I think more people get far more enjoyment out of XH558 than they do a Renaissance painting by some Italian bloke they’ve never heard of … Not that art doesn’t have value, but we need to recognise the value in other things, too.

I’m going to reply along the lines that society does not appreciate Engineering.

Cast your mind back to when you were younger when you were asked, “What do you want to be when you’re older?” The reply was always something along the lines of “I want to be a train driver!” or, “I want to fly!” or, in my case, “I want to join the Royal Air Force!”

Ask a young kid that these days and they reply with, “I want to be famous!” or, “I want to be rich!” or something along those lines.

I believe that social hierarchy and the media (with its ability to broadcast success) has driven society to frown on engineering, design, manufacturing or production.

And the reasons? People want to be rich or famous – and they want that as quickly and as easy as possible.

Using art as an example, let’s look at Tracy Emin and some of her work. The “My Bed” piece of art. Was it drawn to the worlds attention because it represented a specific story? Was it news because it translated the artists thoughts on student life? Or was it, as reported at the time, a mess (that anyone could have done) which ended up being worth a considerable sum of money.

Let’s also consider Damien Hirst and his “Mother and Child, Divided” piece. News, in my opinion, because of the media reported it as the sheer horror of getting a cow and calf, cutting it in half and preserving it in formaldehyde then displaying it as modern art. I forget what the artist wanted to convey – I really can’t be driven to Google it right now. I do know that it was worth “so” much money!

Let’s now consider some engineering equivalents:

James Dyson – 5yrs hard work perfecting an engineering solution for increased effectiveness. Only to then find himself in a battle against the vacuum cleaner ‘dust-bag’ manufacturing ‘mafia’ .. He ended up having to market his product as being more cost effective as there was no need to buy dust-bags and not the engineered effectiveness of increased suction.

(Did you know James Dyson studied art prior to engineering – perhaps he saw the light!)

Trevor Baylis – Moved by a documentary on AIDS in Africa and the spreading of AIDS through a lack of communication, he had the idea of a clockwork radio to allow such communication. Being so moved by their plight, it’s reported that he had a rough working prototype ready before the end of the programme. No one was interested in moving it forward and it took the demonstration of the radio on the 80′s programme ‘Tomorrows World”, to highlight it and get things moving.

This is where I cringe as say I remember it clearly .. Along with the invention of HID headlights for cars!

Trevor Baylis quotes: “As they say, art is pleasure, invention is treasure, and this nation has got to recognise that. If they can spend a fortune on dead sheep and formaldehyde, then it can spend a bit more of that money on inventors.”

Seamless 360 degree link huh – but also quite right!

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand – Engineering and its lack of glamour.

My wife and I often joke that I’m an Engineer because that is my passion; not that I wanted to be rich – She comments, in jest, that she married me for love, not wealth!

I am proud of being an Engineer. I’ve work exceedingly hard to achieve recognition amongst my peers and feel honoured to be included in intelligent conversations with those who, for example, have the educational right to call themselves a Doctor of Engineering.

I love learning – I love not knowing something and having to go away, research a subject so I can understand better as a result.

My desire to join a company specialising in carbon composites was driven by wanting to learn more about what I still see as the future of Aeronautical, Automotive, Medical Imaging and Clean Energy industries

The Beloved Vulcan, XH558, is an aircraft very close to my heart. (oh and Lins – thank you so much for embedding that mpeg – I smile just thinking about it) .. If you look at the design path and what it can achieve as an airframe, it’s simply astonishing. I worship the skies it flies through and openly cry when I see it.

It’s not a noise, it’s a musical instrument!

I have similar thoughts about Concorde and don’t even get me started on the BAE Lightning!

I defy an engineer not to talk in length about the elliptical wing of the Supermarine Spitfire and the performance advantage it gave as a result

Yesterday, I was privileged to be able to buy beautiful metal model of XR219, a 1:72 scale copy of the TSR-2. I bought it for two reasons – To marvel at the engineering prowess and as food for thought in a potential project. I will be assembling it later today and, you know what .. I can’t wait.

Back to the point though. Here’s a challenge to confirm my suspicions on Engineering verses Glamour and Wealth:

Approach a random person on the street and ask what the following people did:

Reginald J Mitchell; Barnes Wallace; Frank Whittle

Then ask what these people did:

Tracy Emin; Damian Hirst; David Beckham

I’ll leave you to draw the conclusions – I’m off to cry into a cup of coffee and look in awe at TSR-2.

Thank you for listening ..

Completely agree with your comment, too – especially about the Camel Trophy. The G4 challenge never really got people’s imaginations in the same way. If LR loses this go-anywhere, do-anything capability, then it might as well just become a Kia Sportage.