XH558 Vulcan Bomber Trust

Chairman Of 'The Vulcan To The Sky Club'

Gerald Howarth MP

Gerald was born in September 1947. He was educated at Haileybury and ISC Junior School, Windsor, and Bloxham School, Banbury (scholar). He read English at the University of Southampton (BA Hons) where he served with the University Air Squadron and was commissioned into the RAFVR in 1968.

After university he became General Secretary of the Society for Individual Freedom but in 1971 he began a career in international banking. He worked for Bank of America International Ltd (1971-1977), European Arab Bank (1977-81) and in 1981 he was appointed Manager, Loan Syndications at Standard Chartered Bank, responsible for arranging major international loans.

In 1982 Gerald was elected a Councillor for Chiswick in the London Borough of Hounslow and served as Shadow Vice-Chairman of the Environmental Planning Committee. In 1983 he was elected Member of Parliament for the former coal-mining constituency of Cannock and Burntwood, Staffordshire, Labour’s 50th most marginal seat which he held until 1992, becoming the only Conservative to hold Cannock for 2 terms.

Gerald’s first official appointment was as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Spicer MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Energy (1987-90), then Minister of State for the Department of the Environment (1990-91). Gerald then became PPS to Margaret Thatcher from December 1991 to April 1992. Between 1983 and 1992 he was an officer of the Conservative Parliamentary Aviation Committee, and was a Founder Member of the No Turning Back Group.

In 1993, a year after losing his seat in Staffordshire, Gerald was selected as the candidate for Aldershot where he succeeded Sir Julian Critchley in 1997. Since then, he has served on the Home Affairs Select Committee (1997-2001) and as Vice-Chairman of the Defence Select Committee (2001-03). For a while he was a member of the Executive of the 1922 Committee of Conservative backbenchers.

Since 2002 he has served as a Shadow Defence Minister with responsibility for defence procurement and the Royal Air Force. In addition to his frontbench duties Gerald is also Convenor (Chairman) of the all party RAF Group, an officer of the Parliamentary Aerospace Group, Chairman of the 92 Group of Conservative MPs, and an active member of the all-party Kashmir group.

Gerald is also a regular contributor to the all party Photography group’s annual exhibition. He is President of the Air Display Association (which represents those who organise and participate in air shows around the UK and Europe) and in 2006 became a trustee of the Vulcan To the Sky project which is restoring to flying condition a Vulcan bomber. Apart from defence, he takes a keen interest in home affairs issues, family issues, the media and industry.

Gerald has been married to Elizabeth since 1973 and they have 3 children. In his spare time he enjoys flying (he has held a pilot’s licence since 1965), photography and fishing, and is a church warden at the Royal Garrison Church in Aldershot. He also does the occasional DIY.

Dr Robert Pleming FRAeS

Robert Pleming’s lifelong interest in aviation received an early boost when, as a Cadet at the age of seventeen, he was awarded an RAF Flying Scholarship. His career though took a different direction: during 17 years at IBM, followed by 6 years at Cisco Systems, Robert built extensive general, technical and project management experience.

After gaining a Doctorate at the Department of Nuclear Physics at Oxford University, Robert started a career in IT. He has been in technical, sales and management roles in IBM, latterly with responsibility for Open Systems at their Hursley Laboratory, and then for UNIX Software, Service and Support within IBM Europe.

In 1994 he moved to become the UK Technical Director for Cisco Systems, at a time when the company had only 18 employees in this country. Over the next few years, Cisco UK grew dramatically with the spread of the Internet and e-commerce. Robert’s responsibilities included resolution of the many problems resulting from this rapid growth, from acquisition of new buildings and customer issue management through to recruitment and training. From 1997, he was Technical Director for Cisco's Northern Europe operation, and latterly Special Projects Director for Cisco Europe.

In 1997, Robert agreed with David Walton, Managing Director of C. Walton Ltd, of Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire, the owner of Avro Vulcan B.Mk2 XH558, that a last attempt should be made to determine the feasibility of a project to return this aircraft to flight, based on sound management practice and a professional approach. In the evenings and weekends released to him in 1997 following the loss of the ability to practice his favourite sport, Robert built a team to guide the project’s direction, and established sufficient credibility with the Vulcan’s Design Authority, BAE Systems (British Aerospace at the time), for the formal decision to be taken to proceed with the activities necessary to achieve the return to flight.

In April 2000, Robert moved on voluntarily from his Cisco career to the role of full-time Director for the Avro Vulcan XH558 Return-to-Flight Project. His lifelong enthusiasm for aviation, allied to his management skills, gives Robert the experience and motivation needed to maximize the probability of a successful return-to-flight for this historic aircraft.

Robert has had to expand his skill set to meet the requirements of developing a successful Heritage Lottery Fund grant application, which has led him to include knowledge of the Cold War, and of the educational needs of the young in technology, science and materials amongst his interests.

The “Vulcan to the Sky” Project succeeded spectacularly on 18^th October 2007, with the first test flight of the restored Vulcan, some 14 years after its last flight, and after nearly two years of intense engineering activity.

Robert is married to Suzanne, lives in Alresford, near Winchester, and commutes to Bruntingthorpe. His outside interests include target shooting, photography and following developments in the physical sciences.

John Sharman

John Sharman was a founding shareholder in Spectrum Capital, Ltd. in 1985 and is an Executive Director of the company. John is a graduate of University College, Oxford.

John's career started at Rolls Royce who awarded him an industrial scholarship in 1967. After graduating from Oxford, he was appointed PA to the Production Director. After leaving Rolls Royce, John joined First National Finance as a trainee management accountant, eventually working on the formation of the property lifeboat during the secondary-banking crisis in 1972. From 1973 to 1980, John worked in Singapore for the United Overseas Bank Group, specialising in ship finance and finance for the Tin Dredging industry including the repatriation of London Tin Corporation to Malaysia to form what is today Malaysian Mining Corporation.

Upon his return from Singapore, John was appointed Managing Director of Guinness Peat Midland, a joint venture between Guinness Peat Aviation and Midland Bank (now HSBC) designed to develop aircraft finance products through Ireland. Having been head-hunted by Chemical Bank in 1982, he was appointed Vice President, Special Finance Group tasked with developing a successful aviation portfolio.

Over the last 20 years, John has been a key player in establishing and developing Spectrum's business in the aviation finance sector and now runs Spectrum Capital London Limited. In his time at Spectrum, he has been instrumental in developing a range of complex option lease structures that have been employed by a number of airlines worldwide. In 2002 he was acclaimed by Euromoney as one of the sector's "top 50 market shapers", based on his significant contribution via the development of innovative financing structures.

John is a Non-Executive Director of Aer Lingus, where he is also presently acting Chairman. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society; a member of the Aerospace committee of the Department of Trade & Industry; a member of the Aviation Club of Great Britain and is visiting lecturer in Air Transport Management at City University

Sir Donald Spiers CB, TD, FRAeS

Donald Spiers was born in Wimbledon in 1934. Following schooling at Blakesley House and Raynes Park County Grammar, he joined the Army and was commissioned in the Royal Engineers, serving with 16 Parachute Brigade in Egypt . From 1954 to 1957 he read Mechanical Sciences at Trinity College , Cambridge , where he was an Exhibitioner. After graduating he served an apprenticeship with the de Havilland Engine Company at Stag Lane and then became a gas turbine development engineer in the Halford Laboratory at Hatfield.

In 1961 he joined the Air Ministry, working on a variety of operational research topics, including the Kestrel evaluation trial in 1965 and covering the Radfan war in Aden in 1966. From 1967 to 1970 he was the Scientific Adviser to the Far East Air Force, based in Singapore but undertaking operational analysis and trials work in Australia , Malaysia , Thailand , Vietnam and Hong Kong as well.

Returning to London , he became Assistant Chief Scientist to the RAF, until in 1978 he moved to the Procurement Executive where he became in turn project director for the Hawk, Jaguar, Tornado and Eurofighter aircraft programmes. From 1982 to 1985 he was Chairman of the NAMMA Board of Directors, responsible for the overall policy control of the international Tornado programmed. In 1986 he became Controller of Establishments, Research and Nuclear Programmes in the MOD, and then from 1989 to 1994 he was Controller Aircraft in the MOD, responsible for the procurement of all aerospace materiel for the UK Armed Forces.

After leaving the MOD, Sir Donald served as a Director of Meggitt plc; Messier-Dowty International; Smiths Aerospace; and Siemens-Plessey. He was Chairman of the Government Foresight Defence and Aerospace Panel and of the 1988 Government enquiry into the new Air Traffic Control Centre at Swanwick. He was President of the Royal Aeronautical Society for 1995 - 1996 and of the Popular Flying Association from 1997-2000 Dynamics ( UK ) and TAG Aviation (UK). He is Chairman of the Farnborough Aerospace Consortium and of the Farnborough Enterprise Hub. He is also a Council Member of the Royal Aeronautical Society and of the Air League.

Sir Donald is married to Sylvia and they have two grown up sons. Over the years his interests have included parachuting, flying, teaching other people to fly, riding horses and rebuilding old cars. He was awarded the Territorial Decoration in 1966, appointed a Companion of the Bath in 1987, and received a Knighthood in 1993.

Sir Donald is currently Chairman of Agusta Westland International and a Director of General

Ken Smart CBE, FRAeS

Non-Executive Director and Board Member of British Airways where he is Chairman of the Safety Review Committee. He also serves on the Company Audit Committee. Ken joined the Department for Transport’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) in 1975 becoming the UK’s Chief Inspector of Air Accidents and Head of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch in September 1990 until his retirement in April 2005.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the UK Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme, European President of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators and a Visiting Professor at Cranfield University. Ken is married with two children and his interests are sport, especially tennis and mountaineering.