After 36 years, Brian Fleet steps down as head of Airbus UK this Friday. David Jones reports

BRIAN Fleet steps down from his role as boss of Airbus’ wingmaking factory at Broughton, near Chester, this week – and intends to continue making full use of many of the aircraft he has helped put in the air.

Instead of spending much of his working week travelling to business meetings in France and Germany, he is looking forward to leisure trips with his wife Debbie to various destinations around the world.

He retires from Airbus on Friday after 36 years with the company he joined as an engineering apprentice at the age of 18.

His rise through the ranks of the business has been mirrored by the growth of Airbus from new kid on the block four decades ago to the world’s leading manufacturer of airliners. In doing so, it has successfully challenged and overtaken arch American rival Boeing to grab a more than half share of the market for large passenger aircraft.

Mr Fleet has been in charge of the Broughton site for the past 11 years, holding the title of senior Airbus UK vice-president and head of the Centre of Excellence for Wing & Pylon.

A grand title maybe, but there’s no denying the central role Mr Fleet and his team have played in developing aerospace as a cornerstone industry for Cheshire, north east Wales and the Liverpool area.

The huge Broughton site employs 8,000 people, 6,500 of them on Airbus’ payroll, the rest working for agencies, and the factory complex pumps tens of millions of pounds a year into the regional economy. It has long been a key UK testbed for the development and application of leading aerospace technologies.

Mr Fleet, 54, of Bebington, Wirral, has been involved with the production of every wing for every aircraft in the Airbus family – from the single aisle A320s to the A380 superjumbo, the world’s biggest passenger plane, and on to the latest jet, the A350, now being developed. During that time he has overseen the dispatch of thousands of wing sets from the site to the final assembly lines in continental Europe.

He has been responsible for four sites – Broughton, Filton (near Bristol in the UK), Bremen in Germany and St Eloi in France.

It’s been an astonishing accomplishment for the man who took the apprenticeship because his family did not have the money to send him to university – and no-one is more astonished than Mr Fleet himself. He displays a touching humility for a man who rose to become one of the true captains of British industry

He admits that he would never have believed when he was a young engineering apprentice that he would one day get the chance to lead the Broughton factory site. Equally amazing is the way operations there have grown, he says.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I envisage the journey we would both take over that 36 year period and the success we would both enjoy,” he says, in an exclusive interview with the Liverpool Daily Post. “If someone had told me when I joined the apprentice training scheme what I and the site would look like some 36 years later, I would probably have thought they were smoking ‘wacky baccy’.

“I am so thankful to the people who taught me and advised me as I was growing and developing as a young engineer. The experience they gave me, allowed me to achieve things I would never would have believed possible. So, to all my predecessors and all the people who taught me, I would like to offer my sincere thanks.

“I will very much miss the people. It has been a fantastic pleasure to work with them and also be the team leader at the Broughton site for the last 11 years.”

Asked what he thinks was his biggest achievement while in charge at Broughton, he has no hesitation in naming the A380. The sheer size of the superjumbo programme presented its own challenges – the giant wings, for example, had to be shipped out of the site instead of being flown out in the Beluga transporter plane – but there was also the use of new technologies to help build the world’s greenest and quietest large jet. The new West Factory was constructed for the manufacture and assembly of the A380 wings.

“The greatest thrill I ever had was the day of the first A380 flight. I refused to go to Toulouse to join the VIPs but stayed in the West Factory with all the operatives and staff who had helped design, procure, manufacture and assemble the product,” he recalls.

“We watched a giant screen as the aircraft ran down the runway. It took off so quietly and easily no-one could believe it. To experience the pride of all the employees in seeing that magnificent aircraft fly off on wings made at the Broughton factory – it was a hugely memorable experience.”

The A380 is a hub-to-hub aircraft, but it is a smaller aircraft, like the A350 and Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, which have been in highest demand from airlines in recent years for long haul routes.

The superjumbo programme suffered delays and cost overruns in France due to production and other problems.

Mr Fleet says a programme of that size and complexity was always highly likely to have teething problems as the aircraft entered service.