page_title: Dan-Air Engineering
section_title: Major expansion in the 1970s and early- to mid-1980s
hierarchical_section_title: Dan-Air Engineering / History / Major expansion in the 1970s and early- to mid-1980s
caption_attribution_description: English: Manchester Airport in 1972. A Britannia Airways Boeing 737 can be seen in the foreground and behind it a Dan Air BAC 1-11.
context_page_description: Dan Air Engineering Limited was the maintenance arm of Dan Air Services Limited, itself a subsidiary of Davies & Newman, one of Britain's foremost wholly privately owned, independent ship broking and airline companies during the 1970s and 80s.
  Dan-Air Engineering was established in 1954 at Lasham Airfield to maintain the fledgling airline's rapidly growing fleet as well as to cater to the maintenance requirements of third parties.
  The organisation embarked on a major expansion during the 1970s, following the introduction of several new aircraft types into its sister airline's fleet. This led to the opening of a new maintenance base at Manchester.
  Further expansion followed in the 1980s, leading to the opening of a new widebody-capable maintenance facility at Gatwick, its sister airline's main operating base.
  Following its sister airline's adoption of a new corporate strategy at the beginning of the 1990s, which resulted in a simpler, less maintenance-intensive fleet mix, Dan-Air Engineering was put up for sale as its capacity exceeded the sister airline's maintenance requirements by 45%.
  FLS Aerospace acquired Dan-Air Engineering on 28 February 1991 for £27.5 million.
context_section_description: Dan-Air Engineering's first phase of major expansion occurred at Lasham, following sister company Dan-Air's purchase of a pair of de Havilland Comet series 4 jetliners from British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1966. These aircraft were ferried from BOAC's Heathrow base to Lasham during the early summer of that year for a six-month conversion by Dan-Air Engineering from a 74-seat, low-density, two-class long-haul scheduled configuration into a 106-seat, high-density, single-class short- to medium-haul inclusive tour (IT) layout. This conversion involved structurally "reinforcing" the aircraft — including strengthening the cabin floor and the wing roots – as they were expected to perform many more takeoffs and landings after entering service with Dan-Air (compared with their original role at BOAC). It also involved replacing internal doors with curtains as a weight-saving measure. Subsequently, acquired, larger Comet series 4B and 4C aircraft underwent similar structural modifications to enable them to carry up to 119 passengers before entering service with sister airline Dan-Air.
  Dan-Air's acquisition of its first two BAC One-Elevens from American Airlines in 1969 necessitated a major modification programme at Lasham before these aircraft could join the UK civil aircraft register as these were 400 series models that had been built to comply with US airworthiness requirements, which differed in several important aspects from the UK's airworthiness requirements.
  The introduction of Dan-Air's first American-built jet aircraft, an ex-Pan Am Boeing 707 320 series "Intercontinental", in 1971 eventually led to Dan-Air Engineering being granted "FAA Repair Station" status. This meant that it could perform maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) tasks on aircraft that were on the US civil aircraft register and/or were governed by US airworthiness standards.
  Dan-Air's decision to become the first British operator of the Boeing 727 resulted in the purchase of three 100 series examples from Japan Airlines (JAL) in 1972. As these aircraft lacked high frequency (HF) radios, they needed to be flown across the Pacific with two intermediate 24-hour stops at Wake Island and Honolulu (where the aircraft refuelled and waited for the overflight of the next scheduled Tokyo – Los Angeles Boeing 747 service to provide navigational assistance for the next stage of the onward journey until Los Angeles was reached). After reaching the US, they underwent an extensive modification programme at Boeing's Wichita plant in Kansas to comply with British Civil Airworthiness Requirements (BCAR). These modifications entailed the installation of two additional emergency doors each side of the rear fuselage and a full stall-protection system, including a stick pusher. Following their arrival in the UK at Dan-Air Engineering's Lasham base, each aircraft was fitted with new galleys manufactured by Dan-Air Engineering together with 150 seats. The aircraft were also repainted at Lasham prior to their entry into service with Dan-Air in 1973.
  By the mid-1970s, Dan-Air Engineering's workforce had expanded to more than 800, the vast majority of whom were based at Lasham.
  The continuing, rapid expansion of the Dan-Air fleet during the 1970s as well as growing third-party work during that period resulted in the opening of Dan-Air Engineering's second maintenance base at Manchester Airport in 1976. The new Manchester base took over Lasham's maintenance of Dan-Air's One-Eleven and Hawker Siddeley 748 fleets. It also developed third-party de Havilland Canada Dash 7 and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 maintenance capabilities, as a result of which Lasham began to specialise in the maintenance of all Boeing narrow-bodied aircraft types.
  Eventually, Dan-Air Engineering became the second biggest employer at Manchester Airport (after the airport authority).
  Dan-Air had its entire 17-strong One-Eleven fleet hush-kitted at Dan-Air Engineering's Manchester base by the end of 1985.
  By the late-1980s, Dan-Air Engineering's total workforce had almost doubled to 1,500. (This was in a
caption: One of two BAC One-Eleven 300s sister airline Dan-Air acquired in 1969 following British Eagle's bankruptcy, seen here passing behind a Britannia Airways Boeing 737-200 at Manchester Airport in 1972.
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