Hugh Palliser Kingsley Dibley is a former commercial airline pilot and trainer who made contributions toward conserving fuel and controlling noise during aircraft operations.
He completed his required 30 hours in a De Havilland Tiger Moth from the Royal Naval Flying Club, Gosport, and received his PPL shortly after turning seventeen.
Deep defence cuts that arrived in 1957 put an end to all Volunteer Reserve flight training, so Dibley completed his two years of National Service aboard HMS Ark Royal.
He submitted an application to British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), who recommended that he take a short course at Air Service Training, Hamble to upgrade his license to a Commercial Pilots Licence (CPL) and obtain his Instrument rating.
His CPL was granted in September 1958, and he was subsequently hired by BOAC as part of the Pilots’ Initial Navigation (PIN) Scheme.
[2] ...like landing a block of flats from the second floor.BOAC received its first Boeing 747 in April 1970, but did not put the aircraft into service for almost a year.
[6] The British Airways Board was officially formed on 1 April 1972, with oversight of both BOAC and BEA, although the two companies continued to operate as separate entities.
Since he had already qualified as a Type Rating Examiner, the CAA permitted him to become a Training/Check Captain after logging two hundred hours of line flying.
[2] British Airways had contracts to operate private aircraft for the Heads of States in Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
In 1982 BA authorized its commercial divisions to choose their own aircraft and Dibley was among those asked to help re-launch the legacy 707 operation.
[2] On 20 March 1984, while piloting the same 747 that was involved in the 1982 Jakarta incident, Dibley was on approach to Perth, Australia when a starboard engine exploded while the aircraft was just 49 ft (14.9 m) above the tarmac.
He was subsequently cleared to fly 707 C/A Test Flights, which he later performed for British Caledonian, Transcorp and Air Hong Kong.
[4] That same year he was seconded to the Private Flight of Sheikh Zayed in Abu Dhabi to bring a specially fitted 747 into service.
In 1990 he was appointed Acting Director Operations and Chief Pilot over a fleet of eight aircraft that also included some Airbus models.
[2][4] In May 1994, after completing the Airbus A340 course, he joined Air Mauritius as Director Operations, just as that airline was taking delivery of their own A340s.
[9] Since the mid-1970s he has presented papers on a variety of aviation related topics including fuel conservation, operational efficiency, noise reduction, safety training, and flight simulation, among others.
[16][17] Dibley was scheduled to appear in the first ever Can-Am race to be held on 11 September 1966 at the Circuit Mont-Tremblant near the former town of Saint-Jovite.
[21] In 1968 Dibley was doing promotional work for the upcoming BOAC 500 race when he encountered the Howmet TX turbine-powered car.
At nearly the same time Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) started work on another movie based on the same source material and starring James Garner.
[25][23] Anticipating that the MGM film would hit theaters before McQueen and Sturges could finish theirs, and likely already in the midst of planning the sale of his company, studio head Jack L. Warner cancelled work on Day of the Champion.
Dibley's involvement in building racing cars originated with Len Wimhurst, a tool maker who had worked for Lola and Brabham.
[29][28][26] In October 1968 Palliser Racing Design Limited was formed, taking Dibley's second given name for the company.
In mid-1970 Palliser acquired the rights to a Formula 5000 project that had been started by Frank Gardner and designer Len Bailey.
[27] Palliser contracted out construction of their cars' space frames to Arch Motors in Huntingdon, who did similar work for other constructors.
They offered cast wheels, magnesium uprights, steering racks and many other parts, which were used in cars from March Engineering, McNamara, Daren and others.
[27] In 1971 Palliser entered into an agreement to manufacture a 2.0 L Group 5 sports car for John Green's Daren company.
Power came from a lightweight 4.2 L V8 from General Motors that had been salvaged, along with the transmission, from Tony Marsh's four wheel drive March Special that Maurice had bought from Johnty Williamson and wrecked in June.
Doris was the daughter of Chicago newspaper editor Jack H. Lockhart, and was working as a copy group head at the London office of American advertising agency Benton & Bowles at the time.
[42] Dibley was awarded the 1971/72 Alan Cobham prize, given to the most meritorious student pilot graduating from a college or school of civil or military aviation.
[43] For 1979/1980 he was awarded the Guild of Air Pilots Brackley Memorial Trophy "for pioneering work on high altitude descents and noise/fuel reduction methods.