My friend and colleague Don Berrington, who has died aged 88, was a helicopter engineer and executive who enjoyed a 43-year career at the aircraft manufacturer Westland.
Born in Twitchen in rural Shropshire, to Jessica (nee Bennett) and Philip Berrington, Don was the youngest of three brothers and attended Bishop’s Castle county high school. His father was a lengthsman, responsible for the upkeep of roads, and both parents tended a smallholding, which assured food for the table.
The 15-year-old Don harboured career aspirations that had little to do with agriculture and so he wrote to engineering companies seeking an apprenticeship. Westland responded with an offer of employment and he was enrolled on their apprentice scheme, learning how to make and assemble aircraft parts.
At the same time Don attended night school, where he studied for his higher national diploma. Once he had exhausted all academic opportunities locally, Westland offered to sponsor his university education, and in 1957 he went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, to study mechanical sciences.
Returning to full-time employment at Westland, he was among the first to use computer simulation to complete the design of a complex autopilot system, which was cutting edge in 1961. During the remainder of the 1960s Don developed a detailed knowledge of helicopter design and engineering program management as well as a solid commercial awareness. He was appointed Westland’s chief designer in 1973. Later, as director of military export, he and his team secured the most valuable export contract up to that date – for the supply of the Westland-designed “Advanced” Sea King to the Indian navy.
Don was invited to become the company’s managing director in 1985 at the height of the “Westland affair”, when his reputation for calm and considered action did much to restore shareholder confidence. Subsequently, in the role of technical director for the wider Westland Group of companies, he championed the successful assault on the world speed record by a Lynx helicopter fitted with the new Westland British Experimental Rotor Programme (Berp) rotor. Don retired in 1992 and received an OBE for services to the helicopter industry in 1994.
He met Jill Mattock, a technical illustrator working for Normalair, a manufacturing company based on the same site as Westland, and they married in 1960. In retirement they were able to indulge their mutual passion for sailing by taking their yacht, Penelope, to the Greek islands.
Don is survived by Jill, their daughters, Jane and Ann, and grandchildren, Harry, Alice, Elizabeth, and Laura.
