Nigel Spooner

NIGEL SPOONER is a lifelong aviation enthusiast whose passion was kindled at the age of five by a flight in a Dragon Rapide biplane from London Airport (now Heathrow). His pilot then was a great-uncle who later taught him to fly at Biggin Hill during school holidays in the 1960s. Nigel was also fortunate to spend a week’s ‘work experience’ at the British Aircraft Corporation factory at Brooklands in Weybridge, observing VC10 airliners being built and witnessing the first flight of a Royal Air Force version. He inevitably yearned to become a commercial pilot, but poor eyesight thwarted that ambition and Nigel trained as an architect instead. A developing interest in the use of computers for design led to a second career in Information Technology, where a succession of international marketing roles involved clocking up several million miles travelling the world as a ‘professional passenger’! Happily, retirement has allowed Nigel more time to share his passion through serving as a volunteer steward at Brooklands Museum in Surrey. The idea for this book came from the desire to explain to museum visitors the extraordinary part that Brooklands, its people and its products have played in the development of British aviation.