SUPERSONIC !
It was George Orwell who said that, by the age of 50, everyone has the face they deserve. Which is bad news for your scribe (and his editor), who are hurtling towards the half-century as we speak. But as I stand in a slick home-workshop in South West London, chatting with Kawasaki specialist Dave Ennis, it’s a quote which pops into my mind.
Why? Because here’s a man who (at a bit over 50) has definitely ended up with the job he deserves. Dave’s a man steeped in aircraft engineering and motorbikes, who trained as a British Airways apprentice, straight from school, then moved on to an aircraft engineering firm that took him all around the world. He’s worked on Boeing 747 jumbo jets and Apache helicopters, SAAB Gripens, BAe Harriers, Panavia Tornados and even BAC Concordes, no less.
“I left school at 16,” said Dave, “and started an apprenticeship at BA, working on Hawker-Siddeley Tridents, Vickers Viscounts and Vanguards, Lockheed Tristars and Boeing 737s –
