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Desmond Norman

Desmond Norman was one of the co-founders of Britten-Norman

Nigel Desmond Norman CBE FRAeS CEng was born on 13th August 1929. He was educated at Eton, and then went to the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School as an apprentice. His National Service was with the RAF where he won the Sword of Honour. After his National Service he joined 601 Sqd of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, which his father, Sir Nigel Norman, had commanded and Desmond's two brothers, Mark and Torquil also served. A natural marketer, he then spent almost 2 years as an export assistant with the SBAC, and flew over 50 aircraft types.

He first met John Britten, a fellow apprentice at the DHAeTS, in 1947. They designed their first aircraft, the BN-1F, in 1950, which in Desmond's own words "wasn't too good, really". The friendship with John blossomed into various business ventures which culminated in the formation of Britten-Norman in 1949. One of their first successes was converting surplus RAF Tiger Moths into crop spraying aircraft. This lead to the development of the Micronair Rotary Atomiser system, with Jim McMahon. With worldwide sales of many Tiger Moth crop sprayers, in 1964 the Britten & Norman partnership launched the BN-2 Islander series of aircraft for which they are best known. The BN-2 is the most successful British aircraft since World War Two. Desmond was awarded the CBE in 1970. Both left the company which still bears their names in 1976. John Britten died at an early age in 1977.

Forming NDN Aircraft very soon after he left Britten-Norman, Desmond continued with various aviation ventures with the Freelance, Firecracker & Fieldmaster designs taking to the air. The Turbo-Firecracker was a contender for the RAF's trainer requirement, but was beaten to selection by the Brazilian Tucano. More recently he was chief design consultant for GECI, a French company, for which he was designing a light commercial freight aircraft which was to be built in Romania. He also acted as a design consultant for Air Atlanique, as well as actively working on his own aviation projects, including aircraft designs (a biplane design known as the Weekender was due to be in 2003) and developing a light aircraft diesel engine.

Desmond Norman CBE died suddenly on 13th November 2002, when British Aviation lost one it's foremost pioneers, and many people in the industry lost a colleague and friend. As well as being an aircraft designer, an entrepreneur and a keen sailor, he was a wonderfully colourful character whose unique personality barely reflected his many significant achievements.

 

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