Claude Percival Thomas Lipscomb (1887- 11 April 1974) FRAeS was a British engineer and aircraft designer, who designed the

RAF Bomber Command RAF Bomber Command controlled the Royal Air Force's bomber forces from 1936 to 1968. Along with the United States Army Air Forces, it played the central role in the Strategic bombing during World War II#Europe, strategic bombing of Germany in W ...

's first four-engined

heavy bomber Heavy bombers are bomber aircraft capable of delivering the largest payload of air-to-ground weaponry (usually bombs) and longest range (takeoff to landing) of their era. Archetypal heavy bombers have therefore usually been among the large ...

, the

Short Stirling The Short Stirling was a British four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It has the distinction of being the first four-engined bomber to be introduced into service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). The Stirling was designed during t ...

(S.29).

Early life

C.P.T. Lipscomb was born on

Portsea Island Portsea Island is a flat and low-lying natural island in area, just off the southern coast of Hampshire in England. Portsea Island contains the majority of the city of Portsmouth. Portsea Island has the third-largest population of all th ...

Career

Shorts

He joined Short Brothers in 1914 in Kent, then he later designed airships at Bedford from 1916 to 1921. By the late 1930s he was assistant chief designer. He became chief designer in 1943.

Short Stirling

The Short Stirling, which he designed with Arthur Gouge, first flew, as ''L7600'', on 14 May 1939 with

John Lankester Parker John Lankester Parker OBE FRAeS Hon. MSLAE (1896 – 22 August 1965) was Chief Test Pilot for Short Brothers from 1918 until his retirement in 1945. He joined Shorts in 1916 as a part-time test pilot and assistant to then Chief Test Pilot Ronal ...

, the Short Chief Test Pilot. The aircraft was designed in response to the Air Ministry Directive B.12/36. It had

Bristol Hercules The Bristol Hercules is a 14-cylinder two-row radial aircraft engine designed by Sir Roy Fedden and produced by the Bristol Engine Company starting in 1939. It was the most numerous of their single sleeve valve ( Burt-McCollum, or Argyll, ...

I radial engines. The second prototype, ''L7605'', flew on 3 December 1939. The Stirling Mk 1 entered service in August 1940, with 756 being made. 1,047 were made of the Stirling Mk II, which entered service in 1942. He later designed a possible transatlantic four-engine airliner, the Short 14/38.Short 14/38
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Personal life

He lived in Kent. He married Nora Guest. He had one son. He moved to Northern Ireland and lived at 28 Shandon Park East in

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to th ...

. He died in April 1974 in Northern Ireland aged 86. His wife died on 4 May 1978, aged 90.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lipscomb, Claude 1887 births 1974 deaths Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society People from County Down People from Portsea, Portsmouth