Dave Calway recalls being introduced to Prince Charles during a Royal visit to the Yeovil factory

It must have been the 80’s, early 90’s perhaps when the composite blade shop was opened. What they had done was built on a clean room which was humidity and filtered air and temperature controlled in there and that’s where they built the blade with the carbon impregnated with resin and the fibreglass skins and in order, you know, to show it off to the world, really, Prince Charles came down and visited us and he came into the blade shop, into the clean room, where I was a chargehand in those days and, of course, we had to stand up by our desks and display the spars and the skins and all the bits that we made in there. I was asked to go over to him and, you know, bowed and had a few words with him. He was just like an ordinary bloke, you know, he was a very easy talker and put you at your ease sort of thing. I think I told him about the presses that we had which were quite unique being twenty-feet long and they moulded a Sea King blade which was about, I think, eighteen-feet long at a temperature of, oh, it wasn’t too high, but about two or three hundred degrees, using these thermal setting resins and such like.

Yes, it was a great honour really. It was the one and only time that I’ve ever seen him down there, ever knew he was down there, although he probably went to other areas like the erecting shop where they push out a new aircraft and they have royalty there to present it to the world.