Ronald Thomas Shepherd OBE (1896 – 1 March 1955) was a British aviator and test pilot for Rolls-Royce.
[2] At first he was employed by Vickers-Armstrongs in the manufacture of guns but on the outbreak of the First World War he joined the Honourable Artillery Company.
[3] He left the RFC (now the Royal Air Force) in 1918 but re-joined in 1921 and served in England and Egypt until 1929.
[1] Although no longer flying full-time, on 3 July 1953, aged 58, he made the first free flight of the unusual Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig, a pioneering vertical take-off and landing experimental aircraft at Hucknall Aerodrome.
[1] He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1946 for his work as a test pilot, particularly in the development of the Merlin.