Raymond Leslie Wheeler RDI FRAeS FRINA (25 October 1927 – 25 June 2019) was a British engineer who was instrumental in Britain's successful development of rocket launchers and hovercraft.

Early life

He was born in

Mill Hill Mill Hill is a suburb in the London Borough of Barnet, England. It is situated around northwest of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until 1965, when it became part of Greater London. Its population counted 18,45 ...

, in

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

. He attended Newport County Secondary Grammar School (now

Carisbrooke College Carisbrooke College is a foundation trust-supported secondary school in Carisbrooke on the Isle of Wight, formerly ''Carisbrooke High School''. Sixth form students are based at the Island Innovation sixth form Campus, in Newport, a shared sixth f ...

). From the University College, Southampton he gained 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 ...

in Engineering in 1948. SRN4 Hovercraft in Dover 1

Career

Saunders-Roe

He joined

Saunders-Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aero- and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took a c ...

in 1945 as an apprentice. He worked on the SR.N1, the first hovercraft. He eventually became Chief Structural Engineer, working on the 300-tonne

SR.N4 The SR.N4 (Saunders-Roe Nautical 4) hovercraft (also known as the ''Mountbatten'' class hovercraft) was a combined passenger and vehicle-carrying class of hovercraft. The type has the distinction of being the largest civil hovercraft to have ...

hovercraft, as Project Engineer.Interview October 2010
/ref> At Saunders-Roe he worked with

Roy Dommett Roy Leonard Dommett (25 June 1933 – 2 November 2015) was a British engineer and rocket scientist, and the United Kingdom's Chief Missile Scientist, who for many years led the United Kingdom's research and development of both ballistic missil ...

on the

Black Arrow Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW, was a British satellite carrier rocket. Developed during the 1960s, it was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971, all launched from the Woomera Prohibited Area in Australia. Its final fl ...

rocket programme, where he was the Chief Designer. Although entirely successful, built on a limited budget, the project came to an abrupt end in November 1971, having been cancelled on 29 July 1971.

British Hovercraft Corporation

From 1966 to 1985 he was Chief Designer of the British Hovercraft Corporation, and Technical Director from 1972 to 1985. He became a Fellow of the

Royal Aeronautical Society The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a British multi-disciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community. Founded in 1866, it is the oldest aeronautical society in the world. Members, Fellows, ...

in 1974. In 1995 he became an RDI.

Personal life

He married in Southampton in 1950 and has one son (born 1956) and two daughters (born 1952 and 1954). He was a keen field hockey player for the company teams. He lived at

East Cowes East Cowes is a town and civil parish in the north of the Isle of Wight, on the east bank of the River Medina, next to its west bank neighbour Cowes. The two towns are connected by the Cowes Floating Bridge, a chain ferry operated by the Isle ...

. His funeral was at 1pm on Friday 19 July 2019 at East Cowes Methodist Church.

References

External links

British science

Video clips

BBC Great Egg Race 1985
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Raymond 1927 births Alumni of the University of Southampton East Cowes English aerospace engineers Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society People from Cowes People from Mill Hill Saunders-Roe Space programme of the United Kingdom 2019 deaths