Nice feel good news item, especially that they take on apprentices to keep these skills alive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33167009
Which puts into mind the following quote fashionable in the 1910’s that there was no future in monoplanes.
With the possible exception of having more pleasing lines to the eye while in flight, the monoplane possesses no material advantage over the biplane.
— Glenn Curtiss, the New York Times, 31 December 1911
Neat story, it’s amazing what people can build given opportunity.
It’s not clear to me whether Glenn Curtiss’s quote was intended to mean there was no future in monoplanes, or whether it was intended to refer to the situation that existed in 1911. It was actually true in 1911, the thing that eventually made it untrue (perhaps 15 years later) was more powerful engines of the same weight. With those engines you no longer need as much wing area or as light an aircraft structure. A secondary factor was increased strength of materials.
