Alfred Cyril Lovesey

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, AFRAeS, was an English

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

who was a key figure in the development of the

Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650 cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later ...

aero engine An aircraft engine, often referred to as an aero engine, is the power component of an aircraft propulsion system. Most aircraft engines are either piston engines or gas turbines, although a few have been rocket powered and in recent years many ...

Early life

Lovesey was born 15 July 1899 in Hereford the son of Alfred and Jessie Lovesey. 1901 Census RG13/2481 Folio 99 Page 5 Hereford In the 1901 Census Lovesey, aged 1 is living with his parents at 3, Greenfield Villas, Portfields, Hereford. He went to Broomy Hill Academy and the

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

Hereford High School for Boys (became

Aylestone Business and Enterprise College Aylestone School is a co-educational secondary school in Herefordshire, England. The school has an enrolment of 419, and caters for the Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 education of students aged 11–16. History The school was established as the ...

). Lovesey attended

Bristol University , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

leaving in 1923 with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

Career

Cyril Lovesey joined the 'Rolls-Royce Experimental Department' in 1923, came under the direction of

Ernest Hives Ernest Walter Hives, 1st Baron Hives (21 April 1886 – 24 April 1965), was the one-time head of the Rolls-Royce Aero Engine division and chairman of Rolls-Royce Ltd. Hives was born in Reading, Berkshire to John and Mary Hives, living at 31 C ...

and worked on both motor cars and aero engines. He was the company representative for support of the

Rolls-Royce R The Rolls-Royce R is a British aero engine that was designed and built specifically for air racing purposes by Rolls-Royce Limited. Nineteen R engines were assembled in a limited production run between 1929 and 1931. Developed from the Rolls-R ...

engine during its trials at

Calshot Calshot is a coastal village in Hampshire, England at the west corner of Southampton Water where it joins the Solent.OS Explorer Map, New Forest, Scale: 1:25 000.Publisher: Ordnance Survey B4 edition (2013). History In 1539, Henry VIII ordere ...

for the

Schneider Trophy The Coupe d'Aviation Maritime Jacques Schneider, also known as the Schneider Trophy, Schneider Prize or (incorrectly) the Schneider Cup is a trophy that was awarded annually (and later, biennially) to the winner of a race for seaplanes and flying ...

races in 1929 and 1931. Lovesey was a proponent of flight testing and established a centre at

RAF Hucknall Hucknall, formerly Hucknall Torkard, is a market town in the Ashfield district of Nottinghamshire, England. It lies 7 miles north of Nottingham, 7 miles south-east of Kirkby-in-Ashfield, 9 miles from Mansfield and 10 miles south of Sutton-in ...

where he was flight development engineer. His services were also used by

Malcolm Campbell Major Sir Malcolm Campbell (11 March 1885 – 31 December 1948) was a British racing motorist and motoring journalist. He gained the world speed record on land and on water at various times, using vehicles called ''Blue Bird'', including a 1 ...

during his

Bluebird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. ...

land speed record attempts. In 1930 Lovesey was awarded Aviators Certificate No. 9350 by the Royal Aero Club. In the late 1930s Lovesey (who had become known as 'Lov' in company shorthand) began working with others on developing the new

and just prior to the start of the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

was placed in charge of the development programme. His contribution to the Merlin, doubling its power output and improving reliability at the same time, was a major achievement. Post-war, Lovesey adapted the Merlin for civil use and then turned to

turbojet The turbojet is an airbreathing jet engine which is typically used in aircraft. It consists of a gas turbine with a propelling nozzle. The gas turbine has an air inlet which includes inlet guide vanes, a compressor, a combustion chamber, and ...

development with work on the

Rolls-Royce Avon The Rolls-Royce Avon was the first axial flow jet engine designed and produced by Rolls-Royce. Introduced in 1950, the engine went on to become one of their most successful post-World War II engine designs. It was used in a wide variety of ai ...

. In 1957 Lovesey became 'Chief Engineer (Aircraft Engines)' then deputy director of engineering and a member of the Aero Engine Division board of directors. He retired in 1964 but was later recalled along with

Arthur Rubbra Arthur Alexander Cecil Rubbra CBE (29 October 1903 – 24 November 1982) was an English engineer who designed many of Rolls-Royce's successful aero engines. He was "placed by many alongside Royce, Rowledge and Elliot as one of Rolls-Royce's g ...

and

Stanley Hooker Sir Stanley George Hooker, CBE, FRS, DPhil, BSc, FRAeS, MIMechE, FAAAS, (30 September 1907 – 24 May 1984) was a mathematician and jet engine engineer. He was employed first at Rolls-Royce where he worked on the earliest designs such as ...

to assist with development problems concerning the

Rolls-Royce RB211 The Rolls-Royce RB211 is a British family of high-bypass turbofan engines made by Rolls-Royce. The engines are capable of generating of thrust. The RB211 engine was the first production three-spool engine, and turned Rolls-Royce from a signif ...

turbofan The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...

engine. Lovesey died in 1976.

Honours and awards

* 9 January 1946 - Alfred Cyril Lovesey, Esq., AFRAeS, Development Engineer, Rolls-Royce Ltd is appointed an Officer of the Order the British Empire (OBE). * 11 June 1966 - Alfred Cyril Lovesey, Esq., OBE, Deputy Director of Engineering, Rolls-Royce Ltd is appointed a Commander of the Order the British Empire (CBE).

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Lumsden, Alec. ''British Piston Engines and their Aircraft''. Marlborough, Wiltshire: Airlife Publishing, 2003. . * Pugh, Peter. ''The Magic of a Name - The Rolls-Royce Story - The First 40 Years''. Cambridge, England. Icon Books Ltd, 2000.

External links

Flightglobalarchive - Gas turbine development by Cyril Lovesey, ''Flight'', 6 April 1950''Development of the Rolls-Royce Merlin from 1939 to 1945''
- a 1945 lecture by Lovesey in PDF form {{DEFAULTSORT:Lovesey, Cyril 1899 births 1976 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English aerospace engineers English aviators Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society Rolls-Royce people People from Hereford