David Keith-Lucas
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David Keith-Lucas CBE, FRAeS |
|
|---|---|
| Born | 25 March 1911 |
| Died | 6 April 1997 (aged 86) |
| Education | Gresham's School, Holt |
| Spouse(s) | Keith Lucas |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Aeronautical engineering |
| Institutions | C.A. Parsons and Co. |
| Practice name | Short Brothers |
| Employer(s) | Harland Ltd |
| Projects | Short SB-5 research aircraft |
| Significant design | Short SB.1 |
| Significant advance | Aero-isoclinic wing |
| Awards | President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Honorary Doctorate Queen's University, Belfast, Commander of the Order of the British Empire |
David Keith-Lucas CBE, FRAeS (25 March 1911 – 6 April 1997) was an aeronautical engineer.
David Keith-Lucas was one of the sons of Keith Lucas, who invented the first aeronautical compass. He was educated at Gresham's School, Holt, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he read engineering.
He was an apprentice and engineer with C.A. Parsons and Co. from 1933 to 1940, then moved to the aerodynamics office of Short Brothers, Rochester, famous for their flying boats, becoming their chief aerodynamicist in 1944.
From 1945 to 1965 he was with Short Brothers and Harland Ltd in Belfast, holding the posts of chief designer, technical director and research director. His work included research on swept-wings which culminated in the Short SB-5 research aircraft. Other projects included the Short Belfast heavy freighter, the Short Skyvan, and the SD-330 and SD-360 freight-commuter series.
The Short SB.1 was a shoulder-wing, cantilever, tailless monoplane glider designed by David Keith-Lucas and Professor Geoffrey T.R. Hill and built by Shorts as a private research venture to test the concept of the aero-isoclinic wing; it was the first aircraft to incorporate this feature. After initial tests, at the end of which the SB.1 crash-landed as a result of problems while being towed behind the Short Sturgeon, the SB.1 was further developed into the Short SB.4 Sherpa, powered by two Blackburn Turbomeca Palas turbojet engines.
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