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Katrina talks about her university education and early employment before describing how she got into aeronautical engineering. Katrina provides a fascinating insight into what it was like to work as an engineer in the 1970s whilst working in the Spares Department of the British Aircraft Corporation in Preston working on the MRCA (Multi-Role Combat Aircraft) which became the Panavia Tornado. Katrina was able to put to advantage her language and communication skills whilst employed on the spare parts catalogue. \n\nKatrina reflects on being involved in aviation and a woman working in engineering, and tells some fun stories from her life and work such as hammering her car at some traffic lights in front of Germans to get it working it again before the lights changed, discussing aircraft parts with German colleagues and persuading them not to label a hole with a part number and the instance of an engineer storming out of a work canteen for engineers saying the canteen was not for ladies who come with friends\u2026she never saw him again. Katrina feels she did not face problems with being a lady engineer because colleagues valued her skills and she was too busy working and living to feel really proud of her work and excited about being involved in aviation. \n\nKatrina also talks about stopping work to look after her family, becoming a teacher and helping and caring for her mother and father. Most recently, Katrina has enjoyed volunteering for the National Aerospace Library (NAL) by helping to conserve historic material in the NAL\u2019s archives.\n\nHer advice for anyone starting out in their career is to research their interests (read a lot but be careful what you read, especially statistics), don\u2019t be put off doing something that is unusual for you to do, and take advice but follow your dream!\n\nKatrina Sudell was interviewed by Anne Hayward as part of the Royal Aeronautical Society/National Aerospace Library\u2019s oral history project \u2018If I only didn\u2019t do it that way\u2026\u2026.\u201d Capturing history from the horse\u2019s mouth to inspire today\u2019s aeronautical professionals. The recording was edited by edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS.\n\nThe transcript of the recording can be accessed on the National Aerospace Library's catalogue: https://raes.soutron.net/Portal/Default/en-GB/RecordView/Index/183269