David J. Farrar

David J. Farrar (born 1921) is an English engineer who led the Bristol team which developed the Bristol Bloodhound surface-to-air missile, which defended Britain's nuclear deterrent for many years and were widely sold abroad. His main achievements in cost engineering were secret until 2000: he saved two famous companies from bankruptcy, achieved cost reductions of over a million pounds, and trained many engineers in cost engineering. His methods are the basis of a major Australian product cost reduction initiative.

Born in London, England in 1921, Farrar was the elder son of Donald Frederic Farrar (1897–1982), a former Royal Flying Corps supply pilot, and Mabel Margaret Farrar, née Hadgraft (1896–1985), and brother of RAF airman and poet James Farrar.

He was educated at Sutton Grammar School for Boys, Surrey, and won three scholarships to Cambridge University, going up in 1939 to Gonville and Caius College. In his second year Farrar (at the age of nineteen) passed the Mechanical Sciences tripos First Class with distinctions and a share in University prizes for aerodynamics and structures.

It being the eve of World War II, he expected to go into the Royal Air Force, having been an active member of the University Air Squadron, but was assigned to the aircraft industry in the Bristol Aeroplane Company, where he specialised initially in structural design. By the age of 25 he had devised new approaches to the design of compression structures and was in charge of the structural design of Britain's largest landplane, the Bristol Brabazon aircraft.

In 1949, Farrar made in-flight observations of wing buckling in a Bristol Freighter, which then did full power engine cut tests. On the next flight with the chief aerodynamicist and the head of flight test on board, full power engine cut caused the fin and rudder to break and all aboard were lost. The head of flight test was the designated head of the new Guided Weapons department, to which Farrar then succeeded. Contracts having already been let for army and navy anti aircraft systems, Bristol and Ferranti were teamed to study a longer range system for the Royal Air Force. The key to longer range was ramjet propulsion, which required extensive flight development. Despite this, the resulting Bloodhound 1 missile entered service before the other two.

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