Sir Oliver Edwin Simmonds, FRAeS (22 November 1897 – 26 July 1985) was a British aviation pioneer, aircraft engineer and Conservative Party politician.
Arthur Tedder, later Deputy Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces in Northern Europe in 1944/45, was also a member of 25 Squadron at that time.
Simmonds was then transferred to the Air Worthiness Dept, which was responsible for approving and granting a British Certificate of Airworthiness to each newly designed aircraft.
In a search for new talent, R.J. Mitchell at Supermarine interviewed Simmonds and invited him to join the design team.
Simmonds was a small man physically, which is the reason that the RAF pilots chosen to fly the aircraft were of a similar stature.
In 1931, as the US depression began to be felt in Britain, Simmonds sold his interest in the company to Whitehall Securities Corporation.
Simmonds did an instant market survey and realized this product could end the use of bell cranks and levers to control aircraft flight surfaces.
Returning to Britain he set about forming Simmonds Aerocessories Ltd, entering into a manufacturing arrangement with Accles and Shelvoke in Birmingham and establishing a sales and administrative office in London.
The two licenses for the Push Pull Control and the Elastic Stop Nut became the basis of the company's early rapid growth.
In the late 1930s Simmonds had become the exclusive British and European licensee for the aircraft fuel gauging systems produced by the Liquidometer Corporation of New York, USA.
As part of the company's entry into this market segment, Simmonds had hired a refugee Polish engineer.
Between the two of them they conceived how to measure fuel electrically thereby providing much greater accuracy, irrespective of an aircraft's flight attitude.
The first British aircraft to use this system was the country's first jet fighter, the Gloster Meteor, which first saw combat in 1944, chasing and shooting down many German V-1 missiles.
[5] As the company grew it expanded its interests to producing aircraft controls and a fuel measurement tool that became a standard in the industry.
In its celebrity heyday, the hotel cultivated a relaxed, sophisticated atmosphere and hosted notable guests such as The Beatles who were here to film the movie Help!.
Other luminary Balmoral guests included Richard Nixon and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson.
[9] Sir Oliver built 'High Tor' with its 18-foot gracious high ceiling rooms it was designed with care and with an eye to detail still apparent to this day.
Sir Oliver imported English oak panels for doors and an 18th-century carved wooden fireplace as well as many other decorative items.
He was an inventor and engineer, there are still features existing today that were considered innovative when he designed them such as the floating spiral staircase and the enormous windows that slide down to disappear completely into the floor.