- Ron Ayers
Ron Ayers is an engineer who was responsible for the
aerodynamic s of theland speed record -holding vehicle,ThrustSSC .Born in
London ,England in 1932, Ron obtained aBSc inaeronautical engineering from theUniversity of London and anMSc in aerodynamics fromCranfield University before starting his working career as an apprentice at Handley Page Ltd, eventually working his way up to helping design prototypes of theHandley Page Victor bomber aircraft. After that he was employed by theBritish Aircraft Corporation in their Guided Weapons Division, initially as Chief Aerodynamicist and then later Head of Operational Research and Deputy Head of Management Services. Much of his time at BAC was devoted to the development of the Bloodhound surface-to-air missile.Happily retired, Ron had been putting his lifetime of aerodynamic design experience to good effect researching a theory about why most major LSR (Land Speed Record)
car s over the years have always underperformed relative to their original design specifications. Time spent as a part-time guide at Brooklands Museum close to his home inClaygate ,Surrey , had given Ron access to a wealth of research papers from early record-breaking attempts, and it was this that sparked his interest in record-breaking, and led to him being in Ken Norris's office on that day.His involvement in the land speed record-breaking attempt came about entirely accidentally, through a chance meeting with
Richard Noble in the offices ofKen Norris , the designer behindDonald Campbell 's record-breaking "Bluebird CN7 ". Through a combination of rocket sled testing atPendine Sands and extensivecomputational fluid dynamics testing Ron was able to develop and refine a shape which would eventually go on to break thesound barrier .Ron is a
Chartered Engineer and a member of theRoyal Aeronautical Society ; he has one adult son named Roger, and enjoys makingstained glass window s and playing bridge andgolf when he is not working on land speed record vehicles. He is currently involved with the design of theJCB Dieselmax , which smashed the World Speed Record for diesel cars on23 August , 2006, clocking 350mph.External links
* [http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/Club/Secure/mn4who.html ThrustSSC-Team Member Profiles]
* [http://www.thrustssc.com/thrustssc/Team/Ron_Ayers.html ThrustSSC- Ron Ayers profile]
* [http://www.andrewgraves.biz/ssc_stuff/RonAyers.htm Interview with Ron Ayers]
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