Highlights of the Steering Group meeting, 15 April

The Steering Group met via Teams and at the National Aerospace Library on 15 April. Alisdair Wood was congratulated on his election as President of the RAeS. The new Governing Document and Code of Conduct were adopted (now viewable on this site). Elections for officers resulted in the elections of Tony Pilmer as Chair, Tim Powell as Secretary, Malcolm Fillmore as Treasurer and Binni Brynolf as Web Officer. Also elected was Peter Elliott, formerly of the RAF Museum, as our first President.

Binni reported on progress on the new website and Georgina Townsend, Assistant Archivist at the National Aerospace Library, was congratulated on her designs for our new logo (pictured).

Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative honoured!

At the meeting of Aviation Heritage UK on 26 October, Tim Powell received the Individual of the Year award for his contribution towards developing the Initiative. He said, "While I am hugely honoured to receive this award, I feel it is as much a group award in recognition of all the individuals and organisations who have made the success of the AAAI possible. I should like to note, in particular, the work of my colleagues on the Initiative's steering group and the subcommittees, and acknowledge the crucial part played by the support of The National Archives".

Interview with Professor Sir Iain Gray

Director of Aerospace at Cranfield University, Sir Iain Gray has 27 years industry experience in the aerospace sector including roles at British Aerospace and BAE Systems.

Archives of IT have interviewed Sir Iain and a transcript will be available shortly. Meanwhile some excerpts are available here: Professor Sir Iain Gray - Archives of IT (archivesit.org.uk)

'As an engineering science graduate, Sir Iain Gray was attracted to the aerospace industry by the prospect of working on Concorde, the Anglo-French supersonic airliner. Joining the aircraft’s team at British Aerospace’s Bristol Filton plant “was like a dream come true,” he says.'

Come Fly With Me: The Archives of Sir Freddie Laker

Rather belatedly, I draw your attention to an Archives Hub feature on the Freddie Laker archive at West Sussex Record Office.

The archive consists of around 700 files including a vast amount of press cuttings, spanning 1974 to 1983. The records document the core activities of not just Laker Airways but also subsidiaries including the famous Skytrain Holidays and various other business ventures of Sir Freddie’s such as Aviation Traders.

More at Come Fly With Me: The Archives of Sir Freddie Laker – Archives Hub Blog (jisc.ac.uk)

The Laker archive online!

A timely blog from Alice Millard at West Sussex Record Office to mark the opening of the Laker archive.

In 2020, West Sussex Record Office was awarded funding by the Business Archives Council to catalogue the archive of Sir Freddie Laker. Documents arrived at the Record Office in bankers’ boxes and lever arch files, ready for repackaging and cataloguing.

The archive itself comprises records of Laker Airways, its subsidiaries, Sir Freddie’s other business ventures, and some personal papers from 1956 to 2015. These records cover key moments in Sir Freddie’s life, such as the landmark antitrust suit brought against major airlines, the launch of Skytrain, the eventual liquidation of the Laker company, as well as a myriad of documents on his other business ventures. The archive also includes personal papers such as awards, invitations, Sir Freddie’s aviation licenses, correspondence, plus material concerning his love of horse racing.

It is a very rich archive and allows us a fantastic insight into Sir Freddie’s life, the founding and management of Laker Airways, and the complexities of its demise in the 1980s.

The catalogue can be viewed through the search facility on the WSRO's website.

February update on the survey of archives of UK airline operators

As part of the Initiative's Networks for Change grant, we are undertaking a survey of archives created by UK airline operators. This will complement the existing survey into archives of aircraft manufacturers.

Since last year, project volunteers have been undertaking research to identify where archive records created by UK airline operators are known to exist.

We are now able to publish a longlist of airline operators and where archive records have been identified to date.

This can be viewed here.

Please do take a look to see if you have information you can add to this.

Even if the ‘materials identified’ column lists a ‘yes’ for an airline we are still interested to learn more about any archive records known to exist.