1966 onwards EDDS and FPPS Projects for the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)

I was now working for Ian Donaldson at Great Baddow, and he put me in charge of the two major data processing and display projects which Marconi had secured from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). This was to install a new Flight Plan Processing System with Electronic Data Displays at West Drayton. This covered the airspace for the whole of the London TMA (Terminal Movements Area) for both civil and military flights.  This was a major project, which required a highly reliable system, with triplicated hardware and a huge amount of software.  At one time we had a team of over 100 programmers working on this.  It was a very complex system, and for various reasons fell behind the required timescale. I was involved in regular progress meetings, which required a lot of preparation, and at one time I was working at West Drayton during the installation and commissioning phase. Although it was a highly stressful time, it was extremely good project management experience at this stage in my career.  We had three growing children, and Joyce took most of the responsibility for their upbringing, as I had to work long hours. But we always made sure we had good summer holidays, including the beginning of a long love affair with Cornwall!

Coming back to the projects, we soon found it was very difficult to squeeze all the programmes needed in the Myriad computers.  Without getting too technical, the computers only had 32,000 words of storage, so needed a backup disk drive, which transferred chunks of programme into a reserved area.  Today's mobile phones have far more capacity!  Eventually we had to separate the civil and military parts of the system, and the civil part was taken over by a new more powerful system supplied by IBM, while we were left with the military system.  This was a big blow to our Company pride, but the reduced system gave excellent service through to the 1980s.  

 24th January 1965 birth of our third child  Sandra Anne Lancaster.

Sandra, soon to be known as Sandy, was born at home, 55 Lady Lane.  Dr. Hedley Missen attended the birth, and I remember it wasn't entirely straightforward!  There was talk of calling for backup help. but eventually all was well.  In those days the Salvation Army band came round the area playing hymns on Sunday  mornings, and I remember  Robin Catlin, our senior doctor, asking them to move on, as Joyce needed peace and quiet to recover from the birth.   

 1965  PROJECT MAYFLOWER

Project Fur Hat was followed by Project Mayflower, which added a Marconi Myriad computer to the existing system, thus enabling meteorological  data to be included. The Myriad computer was the latest Marconi computer in the 1960's, using integrated circuits, but its capacity was only a fraction of what we have today in our mobile phones!  I was managing this project, so further visits to Sweden were needed.  I worked with Frank Sumner, now unfortunately deceased. 

 MORE ON PROJECT 'FUR HAT' 1964

Having done a stint on my own in 1963, I insisted that my family should be with me if I was required to do a further session.  The method of financing this was to advance the cost of an airfare, and this was sufficient to pay for rail fare and ferry for the whole family.  I remember the storm for the north sea crossing, and how sea sick we were!  Looking back I am amazed at the loyalty of Joyce, to come to a foreign country, not knowing the language, with a young family.  Sue had her fifth birthday in Sweden, and Andrew was coming up to 3.  It was winter, and very cold, so that the lakes were frozen ( the ice was thick enough to drive a car!)  But we were all healthy for the whole time - about four months I think.  Here are some more pics.

You may note a small grey car in one of the pics. This was an Austin A35, which I bought for I think about 200 Swedish Krona from Mr Werry Werry, so called because he offered 'Werry Werry good' cars! At that time, the Swedish Krona was about 14 to the pound, so it cost around £15 - not expensive1  We used it to drive into Stockholm to go to church on Sundays. It ran well, but we had one adventure, which could have been serious. As we drove to a petrol station to fill up, I put my foot on the brake pedal, and nothing happened!  The brake fluid was empty!  Fortunately, we were able to get it topped up on the spot, so all was well.  I think our guardian angel was looking out for us!  

A reminder of a happy family time!