Dr Robert Pleming MBCS CITP ARAes, Chief Executive

Robert Pleming’s lifelong interest in aviation received an early boost when, as a Cadet at the age of seventeen, he was awarded an RAF Flying Scholarship. His career though took a different direction: during 17 years at IBM, followed by 6 years at Cisco Systems, Robert built extensive general, technical and project management experience.

After gaining a Doctorate at the Department of Nuclear Physics at Oxford University, Robert started a career in IT. He has been in technical, sales and management roles in IBM, latterly with responsibility for Open Systems at their Hursley Laboratory, and then for UNIX Software, Service and Support within IBM Europe.

In 1994 he moved to become the UK Technical Director for Cisco Systems, at a time when the company had only 18 employees in this country. Over the next few years, Cisco UK grew dramatically with the spread of the Internet and e-commerce. Robert’s responsibilities included resolution of the many problems resulting from this rapid growth, from acquisition of new buildings and customer issue management through to recruitment and training. From 1997, he was Technical Director for Cisco's Northern Europe operation, and latterly Special Projects Director for Cisco Europe.

In 1997, Robert agreed with David Walton, Managing Director of C. Walton Ltd, of Bruntingthorpe, Leicestershire, the owner of Avro Vulcan B.Mk2 XH558, that a last attempt should be made to determine the feasibility of a project to return this aircraft to flight, based on sound management practice and a professional approach. In the evenings and weekends released to him in 1997 following the loss of the ability to practice his favourite sport, Robert built a team to guide the project’s direction, and established sufficient credibility with the Vulcan’s Design Authority, BAE Systems (British Aerospace at the time), for the formal decision to be taken to proceed with the activities necessary to achieve the return to flight.

In April 2000, Robert moved on voluntarily from his Cisco career to the role of full-time Director for the Avro Vulcan XH558 Return-to-Flight Project. His lifelong enthusiasm for aviation, allied to his management skills, gives Robert the experience and motivation needed to maximize the probability of a successful return-to-flight for this historic aircraft.

Robert has had to expand his skill set to meet the requirements of developing a successful Heritage Lottery Fund grant application, which has led him to include knowledge of the Cold War, and of the educational needs of the young in technology, science and materials amongst his interests.

The “Vulcan to the Sky” Project succeeded spectacularly on 18th October 2007, with the first test flight of the restored Vulcan, some 14 years after its last flight, and after nearly two years of intense engineering activity.

Robert is married to Suzanne, lives in Alresford, near Winchester. His outside interests include target shooting, photography and following developments in the physical sciences.

Michael Trotter, Business Development Director

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Andrew Edmondson, Engineering Director

Andrew joined the RAF in 1979 and trained as a flight line mechanic, working on Vulcans, Phantoms and Tornados. He left the service in 1993 as an airframe technician and trained in business management before joining the nuclear industry as a senior project engineer. In 1999 he became a full-time employee of C. Walton Ltd and was appointed Engineering Manager for the project to restore Vulcan XH558 to flight, later to take up the position of Engineering Director, when the Trust was formed to look after XH558.