Marshall of Cambridge. The move is off.
Marshall of Cambridge. The move is off.
Author
Discussion

Tony1963

Original Poster:

5,775 posts

180 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Ok, it became a poorly kept secret, but the move from Cambridge to Cranfield is off, with no alternative mentioned yet.

A mate there thinks that once the Turkish C-130 contract is complete, they’ll sell up the land and that’ll be it, finished.

MarkwG

5,704 posts

207 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
https://flyer.co.uk/cambridge-airport-to-close-by-... - does seem like that's the plan (if plan is the correct term)

Tony1963

Original Poster:

5,775 posts

180 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Not long til the only aviation jobs in East Anglia will be at Norwich and St*****d airports, plus a handful at Marham and Wattisham.

aeropilot

38,773 posts

245 months

Wednesday 8th October
quotequote all
Tony1963 said:
Ok, it became a poorly kept secret, but the move from Cambridge to Cranfield is off, with no alternative mentioned yet.

A mate there thinks that once the Turkish C-130 contract is complete, they ll sell up the land and that ll be it, finished.
With them confirming the closure of the airfield is still on for 2028, I'd say the winding up of the business would seem the most likely outcome now, unless they move to somewhere that has existing facilities?

MOD chopping the RAF C-130J fleet 12 years earlier than originally planned probably hammered the last nails into Marshall's coffin.

andy97

4,776 posts

240 months

fathomfive

10,696 posts

208 months

Saturday
quotequote all
What a shame.

I worked in Land Systems there a few years ago and have fond memories of the place and people.

CLK-GTR

1,592 posts

263 months

Saturday
quotequote all
I used to do some work with them about 10 years ago. Nice group of people there but it always had man in shed vibes, especially when the following day id be visiting one of the Americans if their fancy offices. Its a shame if they go but getting bought out always felt like the only way they'd survive.

aeropilot

38,773 posts

245 months

Saturday
quotequote all
andy97 said:
As I said above, the Govt/MOD chopping the RAF Herc fleet over a decade early has pretty much killed Marshall's.
You'll probably find that the same politicians that made that decision on one hand will probably stand up and say we need to protect UK aerospace job security with the other hand....such is the ineptitude and ignorance in Whitehall rolleyes


bergclimber34

1,861 posts

11 months

Saturday
quotequote all
Lets face it that garbage has been going on since the 60's, politicians will not be happy until there is little or no military, they see it as a waste of money, only really Thatcher saw t he value in it, yes times have changed, but reliance on Yanks when they have that cretin in charge is now being shown to be a very poor decision, also in comparison with other similarly sized countries.

You can kind of see their point overall, but our military and engineering behind it is and always has been amazingly clever, the best trained, and able to do a lot with very little, especially the hugely under funded AirForce for decades. I recall countless stories of Buccaneers routinely getting far better results than far superior planes, our pilots being able to do things better than others in all sorts of planes, and in conflict without the losses suffered by others.

You can see why this decision was made politically and that is the only reason it was made, but there will be Hercs flying for a very long time to come globally, there was nothing wrong with the bloody thing

aeropilot

38,773 posts

245 months

Saturday
quotequote all
bergclimber34 said:
You can see why this decision was made politically and that is the only reason it was made, but there will be Hercs flying for a very long time to come globally, there was nothing wrong with the bloody thing
They should have bought more new Hercs and more C-17's instead of buying A400's which never really fitted what was needed, but was a another political decision purely because it was European, but was designed as a budget strat lifter for the European countries that couldn't afford the bigger C-17 as a strat lifter choice. We already had bought the C-17 (should have bought more before the line closed!) so we didn't need A400, as we already had C-17 for strat and the C-130 for tact.

eccles

14,073 posts

240 months

It will be quite a blow for Cambridge if it does shut. It was the largest employer in Cambridge when I worked there, but I know it has shrunk a lot over recent years. You'll be losing loads of well paid, skilled engineering jobs with the associated tax take and local spending that goes with it, all that for more housing and more cars in a city that's famous for it's congestion!

AndrewGP

2,075 posts

180 months

Sad news. I did my first ever AEF flight from Cambridge in 1991 from Cambridge in a Chipmunk. And then more recently I dropped off a lot of C-130s for servicing there. A shame to see such an established business and airfield go and be turned in to houses.

aeropilot said:
They should have bought more new Hercs and more C-17's instead of buying A400's which never really fitted what was needed, but was a another political decision purely because it was European, but was designed as a budget strat lifter for the European countries that couldn't afford the bigger C-17 as a strat lifter choice. We already had bought the C-17 (should have bought more before the line closed!) so we didn't need A400, as we already had C-17 for strat and the C-130 for tact.
Having flown C-130K, C-130J and A400M, I’ll be careful what I say. I broadly agree C-130J shouldn’t have been culled, it was an amazing aeroplane. That said, A400M is absolutely not just a ‘budget strat airlifter’ and it’s a little disingenuous to suggest as such. It does the tactical stuff very well indeed. It’s not perfect, but neither was the C-130J.



aeropilot

38,773 posts

245 months

AndrewGP said:
That said, A400M is absolutely not just a budget strat airlifter and it s a little disingenuous to suggest as such.
But that's what it is for the nations that haven't bought C-17.......and also have C-130 or C-27 for the tact stuff.

We bought C-17 (not enough though) and we had C-130.....did we really need to buy A400 just to loose C-130, which was what I was getting at.

Sure the added lift/capacity of the A400 can be used to supplement C-17 in the strat role, but I don't think any air forces have to bought A400 to replace C130, other than us...?