|
The early 1950s saw Cobham facing a difficult and uncertain
future. With additional sources of funding urgently required, it
was decided, in 1954, that Flight Refuelling Ltd should 'go public'
and that FR (Holdings) Ltd would be formed to become the first
'parent company'.
Sir Alan's younger son, Michael, newly qualified as a barrister,
(and fully expecting to pursue a career at the Bar) was 'persuaded'
by his father to join the company as Contracts Manager. Thus began
a somewhat enforced business association which nevertheless worked
well enough to ensure 60 years of unbroken family leadership of the
organisation. It continued until the coincident announcements, in
1994, of Sir Michael's retirement and the renaming of the group to
Cobham plc.
Flight Refuelling Ltd pulled itself through a particularly bad
period of project cancellations with new ventures, including
nuclear engineering, commercial electronics and establishing a
leading position in the design and supply of fuel system components
for European aircraft. Other major contracts involved repair and
overhaul of RAF and foreign air force jet fighters and operating
the RAF's No 210 Advanced Flying School.
The timely acquisition of aircraft maintenance and conversion
work included the modification of large numbers of Meteor fighters
into unmanned 'drones', gaining the company a foothold in the
general target market that was to significantly affect its future.
In 1961 a licence agreement was signed with the Hayes International
Corporation based in Birmingham, Alabama, to manufacture a series
of towed aerial targets. This led, in turn, to FRL designing and
manufacturing its own highly successful Rushton winch and target
system.
FRL relocated its design, manufacturing and administrative
facilities to Wimborne in the early 1960s. Its core business
remained the supply of standard fuel system components and air
refuelling equipment capable of meeting the operational
requirements of advanced jet aircraft, which, later, were to play
such a crucial role in the 1982 Falklands Campaign. This culminated
in the 'Black Buck' series of raids on Port Stanley by RAF Vulcans
dependent on the supporting Victor tanker force.
Flying activities remained at Tarrant Rushton until late 1980,
when the company's lease on the airfield expired, whilst the
Wimborne site, in addition to being FRL's main production centre,
now also provided a central headquarters for the expanding
organisational network.
From 1985 all the piloted flight operations previously carried out
by FRL's Airfield Division became the responsibility of FR Aviation
Ltd, then newly formed at Hurn Airport, near Bournemouth. This
arrangement left unmanned projects such the Falconet subsonic
aerial target and the Phoenix target acquisition air vehicle under
Wimborne's control. It soon brought a significant increase in
towed-target and coastal surveillance work. Based on the freshly
introduced 'contractor-owned, contractor-operated' principle, this
led to FR Aviation purchasing a fleet of some 20 Dassault Falcon
aircraft from the USA. By this time, FR (Holdings) Ltd had become
restructured as FR Group plc. |
Production of the American Hayes aerial target
led to the company's own design and manufacture of the Rushton
winch and target system (shown here fitted to a Canberra aircraft),
which entered service in the early 1970s.
Cobham has produced unmanned aerial vehicles,
including the Falconet jet powered aerial target and the Phoenix
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, shown here, which served with the UK
military.
|