The newsletters that Robin has posted, provides new avenues to investigate and discover further info.
Barry G. Bowles was listed as a director of a company called "CoteGrade".
Does anyone know what Barry's middle name was??
Cotegrade was a limited company set up on 18th October 1977 and dissolved on 12th September 1985.
The BB running test conducted at Leavesden - although a somewhat closed event - was witnessed by a young lad, which he described thus:
"I grew up yards from the end of the runway! Fabulous place to grow up. We spent hours as kids with our noses pressed against the fence, watching the comings and goings of the learner pilots, executive jets, helicopters and airships!! Barry Bowles once used it to test his fast car - and we were there watching! We lived a few doors away from Rolls Royce's Press Officer and he let us in."
Source:
http://www.ourairports.com/airports/EGTI/
Topic: Leavesden Aerodrome.
BB crew member Mike Huggins lived in the Leavesden area - don't know if he worked for Rolls Royce - but his work in engineering steered his career to greater things.
His name cropped up in 2006 with a response to the JCB Diesel LSR gained by Andy Green and reflected on Richard Hammond's recovery from the Vampire jet dragster accident. Huggins wrote:
"I wish Richard a full recovery, to a certain extent I know how it feels. I was part of the team that set the British LSR way back in 1977, at Elvington, using a peroxide powered rocket car named The Blonde Bombshell. The first BBS also came to grief on a infamous "strip of land", Pendine Sands in Wales. Alas, the second car we built came to a similar end, due to money issues compromising safety, but it was a good feeling when the project did have a limited success".
Mike Huggins, Maranello, Italia.
Source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5370394.stm