Thomas William Smith (27 March 1927 – 3 October 2012) was a British aerospace engineer, and the team leader of the proposed

BAC BAC or Bac may refer to: Places * Bac, Rožaje, Bac, a village in Montenegro * Baile Átha Cliath, Irish language name for Dublin city. * Bîc River, aka ''Bâc River'', a Moldovan river * Baç Bridge, bridge in Turkey * Barnes County Municipal A ...

MUSTARD Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, seeds of the mustard p ...

(''Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device'') reusable spacecraft design.

Early life

He was born in

Old Clee Old Clee is located in the Clee Road ( A46) and Carr Lane area of eastern Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England, and adjoins the neighbouring town of Cleethorpes, to which it has historic links. It is in the Heneage ward of the North East ...

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town and the administrative centre of North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes directly to the south-east forming a conurbation. Grimsby is north-east of L ...

. He attended the Grimsby Wintringham Boys' Grammar School, since 2007 the

Oasis Academy Wintringham Oasis Academy Wintringham is a secondary school (academy) on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England. It is just off the A16 road (England), A16 Peaks Parkway just south-west of the A46 road, A46 crossroads next to the Lisle ...

. He studied Aeronautical Engineering at

Queen Mary College , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

in east London.

Career

After graduation in 1948 he worked for a year for the

Gloster Aircraft Company The Gloster Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1917 to 1963. Founded as the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Limited during the First World War, with the aircraft construction activities of H H Martyn & Co Ltd of Chelte ...

BAC

He joined English Electric in 1949. Working under Sir Frederick Page, he worked on the

English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It was capable of a top speed of above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufa ...

. Later he was one of the leaders of the team that developed the

BAC TSR-2 The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 is a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed ...

, which was cancelled in April 1965. He became Chief of the Aerospace Department at BAC ( Preston Division) at Warton.Flight International March 1966
/ref> The MUSTARD hypersonic design had begun life as the English Electric MUSTARD at Warton in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

. It would be powered by LOx (

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...

) and LH2 (

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen (LH2 or LH2) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point of 33 K. However, for it to be in a fully l ...

). After MUSTARD he worked on the SEPECAT Jaguar and

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multirole combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany. There are three primary Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ( in ...

, both largely BAC designs.

Personal life

He retired in 1990 and moved to

Tetford Tetford is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. History Tetford is listed as "Tesforde" in the ''Domesday Book'', with a mill, probably on the site of the present 17th-century watermill near the ...

in East Lindsey. He played

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

competitively until the age of 50. He married Winifred McCormick in 1948 in Grimsby. They had a daughter and four sons. His wife died in 2000, and he married again in 2000, moving to

East Keal East Keal is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately north from the town of Boston, south from the town of Spilsby, and on the edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, an Area of ...

. His second wife had died in 2009.

References

External links

MUSTARD at BAE Systems

The Engineer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Tom 1927 births 2012 deaths Alumni of Queen Mary University of London British Aircraft Corporation English aerospace engineers People from East Lindsey District People from Grimsby Space programme of the United Kingdom