Tuesday 6th June started very wet following torrential rain the night before. I wouldn’t have blamed anyone for opting out of travelling to Farnborough Airport for this very interesting and informative visit organised by the Aerospace Network.
TAG stands for “Techniques Avant Garde”. The Wikipedia entry indicates the range of high-end technology and other activities with which TAG is associated – business aviation, motorsports, hospitality, consumer products and real estate. One very well-known luxury brand is the Swiss watchmaker TAG Heuer. Aviation and motorsport are two other expensive activities.
The visit was hosted by Tony Knight, who has more than 50 years association with aviation in Farnborough, from engineering apprentice to managing the changeover of the aerodrome from
MOD to civilian use in the 1990s. The former MOD, then DRA scientific and engineering activities that do not depend directly on an adjacent airfield are now housed in a QinetiQ site to the north of the TAG airport site. MOD flying activities have moved to Boscombe Down.
The site was bought from the Government for £1M in 1997 and TAG then spent £63M bringing it up to CAA standard as a business aviation hub. 48,000 movements are allowed annually at present, which will increase to 50,000 by 2019, although the current utilisation is only about half of this. The aircraft that use Farnborough are almost exclusively business jets up to 80 tonnes; which includes Airbus A319 and Boeing business jets (based on the 737). About 40 aircraft are based there. As a result, selling aviation fuel is a large part of the business, making Farnborough the largest retailer of aviation fuel that is not supplied by pipeline (as is the case for Heathrow and Gatwick). Managing an airport is much more than just the business end of aviation operations. Extensive work was carried out during the transfer to civilian use to take account of the environment and to improve the facilities. The airport site borders on Sites of Special Scientific Interest, such as Eelmoor marsh where Przewalski’s horses now graze, clearly visible from the airport taxiways. Another part of managing the airport environment is bird control, carried out by the airport fire crews as well as by a falconer to scare off any pigeons. Substantial landscaping has been carried out for water management and noise reduction purposes, as well as the construction of six gleamingly clean hangars and a new control tower.
An important part of the tour was a visit to the radar control room at the foot of the control tower and to the visual control tower itself which, as you would expect, has a superb view of the entire operation. Tony Knight also gave a brief account of some of the activities of Samuel Cody that started aviation in Farnborough. Cody was originally a proponent of man-carrying kites. Kites don’t fly on windless days, so one slightly novel way of viewing the earliest aircraft is as a kite that generates its own wind in order to fly.
The three hours of the tour passed quickly. This was a fascinating survey of the history of Farnborough aviation and its development to its present day status as a dedicated business aviation operation; as well as a glimpse into the world of privately owned jet luxury.
Bob Darby, Aerospace Executive Team Volunteer