Nigel Desmond Norman was born on 13 August 1929 in London, the second son of Henry Nigel St. Valery Norman (later A/Cdre. Sir Henry Nigel St. Valery Norman, 2nd Bt.) and Patricia Moyra Norman (née Annesley). He was educated at Twyford School in Winchester, before being evacuated to the United States during the Second World War.

Returning to England, he was sent to Eton in 1945. He went straight from Eton into a two-year engineering apprenticeship at the de Havilland Technical School. It could be said that aviation was in young Desmond’s blood, as his father, along with Mr. F. A. I. Muntz, founded Airwork Limited to construct and develop Heston Airport. It was at the de Havilland Technical School he met John Britten, whose enthusiasm for aircraft design matched his own.

After National Service and qualifying as a fighter pilot, Norman joined No 601 (County of London) Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, which his father had formerly commanded, and in which his two brothers also served. He spent almost two years as an export assistant with the Society of British Aerospace Companies, while joining Britten in his spare time to design and build their first aircraft, the BN1F, at Britten's home on the Isle of Wight.

In the early 1950s Norman and Britten began to design boats and engage in ocean racing, and in early 1953 they designed and had built a 21 ft Junior Offshore Group sailing boat. They moved into aviation in 1953 when, joined by the Australian crop pilot Jim McMahon, they noticed the potential of crop spraying and fertiliser spreading. Britten-Norman Limited was formed, and the partners proceeded to convert war surplus de Havilland Tiger Moth trainers, flying them to Cameroon and Sudan, where they had obtained their first contracts.

Noticing the short-comings of the conventional method of spraying crops from an under-wing boom, Norman then developed Micronair, a rotary atomiser which remains the industry's standard equipment. In 1955 Norman and Britten founded Crop Culture, a business specialising in aerial spraying which went on to become the largest of its kind, operating more than 80 aircraft throughout the world. They sold out in 1963 to develop the Islander.

While spraying plantations for a banana shipping company, Norman and Britten developed an early hovercraft, which they called the Cushioncraft and launched in 1959, to transport bananas from plantations. Unfortunately it was not a commercial success.

The success of the crop spraying operations funded the realisation of Britten and Norman's dream: to design and build an aeroplane. At the time, there was no other aircraft that filled its remit, and Norman foresaw the market potential of an island-hopping passenger plane. In 1963 Norman and Britten sold their share of Crop Culture to other members of the Board to concentrate their efforts on production of the Britten-Norman Islander.

Britten and Norman followed up the Islander with a larger version called the Trislander, which also had an immediate uptake. Sadly, just at the moment of the team's real taste of success in the early 1970s, the bank called in its loan, and the pair were forced to sell their company.

Both Britten and Norman left the company in 1976 to pursue other interests, Norman forming NDN Aircraft very soon after leaving the company. Norman teamed up with an old friend who jointly financed the development of the Firecracker, a light military trainer. Norman built the prototype in converted farm buildings at his Isle of Wight home, but deals with Cessna in America and the Greek government fell through. He eventually won a contract to develop and build a turbo-powered version as a contender for the RAF's trainer requirement; unfortunately, this contract was awarded to Brazil. Norman found a market for the turbo Firecracker with Specialist Flying Training, and Norman used profits from the Firecracker to produce the Fieldmaster, which he developed with assistance from the National Research and Development Corporation. This aircraft was an innovative crop sprayer, filling a need for a larger and more economical spraying and spreading platform. It was also a useful firebomber. A further design was the Freelance, a four-seater with folding wings.

In 1995 Norman was co-designer, with Alec N. Clark, of the Clark-Norman Aircraft Triloader turbo-prop powered cargo aircraft, design offices for which were based on the Isle of Wight.

In 1998 Norman held the position of Chief Designer of Atlantic Aeroengineering, and worked on a project with Wilksch Airmotive Ltd to retrofit Cessna-150/152 to a Wilksch Avtur burning engine. Norman moved his design agency from Bembridge to Baginton, Coventry Airport, and up until his death he had offices with Air Atlantique, with his knowledge in aircraft design was used to further develop pollution control equipment.

In early 2000 Norman was chief design consultant of the Skylander project developed by GECI International of France. The Skylander SB-105 concept was based on an enlarged Britten-Norman Islander configuration.

Norman was a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron, regularly raced his own designs and designed and built Wavewalker, a 70 ft schooner, for his family. He was appointed CBE in 1970 and received the Royal Aeronautical Society's Silver Medal in 1967.

Desmond Norman married Anne Fogg Elliot in 1956. They had two sons before their marriage was dissolved in 1964. In 1965 he married Boel Holmsen (née Suenson) and had two sons, one daughter, and one stepdaughter.

Nigel Desmond Norman, CBE FRAeS, died of a heart attack at Basingstoke railway station, in Hampshire on 13 November 2002.

Biography References

1. The Daily Telegraph 25 Nov 2002
2. The Guardian 26 Nov 2002
3. Wikipedia