Ralph Hooper

Ralph Spenser Hooper, OBE, FREng, FRAeS (30 January 1926 – 12 December 2022) was an English aeronautical engineer, recognised mostly for his work on the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, specifically in relation to the marriage between the Pegasus engine and the layout of the aircraft, allowing it to safely hover with margins of stability.

He was awarded the Royal Aeronautical Society's Gold Medal in 1986 for his work on the Harrier and Hawk.

[2] Hooper was succeeded as Chief Designer of the Harrier in 1965 by (later Professor) John Fozard, who continued in this post until 1978.

Hooper later became Deputy Technical Director of British Aerospace at Kingston upon Thames (the base of Hawker) in Surrey.

However he realised that the hot exhaust gases could be bifurcated, as demonstrated on the earlier Hawker Sea Hawk,[5] to provide enough thrust for vertical take off, the fundamental layout of the Harrier.

In March 1959, the Government issued the General Operational Requirement (GOR) 345 for a vertical take off aircraft, in response its knowledge of the design work of the P.1127.

In early 1960, work at NASA's Ames Research Center had demonstrated that transition from vertical to conventional flight would be possible.

XP831 (now at the Royal Air Force Museum London) first flew (tethered) on 21 October 1960 with a Pegasus 2 engine at Hawker's Dunsfold Aerodrome flown by Bill Bedford.

In 1964, the prototypes were improved with a more swept wing and a more powerful Pegasus 5 engine, and in November 1964 it was designated as the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel, and was trialled by pilots from the RAF, the German Luftwaffe and the US Air Force at RAF West Raynham until November 1965.

The resulting aircraft had a Pegasus 6 engine, with a new design of air intakes, and redesigned wings to improve longitudinal stability.

It was originally to be called the Harrier, and would have had Plenum Chamber Burning in the front nozzles to increase the thrust of the BS.100 engine.