Maurice Roy (engineer)

Maurice Roy (born November 7, 1899 in Bourges , † June 23, 1985 in Besançon ) was a French engineer.

Roy studied from 1917 at the École Polytechnique and at the École des Mines in Paris and was then major in the Corps des Mines. In 1923 he received his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg. Shortly thereafter, he became chief engineer in charge of inspecting railway track material at the Ministry of Public Works. From 1926 to 1942 he was professor of thermodynamics and motors at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées . He also taught aerodynamics of aircraft at the Sorbonne from 1923 and was professor at the École nationale d'aéronautique from 1929 to 1939. In 1935 he became general manager of a company producing diesel engines. In 1948 he founded a French company specializing in gas turbine technology.

He became professor of mechanics at the École Polytechnique and was director general of ONERA from 1949 to 1962 , which he expanded into an organization of international renown. He was also a technical advisor to SNECMA from 1949 to 1973 .

Before the Second World War he was a pioneer of turbine jet engines in France and initiated preliminary studies for supersonic flight.

In 1975 he received the Lomonosov gold medal . In 1937 he became a corresponding and in 1939 full member of the Académie des Sciences and in 1966 its president. In 1960 he received an honorary doctorate from RWTH Aachen University , and in 1964 an external member of the National Academy of Sciences .

Web links

• Annales des Mines