upper floor of the old clubhouse.
As apprentices we were taken and introduced to him. We all got to shake his hand.
There were still (empty) blockbuster bombs etc stood vertically outside the building.
I do wish I'd taken pictures of the place back then.

I still have a vivid memory of a group of us apprentices riding one of the four wheel steerable trolleys down the hill climb.
Strictly forbidden!
Needless to say we crashed part way down and luckily nobody was seriously injured.
Did we get a ticking off!
The daft things we do when we are young, eh?

Happy memories of the years spent there.

Now an old man well into his seventies.
JohnG.

 

[Rob-B-S]

I visited the factory just once as an RAF cadet during my schooldays at the invitation of Barnes Wallis. A small group of us cadets from his old school Christ's Hospital were invited to meet him in his place of work, which I recall was on an upper floor, so probably in the old clubhouse as JohnG mentioned. He talked to us for some time there and then we were taken on a tour of the workshops. I vividly recall seeing enormous milling machines carving aircraft wings out of solid slabs of aluminium instead of them being fabricated by joining small sections together. We were there sometime around 1961-63 but I don't know whether the wings being made were for the VC10 or BAC 1-11 then.

Unfortunately I got a tiny fragment of swarf in my eye during the tour and had to wear an eye patch back at the boarding school for a week or more after while it healed. However, in the dormitory at night I would remove the patch briefly because my night vision had become incredibly bright through wearing it. That eye could see quite clearly even though the other eye could see nothing at all, but everything looked bright purple. Night vision arises from an increased level of the chemical rhodopsin, which used to be called "visual purple" because of its colour, but it is quickly destroyed by strong light. I suppose as an RAF cadet I should have regarded my apparent superpower as a distinct advantage, but was glad when I could go back to seeing normally with both eyes in daylight.

At that time Barnes Wallis was the treasurer of the school's foundation and we always knew when he was visiting the school because the school band inevitably played the Dambusters march during our regular dinner parade. On reflection now although meeting him at the factory was an honour I was more impressed by seeing those massive milling machines, presumably the length of an aircraft wing, in action. By the way, I never actually joined the RAF after leaving school.

 

[gatopretorockey]

I love this reports especially the first four photos. Vickers are a part of aircraft history and I love commercial civilian aircraft. Thank you.

 

[soylent green]

Thanks for your comment. I still go to Tesco, which is on the brooklands site. It’s still a fascinating place. So much history . I still have some pictures of a tunnel which runs under the track. I’m sure Brooklands still has some secrets too👍

 

[Jon Fuller]

Hi Soylent Green, I too worked in Aircraft Labs in the 80's, What did you do there, and what's your name?

I was in 51 Dept prior to the Labs, on BAC 111, Tornado, and a bit of RB211 engine pylons.

regards

Jon

 

[soylent green]

Hi Jon. I worked above the aircraft labs in the carpenters dept. I was there from 1979 to its closure in 1987. I went to McLaren racing after that and worked with a guy who was in the labs too.