Not Much Of An Engineer:- An Autobiography

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His most recent achievements include being awarded the Council of European Aerospace Societies Gold Medal, (CEAS) in 2019; and a Public Service Silver Medal by the Prime Minister's Office in Singapore in 2021. Some terminology that may be used in this description includes: Jacket Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps.

Neuware - Stanley Hooker joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1949 and tugged a rather reluctant company into the jet age, determined to give real competition to Rolls-Royce. On the screen behind him, towards the end of his talk, he showed a picture of Hooker, and said, "I'll have to think about this a bit, but if I was asked who was Britain's greatest ever engineer, I'd have to decide between Brunel and Sir Stanley Hooker, but I'd probably go for Sir Stanley.

Lots of historical detail on the development of the Merlin engine as well as early tubojets and turbofans that you probably will not get elsewhere. I could have improved them half pissed, which generally I was at the time, because in those days you were at the pub every lunchtime and evening, driving home three sheets to the wind to give the wife one over the kitchen table dinner. While my right arm was no problem, merely requiring to be pulled straight and bandaged, my right leg was in a sorry mess. No missing or damaged pages, no creases or tears, no underlining or highlighting of text, and no writing in the margins.

Hooker also visited in 1943, and was surprised to find they had made extensive changes and raised the thrust to 4,000 lbf (18 kN).

Bristol was merged with Armstrong Siddeley to become Bristol Siddeley in 1958, while most other remaining engine companies merged with Rolls. He certainly led an interesting life, knew some influential people, and accomplished some cool things.