Rise and Fall of the British Air Industry

Report of the Probus general meeting on the 11th of June 2026

President opened the meeting at 10.45am and gave his usual rhyming safety notices. He also offered a very warm welcome to all members on this bright and sunny morning as the rain tipped down outside.

The president’s quotation question this morning was who said “go ahead and make my day “and the answer was Clint Eastwood

There were 44 members in attendance, which was excellent and apologies have been received from Bob Bennion Mike Banks Andy Bicknell and Jean Stainthorpe.

The president said he would like to thank Roy Plume for organising the annual holiday to Newcastle, which was very successful and enjoyable.

Members gave a round of applause to Roy.

The president asked the officers for their reports.

Treasurer had nothing to report.

Speaker Sec and holiday organiser Roy Plume said that the holiday to Newcastle had gone very well. Everything he had planned had come to pass and we had also been able to squeeze in a trip to Whitley Bay on a sunny afternoon which had been very well received by all.

Roy said reports and photos of the holiday are on the website and he encouraged all members to have a look at the website.

Social secretary Jerry Sullivan reminded members of the farm walk on the 1st of July 2026 to Highfields farm and asked members to sign up and to take the flyer that was at the front on the desk.

Welfare officer Joe Hoyles said that Bob Bennion had broken his hip and was at the moment in Clarendon Court.They could not operate and were hoping that the hip would heal itself. It was also good to see Peter Morgan and Brian Johnson back. Joe had also suffered a fall himself while on holiday, but didn’t want to talk about that but said “you should’ve seen the other bloke “

Hon Sec had nothing to report except he also would like to second the comments from the President about the holiday to Newcastle and the excellent way that Roy had organized everything,

President said he had two new members to induct and invited them to come up receive their badges and to say a few words.

The two new members were Anthony Goodwin and Steve Mitchell and they were inducted into the club

British Air Industry

The president then introduced the speaker to the meeting David Simmons who would talk about “the rise and fall of the aircraft industry 1945 to 1975.”

Overall David said it was quite depressing to see how much time and money had been wasted by the various politicians and governments regarding the air industry .

At the end of the second world war, Britain had a very good lead in technology and expertise in the design and building of aircraft and engines including jet engines Most of this has been given to the Americans basically because Great Britain had no money after the war and needed to boost sales of aircraft.

Since then most of the aircraft companies have closed and the UK has had to rely on joint ventures with other countries to fund the development of aircraft.

Only BAE and Rolls Royce (engines) in the UK are still in the game

The President thanked David for his excellent presentation complete with many pictures of various aircraft

David answered questions from the members.

Norman Bourne gave the vote of thanks .

The president thanked all members for attending today:and reminded members that our next meeting is on 25th June 2026 and the topic is “the reluctant shepherdess “

The president closed the meeting at 12.10pm