Sir Peter Masefield’s Chipmunk (Part 2)

The recollections of Eddie Hawkins with regard to his Chipmunk mod’s recalls an office phone call from DeHaviland’s at Chester, before Airbus re-identified the factory.

A well spoken young man who identified himself as being in the Sales Department at Chester, said he had been given my name as someone who might help him; his quest was to obtain the drawings for the cockpit heater fitted to Sir Peter’s Chipmunk. The Chester

factory had received a contract to overhaul the R. A. F. Chipmunks, with a request to fit the heater system and could I send him a set of drawings?

A few words here and there suggested their source had to be the Flight Test Drawing Office as being the “safe way” to do a “foreigner”, and such was the case! This is probably the only “foreigner” that showed a profit to a company…and they were our competitors!!

Prior to this phone call I had previously become involved in a project sponsored by Sir Archibald Russell to do the production drawings for a helicopter project at Weston. Ron Howark came up from Weston Design with A. N. Other and John Haines. According to Sir Archibald; his guys at Filton could knock out the drawings before breakfast.

Work proceeded apace. We took over floor space in F. S. L. and then the axe fell and in the sort out John Haines left the Company and went to DeHaviland’s, Chester. He still owes me a pint for my services.

Doug Holdaway