Entry of 1934

Sir John Dent, B.G.S. 1935-40, Member OBA

Civil Aviation Authority chairman who urged the transfer of routes from British Airways before privatisation

SIR JOHN DENT, who has died aged 78, was an industrialist and guided weapons expert and became chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority. Dent had been a senior executive of Dunlop, the tyre and rubber company, before his appointment to the CAA in 1982, and was expected to bring tough private sector disciplines into a somewhat bureaucratic government agency. He soon found, how­ever, that the Thatcher gov­ernment's urge for a free market in the skies was tem­pered by other political prior­ities, notably the privatisation of British Airways.

A CAA report in 1984 recommended the transfer of a number of BA short-haul routes to British Caledonian and other independent com­petitors, but met furious opposition from BA's chair­man Lord King, who had the car of Downing Street and dismissed BCal's ambitions as "a smash and grab raid” Dent retorted that it was “quite absurd" to claim BA's commercial future was jeop­ardised by a CAA proposal which would have left the national carrier with more than 70 per cent of the British scheduled market, and that a route reallocation which strengthened smaller airlines would lead to greater effi­ciency. But King's lobbying prevailed, and the CAA report was largely rejected by minis­ters in the interests of maxi­mising BA's saleability on the stock market.

Some commentators thought the rebuff might pro­voke Dent to resign, but he remained in post for a four-year term. Among his first tasks were the reallocation of Laker Airways' routes follow­ing the financial collapse of the budget airline and, at the other end of the scale, at, investigation into the safety of Microlight one-man air­craft, which had been involved in a number of fatal crashes. He also called for improvements in helicopter design and maintenance.

Perhaps the worst moment of his tenure was the Man­chester air disaster in August 1985, in which 54 passengers died, many from toxic fumes, when fire engulfed the cabin of a British Airtours jet fol­lowing an engine explosion just before take-off. The CAA met some criticism for not having imposed tighter rules earlier, but Dent launched an urgent drive to improve on­board emergency procedures and the use of fire-resistant materials.

John Dent was born on October 5 1923. Having grad­uated in Engineering from King's College London in 1944, he joined the Admiralty Gunnery Establishment at Teddington and subse­quently at Portland. After the war he worked first for Rolls-Royce and then for Short Bros & Harland in Belfast, where he became chief engineer in charge of guided weapons -principally the Seacat anti­aircraft missile programme. In 1961 he moved to Arm­strong Whitworth in Coventry as chief engineer, arma­ments, to develop the Sea Slug surface-to-air missile for the Navy. He moved again two years later to become chief engineer of Hawker Siddeley Dynamics. In 1967 he joined Dunlop as director of engineering. He was appointed to the main board in 1970, and was managing director of Dun­lop's European operations, which included the troubled Pirelli tyre company in Italy, from 1978 to 1982 - when he was headhunted to replace the retiring CAA chairman Sir Nigel Foulkes. At a time when it was still unusual for execu­tives from the private sector to take on public sector roles, it was noted that Dent was taking a substantial pay-cut -to £32,000 a year - for a four­day week at the CAA.

During his Dunlop years, Dent was president of the Engineering Employers' Federation and a member of the Engineering Industries' Council, the Review Board for Government Contracts, the Royal Dockyards Policy Board and the National Coal Board. While at the CAA Dent was also chairman of the Nation­alised Industries' Chairman's Group, and after his retire­ment in 1986, he became president of the Institute of Travel Managers and the International Federation of Airworthiness.

He was appointed OBE in 1968, CBE in 1976 and was knighted in 1986.In later years he devoted himself to fishing, gardening and cabinet-making at his home in Northamptonshire, where he also campaigned vigorously against the build­ing of a new golf course.John Dent married, in 1954, Pamela Bailey; they had a son. He died on June 16.