Flick Coupe (OE 12219) is setting out on her career as a 2nd Year Aerospace Engineering Student at University of Sheffield.  John Davis (OE 6980) is nearing the completion of his, a 46-year career as a flight test engineer/director and Head of Engineering for aircraft in-service support solutions.  John’s career started as a Scientific Apprentice at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough in 1980, followed by 13 years with Leonardo UK and is concluding at Marshall of Cambridge Aerospace.

Flick and John both attended the 176th OEA Dinner, specially held at The Cutlers’ Hall, Sheffield to mark the end of the College’s Exile in Derbyshire where John offered Flick a visit to Marshall to see a unique aerospace organisation at work.

Marshall has a long history of mentoring and training aerospace apprentices and graduates stretching back well over 100 years and regularly welcomes students to Cambridge to help strengthen their understanding of the aerospace engineering career on which they have embarked.

So, on a very soggy December day, Flick visited Cambridge to meet John’s colleagues in the engineering design organisation where they chatted about the engineering solution challenges within projects they had worked on and aerospace engineering options that Flick could follow on graduation.   Marshall also has a global reputation in the maintenance, repair,  overhaul and modification of the Lockheed Martin C130 Hercules transport aircraft.  During the afternoon of the visit, another colleague showed Flick over a C130 that was significantly stripped for maintenance and overhaul together with a tour of the manufacturing support workshops.

Visiting Marshall and meeting John provided Flick with a valuable insight into the aerospace industry. Hearing John’s experience and learning about his career journey leading up to his role at Marshall offered an understanding of how Flick could evolve and develop her career across understanding of work performed by design engineers, an area she is keen to pursue. Flick found their perspectives inspiring and was very impressed by the breadth of maintenance and modifications performed on the C-130.

Despite the rain, it was a successful and rewarding day inspiring Flick in her future career. Flick gained valuable perspective on the aerospace industry through conversations with John and his colleagues at Marshall. Both of us are grateful to the OE community for giving us the opportunity to connect and thanks go for the generous time taken out of busy schedules to share experience and expertise in the Aerospace industry with Flick.