M L Aviation Co Ltd
This Site was created by Alfred [Nobby] Chapman who worked at M.L.Aviation Co.Ltd for 30+ years.My aim is to give Ex Employees the chance to visit , see and perhaps share their memories.
Friends and Family of Ex Employees are very welcome to message me with any relevant old ML Photos they might still have.
Of course, Anyone is welcome along.
About Us
M. L. Aviation
The origins of M. L. Aviation began during the mid 1930s with 2 separate companies, namely Wrightson Aircraft Sales (formed May 34) The name was changed to Malcolm and Farquharson (formed May 36) and again changed to R. Malcolm Company (founded in Dec 36)
Malcolm & Farquharson became a holding company in December 1939 with aircraft product work carried out by R. Malcolm. About this time, Marcel Lobelle, who had been Chief Designer of Fairey Aviation joined the company. He had designed many Fairey aircraft including the Swordfish.
At the beginning of WW2, both Malcolm & Farquharson and R. Malcolm suffered financial problems and turned to the Mobbs family for assistance. During 1940 control of both companies was taken over by the Mobbs through United Motor Finance Corporation.
Under Marcel Lobelle, a drawing office was opened on the Slough Trading Estate (owned by the Mobbs family) with rapidly expanding work for the Ministry of Aircraft Production. To allow for expansion the drawing office and experimental work was moved to White Waltham, leaving production on the Slough Trading Estate and still under the name of R. Malcolm. An additional firing site was also established on the airfield perimeter for development work.
In 1943, Malcolm & Farquharson's services were dispensed with and control was taken over by Eric Mobbs as Managing Director and Marcel Lobelle as Chief Designer. The company continued to trade under the name of R. Malcolm. Finally in October 1946 the name was changed to M. L. Aviation for the White Waltham site and M. L. Engineering at Slough, the initials presumably being taken from the leading figure heads.
......................................................
When viewing any of the photos on this site Click on X at Bottom Right of Photo to Enlarge
Spurred on by the advent of the Cold War the company expanded rapidly from the 1950s with a considerable work force of Design Engineers designing and manufacturing a large range of aviation products.
Expansion required further finance and in 1958 M. L. went public through the creation on M. L. Holdings. Subsequently the Holding Company diversified with non-aerospace business introducing further finance and therefore gradually reducing the influence of the Mobbs family
The 1980s saw the reducing aerospace industry having considerable impact on MLA with an ever diminishing workforce until in 1990 the Holdings Board, having recently brought Wallop Industries based in Andover, deciding to merge and sell the White Waltham site. The move was completed by early 1991, leaving the Airfield test site still operating. The White Waltham site was eventually sold in 1996.
In mid 1996, the Holding Board acquired the remains of arch rivals Frazer Nash and merged it with MLA producing a formidable aircraft equipment company which should have augured well for the future.
M. L. (Engineering) in Slough finally moved to Andover in early 1997 enabling design and production to join under one roof, thereby almost severing links with Berkshire.
Finally Cobham plc acquired M. L. Aviation & Marine for £37 million.
With thanks to Woodley Air Museum
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
Marcel Lobelle
Marcel Lobelle (c 1893 - 1967) was a Belgian aeronautical engineer who spent his professional career working in Britain. He was born in Kortrijk, Flanders, and fought in the Belgian Army at the start of World War I, with the 1st Regiment of Grenadiers. He was seriously wounded in the fighting for Tervaete during the Battle of the Yser in October 1914. On being discharged from the army in 1917 he moved to Britain, taking employment with the Tarrant company, and then Martinsyde, before eventually becoming chief designer at Fairey Aviation. He left Fairey in 1940 and joined the R. Malcolm Company, which became M.L. Aviation in 1946 (after Mobbs and Lobelle, the managing director and chief designer respectively). He died at Wexham Park Hospital on 30 August 1967, the death notice says he was aged 74 and his wife was Doris.
.........................................................................................
ML looks to civil aviation following defence merger ML Holdings is to merge its
defence companies and sell off its production site at White Waltham in southern England as part of a consolidation move. The merger comes in the wake of the completion of production of major components for the JP233 airfield attack weapon for the Royal Air Force and Royal Saudi Air Force.
ML Aviation and ML Wallop Defence Systems will be merged into one company known as ML Aviation. The new company is to be based at ML Wallop's site at
Andover, Hampshire, Production capacity is also to be consolidated at Andover. The company's defence activities are based on sites at White Waltham, Slough and Andover. ML Lifeguard, the aircrew support company based in North Wales, is
not included in the merger. Completion of JP233 production will affect ML's defence operations. One of the largest defence programmes undertaken by ML.
.........................................................................
M.L.Aviation.Co.Ltd. Closure DATE:10/09/97
SOURCE:Flight International
ML Group bows out of aviation industry with sale to Cobham
The UK's ML group is quitting aviation, with the sale of its aerospace and marine division to the acquisitive Cobham, formerly the FR Group. The £37 million ($23.1 million) acquisition brings with it the Slingsby name and a niche business in weapons-release equipment.
ML Aviation, a major European supplier of weapon-carriage and release systems, is the largest of the four businesses within the division. It has a funded order backlog of more than £40 million and further work in prospect on the Eurofighter EF2000 programme and the GEC-Marconi Brimstone anti-tank missile for the British Army's attack helicopter.
Slingsby's Firefly trainer is also still in the running to replace the Royal Air Force's British Aerospace Bulldogs, with a decision expected by the end of this month. Cobham has agreed to pay an additional £2 million for the company, if it wins.
The ML division includes the Lifeguard safety/survival-equipment business and commercial products, such as underwater vehicles, although Cobham says that it will carry out a review of the operations to see whether they fit within the group.
For Cobham, the deal is the latest move in a string of niche acquisitions on both sides of the Atlantic. By the end of last financial year, the group's sales had climbed to £270 million.
The ML division adds another £42 million to the company's sales and posted pre-tax profits of £11.3 million in 1996.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................
An enquiry by American space agency NASA about helmets used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, has led to an old Maidenhead company.
Based at White Waltham airfield, ML Aviation (MLA) employed an estimated 150 people and was at the cutting edge of development in the aviation industry.
Much of the work was classified top secret and was for the Ministry of Defense. It included the development of ejector seats, black boxes, a flying jeep, a remote controlled flying surveillance unit and various pressurised helmets.
To its credit one of its helmet designs was borrowed by director Stanley Kubrick for his classic science fiction film.
Now it seems, after 30 years, the helmets borrowed for use in 2001: A Space Odyssey could be used as inspiration for new equivalent for use on NASA missions to the Moon, and even Mars.
The interest from NASA came to light when a Maidenhead businessmen received an e-mail from one of the space agency's scientists, Robert Yowell. Mr Yowell's remit is to develop equipment for astronauts to wear when they leave their craft to 'space walk', as he was interested in tracking down a Maidenhead company he believed had designed the helmets from the film.
As he said he understood the company to be called MV Aviation, but after an article appeared last week in the Advertiser about his search, readers came forward with the name ML Aviation, and ex-staff from the company were tracked down to reveal some of their interesting work.
Pamela Gregory, wife of John Gregory who oversaw much of the design of the helmets and developed the initial ideas, said she well remembered her husband meeting the famous director.
Mrs Gregory said: "He talked to Kubrick. He was asked to go along there because he designed the thing."
She added: "He went to the studio. He was there on several occasions and as a matter of fact he didn't get on with Kubrick. "
Mrs Gregory said her husband wasn't that keen on the involvement with the film.
Mr Gregory died in February last year at the age of 73.
He studied at aeronautical college before serving time in the Fleet Air Arm. On his return to England he joined MLA and stayed for the whole of his career.
Maurice Roberts, who now lives in Charvill, near Reading, was a metal machiner for the company at White Waltham.
Mr Roberts said the place was a hotbed of ideas, packed full of talented engineers and designers.
He described the pressurised helmets the company made as literally "holding the pilot's brains in" when they reached high altitude during flight.
Designers bounced ideas back and forth at the innovative company and were able to observe all stages of development from their first primitive drawings through to the testing of the finished product.
Mr Roberts said: "Designer used to come to me with an idea on a fag packet and I used to build the first prototype."
Jack Austin, who works at MLA for 34 years, and helped develop the helmets along side Mr Gregory, also agreed it was an incredible place to work.
Mr Austin said: "It was a very interesting. Sometimes you wouldn't sleep all night because some idea had come to you."
He said one of the real brains behind the company was designer Marcel Lobelle.
Dick, who works at the Museum of Berkshire Aviation in Mohawk Way, Woodley, confirmed Mr Lobelle's importance to MLA.
Be said although the origins of the company could be traced back to Wrightson Aircraft Sales, which changed its name to Malcolm and Farquharson and then R Malcolm company in the 1930s; it wasn't until October 1946 that MLA was born.
The new name came from the surnames of managing director Eric Mobbs and chief designer Marcel Lobelle.
Dick said: "It grew and grew. The company started with the sacking of Lobelle from Fairey's. He was a strong character but one of those people who completely dominated, so he was a feared character.
"But he was an outstanding engineer and the company really started around him."
Dick himself worked for nearly 40 years in the design offices at the White Waltham based company.
The developed mainly loading carriages for holding missiles:, used on planes such as the Buccaneer, Jaguar and Harriers and later worked on the Euro-Fighter aircraft.
Back in 1961/62 MLA who was responsible for developing and building the pressurised helmets used in the testing of a new supersonic jet, later simply called Concorde, and custom made the helmets for the test pilots, one of which is at the Woodley Museum.
The helmets had two visors, were heated, supplied oxygen to the wearer, boasted radio contact, and were able to protect the pilot in the event of pressure being lost in the cabin while in flight.
Dick had has put together an exhibition to preserve and celebrate the memory of ML Aviation at the impressive museum.
Sadly the exhibition also recalls the recent demise of the name of ML Aviation., following the company's takeover in late 1997, when the Cobham Engineering Group acquired MLA and several other subsidiaries, merging with Flight Refuelling in Wimborne, Dorset.
Dick explains in the end it was the success of MLA, in particular in acquiring a large contract for work on the Euro-Fighter weapons carriage, that spelled its end.
He said winning the contract had made the company 'plumb ripe for picking' and so in early 1998, when the Cobham Engineering Group moved from its base in Andover, the name MLA was finally dropped. The firm left Waltham in early 1991 and its main buildings were demolished in 1996.
Article and photographs by kind permission of Maidenhead Advertiser, February 26, 1999
..........................................................................................................................................................
During the Second World War, Slough Trading Estate was buzzing with activity and many companies were engaged in the aviation industry in one way or another. The diversion of some companies to aviation from their pre-war activities left them in state that was difficult to recover from post-war as technology in their field had left them behind. Other companies thrived even beyond the war and a good example of this is R Malcolm & Co which was to form the basis for ML Aviation.
ML Aviation
Wrightson Aircraft Sales was founded in 1934 at 601 Bath Road, Slough Trading Estate. It later became Malcolm and Farquharson in May 1936. Later still, in December 1936, R Malcolm & Co was founded out of the company. In December 1939 Malcolm & Farquharson became a holding company with aircraft component production carried out by R. Malcolm.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Malcolm & Farquharson and R Malcolm were in financial difficulties and approached the Mobbs family for assistance. Noel Mobbs was co-founder of Slough Trading Estate with Sir Percival Perry in the early 1920s. During 1940 control of both companies was taken over by the Mobbs family through United Motor Finance Corporation.
R Malcolm & Co were aircraft plywood structures and general aircraft components. In 1938 the company was making petrol tanks, engine bearers, undercarriage legs and other items for the Tipsy Trainer. The company also made wheel spats, wing fillets and other components for the Miles Magister training aircraft. During the war the company made main plane fillets, tail plane leading edges and other parts for Spitfires. The company had to extend its premises and install new equipment to cope with the demand from the aviation industry at that time.
.....................................................................................................
Marcel Lobelle (c1893–1967)
In 1940 Belgian aeronautical engineer Marcel Lobelle, chief designer at Fairey Aviation, left the company to join R Malcolm. Lobelle was born in Kortrijk, Flanders, fought in the Belgian Army at the start of World War I, with the 1st Regiment of Grenadier at the Battle of the Yser in October 1914. On being discharged from the army in 1917, he moved to Britain, taking employment with the Tarrant Company, and then Martinsyde, before eventually becoming chief designer at Fairey Aviation. Among his aircraft designs whilst at Faireys was the Lobelle was seriously wounded in the fighting for Tervaete during Swordfish, Fulmar, Albacore, Barracuda and Firefly II
Lobelle set up a drawing office on Slough Trading Estate. Demand was growing rapidly for aircraft and aircraft component production from the Ministry of Aircraft Production. To allow for expansion the drawing office and experimental work was moved to White Waltham. Manufacturing largely remained on the Slough Trading Estate still under the name of R. Malcolm. An additional firing site was also established on the airfield perimeter for development work.
In 1943, Malcolm & Farquharson’s services were dispensed with. Control of R Malcolm was taken over Eric Mobbs as Managing Director and Marcel Lobelle as Chief Designer. In 1944 Lobelle was appointed a director of the company. In October 1946, the name was changed to ML Aviation for the White Waltham site and ML Engineering at Slough, the initials being taken from the managing director and chief designer.
......................................................................................................................
When viewing any of the Photos on this Site Click on X at Bottom Right of Photo to Enlarge
............................................................................................................................................
This is another of my M.L.A. Sites http://www.mlaviationwhitewaltham.yolasite.com/
.......................................................................................................................................................
The origins of M. L. Aviation began during the mid 1930s with 2 separate companies, namely Wrightson Aircraft Sales (formed May 34) The name was changed to Malcolm and Farquharson (formed May 36) and again changed to R. Malcolm Company (founded in Dec 36)
Malcolm & Farquharson became a holding company in December 1939 with aircraft product work carried out by R. Malcolm. About this time, Marcel Lobelle, who had been Chief Designer of Fairey Aviation joined the company. He had designed many Fairey aircraft including the Swordfish.
At the beginning of WW2, both Malcolm & Farquharson and R. Malcolm suffered financial problems and turned to the Mobbs family for assistance. During 1940 control of both companies was taken over by the Mobbs through United Motor Finance Corporation.
Under Marcel Lobelle, a drawing office was opened on the Slough Trading Estate (owned by the Mobbs family) with rapidly expanding work for the Ministry of Aircraft Production. To allow for expansion the drawing office and experimental work was moved to White Waltham, leaving production on the Slough Trading Estate and still under the name of R. Malcolm. An additional firing site was also established on the airfield perimeter for development work.
In 1943, Malcolm & Farquharson's services were dispensed with and control was taken over by Eric Mobbs as Managing Director and Marcel Lobelle as Chief Designer. The company continued to trade under the name of R. Malcolm. Finally in October 1946 the name was changed to M. L. Aviation for the White Waltham site and M. L. Engineering at Slough, the initials presumably being taken from the leading figure heads.
......................................................
When viewing any of the photos on this site Click on X at Bottom Right of Photo to Enlarge
Spurred on by the advent of the Cold War the company expanded rapidly from the 1950s with a considerable work force of Design Engineers designing and manufacturing a large range of aviation products.
Expansion required further finance and in 1958 M. L. went public through the creation on M. L. Holdings. Subsequently the Holding Company diversified with non-aerospace business introducing further finance and therefore gradually reducing the influence of the Mobbs family
The 1980s saw the reducing aerospace industry having considerable impact on MLA with an ever diminishing workforce until in 1990 the Holdings Board, having recently brought Wallop Industries based in Andover, deciding to merge and sell the White Waltham site. The move was completed by early 1991, leaving the Airfield test site still operating. The White Waltham site was eventually sold in 1996.
In mid 1996, the Holding Board acquired the remains of arch rivals Frazer Nash and merged it with MLA producing a formidable aircraft equipment company which should have augured well for the future.
M. L. (Engineering) in Slough finally moved to Andover in early 1997 enabling design and production to join under one roof, thereby almost severing links with Berkshire.
Finally Cobham plc acquired M. L. Aviation & Marine for £37 million.
With thanks to Woodley Air Museum
........................................................................................................................................................................................................
Marcel Lobelle
Marcel Lobelle (c 1893 - 1967) was a Belgian aeronautical engineer who spent his professional career working in Britain. He was born in Kortrijk, Flanders, and fought in the Belgian Army at the start of World War I, with the 1st Regiment of Grenadiers. He was seriously wounded in the fighting for Tervaete during the Battle of the Yser in October 1914. On being discharged from the army in 1917 he moved to Britain, taking employment with the Tarrant company, and then Martinsyde, before eventually becoming chief designer at Fairey Aviation. He left Fairey in 1940 and joined the R. Malcolm Company, which became M.L. Aviation in 1946 (after Mobbs and Lobelle, the managing director and chief designer respectively). He died at Wexham Park Hospital on 30 August 1967, the death notice says he was aged 74 and his wife was Doris.
.........................................................................................
ML looks to civil aviation following defence merger ML Holdings is to merge its
defence companies and sell off its production site at White Waltham in southern England as part of a consolidation move. The merger comes in the wake of the completion of production of major components for the JP233 airfield attack weapon for the Royal Air Force and Royal Saudi Air Force.
ML Aviation and ML Wallop Defence Systems will be merged into one company known as ML Aviation. The new company is to be based at ML Wallop's site at
Andover, Hampshire, Production capacity is also to be consolidated at Andover. The company's defence activities are based on sites at White Waltham, Slough and Andover. ML Lifeguard, the aircrew support company based in North Wales, is
not included in the merger. Completion of JP233 production will affect ML's defence operations. One of the largest defence programmes undertaken by ML.
.........................................................................
M.L.Aviation.Co.Ltd. Closure DATE:10/09/97
SOURCE:Flight International
ML Group bows out of aviation industry with sale to Cobham
The UK's ML group is quitting aviation, with the sale of its aerospace and marine division to the acquisitive Cobham, formerly the FR Group. The £37 million ($23.1 million) acquisition brings with it the Slingsby name and a niche business in weapons-release equipment.
ML Aviation, a major European supplier of weapon-carriage and release systems, is the largest of the four businesses within the division. It has a funded order backlog of more than £40 million and further work in prospect on the Eurofighter EF2000 programme and the GEC-Marconi Brimstone anti-tank missile for the British Army's attack helicopter.
Slingsby's Firefly trainer is also still in the running to replace the Royal Air Force's British Aerospace Bulldogs, with a decision expected by the end of this month. Cobham has agreed to pay an additional £2 million for the company, if it wins.
The ML division includes the Lifeguard safety/survival-equipment business and commercial products, such as underwater vehicles, although Cobham says that it will carry out a review of the operations to see whether they fit within the group.
For Cobham, the deal is the latest move in a string of niche acquisitions on both sides of the Atlantic. By the end of last financial year, the group's sales had climbed to £270 million.
The ML division adds another £42 million to the company's sales and posted pre-tax profits of £11.3 million in 1996.
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................
An enquiry by American space agency NASA about helmets used in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, has led to an old Maidenhead company.
Based at White Waltham airfield, ML Aviation (MLA) employed an estimated 150 people and was at the cutting edge of development in the aviation industry.
Much of the work was classified top secret and was for the Ministry of Defense. It included the development of ejector seats, black boxes, a flying jeep, a remote controlled flying surveillance unit and various pressurised helmets.
To its credit one of its helmet designs was borrowed by director Stanley Kubrick for his classic science fiction film.
Now it seems, after 30 years, the helmets borrowed for use in 2001: A Space Odyssey could be used as inspiration for new equivalent for use on NASA missions to the Moon, and even Mars.
The interest from NASA came to light when a Maidenhead businessmen received an e-mail from one of the space agency's scientists, Robert Yowell. Mr Yowell's remit is to develop equipment for astronauts to wear when they leave their craft to 'space walk', as he was interested in tracking down a Maidenhead company he believed had designed the helmets from the film.
As he said he understood the company to be called MV Aviation, but after an article appeared last week in the Advertiser about his search, readers came forward with the name ML Aviation, and ex-staff from the company were tracked down to reveal some of their interesting work.
Pamela Gregory, wife of John Gregory who oversaw much of the design of the helmets and developed the initial ideas, said she well remembered her husband meeting the famous director.
Mrs Gregory said: "He talked to Kubrick. He was asked to go along there because he designed the thing."
She added: "He went to the studio. He was there on several occasions and as a matter of fact he didn't get on with Kubrick. "
Mrs Gregory said her husband wasn't that keen on the involvement with the film.
Mr Gregory died in February last year at the age of 73.
He studied at aeronautical college before serving time in the Fleet Air Arm. On his return to England he joined MLA and stayed for the whole of his career.
Maurice Roberts, who now lives in Charvill, near Reading, was a metal machiner for the company at White Waltham.
Mr Roberts said the place was a hotbed of ideas, packed full of talented engineers and designers.
He described the pressurised helmets the company made as literally "holding the pilot's brains in" when they reached high altitude during flight.
Designers bounced ideas back and forth at the innovative company and were able to observe all stages of development from their first primitive drawings through to the testing of the finished product.
Mr Roberts said: "Designer used to come to me with an idea on a fag packet and I used to build the first prototype."
Jack Austin, who works at MLA for 34 years, and helped develop the helmets along side Mr Gregory, also agreed it was an incredible place to work.
Mr Austin said: "It was a very interesting. Sometimes you wouldn't sleep all night because some idea had come to you."
He said one of the real brains behind the company was designer Marcel Lobelle.
Dick, who works at the Museum of Berkshire Aviation in Mohawk Way, Woodley, confirmed Mr Lobelle's importance to MLA.
Be said although the origins of the company could be traced back to Wrightson Aircraft Sales, which changed its name to Malcolm and Farquharson and then R Malcolm company in the 1930s; it wasn't until October 1946 that MLA was born.
The new name came from the surnames of managing director Eric Mobbs and chief designer Marcel Lobelle.
Dick said: "It grew and grew. The company started with the sacking of Lobelle from Fairey's. He was a strong character but one of those people who completely dominated, so he was a feared character.
"But he was an outstanding engineer and the company really started around him."
Dick himself worked for nearly 40 years in the design offices at the White Waltham based company.
The developed mainly loading carriages for holding missiles:, used on planes such as the Buccaneer, Jaguar and Harriers and later worked on the Euro-Fighter aircraft.
Back in 1961/62 MLA who was responsible for developing and building the pressurised helmets used in the testing of a new supersonic jet, later simply called Concorde, and custom made the helmets for the test pilots, one of which is at the Woodley Museum.
The helmets had two visors, were heated, supplied oxygen to the wearer, boasted radio contact, and were able to protect the pilot in the event of pressure being lost in the cabin while in flight.
Dick had has put together an exhibition to preserve and celebrate the memory of ML Aviation at the impressive museum.
Sadly the exhibition also recalls the recent demise of the name of ML Aviation., following the company's takeover in late 1997, when the Cobham Engineering Group acquired MLA and several other subsidiaries, merging with Flight Refuelling in Wimborne, Dorset.
Dick explains in the end it was the success of MLA, in particular in acquiring a large contract for work on the Euro-Fighter weapons carriage, that spelled its end.
He said winning the contract had made the company 'plumb ripe for picking' and so in early 1998, when the Cobham Engineering Group moved from its base in Andover, the name MLA was finally dropped. The firm left Waltham in early 1991 and its main buildings were demolished in 1996.
Article and photographs by kind permission of Maidenhead Advertiser, February 26, 1999
..........................................................................................................................................................
During the Second World War, Slough Trading Estate was buzzing with activity and many companies were engaged in the aviation industry in one way or another. The diversion of some companies to aviation from their pre-war activities left them in state that was difficult to recover from post-war as technology in their field had left them behind. Other companies thrived even beyond the war and a good example of this is R Malcolm & Co which was to form the basis for ML Aviation.
ML Aviation
Wrightson Aircraft Sales was founded in 1934 at 601 Bath Road, Slough Trading Estate. It later became Malcolm and Farquharson in May 1936. Later still, in December 1936, R Malcolm & Co was founded out of the company. In December 1939 Malcolm & Farquharson became a holding company with aircraft component production carried out by R. Malcolm.
At the beginning of the Second World War, Malcolm & Farquharson and R Malcolm were in financial difficulties and approached the Mobbs family for assistance. Noel Mobbs was co-founder of Slough Trading Estate with Sir Percival Perry in the early 1920s. During 1940 control of both companies was taken over by the Mobbs family through United Motor Finance Corporation.
R Malcolm & Co were aircraft plywood structures and general aircraft components. In 1938 the company was making petrol tanks, engine bearers, undercarriage legs and other items for the Tipsy Trainer. The company also made wheel spats, wing fillets and other components for the Miles Magister training aircraft. During the war the company made main plane fillets, tail plane leading edges and other parts for Spitfires. The company had to extend its premises and install new equipment to cope with the demand from the aviation industry at that time.
.....................................................................................................
Marcel Lobelle (c1893–1967)
In 1940 Belgian aeronautical engineer Marcel Lobelle, chief designer at Fairey Aviation, left the company to join R Malcolm. Lobelle was born in Kortrijk, Flanders, fought in the Belgian Army at the start of World War I, with the 1st Regiment of Grenadier at the Battle of the Yser in October 1914. On being discharged from the army in 1917, he moved to Britain, taking employment with the Tarrant Company, and then Martinsyde, before eventually becoming chief designer at Fairey Aviation. Among his aircraft designs whilst at Faireys was the Lobelle was seriously wounded in the fighting for Tervaete during Swordfish, Fulmar, Albacore, Barracuda and Firefly II
Lobelle set up a drawing office on Slough Trading Estate. Demand was growing rapidly for aircraft and aircraft component production from the Ministry of Aircraft Production. To allow for expansion the drawing office and experimental work was moved to White Waltham. Manufacturing largely remained on the Slough Trading Estate still under the name of R. Malcolm. An additional firing site was also established on the airfield perimeter for development work.
In 1943, Malcolm & Farquharson’s services were dispensed with. Control of R Malcolm was taken over Eric Mobbs as Managing Director and Marcel Lobelle as Chief Designer. In 1944 Lobelle was appointed a director of the company. In October 1946, the name was changed to ML Aviation for the White Waltham site and ML Engineering at Slough, the initials being taken from the managing director and chief designer.
......................................................................................................................
When viewing any of the Photos on this Site Click on X at Bottom Right of Photo to Enlarge
............................................................................................................................................
This is another of my M.L.A. Sites http://www.mlaviationwhitewaltham.yolasite.com/
.......................................................................................................................................................
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