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WHERE WERE YOU BORN / RAISED I was born August 4, 1938, in Portsmouth, Britain’s largest naval port three years before it was devastatingly firebombed by Hitler’s Luftwaffe. Seeing wave-upon-wave of ear-splitting, low-flying swastikas, as we rushed to the air-raid shelter in the garden, left an enduring marker…even in a three-year old’s mind! Curiously, this early vivid visualization translated into a passion in my life for all flying objects, powered or unpowered, model, or full-scale!
I entered Purbrook Park County High School, outside of Portsmouth, at age 11+ and completed university entrance exams in 1956 at age 18. But at age 15, with the full support of scholarly math, physics and French(!) teachers, my uncle, who was Chief Naval Constructor at the British Admiralty, prepared me for competitive placement in a 4-year deeded engineering student apprenticeship at the Royal Aircraft/National Gas Turbine Establishment(s) at Farnborough, Hants; to be sandwiched with an honors degree course in Aeronautical Engineering at Bristol University. A full scholarship paid all tuition, books and living costs! My subsequent success with this hybrid education model provided me with the design skill-set and academic research orientation, coupled with the experience of involvement in the production of full-scale experimental research aircraft and gas turbine engines, to pursue a career either at home or abroad: or both, perhaps? An ambitious plan was forming to work, in turn, at famous government research centers, run an engineering research company, and spend full-time in academia. I managed to fulfill all these desires thrivingly! EDUCATION
• Engineering deeds of apprenticeship, NGTE, UK, 1960
• B.Sc.(Hons) Aero Eng., Bristol Univ., UK, 1960
• M.Sc. Eng., Bristol Univ., UK, 1962
• PhD, Eng., Bristol Univ., UK, 1973, for external published work
• PhD, Aerospace Eng., Carleton Univ., Ottawa, Canada, 1975 CAREER
• RAE & NGTE, Farnborough, UK, 1956-62, Student Apprentice & Scientific Officer
• High Speed Aero Lab., NAE, Ottawa, Canada, 1962-1977, Principal Research Officer
• NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA & NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, CA, 1977-1986, Branch Head, Research Assistant to Center Director
• Dynamic Engineering INC., Newport News, VA, 1986-1994, CEO/President
• McLaren Formula One Race Cars, Woking, UK, 1995, Consultant
• City Univ., London, UK, 1995-2004, Professor Emeritus & Head of Centre for Aeronautics
• National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA, 2004-2019, VP for Research, VP for Commercial Aeronautics, Consultant HOW DID I END UP ON THE CENTRAL COAST?
While at NASA Ames, as Research Assistant to the Center Director and Director of the Ames/Stanford Joint Institute, my responsibilities included managing and awarding grants to engineering universities of merit. Examples of these are Stanford and UCAL. I visited Cal Poly Aerospace Engineering when Prof. Doral Sandlin was in charge and set up a continuous stream of grants to the faculty, with student placements available in the Ames labs. The ‘hands-on’ experience of the Cal Poly students was highly prized in the wind tunnels. Upon my return to VA from the UK in 2004, I was invited to serve on the Dean of Engineering’s Advisory Committee at Cal Poly. I did so for more than 12 years. In 2007, my wife, Vera, and I purchased a home at Atascadero Lake, planning for future retirement which eventually happened ten years later! Currently enjoying frequent stays in Norfolk, VA, to share experiences with former colleagues and friends with occasional flips across the “POND” to the UK and the Netherlands, Here in Atascadero and SLO County, my wife and I enjoy driving Minis on Hwy 1 and our “wiggly” byways, often to a fine winery. I’m fortunate to be able to share time with members of her family in the Central Valley and in the Bay Area, especially her two sons, who work with the airlines.