THE man who helped mastermind the rise and rise of Deeside as the world’s top site for the manufacture of airliner wings is to step down.

Brian Fleet said that after almost 10 years as the boss at Airbus’ wingmaking plant at Broughton, Flintshire, the time was right for him to “pass the baton” for the development of the next generation of the company’s aircraft to someone else.

“I am now in my 36th year in the business and I have achieved more than I ever thought I would,” he said.

“I have been involved with many fantastic programmes including the A380 and now the A350. I want to give my successor time to get his feet under the table before the development of the 30X - the replacement for the single aisle A320 family.”

Mr Fleet, who will be 54 when he retires at the end of March next year, rose from engineering apprentice with the then Hawker Siddley factory in Flintshire in 1974 to head one of North Wales’ biggest employers.

The wingmaking site employs 6,500 Airbus staff and another 2,000 in companies providing services to the factory complex.

He is Airbus’ UK senior vice-president and head of Centre of Excellence for Wing & Pylon. As such he has had responsibility for four sites - two of them in the UK and one each in France and Germany. He is based at Broughton where the wing production for all variants of Airbus commercial airliners takes place.