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Culdrose trainee pilot creates app to reduce admin burdens
10 December 2025
A sailor who created an app to reduce admin burdens and make booking events simpler has seen his brainchild rolled out across the Royal Navy.
Lieutenant Simon Marr developed the Navy Bookings App, using Microsoft Power Platform, in his spare time outside of his day job as a trainee Merlin helicopter pilot at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose.
He created the app after he noticed the frustrations of his colleagues when it came to booking important serials like fitness tests and welfare briefs. He decided to try and create an app on Power Platform to simplify and combine the process.
The success of the app and its benefits to personnel across RNAS Culdrose initially, and now at 11 other establishments, is evident with more than 20,000 uses in the past six months. Currently the app is seeing 30 per cent month-on-month growth in users.
Lt Marr said: “I started seeing problems arising when it came to booking different things like my own fitness test and a colleague who needed gas mask testing.
“I come from an aeronautical background and although I wasn’t taught programming in my degree, I was shown scenarios where it would come in useful.
“So I signed up to learn low-code and developed skills in my own time and learnt what I needed to create the app.
“It was important that the app was as intuitive as possible and used language people would understand.”
Now, Navy Digital’s Federated Development team have taken the app in-house – rebuilding it and adding new features using their professional developers which has helped ensure it can scale successfully as its use grows across the Royal Navy.
Through the development of the RN Booking App, Lt Marr becomes the first Royal Navy Federated Developer – an achievement that was recognised during a recent event in Portsmouth.
Simon was invited to the two-day Hackathon at Navy Digital’s Data and Navy Applications (DNA) offices where personnel from across the navy learn how to use Microsoft Power Platform and build out solutions that would improve service life or business critical processes.
He was presented with an award by Commodore Jason Strutt, Chief Digital and Information Officer Navy Digital.
It was important that the app was as intuitive as possible and used language people would understand.
The ease of the Navy Bookings App has seen it facilitate more than 2,000 bookings in a 30-day period, and at HMNB Clyde has saved a Royal Navy physical trainer three days a week on average on administrative burden – with it used to manage RNPES and adventurous training bookings.
CPO Peter Oswald, from Clyde PTI Department, said: “The app gives the team the opportunity to be out delivering PT instead of sitting at the desk and typing in everyone’s details into a spreadsheet, which can be very time consuming.”
Furthermore, CPO Oswald added the app “makes our lives so much easier” and that his team “couldn’t imagine going back to life prior to the app’s arrival”.
Lt Edward Steven, Digital Adoption Lead from DNA said: “It was fantastic for Simon to be recognised with an award for the incredible efforts he has gone to, in building the Booking App.
“For our team to take on the App and build a fully supported second version with Professional Developers is testament to the success of Simon’s initial app and its huge use case across the Navy.”
Lt Marr added: “It’s great to be recognised and to have the hard work I put into this app acknowledged. I think people underestimate how much work went into it.
“I appreciate that DNA can take the project forward and ensure it continues to be available to those who are benefiting from it.
“I hope it inspires other people to form teams and look at how they can create solutions to their own problems.”