 Eventually, Davies and Newman, the parent company of both the airline and its new engineering offshoot, managed to negotiate a 21-year lease of the airfield's maintenance facilities with the Air Ministry.Dan-Air Engineering's first phase of major expansion occurred at Lasham, following sister company Dan-Air's purchase of a pair of de Havilland Comet series 4 jetliners from British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) in 1966.These aircraft were ferried from BOAC's Heathrow base to Lasham during the early summer of that year for a six-month conversion by Dan-Air Engineering from a 74-seat, low-density, two-class long-haul scheduled configuration into a 106-seat, high-density, single-class short- to medium-haul inclusive tour (IT) layout.