Stuart Davies (engineer)
| Stuart Davies | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 December 1906 |
| Died | 22 January 1995 (aged 88) |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | Northampton Polytechnic, London |
| Spouse(s) | Ethel Radcliffe |
| Children | 1 daughter, Susan Rosalie Mary Davies |
| Engineering career | |
| Discipline | Aeronautics |
| Institutions | RAeS |
| Employer(s) | Avro |
| Significant design | Avro Vulcan |
| Significant advance | Avro Lancaster |
| Awards | Gold Medal, RAeS (1958) |
Stuart Duncan Davies CBE FEng FRAeS (5 December 1906 – 22 January 1995) was a British aerospace engineer who was in charge of the design of the Avro Vulcan. He was also responsible for converting the unsuccessful two-engined Avro Manchester into the four-engined Avro Lancaster.
He was the son of William Davies and Alice Duncan. He attended Westminster grammar school in central London from 1918 to 1923.
His career began at Vauxhall Motors where he worked for two years from the age of 16.
He worked at Vickers as a junior technical assistant from 1925 and gained an external BSc degree in Engineering at Northampton Polytechnic (now City University London) awarded by the University of London. At Vickers he worked in the wind tunnel at Brooklands, and on the Virginia biplane bomber, converting it from a wooden to metal structure.
In 1931 he moved to Hawker Aircraft at Kingston upon Thames. He worked in the stress office, in a team of seven. There he worked on the Hart and Fury biplanes; the RAF's main fighter planes in the 1930s. In 1933 he began work on what would become the Hawker Hurricane, then known as the Fury Monoplane.
Hawker Siddeley was formed in 1935, and in the group it included A.V.Roe & Company of Manchester. In January 1938 he moved to Avro, becoming assistant to the chief designer. Aged 33, he was promoted to be the company's experimental manager in April 1940. In 1940 he became responsible for converting the Manchester into the Lancaster. 7,377 Lancasters would be built in the UK and Canada, having first flown at Woodford on 8 January 1941.
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