Christopher Green (Aircraft Design Engineer)

Christopher Green BA,CEng,RAeS was born at 8 Dragon Yard, Farnworth, Widnes, Lancashire in 1948.
He attended St Bedes Primary School, Saints John Fisher and Thomas More Secondary School where his favorite subjects were Advanced Mathematics and Physics. His hobbies were making model aircraft and aeroplane spotting at Speke's Liverpool airport. This occupied most of his time until at the age of thirteen, when he was old enough to join the local 310 Widnes Squadron of the Air Training Corps. He was too young to go flying initially, so he began building basic mechanical flying Simulators out of Plywood, with wires and pulleys. This aided the development of his interest and understanding of 'flying control surfaces' and taught him how to develop simple designs techniques. He avidly read Aviation books from the Widnes Public Library not only on local Flying Aces like Thomas Mottershead VC, but also on British Aircraft Designers like Roy Chadwick, Stuart Davies, Claude Lipscomb and George Volkert all members of the Royal Aeronautical Society RAeS. The young Green enquired to the RAeS as to how he could join the Society and was told:- 1. You had to be currently working in aviation. 2. You had to have held a position of responsibility on a series of significant aviation projects. 3. You had to be a Graduate of a British University. 4. You had to have produced a Post Graduate Dissertation or Paper for the RAeS on a relevant aircraft Engineering subject. The Society would then verify all criteria before making its awards.
Christopher Green therefore set out to humbly meet these challenging criteria and join the notable Aircraft Engineers of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Military Training
In 1966, like many other Air Cadets before him, Christopher Green also joined the Royal Air Force and began his training at No4 School of Technical Training at RAF St Athan in South Wales. On completion he was posted to the Central Flying School at RAF Little Rissington in the Cotswolds on De Havilland Chipmunk, Vickers Varsity, Jet Provost and Folland Gnat. After which, for his final two years in the Airforce he was posted to the Far East, at RAF Changi, Singapore on 48 Squadron C130 Hercules Transport aircraft operating worldwide.
Civil Aviation Projects
In 1971 as part of his Resettlement course from the RAF he was given a grant to study a two-year Higher National level course at Brunel College of Technology at Ashly Down, Bristol culminating in the award of a CAA Aircraft Engineering License in Avionics. A License that would allow him to freelance his employment whilst he continued his academic studies to Degree Level at Bristol Polytechnic. He therefore took part-time agency contract work at the local BAC British Aircraft Corporation site at Filton Aerodrome. A site where Design, Test and Production for the new Anglo French Delta winged Concorde was taking place. His CAA License was welcomed with open arms including his RT Radio Telephony License, HF Communications being the means of communicating DATA in those days, with lines from Flight Test teams in the field back to the Design Technical Offices at Filton and Fairford. Christopher Green was also put to work on Concorde Production, Inspection, Flight Test and Certification and carried out contract work at Filton until the last Concorde was completed in 1979.
This was to be the first significant Civil Aviation Project he worked on the first Supersonic commercial Jet passenger Aircraft.
Aircraft Systems Design
In 1984 Christopher Green returned to Filton after working worldwide as a CAA Licensed Aircraft Avionics Engineer. This time he took up full time employment not with BAC but with the newly formed 'British Aerospace an active partner in the Airbus Consortium. He was employed as an Aircraft Systems Design Engineer in No 7 Design Office on the integration of the electrical systems within the Main Wings and Landing gears of the Airbus A330 and A340 but more significantly on the first digital 'Fly by Wire' passenger jet aircraft the Airbus A320. The second of the significant aviation projects he worked on.
Military Aircraft Projects
In 1989 Christopher Green left the Airbus Division to return to the North Country with the British Aerospace Military Division at Brough. Where he worked on the 'all British' fast jet trainer as part of the Hawk in-service Engineering team. He achieved accelerated promotion to Group Leader and became a Hawk in-service Avionic Specialist. This was all taking place during the design transition from discrete Avionic systems to digital Avionic integration in the form of the current Hawk series. It also concluded the third significant aviation project of his career.
It was during this time 1994, that Christopher Green wrote his seminal paper for the Royal Aeronautical Society in the form of a Post Graduate Dissertation on 'The Evolution of Avionics on Fast Jet Trainers' for which he was made a full member of the Society (MRAeS)and inducted into the UK Engineering Council list of Chartered Aeronautical Engineers (CEng). He had not only worked on some of the most significant and sophisticated aircraft design projects of the 20th century but had joined the ranks of the Chartered Aeronautical Engineers of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
He also later found out that Roy Chadwick, designer of the Lancaster Bomber was also born in the same village as himself, just yards away from Dragon Yard at Marsh Hall Farm in Farnworth, Widnes.

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