The Flight of The Accountant: a Romance of Air and Credit by Peter Armstrong (BSc Aeronautical Engineering) Contact Details Professor Peter Armstrong The Management Centre University of Leicester LE1 7RH e-mail
[email protected] Abstract 2 Introduction When the first flight of the Aviation Traders Accountant became imminent we were very pleased to be able to go along to Southend Airport and take part in the occasion, for such it certainly was with many of the company’s workpeople out on the airfield to see their very first design take the air. Indeed a number of these found convenient extempore aeronautical grandstands on the dozens of ex- R.A.F. Prentices dotted about the airfield prior to their refurbishing as civil aeroplanes. Although the weather was unsettled, the plans went ahead smoothly and after the chief test pilot, Mr L.P. Stuart-Smith and the chief of flight tests, Mr D. Turner B.Sc. (Hons), had climbed aboard, the two Rolls-Royce Darts were started up with a shrill whine and the square-tipped Rotol propellers bit the air purposefully. The Accountant then taxied sedately to the end of the runway and turned into the wind, tension in the watching crowd mounting awhile. For several long moments the plump, silver partridge sat glistening and tranquil before the engines were opened up with a roar and the wheel brakes released. Trundling along at first, the Accountant rapidly gained speed and soon lifted well clear, retracting its wheels almost as soon as it was properly airborne. Flying smoothly and steadily, it climbed away with the Darts in full song and in no time was a small shape in the distance.