He was educated at Sutton Grammar School for Boys, Surrey, and won three scholarships to study engineering at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, going up in 1939.
In his second year, Farrar (at the age of 19) passed the Mechanical Sciences tripos First Class with distinction and received a share in University prizes for aerodynamics and structures.
[citation needed] Near World War II, Farrar was expected to go into the Royal Air Force and had been an active member of the University Air Squadron, but he was assigned to the aircraft industry in the Bristol Aeroplane Company, where he specialized initially in structural design.
[citation needed] In 1949, Farrar made in-flight observations of wing buckling in a Bristol Freighter and then did full-power engine cut tests.
The other contractors had not reached this stage, so the Bristol Bloodhound II was developed for the Royal Air Force, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Within a year (before the first prototype was built), he correctly established the causes as a repeated redesign for an unrealistically low takeoff weight and a high aircraft cost.
The French direction rejected design for a more realistic weight, so program slip and cost escalation continued.