Aeronautical Engineer Ralph Hooper was born on 30th January 1926 in Essex, where he spent his early years before his family moved north to Hull when he was seven.  In April 1934, Ralph enrolled in the junior school of Hymers College, where he stayed until December 1941.

He went on to become one of the UK’s most important post-war aircraft designers, as the first Chief Designer of the revolutionary Harrier ‘jump jet’, the first operational aircraft with vertical/short takeoff and landing capabilities. He later led the team that designed the Hawk jet trainer, still flown by the RAF Red Arrows team.

In an interview with the British Library, he recalled his early interest in flying, saying:

I think the earliest memory I have is simply that there were birds around all the time in the woods and after a while you look at the birds and think, well why can’t I do that and that’s a pretty neat way of getting around.

During his later career with Hawker Siddeley, which became part of British Aerospace, he oversaw a number of other projects, including the P1182 that developed into the highly successful Hawk jet trainer, and played an active role in selling these aircraft overseas. He retired in 1985, following the cancellation of the P1216, a supersonic version of the Harrier.

In the small cottage where Ralph Hooper lived on his own in old age, the drawers and cupboards were stuffed with boxes of model aeroplanes, almost all of them military aircraft — British, German, American, Japanese and Russian — that he had built over the years and studied intently.

Few of the plastic models were ever painted. Hooper wanted to see the detail in the design and construction of those aircraft. He liked to see the bolts and rivets.

Elsewhere, amid the flotsam and jetsam of his life, were piles of aeronautical magazines, photographs, honours and awards, and correspondence with distinguished engineering bodies.

To many observers, the cottage and its occupant appeared to exist in a state of chaos, but the opposite was true. Hooper was a master of organisation and precision.

A tall, quietly spoken man, he could be ranked alongside RJ Mitchell and Sydney Camm, the men who designed the fighters that won the Battle of Britain, as one of this country’s great aeronautical engineers. While Mitchell designed the Spitfire, and Camm the Hurricane, Hooper was the pioneer responsible for creating the Hawker Siddeley Harrier “jump jet”.

Ralph sadly died in December 2022, aged 96 years old.

This obituary features information from an original article by Cranfield University.

The following article has been supplied to us by the Brooklands Museum:

Ralph Spenser Hooper OBE, FREng, DCAe, Ceng, MSc, FRAeS, MIMechE. (30 January 1926 – 12 December 2022)

Ralph was a tall, quietly well-spoken man with a sharp intellect, a dry sense of humour, and a prodigious memory. He was supreme at thinking logically through problems and concisely explaining his arguments and conclusions. After all, designing an aircraft is essentially solving a series of problems leading to the configuration that will best satisfy the requirements of the 'customer'. He used to work by putting his thoughts down on whatever piece of scrap paper was to hand with only his last thoughts being typed up, if at all. Fortunately for us Ralph was a great keeper of documents of all types from his handwritten thoughts to final reports and drawings. When he retired he took this collection home and gave it to the Brooklands Museum where it is housed in the Technical Archive. The full story of the design and development of Ralph's finest creation, the jet V/STOL Hawker P.1127, and its Kestrel and Harrier developments are preserved.

Ralph was born in Essex on 30 January 1926 and spent his early years there before his family moved to Hull when he was seven in 1933. His elder sister, Sheila, was to become a renowned botanist at Kew. He attended Hymers College, where he became interested in model aeroplanes and used his pocket money to buy balsa wood to create his own. During the war, he was evacuated to Pocklington and then became an engineering apprentice at the Blackburn aircraft company at Brough in January 1942. He gained a Diploma in Aeronautics from University College Hull before joining the new College of Aeronautics at Cranfield in 1946 to study aircraft design under ex-Hawker project engineer Robert Lickley. While there he took up gliding, which became a lifelong interest, and went solo on their Tiger Moth in 4 hs 20 mins. He graduated with a Diploma from the College of Aeronautics in Aircraft Design in 1948 and joined Hawker Aircraft Ltd at Kingston upon Thames, starting in the Experimental Drawing Office as a designer draughtsman. He worked on the structural design of the Hawker Hunter fighter and its supersonic successor, the P.1083, until 1952, when he transferred to the Project Office. It was here that the preliminary design of future aircraft was carried out and was therefore the key to success or failure for the Company.

In June 1957 Ralph began the work that led to the pioneering vertical and short take-off and landing (V/STOL) Hawker P.1127 fighter and was entirely responsible for originating the unique layout and engineering features of this remarkable vectored thrust design based on the Bristol BE 53 turbofan engine with, initially, twin rotatable nozzles for the fan air. He worked closely with its designer, Bristol engine's project engineer, Gordon Lewis, proposing twin rotatable exhaust nozzles and contra-rotation of the low and high-pressure compressor-turbine shafts. In 1961 Ralph was appointed P.1127 Project Engineer, by Sir Sydney Camm, the Chief Engineer and Managing Director of Hawker. In this role he was responsible for technical control of the project and led the initially company-funded design and development effort which resulted in the prototype successfully demonstrating controlled vertical take-off, hovering flight, and vertical landing in October 1959. In all, six P.1127s were built and flown, convincingly proving the correctness of Hooper's concept.

From the P.1127, Ralph, as Chief Designer (Projects) from 1963, developed the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGAMk1 (Fighter, Ground Attack) V/STOL fighter which equipped an international evaluation squadron made up of pilots, ground crew, and admin, personnel from the Royal Air Force, the United States Air Force, Navy and Army, and the Luftwaffe. The Kestrel was the first jet V/STOL aircraft in the world to be certificated for service use. The objective of the Kestrel Evaluation Squadron was to examine the military utility of jetV/STOL and this was convincingly proved during ten months of intensive flying, at RAF West Raynham in 1965.

In 1961 Ralph had initiated Hawker’s work on supersonic V/STOL, and his P.1154 project won the NATO international design competition, NBMR 3, against contenders from major manufacturers in the USA and Europe as well as the other UK companies. The competition collapsed but the P.1154 was adopted by the UK Government for the Royal Air Force. However, with the first aircraft well under construction, the Wilson administration cancelled Hawker Siddeley's contract, together with TSR.2, for reasons of economy. However, a contract was awarded to develop the Kestrel as a less expensive alternative and Ralph directed this design effort resulting in the famous Harrier which was to serve with the RAF and was to be exported to the USA for the United States Marine Corps. This was a real coup as it was against US national policy to buy major weapon systems from abroad, but the Harrier's unique qualities prevailed and the Marines were permitted to procure 110 aircraft. Spain also bought the Harrier for her Navy.

Ralph's design continued to be developed under John Fozard, and the Sea Harrier was a crucial Royal Navy asset in the Falklands campaign. Without the RN Sea Harriers and RAF Harriers the South Atlantic Task Force would have been defenceless against air attack - except for short-range ship-mounted missiles - and the ground forces would have been without close air support. The Sea Harrier was also exported to lndia where it was in service until 2020.

In 1968 Ralph was promoted to Executive Director and Chief Engineer and as such was responsible for the Hawk jet trainer for which Hawker Siddeley received a contract for 176 RAF aircraft. Through Ralph’s foresight, the Hawk, famous as the Red Arrows’ mount, was designed from the outset to be capable of development for military roles. It was a major export success with over 1000 sales to 20 countries so far. Amongst these are 221 serving with the US Navy as their principal jet trainer, the T-45 Goshawk. This variant was developed and manufactured in partnership with McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing) in the USA.

On the formation of British Aerospace in 1977, Ralph was appointed Technical Director of the Kingston-Brough Division. At this time an advanced version of his Harrier was the subject of joint development in partnership with McDonnell Douglas. This Harrier II entered service with the RAF, the US Marine Corps, and the Italian and Spanish Navys. Production of the 430 aircraft was a joint effort with a 50% workshare betwe€n the two companies. In search of economies the Cameron government withdrew the Sea Harrier FA2s and the RAF and RN Harrier IIs selling the aircraft to the USN as spares for the USMC who intend to operate their fleet for many more years.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Ralph led the company's effort in designing ASTOVL (Advanced Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing) aircraft, the ultimate project being the P.1216 fighter. With supersonic performance. great agility and advanced systems combined with the ability to operate from very small bases, the type had significant support in the RAF but, regrettably some would say, British Aerospace concentrated on marketing the Eurofighter which they judged to have a larger sales potential- so the P.1216 was stillborn.

When British Aerospace was reorganised in 1984 Ralph became Technical Director of the Weybridge Division and he retired in 1985 (he said he resigned as a mark of protest against how the Company was being reorganised and managed). Afterwards, he contributed to the Joint Strike Fighter ASTOVL project developed in the USA by Lockheed Martin as the F-35, with significant assistance from BAE Systems, the new name for British Aerospace.

1838 examples of Hooper's aircraft have been built to date. Making these aircraft employed thousands of people in Hawker Siddeley and British Aerospace factories, principally at Kingston and Dunsfold, Surrey; Brough, Yorkshire and Hamble, Hampshire. Each aircraft was fitted with wifi engines built by Roll-Royce at Bristol and Derby, and with systems, equipment, and avionics from suppliers nationwide - more thousands of people employed. These activities generated huge cash flows which were vitally important to local and national economies. 1279 of Ralph's aircraft were exported and each contract included spares support and modifications for several years, and training for the operators - a massive contribution to the balance of trade and a direct return to the exchequer in the form of a levy on each aircraft. Ralph's aircraft have served in the front line of the RAF for 34 years, with the Royal Navy for 24 years, and have trained several generations of Service pilots, starting in 1976 - a major element in the nation's security. Ralph's aircraft have been in the forefront of international collaboration enhancing the Anglo-American special relationship; industrially through joint projects, militarily through service with the US Navy and Marines and socially through the exchange of personnel. Ralph's aircraft have been, and remain a national asset.

Ralph joined the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1944 and was made a Fellow in 1970. He was awarded the British Silver Medal for Aeronautics in 1975 and the Royal Aeronautical Society's Gold Medal in 1986. In 1983 he shared, with colleague John Fozard, the Royal Society's Mullard Award, for "work which significantly advances Britain's international prestige and economic prosperity", and in 1979 was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Ralph was a stalwart supporter of the Lasham Gliding Society where he was part of a syndicate that restored and flew a vintage Slingsby Kite 2b glider. He was a founder member of the Hawker Association serving on the committee from the start. He supported the Brooklands Museum not least by donating his papers to the Technical Archive. In his younger days, he was a keen skier, walker, and mountaineer, even climbing high in the Everest massif.

Ralph Hooper was highly respected and admired by those who worked with and for him at Hawker Aircraft, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, and British Aerospace, particularly at Kingston Dunsfold, Brough, and Hamble. Those who knew him personally will have fond memories of him as a friend and colleague. Rest in peace, Ralph.

Ralph Hooper CV

1941-46           Engineering Apprenticeship, Blackburn Aircraft Ltd

1946-48           College of Aeronautics, Cranfield (Founding course)

1948-52           Experimental Drawing Office, Hawker Aircraft Ltd

1952-57           Project Office, Hawker Aircraft Ltd

1957-63           P.1127 Project Engineer, Hawker Aircraft Ltd

1963-68           Assistant Chief Designer, Future Projects, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Kingston.

1968-77           Executive Director & Chief Engineer, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Kingston.

1977-84           Divisional Technical Director & Chief Engineer Kingston, Kingston-Brough Division, British Aerospace

1984-85           Divisional Director & Deputy Technical Director, Weybridge Division, British Aerospace

1985                Resigned

Written by C Farara for Brooklands Museum