Professional Engineering

Airfix aeroplane kits. I learned about following instructions, assembly and finishing processes. Also dealing with quality control problems when sometimes bits wouldn’t go together. Then you would have the final pleasure of setting fire to the older planes for their final flight to make room for new acquisitions.
Andy Peach, Oxford

Toy pistols, revolvers and firearms – especially cap guns. I was fascinated by the mechanisms. They also related to my favourite cowboy films. 
Andy Borucki, London

Steam engines, planes and cars: The Eagle published cross-sectional illustrations showing the way they worked. Fascinating stuff. Do such comics exist today or have they all been replaced by PC Gamer? 
Adrian Roper, Loughborough, Leicestershire 

Watching my elder brother getting an old TV set working (sound only) in the garden shed and running between the house and shed not quite believing he was listening to the same programme my Mum was watching. 
Eamonn Quinn, Oxford

My Mamod methylated spirit powered steam traction engine. Although it was great fun it hasn’t worked properly since I attempted to re-engineer the whistle in 1974. It is still hidden at my father’s house at the back of my old wardrobe. 
Andrew Grigsby, Woking, Surrey

It was hunting around for bicycle pieces and making them fit together so that I could go out “dirt tracking” with my mates that really started me off. 
Alan Cook, Braintree, Essex

You might expect me to say it was my Meccano set but all it taught me was which way to turn fiddly nuts on bolts. I enjoyed my Bayko building set (still got it!) and venturing into early transistor radios, including repairs. So why am I not an architect or an electrical engineer? Perhaps it was the Meccano after all. 
Alan Constable, Derby

Lego – but, sadly, the non-programmable kind! However, I’m sure I’ll be buying it for my son. The beauty of Lego is its near-limitless reconfigurability that lets you create almost anything you can conceive of. Engineering as a career is a natural progression.
Alastair Miles, Yate, Bristol

For me it was a Honda CB250N motorbike engine with a snapped timing chain. I suspect it was not designed as a learning resource for young budding engineers, but it certainly did just that! 
Ash Dhir, Beverley, East Riding

Meccano – without hesitation! Making gearboxes was best, and finding motors powerful enough was usually the biggest challenge. I still occasionally make models with Meccano, the current one being a 1930s-style breakdown truck powered by a modified Ford Escort windscreen wiper motor. Who needs programmable Lego? 
Andy Brown, Gloucester

Cardboard boxes and crayons – is it a ship, is it a plane? And (a few years later) the Science Museum.
David Andrews, Peterborough

Lego was a big inspiration to me. The pieces are quick to assemble, and the quality of the product is consistently good. As I became older I learned a lot from radio-controlled cars and bicycles.
Edward Tibenham, Lincoln

I grew up at a time when personal computers were starting to become more affordable but were still basic. I loved working on the BBC computers at school and second-hand Dragon or Sinclair computers from a neighbour. I went into mechanical engineering but can understand my software colleagues because of this basic foundation. 
Amanda Arnold, Chelmsford, Essex

My older brother’s written-off “Harry’s” van – inverted on its roof in the back yard. Hours of entertainment for me and my younger brother. 
Alan Fairhurst, Haydock, Merseyside

Was it Lego, Meccano or Triang-Hornby railways? Or was it weekend visits to the iron foundry in Kirkintilloch where my Dad was the chief engineer? Probably a combination of them all. 
Andrew Brown, Glasgow

I was enraptured by Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds. My six-year-old self decided that real planes should also have backwards wings and interchangeable pods or vertical take-off and landing capabilities and a top speed of Mach 22, and set out to achieve this by becoming an engineer. 
Alex Peaston, Wigan

Chemistry sets and electronics kits. I can also remember using biscuit crumbs and fireworks to create a realistic war zone for an Action Man. I’m not sure how that all led to me being responsible for a top-tier hazardous industrial site, though! 
Aidan Foley, Clitheroe, Lancashire

Excluding cognitive learning from the educational system, Lego bricks was the first tool that introduced me to the world of logical reasoning and rationalisation which formed the basics for my enthusiasm to solve problems as a child.
Eddy Akang, Gloucester