Anyone know the author?

[Jeremy Daish]

Aircraft Design

It is the duty of the Chief Designer to ensure that his original concept is not watered-down or corrupted by the requirements or convenience of others - that his beautiful dream does not end up compromised.

He will be awkward to deal with, unyielding in temperament, and single-minded in the struggle to see his machine built in the way he envisioned it.

He is pugnacious in his dealings with Production Engineers - he will not allow his beautiful concept to be sullied by mere manufacturing convenience or efficiency. It is his job to resist arbitrary re-interpretations of machining procedures, re-selection of different, frequently heavier materials, and the like.

[evansb]

Is this a quiz? Roy Fedden of Bristol Aircraft?

[Double Zero]

Sounds like Sydney Camm to me.

[Saab Dastard]

Nevil Shute?

From "Slide Rule", maybe, or "No Highway"?

SD

[treadigraph]

I think Saab Dastard has the answer to the author - I undertake to re-read Slide Rule to confirm it, my copy of No Highway has long since disintegrated...

[Saab Dastard]

From "No Highway", chapter 2 (end):

Like all great designers in the aircraft industry he was a perfect swine to deal with. There is, of course, a good explanation in psychology for this universal characteristic of the greatest aeroplane designers.

A beautiful aircraft is the expression of the genius of a great engineer who is also a great artist. It is impossible for that man to carry out the whole of the design himself; he works through a design office staffed by a hundred draughtsmen or more. A hundred minds, each with their own less competent ideas, are striving to modify the chief designer's original conception.

If the design is to appear in the end as a great artistic unity, the chief designer must be a man of immensely powerful will, capable of imposing his idea and his way of doing things on each of his hundred draughtsmen, so that each one of them is too terrified to insert any of his own ideas. If the chief designer has not got this personality and strength of will, his original conception will be distorted in the design office and will appear as just another, not-so-good aeroplane. He will not then be ranked as a good chief designer.

All really first-class chief designers, for this reason, are both artists, engineers, and men of a powerful and an intolerant temper, quick to resist the least modification of their plans, energetic in fighting the least infringement uponwhat they regard as their own sphere of action. If they were not so, they could not produce good aeroplanes.

Not exactly the same, but close enough!

SD

[Saab Dastard]

And the point of your query was...??

SD

[Jhieminga]

It sounds familiar, and as I've got all of Nevil Shute's books there's a fair chance it was written by him. One or two of his first books also dealt with a guy working for an aircraft builder, it might be from that one too. I think it was 'Stephen Morris' but cannot confirm that off the top of my head.

[Footless Halls]

Stephen Morris is probably the one you're thinking of. It has a wonderful description of the hero's return to flying after many years which always 'gets to me'. I'll post it later unless anyone beats me to it...