In the manner of a latter-day Boudica, she saw it as her sacred duty to defend the valuable aerospace and satellite skills for the sake of Britain.
Lady Cobham was falsely accused by her critics in the financial community – anxious to buy and break-up Cobham whatever the costs to UK plc – of only being interested in aggrandising the family name. Nothing could be further from the truth.
'If this was another country, the deal would not have been allowed,' Lady Cobham says of the £4billion takeover.
The company was founded in 1934 by her father-in-law, who was believed to be the inspiration for WE Johns's fictional pilot and adventurer, Biggles.