Classic Lecture Series: The Right Size Matters, lessons from a career in aviation by Peter Hearne

Summary: “It seems to me that....we frequently shot ourselves in the foot by making aircraft, engines or organisations either too large or too small. The right size really does matter.” In his lecture, Peter Hearne uses cases from his long career in aviation to illustrate his theme, and shows where he believed the British aviation industry went right and wrong after the Second World War. After looking at the merits of Flying Boats using his experiences working on the Saunders Roe SR 45 Princess, Hearne turns to the advantages and disadvantages of the de Havilland Comet, Vickers 1000 and Boeing 707s and their consideration by his then employer, British Overseas Airways Corporation. Hearne started the second stage of his career in 1959 when he moved to Elliott Brothers to head up one of its first groups involved in the development of electronic systems for military projects. Over the next thirty years he climbed the ranks of what became GEC Marconi and became involved with a diverse range of major projects and uses his knowledge of the BAC TSR2, SEPECAT Jaguar, Tornado and F16 to illustrate his theme. Peter Herne retired as Chairman of Marconi’s Avionics Group in 1984 and served as President of the Royal Aeronautical Society between 1980 and 1981. The Lecture was dedicated to the memory of Alan Purnell and was presented to the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Historical Group on 28 April 2004. The podcast was edited by Mike Stanberry FRAeS and it was digitised thanks to a grant from the Royal Aeronautical Society Foundation.