Airworld UK
International Distributor of Aircraft Parts and Supplies
International representatives and distributors for: Aircraft Spruce and Speciality Co. Tel: +44 (0)1296 714900 Fax: +44 (0)1296 713303
After spending the majority of his working life in telecommunications, Pete left his job as a Senior Telecoms Manager to run Airworld UK Ltd in 1994. During his time with BT, Pete spent some 10 years teaching Telecommunications at Bletchley Park, famous as the Enigma code breaking centre during the second world war.
During the 70's and 80's Pete was also well known as a competition aeromodeller, winning many national and international championships in the radio control pylon racing classes and writing articles on Aeromodelling for both UK and French national magazines.
Pete is a 2000 hours plus PPL with a current IMC and Night Rating. He can often be found enjoying the Leicester Aero Club’s Thursday night Curry Evenings on most flyable summer and winter Thursdays. But Pete's great passion is touring. It all began back in 1994 with the acquisition of a little Jodel D112 G-AZFF from John Newbold. During the following summers FF could be spotted on numerous foreign airfields from Geneva to Amsterdam
When Pete's second Jodel, a little D120 G-BMID, arrived on the scene it was immediately dismantled and removed to Pete's workshop for a thorough going over which included re-covering the fuselage, replacing the instrument panel and renewing or overhauling most parts firewall forward. Following the refurbishment, ID was again pressed into service as a touring aircraft and visited airfields as far apart as Karlovi Vary in the Czech Republic and Cascais in Portugal.
Pete’s current aircraft is a DR400 Regent - G-BSYU. It was the acquisition of YU that allowed the use of Pete’s IMC and Night Ratings to become really useful.. Recent tours in YU have included the Land of the Midnight Sun – Hammerfest and Valan - the North Cape, Casablanca and Tangier, in North Africa, and Cyprus via Rome, Athens and Corfu.
Ann Smoothy
Married to Pete for over 40 years, Ann’s background is one of accountancy, the vast majority of which was spent working in the car sales industry for a large Volkswagen dealership. The rapid expansion of Airworld inevitably meant that Ann would come and work with Pete on a full time basis. Ann is an expert co-pilot and more than able to set transponder codes, change radio frequencies, and check charts and flight plans. At Airworld Ann is the company accounts manager but also looks after stock control and sometimes dispatch.
Emma Fisher
When Emma left the MOD, and her career in military logistics on maternity leave, she had all but decided that a return there after the birth of daughter Poppy was not an option. The MOD's loss is Airworld’s gain and Emma is an indispensable member of the team being responsible for Sales Invoicing and Stock Recording and Control.
Terry Rowe
When , in December 2004, Airworld UK acquired the manufacturing rights of the ACI Stall Warning System the pressure was on to find someone with the fabrication skills to continue the high standards already set by Alan Cozens.
Having spent most of his working life in the electronics Industry. Terry is an aeromodeller whose passion is radio-controlled electric powered flight. His expertise in radio modelling has proved absolutely essential in his work for Airworld and Terry is now totally responsible for the manufacture and assembly of the ACI unit which is currently sold to aircraft manufacturers and homebuilders alike across the world and is distributed in the USA by Aircraft Spruce.
Brian Lamb
Brian has a long history of flying in both the forces and civil aviation. He joined the RAF in 1948 and learnt to fly on Tiger Moths and Harvards before going on to fly the Meteor jet.
After his time in the RAF he moved on to civil flying with the British Overseas Airways Corporation as a navigator on Argonauts and Yorks, before becoming a co-pilot on those wonderful Stratocruisers! As the technology moved on, Brian also moved - into the left hand seat and, as captain he flew the Britannia, theBoeing 707 and finally the Boeing 747 before retiring.
Brian is also an accomplished engineer and a valuable member of the Airworld team, responsible for bringing to fruition some of the engineering projects that we embark on from time to time.
Paul Rudkin
Paul's interest in electronics and computers began in his early teens when he studied to obtain his Ham Radio licence. This eventually lead him into a career in electronics and software that now spans 19 years.
Starting off as an Electronic Engineering apprentice for Hartridge Ltd in 1988, his work has taken him all over the globe and included three years living in the USA. During this time he also spent long periods of time in China working in Wuxi, Jiangasu province where he met his wife Lily.
Since returning to the UK 6 years ago his experience has remained loosely connected to that of the automotive industry and included a short time working on ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) software and in recent years on providing powertrain test equipment for UK car manufacturers. More recently Paul has returned to his roots and currently works as a Principal Software Engineer for Hartridge Ltd.
Paul was responsible for the design and installation of Airworld’s Computer Networks and Multi-screen workstation displays.
