I was Roly Falk’s secretary

In mid-1956 I returned to England from a two year working holiday in New Zealand and Australia, and urgently needed to replenish my depleted coffers, so I phoned A V Roe at Woodford (the next village to my home) to see if they had any jobs available. I went in that afternoon for an interview – and came out as secretary to Roly Falk, the Chief Test Pilot at that time. A job beyond my wildest dreams!

I had been totally fascinated over the recent few years to see this amazing delta-shaped aircraft flying overhead on its early experimental flights and had never thought I would actually be working in that environment.

However, within a few days of starting my new job came the terrible crash of Vulcan XA897 at London Airport, following a grand tour to show off this wonderful new aeroplane to the world – a shattering blow to all concerned.

Roly Falk was a legendary, instinctive pilot, achieving amazing development in the early stages of flying the Vulcan, but some months after my joining the company he did less flying and more of the development work at Chadderton. Roly was succeeded as Chief Test Pilot by Jimmy Harrison, again another exceptional and meticulous pilot. Following my time at Avros, Tony Blackman became Chief Test Pilot. His book ‘Vulcan Test Pilot” makes absorbing reading. AVAILABLE HERE:

I met my husband-to-be, Frank Burger, in the Flight Test Department. After an apprenticeship at the De Havilland Aeronautical Technical School, in 1949 he joined the Wind Tunnel section of A V Roe at Woodford, and then in June 1951 he transferred to the nearby Flight Test Section. This mainly involved checking the in-flight equipment installed in production Shackleton aircraft.

In 1952 the first prototype Vulcan VX770 was assembled and flown. Frank was appointed to the Flight Test Engineering Section In a ground role, devising and analysing flight data. There were no electronics and computers in those days so all data was plotted by hand.

Frank and I were married in September 1958 and we migrated to the warmer climate of Australia in December 1959, where Frank worked on Upper Atmosphere Research at the Weapons Research Establishment at Salisbury, South Australia until retirement.

If you have any fond memories, stories and pictures about yours, or a family members experience during iconic events, or during times of service, we’d love to hear them! Please get in touch at newseditor@vulcantothesky.org.