Vector Aerospace celebrates 500th Lynx overhaul
On Friday July 6, senior personnel from the MoD including Commodore Graeme MacKay RN, assistant chief of staff, carrier strike and aviation, Navy command; Colonel Neil Dalton, deputy head, capability, air & littoral manoeuvre, MoD Main Building; Captain David Elford RN, Lynx Project Team Leader; and Lieutenant Colonel Neal Hutchinson AAC, Lynx Force commander, Joint Helicopter Command joined Vector Aerospace personnel and Caroline Dinenage MP for Gosport, Stubbington, Lee-on-the-Solent and Hill Head, to celebrate the handover of Royal Navy Lynx XZ 255.
(L – R) Captain David Elford, Commodore Graeme MacKay, Geoff Hewson - director Lynx business unit at Vector Aerospace,
Colonel Neil Dalton and Lt Colonel Neal Hutchinson stand beside Royal Navy Lynx XZ 255 – the 500th Lynx overhaul completed by Vector Aerospace.
The handover had a special meaning for a number of Vector Aerospace employees, who remember working on Lynx XZ 255 back in the late1990s - the first time it came into Fleetlands for overhaul. Jason Pladdys, a senior Lynx support engineer, said, “The helicopter came in during the early months of 1997 as a Lynx Mark 3, and by the time we had completed the repairs and conversion it left Fleetlands as a Lynx Mark 8. I was an apprentice and went into Lynx as a fitter and have advanced over the years to become a technical supervisor,” said Pladdys.
He continued, “We operate pulse lines today but back then we had people doing specific tasks, such as rectification and structures, which were required for the Mark 3 to Mark 8 conversion. That conversion was the biggest programme undertaken on the Lynx aircraft inside the UK."
“We believe it is experience and knowledge that counts the most,” said Michael Tyrrell, managing director of Vector Aerospace UK. “Vector Aerospace UK can trace a long history of service and support to this country’s Armed Forces, particularly ensuring that its helicopters are given the best quality maintenance, repair and overhaul that is demanded by such a hard worked military force.”
“The aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul market is a specialist one,” continued Tyrrell, “Vector Aerospace UK has been able to expand its core capabilities in recent years and we are looking to increase our business skills in both the civil and military markets.”
