Robert Charles Parkinson MBE (born 15 July 1941) is a British

aerospace engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

who worked on many projects including

HOTOL HOTOL, for Horizontal Take-Off and Landing, was a 1980s British design for a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceplane that was to be powered by an airbreathing jet engine. Development was being conducted by a consortium led by Rolls-Royce and ...

which he cooriginated with Alan Bond. Dr Parkinson has published numerous papers addressing aspects of advanced aerospace projects; including subjects as diverse as space tethers, space tourism, and reusable launch vehicle architectures. He was the president of the

British Interplanetary Society The British Interplanetary Society (BIS), founded in Liverpool in 1933 by Philip E. Cleator, is the oldest existing space advocacy organisation in the world. Its aim is exclusively to support and promote astronautics and space exploration. Str ...

from 2009 – 2012.

References

1941 births Living people People educated at Pate's Grammar School People from Cheltenham Rocket scientists Space programme of the United Kingdom Members of the Order of the British Empire {{UK-scientist-stub