He learnt to fly with the London Aeroplane Club at Hatfield with Geoffrey de Havilland, Jr. as his instructor and made his first solo in and passed his A licence in 1934 (flying a DH.60G Gipsy Moth with a Gipsy II 120 hp engine) obtaining a private pilot's licence [REF].
After graduating (the first person from Sri Lanka to qualify in aeronautical engineering) he was hired by Handley Page Ltd where he worked as a junior technical assistant and later as a senior technical assistant in the design office.