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Students from across Edinburgh come to Fettes for aerospace engineering programme

On Monday 14th November over a hundred students with an interest in engineering joined us at Fettes for the Sandy Gunn Aerospace Careers Programme.  Senior School students participated from Boroughmuir High School, Craigmount High School, Drummond Community High School, George Heriot’s School, Merchiston Castle School, The Royal High School, Trinity Academy and Fettes College.

The event included an informative talk, inspiring videos and interactive breakout sessions.  Students were able to experience engineering scenarios in virtual reality, test their F1 racing skills and their piloting skills.  The team brought a Merlin engine for students to interact with along with a quarter scale model of Sandy Gunn’s Spitfire.

Participants gave positive reviews of their experience:

"It was very good with clear examples of different situations and recommendations on how enter the aerospace industry."

"Overall very good and inspiring, many thanks."

For anyone looking for further information on the programme or on careers in the aerospace industry these are the recommended links:

It was particularly good to be able to welcome the Sandy Gunn Aerospace Careers Programme to Fettes as the programme is named after an Old Fettesian, Sandy Gunn who was a pupil at Fettes College from 1933-1937.

After Fettes, Sandy began training to become a diesel power plant engineer in Glasgow and then attended Pembroke College, Cambridge. At the start of the Second World War, Sandy volunteered to join the Royal Air Force and trained as a maritime patrol pilot before being posted to the Photo Reconnaissance Unit in 1941. Sandy’s Spitfire was shot down on 5th March 1942 on a discovery mission over Norway 80 years ago. Sandy survived and was handed to the Germans. He was interrogated and imprisoned at Stalag Luft III. Sandy, with his great intelligence and physical ability was part of the mastermind team for the Great Escape, eventually escaping through the tunnel, but sadly captured and shot only a few days later. The Spitfire that Sandy flew has been painstakingly retrieved from Norway and is being lovingly restored to fly again by teams of experts and apprentices with a fascination for the aerospace industry and engineering.