Airframe Designs appoints four new senior specialists to drive growth strategy

By Rob Kelly

05 Aug 2025

; Jerrod Hartley, Tom Baynes, Phillip le Mottee, Paul Burrow, Martin Stones and Chris Fleet

Blackpool based aerospace leader Airframe Designs has bolstered and expanded its senior team as it continues its growth journey in producing highly complex products for the aviation industry and related sectors worldwide.

Phillip le Mottee has been appointed from Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group as the head of structures at the company while Tom Baynes takes up the role of deputy head of design supporting Chris Fleet.

Martin Stones has been appointed design team leader and Paul Burrow has been recruited as senior designer and checker.

Jerrod Hartley, chief executive of Airframe Designs, said: “We have focused our recent recruitment drive towards the appointment of suitably qualified and experienced people, to create an effective mix of super qualified specialists combined with our younger cohort of degree apprentices and graduates. This is part of our continual drive to improve our service and capability for our customers and prospective customers.

 “We believe in investing in our people and nurturing talent. The skills being developed and passed on by our expanded team of senior engineers will be invaluable as our apprentices grow their careers at Airframe Designs, and will also bring added value to our customers.”

Phill Le Mottee has more than 40 years of stressing experience, previously working for both BAE Systems and Marshalls. Phill will play a major role in the development, mentoring, and coaching of the younger Airframe Designs team, and in supporting customers in structural verification activity.

Tom Baynes and Martin Stones have been appointed from Preston-based Submarine Manufacturing & Products, where Tom was head of production engineering and Martin was senior design engineer. Paul Burrow takes a permanent position with Airframe Designs having contracted most recently for BAE Systems on the Tempest programme. He is approved by Airbus and BAE Systems for design checking.

Airframe Designs continues to grow its specialisms – including additive manufacturing – in producing highly complex components to some of the largest aviation, defence and space organisations worldwide.

Recent projects undertaken by the company include the integration of new systems into heavy lift drone platforms, conceptual and early life cycle design for new uncrewed air-systems, test rig and tooling structures for wide variety of aerospace build programmes, and most recently the development of a novel SATCOM antenna installation solution for the business jet market.

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