Sir George Dowty and his part in the Aviation Industry

TALK: Sir George Dowty (1901- 1975) was a prolific engineering designer who established the Dowty Group in 1931. The business became one of the major suppliers of aircraft equipment to the RAF during the Second World War. In 1942 they began supplying the Lancaster bomber with a Dowty designed undercarriage. Dowty supplied components to virtually every RAF plane in the Second World War and had the distinguished record of no RAF aircraft ever being grounded for lack of Dowty parts. At the conclusion of the war they entered the mining industry through their design of hydraulic roof supports. The Cheltenham based group employed 15,000 directly and 45,000 indirectly. At Sir George Dowty’s passing in 1975 the Dowty Group was recognised worldwide for its engineering prowess.

SPEAKER: Martin Robins was a commercial trainee with the electronics business Plessey. In the early 1970s he joined the Dowty Group in their group finance office where he served for a decade. He subsequently became the managing director of the Cotswold based quarrying business Farmington Natural Stone . He retired in 2005 to renovate his 16th century farmhouse near Malmesbury.