Desmond Norman

Nigel Desmond Norman, (13 August 1929 – 13 November 2002) was an aircraft designer and aviation pioneer. Norman co-founded Britten-Norman in 1954, was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1970, and served as chairman and managing director of AeroNorTec (1988–2002). With his longtime friend and business partner John Britten, he also designed, built, and sailed racing yachts, as well as a series of air cushion vehicles and crop spraying equipment. He died of a heart attack at age 73 in 2002. Norman's grandfather was Sir Henry Norman, 1st Baronet, a Liberal politician, and his father was aviator and engineer Sir Nigel Norman, 2nd Baronet. Early life The son of Nigel Norman, he attended Twyford School in Winchester, before being evacuated to the United States during the Second World War. There, he allegedly had a fight with the young Ted Kennedy. Returning to England, he was sent to Eton in 1945. At Eton, he kept a Norton motorbike in town and was given to riding it in school clothes. He was outstanding at sport, particularly on the rugby field and in the Eton eight, which he stroked at Henley in 1946. He went straight from Eton into a two-year engineering apprenticeship at the de Havilland Technical School. Here he met John Britten, whose enthusiasm for aircraft design matched his own. The two young men also shared a passion for sailing and one of their first joint commissions was to take an old ketch across the Atlantic to the Bahamas. As a national serviceman, he won the Sword of Honour during training, before spending two years in the Royal Air Force as a fighter pilot. He later joined the Royal Auxiliary Air Force No. 601 Squadron RAF. Desmond Norman's older brother Mark Annesley Norman (see Norman Baronets) worked for Bristol Siddeley Engines and later for Britten-Norman as sales manager. Norman was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, regularly raced his own designs and designed and built Wavewalker, a two-masted gaff rigged schooner, for his family. In early 1953 John Britten and Desmond Norman designed and had built a . Junior Offshore Group sailing boat. Prior to turning the Britten-Norman partnership into an incorporated company Norman spent almost two years as an export assistant with the Society of British Aerospace Companies. Aviation career In 1954, Desmond started Britten-Norman with co-founder John Britten, a fellow de Havilland graduate.