Robert Lickley

{{Short description|Scottish aeronautical engineer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2017}} {{Use British English|date=September 2017}} {{Infobox engineer |image = |image_size =  |alt = |caption = |name = Sir Robert Lickley |native_name = Bob Lickley |native_name_lang = |citizenship = British |birth_name = |birth_date = {{birth date|1912|1|19|df=yes}} |birth_place = Dundee, Scotland |death_date = {{Death date and age|1998|07|07|1912|01|19|df=yes}} |death_place = Surrey |resting_place = |resting_place_coordinates =  |education = [[University of Edinburgh]], [[Imperial College London]] |spouse = Doris May |parents = |children = 1 son, 1 daughter |discipline = Aeronautics |institutions = [[Institution of Engineering Designers]], [[Royal Aeronautical Society]], [[Institution of Mechanical Engineers]] |practice_name = |employer = Hawker, [[Fairey Aviation Company|Fairey]] |significant_projects = |significant_design = [[Hawker Hurricane]] |significant_advance = [[Fairey Delta 2]] |significant_awards = Gold Medal, RAeS (1957), Taylor Gold Medal, RAeS (1958) |signature = }}

'''Sir Robert Lang Lickley''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE|FRSE|FREng|FRAeS|FIEE}} (19 January 1912 – 7 July 1998) was a Scottish aeronautical engineer, and Chief Engineer at [[Fairey Aviation Company|Fairey Aviation]] during whose tenure the [[Fairey Delta 2]] became the first aircraft to exceed 1,000 mph.<ref>{{cite web |title=Peter Twiss obituary |date=2 September 2011 |website=[[The Guardian]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310170704/https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/sep/02/peter-twiss-obituary |archive-date=10 March 2023 |url-status=live |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/sep/02/peter-twiss-obituary}}</ref>

==Early life== His father was Robert Lickley, and lived on King Street.<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Wednesday 22 June 1932</ref> His father ran A. & R. Lickley estate agents, at 30 Reform Street then 2a King Street from 1911, which was founded by his grandfather Alexander T Lickley, born in Dundee in 1842. His grandfather started an apprenticeship at the age of nine. His father was chairman of the Dundee Auxiliary Section of the [[London Missionary Society]],<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Tuesday 12 October 1920, page 6</ref> and chairman of the Dundee Liberal Association,<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Friday 26 November 1920</ref> and part of the Dundee and District Amateur Gymnastics Society.<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Monday 15 September 1924</ref> His father died in early December 1925; he had been ill for years.<ref>''Dundee Evening Telegraph'' Wednesday 2 December 1925, page 7</ref><ref>''Dundee Evening Telegraph'' Wednesday 16 December 1925</ref>

His mother, Elizabeth L Lickley, moved to 53 Old Glamis Road. His mother Elizabeth died, aged 93, on February 18 1967. She died at her daughter's house, on Beverley Close in [[Camberley]], in north-east Surrey.<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Tuesday 21 February 1967, page 14</ref>

Lickley was born in [[Dundee]] in Scotland and was educated at the [[High School of Dundee]]. He studied [[Civil Engineering]] at the [[University of Edinburgh]] where he graduated BSc, and then went on to [[Imperial College London]] as a postgraduate, where he studied Aeronautics on a Caird Scholarship.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=19 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

His sister, Isobel, married Petty Officer L Benbow, from Leicester, at Panmure Street Congregational Church on Saturday August 14 1943.<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Monday 16 August 1943, page 2</ref> His sister was a naval nurse, in the [[Voluntary Aid Detachment]].

==Career==

===Hawker=== [[File:Hurricane-z5140.jpg|thumb|left|Hawker Hurricane]] Lickley joined the stress office of Hawker at [[Kingston upon Thames]] in 1933. He worked on a new single-seat eight-gun monoplane for specification [[Gloster F.5/34|F5/34]]. This became the [[Hawker Hurricane]], which first flew in 1935.

As a [[Chief Project Engineer]] he worked on the [[Hawker Typhoon|Typhoon]], [[Hawker Tempest|Tempest]], and [[Hawker Sea Fury|Sea Fury]]. He worked on Hawker's entry into jet flight, the P.1040, which became the [[Hawker Sea Hawk|Sea Hawk]].

===Cranfield=== He became Professor of Aircraft Design in 1946 at the new College of Aeronautics at [[Cranfield]], which became [[Cranfield University]].

===Fairey=== [[File:FD2.png|thumb|right|Fairey Delta 2]] In November 1951 Lickley became Chief Engineer of [[Fairey Aviation Company|Fairey Aviation]]<ref>''Times'' Friday November 16 1951, page 10</ref> and became Technical Director in November 1956.<ref>''Times'' Monday November 12 1956, page 5</ref>

He initially worked on the [[Fairey Gannet]], including the [[Airborne early warning and control|AEW]] version. He put together a team of aerodynamicists and mathematicians at their headquarters at [[Hayes, Hillingdon|Hayes]] in [[Middlesex]]. Fairey was also based in northern Cheshire.

At the same time the [[Fairey Rotodyne]] [[Gyrodyne|compound gyroplane]] was being developed, although ultimately cancelled in 1962. The military version would have cost too much and BEA considered the commercial prospects to be not sufficiently assured.<ref>Requiem For The Rotodyne An Account of Unusual Problems Met and Solved, Flight International, 9 August 1962, p.200</ref> The 48-seat aircraft had been planned for the London-Paris route. Fairey also developed the [[Fairey Ultra-light Helicopter]] for the Royal Navy, but it was not adopted. The company developed the [[Fireflash]], the UK's first [[air-to-air missile]], at its site at [[Heston Aerodrome|Heston]]. The total engineering team and staff at Hayes was around 1,000. Lickley later became Managing Director. Part of the company also helped to build the [[Trawsfynydd nuclear power station]].

The British Conservative government cancelled Fairey's new fighter, based on the FD2. A [[Fairey Delta 3]] had also been planned. The French, however, saw the development potential for the FD2 concept, and their [[Dassault Mirage]] aircraft would be produced in many variants and exported to many countries. The FD2 had a [[Droop nose (aeronautics)|drooped nose]] (10 degrees) which included the cockpit. A simpler droop nose, in so far as it was only the unpressurized part in front of the cockpit, was later developed for [[Concorde]].

He left Fairey in March 1960, when Westland bought the company. The Lickley Centre, of [[Fairey Hydraulics]], opened in June 1982.

===Hawker Siddeley=== He became deputy managing director of Hawker Siddeley on May 16 1960, under managing director J T Lidbury.<ref>''Times'' Thursday April 28 1960, page 5</ref> He became the head of the Hawker Siddeley military aviation division in April 1965.<ref>''Times'' Wednesday March 24 1965, page 18</ref>

He oversaw the introduction of the Harrier.<ref>''Western Daily Press'' Wednesday 9 June 1982, page 2</ref>

===Institutions=== In the 1950s Lickley was a member of the [[Aeronautical Research Council]] and [[Society of British Aerospace Companies]]. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Edinburgh in 1973 and from the University of Strathclyde in January 1987. He worked with the [[Science and Engineering Research Council]] (SERC).

He became a Fellow of the RAeS in 1943. In October 1982 became an honorary fellow of the IMechE.<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Tuesday 12 October 1982, page 7</ref> He gave a talk to the local Derby RAeS section on November 12 1985. <ref>''Derby Evening Telegraph'' Friday 1 November 1985, page 19</ref>

In 1977 he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]]. His proposers were [[Donald McCallum (engineer)|Donald McCallum]], Sir [[John Atwell (engineer)|John Atwell]], [[Francis Penny]] and [[Thomas Diery Patten]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical Index of Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783–2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=19 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074135/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On 25 November 1981, speaking as President of the Institution of Production Engineers, he said ''the Government appears to have developed a smooth transfer line which moves the oil revenues to the unemployed without any intervening checks or delays. Instead the checks and delays exist, it would seem, to restrain industry from becoming more efficient and to reduce the likelihood of more young people moving into engineering''. At the time his words were echoed by [[Robert Inskip, 2nd Viscount Caldecote]].

==Personal life== Lickley married Doris May Godby (d.1997) from south-west London, on June 28 1941 at [[St Columba's Church, Pont Street]].<ref>''Dundee Evening Telegraph'' Tuesday 1 July 1941, page 5</ref><ref>''Dundee Courier'' Wednesday 2 July 1941, page 4</ref> They had a son and a daughter, and lived in [[Walton-on-Thames]] at 'Foxwood'.<ref>''Dundee Courier'' Monday 27 November 1972, page 5</ref>

He was created a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the [[1973 Birthday Honours]]<ref>''Times'' Thursday December 15 1977, page 19</ref> and was knighted in the [[1984 Birthday Honours]].

He died at [[St Peter's Hospital, Chertsey]].<ref>''Surrey Herald'' Thursday 23 July 1998, page 18</ref><ref>''The Scotsman'' Thursday 6 August 1998, page 18</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * [http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/Lickley_r.pdf Obituary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414231922/http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/Lickley_r.pdf |date=14 April 2012 }} from the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] * [http://heritage.imeche.org/Biographies/RLLickley IMechE Heritage] * [http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/U1101821/peter-twiss-shaking-hands-with-robert-lickley Fairey Delta 2]

===Video clips=== * {{YouTube|NcjgvaqD-ec|Fairey Delta 2 footage}} * {{YouTube|Q03og4OU6G8|Air speed record}}

{{s-start}} {{succession box | before= | title= President of the [[Institution of Mechanical Engineers]] | years=1971–72 | after=}} {{succession box | before= | title= President of the [[Institution of Production Engineers]] | years=1981–82 | after=}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lickley, Robert}} [[Category:1912 births]] [[Category:1998 deaths]] [[Category:Academics of Cranfield University]] [[Category:Alumni of Imperial College London]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]] [[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:Fairey Aviation Company]] [[Category:Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology]] [[Category:Fellows of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society]] [[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]] [[Category:Hawker Siddeley]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:People educated at the High School of Dundee]] [[Category:Engineers from Dundee]] [[Category:People from Walton-on-Thames]] [[Category:Royal Aeronautical Society Gold Medal winners]] [[Category:Scottish aerospace engineers]] [[Category:20th-century Scottish engineers]]