Not Much Of An Engineer:- An Autobiography

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The short autobiography of Sir Stanley Hooker who worked on supercharger and jet engine design during the 40s to 70s. For this role, he produced his first completely original design, the Orpheus, which went on to power the Fiat G91 and other light fighters. Hooker also worked on finishing the Olympus, developing later versions that would be used on the Avro Vulcan and Concorde and a further development for the stillborn TSR2. Of the many great applied mathematicians in the field of aerodynamics or fluid motion whom I have had the good fortune to know, G. In a mix of humorous anecdotes and untangled expositions of the relevant technical aspects, Hooker covers much more than a very modest narrative of his fantastic trajectory to a leader in aero engine development.

He was determined to complete his autobiography, and in this, as in most of his enterprises, he was successful. Every time you ride in a modern jet aircraft, get electricity from an Avon gas-turbine generator, thank Frank and Stanley. From the early days of the engineering and the characters who drove the program on is a genuinely interesting history.

In fact the student life, with its long vacations during which I did no work but had a pleasant time with my friends in Kent, suited me very well. Design work on what became the Olympus had started in 1946, and by 1950 it was developing 10,000 lb thrust, with the help of its low and high pressure spools, able to provide immediate maximum thrust without fear of compressor stalling. It taught me a lot as an aspiring engineer and it would help to keep the name of one of Britain’s finest engineers alive. One contemporary there, Frederick Llewellyn Smith, had gone to an engineering career at Rolls-Royce which would eventually lead to his being a director of that company, and in 1935 Hooker, with a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil in Oxford parlance) and a fear that a war was on its way, saw service in the Royal Navy as his next step.

Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). Frameworks allow a Frameworker to build software products in a way similar to how IKEA allows me to build shelving units.It’s not in your line of business, you grub about on the ground, and I hear from Hooker that things are going from bad to worse with Whittle. A poor condition book can still make a good reading copy but is generally not collectible unless the item is very scarce. All while bringing to life both the many challenges and funny moments he lived during the wartime and the post-war.

What could have turned out to be a bit of a dry read instead turned out to be fascinating and illuminating in equal amounts. In other words, the pressure differences caused by the air velocities are small compared with the pressure of the atmosphere, and so the air behaves as if its density remained constant. Once the story became the developement of the jet engine I found that even more interesting, considering my life long fascination has been the piston engine. This biographical lecture is an account of my journey from Physics Student to internationally recognised engineer. Bristol was merged with Armstrong Siddeley to become Bristol Siddeley in 1958, while most other remaining engine companies merged with Rolls.Its a story of the incredible development of the jet engine culminating in todays large and successful units. It was about eight feet square and contained a desk, a chair, an empty bookcase and a telephone, and nothing more. I will address one niggle I read from another review stating that Hooker was in some way trying to suggest he was the be all and end all of jet turbines. I thought this was a great book and a good insight into the "other side" of the Rolls Royce / Whittle jet story.