Ralph was born in Essex on 30 January 1926 and spent his early years there before his family moved to Hull in 1933 when he was seven. His elder sister, Sheila, was to become a renowned botanist at Kew. He attended Hymers College where he became interested in model aeroplanes and used his pocket money to buy balsa wood to create his own. During the war he was evacuated to Pocklington and then became an engineering apprentice at the Blackburn aircraft company at Brough in January 1942. He gained a Diploma in Aeronautics from University College Hull before joining the new College of Aeronautics at Cranfield in 1946 to study aircraft design under ex-Hawker project engineer Robert Lickley. While there subscrioptionreminder-videolibrary.htmlhe took up gliding, which became a life-long interest, and went solo on their Tiger Moth in 4 hrs 20 mins. He graduated with a Diploma of the College of Aeronautics in Aircraft Design in 1948 and joined Hawker Aircraft Ltd at Kingston upon Thames, starting in the Experimental Drawing Office as a designer-draughtsman. A man of simple tastes, Ralph bought 1 Field View Cottages close to the Richmond Road factory and lived there all his life. He worked on the structural design of the Hawker Hunter fighter and its supersonic successor, the P.1083, until 1952 when he transferred to the Project Office. It was here that the preliminary design of future aircraft was carried out and was therefore the key to success or failure for the Company.
    In June 1957 Ralph began the work which led to the pioneering vertical and short take-off and landing (V/STOL) Hawker P.1127 fighter and was entirely responsible for originating the unique layout and engineering features of this remarkable vectored thrust design powered by the Bristol BE 53 turbofan engine with, initially, twin rotatable nozzles for the fan air. He worked closely with its designer, Bristol Engine’s project engineer, Gordon Lewis, proposing twin rotatable exhaust nozzles and contra-rotation of the low and high pressure compressor-turbine shafts thus making all the thrust available for vertical take-off and eliminating gyroscopic coupling effects when manoeuvring in the hover. In 1961 Ralph was appointed P.1127 Project Engineer by Sir Sydney Camm, the Chief Engineer and Managing Director of Hawker. In this role he was responsible for technical control of the project and led the initially company funded design and development effort which resulted in the prototype successfully demonstrating controlled vertical take-off, hovering flight and vertical landing in October 1959. In all, six P.1127s were built and flown, convincingly proving the correctness of Ralph's concept. He frequently visited Dunsfold in his Sunbeam Alpine to observe the V/STOL flight tests and to talk to the test pilots and flight test engineers.
    From the P.1127, Ralph, as Chief Designer (Projects) from 1963, developed the Hawker Siddeley Kestrel FGAMk1 (Fighter, Ground Attack) V/STOL fighter which equipped an international evaluation squadron made up of pilots, ground crew and admin. personnel from the Royal Air Force, the United States Air Force, Navy and Army, and the Luftwaffe. The Kestrel was the first jet V/STOL aircraft in the world to be certificated for service use. The objective of the Kestrel Evaluation Squadron was to examine the military utility of jet V/STOL and this was convincingly proved during ten months of intensive flying, at RAF West Raynham, in 1965.
    In 1961 Ralph had initiated Hawker's work on supersonic V/STOL and his P.1154 project won the NATO international design competition, NBMR 3, against contenders from major manufacturers in the USA and Europe as well as the other UK companies. The competition collapsed but the P.1154 was adopted by the UK Government for the Royal Air Force. However, with the first aircraft well under construction the Wilson administration cancelled Hawker Siddeley's contract, together with TSR.2, for reasons of economy. However, a contract was awarded to develop the Kestrel as a less expensive alternative and Ralph directed this design effort resulting in the famous Harrier which was to serve with the RAF and was to be exported to the USA for the United States Marine Corps. This was a real coup as it was against US national policy to buy major weapon systems from abroad but the Harrier's unique qualities prevailed and the Marines were permitted to procure 110 aircraft. Spain also bought the Harrier for her Navy.
    Ralph's design continued to be developed under John Fozard, and the Sea Harrier was a crucial Royal Navy asset in the Falklands campaign. Without the RN Sea Harriers and RAF Harriers the South Atlantic Task Force would have been defenceless against air attack - except for short range ship mounted missiles - and the ground forces would have been without close air support. The Sea Harrier was also exported to India where it was in service until 2020.
    In 1968 Ralph was promoted to Executive Director and Chief Engineer and as such was responsible for the Hawk jet trainer for which Hawker Siddeley received a contract for 176 RAF aircraft. Through Ralph's foresight, the Hawk, famous as the Red Arrows' mount, was designed from the outset to be capable of development for military roles. It was a major export success with over 1000 sales to 20 countries, so far. Amongst these are 221 serving with the US Navy as their principal jet trainer, the T-45 Goshawk. This variant was developed and manufactured in partnership with McDonnell-Douglas (now Boeing) in the USA. The Hawk was also built under licence in India.
    On the formation of British Aerospace in 1977 Ralph was appointed Technical Director of the Kingston-Brough Division. At this time an advanced version of his Harrier was the subject of joint development in partnership with McDonnell Douglas. This Harrier II entered service with the RAF, the US Marine Corps, and the Italian and Spanish navies. Production of the 430 aircraft was a joint effort with a 50% work share between the two companies. In search of economies the Cameron government withdrew the Sea Harrier FA2s and the RAF and RN Harrier IIs selling the latter to the US government as a spares source for the USMC who intend to operate their fleet for many more years.
    In the late 1970s and early 1980s Ralph led the Company effort in designing ASTOVL (Advanced Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing) aircraft, the definitive project being the P.1216 fighter. With supersonic performance, great agility and advanced systems combined with the ability to operate from very small bases, the type had significant support in the RAF but, regrettably some would say, British Aerospace concentrated on marketing the Eurofighter which they judged to have a larger sales potential, so the P.1216 was stillborn.
    When British Aerospace was reorganised in 1984 Ralph became Technical Director of the Weybridge Division and he retired in 1985 ( he said he resigned as a mark of protest against how the Company was being reorganised and managed and how the Board siphoned off Kingston‘s Hawk profits to fund the BAe Manchester ( Avro) ATP (Advanced Tuboprop) rather than the single seat Hawk. Afterwards he contributed as a consultant to the Joint Strike Fighter ASTOVL project developed in the USA by Lockheed Martin as the F-35, with significant assistance from BAE Systems, the new name for British Aerospace, who posted a large workforce of engineers to run the flight trials of the F-35B as well as experienced test pilots.
    1838 examples of Hooper's aircraft have been built to date. Making these aircraft employed thousands of people in Hawker Siddeley and British Aerospace factories, principally at Kingston and Dunsfold, Surrey; Brough, Yorkshire and Hamble, Hampshire. Each aircraft was fitted with engines built by Roll-Royce at Bristol , and with systems, equipment and avionics from suppliers nation-wide - more thousands of people employed. These activities generated huge cash flows which were vitally important to local and national economies. 1279 of Ralph's aircraft were exported and each contract included spares support and modifications for several years, and training for the operators - a massive contribution to the balance of trade and a direct return to the exchequer in the form of a levy on each aircraft. Ralph's aircraft have served in the front line of the RAF for 34 years, with the Royal Navy for 24 years and have trained several generations of Service pilots, starting in 1976 - a major element in the nation's security. Ralph's aircraft have been in the forefront of international collaboration enhancing the Anglo-American special relationship; industrially through joint projects, militarily through service with the US Navy and Marines and socially through the exchange of personnel. Ralph's aircraft have been, and remain, a national asset.
    Ralph joined the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) in 1944 and was made a Fellow in 1970. In 1971 he received the Royal Society S. G. Brown Medal for his work on the development of Vertical Take-Off Strike Aircraft, nominated by the IMechE. He was awarded the RAeS Silver Medal for Aeronautics in 1975 and Gold Medal in 1986. In 1983 he shared, with colleague John Fozard, the Royal Society's Mullard Award, for work which significantly advances Britain's international prestige and economic prosperity, and in 1979 was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. In 2008 the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics granted Ralph the F.E. Newbold V/STOL Achievement Award.
    Ralph was an experienced and accomplished glider pilot and a life member and stalwart supporter of the Lasham Gliding Society where he was part of a syndicate that owned a Slingsby Kite 2 glider from 1951 to 1957 devising performance modifications. In the early 1990s Ralph bought it restoring it as a flying vintage glider. He was a founder member of the Hawker Association serving on the committee from the start. He supported the Brooklands Museum, not least by donating his papers to the Technical Archive. In his younger days he was a keen skier, walker and mountaineer, even climbing high in the Everest massif. He built scores of plastic model aircraft kits which he never painted - he just wanted to study how other designers solved their problems.
    Ralph Hooper was highly respected and admired by those who worked with and for him at Hawker Aircraft, Hawker Siddeley Aviation and British Aerospace, particularly at Kingston, Dunsfold, Brough and Hamble, and by Rolls-Royce colleagues at Filton together with many others in the Ministries and armed services at home and abroad as well as suppliers. Those who knew him personally will have fond memories of him as a friend and colleague. If you visit the Vimy hangar at Brooklands you can see a full size photograph of him next to the Harrier that was fastest East-to-West in the Transatlic Air Race from London to new York. Ralph died in his care home on December 12th, 2022, aged 96. May he rest in peace.
    Ralph Hooper CV
1941-46 Engineering Apprenticeship, Blackburn Aircraft Ltd.
1946-48    College of Aeronautics, Cranfield (Founding course).
1948-52    Experimental Drawing Office, Hawker Aircraft Ltd.
1952-57    Project Office, Hawker Aircraft Ltd.
1957-63    P.1127 Project Engineer, Hawker Aircraft Ltd.
1963-68    Assistant Chief Designer, Future Projects, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Kingston.
1968-77    Executive Director & Chief Engineer, Hawker Siddeley Aviation, Kingston.
1977-84    Divisional Technical Director & Chief Engineer Kingston, Kingston- Brough Division, British Aerospace.
1984-85    Divisional Director & Deputy Technical Director, Weybridge Division, British Aerospace.
1985 Resigned/retired