Posts about: "Filton" [Posts: 81 Page: 5 of 5]¶

Hi, for some strange reason I have only just come across this thread, I have looked at some of the early posts and can answer a few questions.
I was a development engineer on the AICU in 1972 and put the first AICU together and got it working.
I am now a volunteer at Aerospace Bristol and we have this box in the archives, it was used on the intake rig by Roger Taplin, half way down the hill at Filton,
There are no secret components used in the AICU, TTL 54 series was used, and these are the milspec version of the 74 series TTL. they are better quality, reliability and better tolerance, and more expesive. They were not available to all countries.
I worked with Ted Talbot at the time and in 1990 he recruited me to be the design manager for aircraft conversions and my first job was to manage the design of the VC10 tankers. There was mention of the leggy girl at Tangiers, that was Liz Pedley, a Cambridge maths graduate systems engineer, she married a GW systems engineer. I worked with her on many a long night sorting out program problems. I was the one who went to Casablanca to do the program program change to the AICUs that someone mentioned being removed from the aircraft and lined up on a desk in the Air France office. While I was there Turcat came in and sat at the table to watch.
I used a prom blower to blow the fusible links not a 9 volt battery, just as Liz would have done at Tangiers (the same prom blower)
Regarding the 1990s modifications to the AICU pcbs for obsolete components, I was requested by John Churchill, who designed the replacement boards, to give him some help. I was amazed that the test specs were still approved by my signature, which meant they had not changed since I moved on around 1978 when I moved to Stevenage. In about 1974ish we bought all the remaining proms as they were stopping being manufactured.
I will try and read the rest of the threads to see if anything else has been asked.