Roxbee Cox, Baron Kings Norton

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Harold Roxbee Cox, (* 6. June 1902 in Birmingham , † 21st December 1997 in Chipping Campden , Gloucestershire ) was a British engineer for aeronautics , the 1965 Life Peer due to the Life Peerages Act 1958 a member of the House of Lords became and was Chancellor of Cranfield University for 28 years .

Life

Studies, lecturer and airship designer

R101

Cox graduated after attending the Grammar School in Kings Norton to study at Imperial College London , which he with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) graduated. A subsequent postgraduate studies at Imperial College, he finished with a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and then worked from 1924 as an engineer with the project to build the transport airship R101 in the Royal Airship Works in Cardington with.

After Cox had been chief technologist at the Royal Airship Works since 1931 , he himself became a lecturer for aircraft construction at Imperial College in London in 1932 , where he taught until 1938. Between 1935 and 1940 he was also employed by the aviation company Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in Farnborough , initially as senior scientist in the aerodynamics department , then between 1936 and 1938 as head of the air force department and finally as superintendent for scientific research between 1939 and 1940.

At the same time, from 1938 to 1939 he was chief technologist of the Air Registration Board , a newly created authority to test and certify the airworthiness of new aircraft models.

During the Second World War , Cox moved to the Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1940 , where he was first deputy director for scientific research and then from 1943 to 1944 director of the department for special projects. Then in 1944 he took over the functions of chairman and managing director of Power Jets Ltd , a company founded by Frank Whittle for the development and construction of jet engines .

Postwar period, economic manager and member of the House of Lords

After the nationalization of Power Jets Ltd. by the then Minister for Aviation Production , Richard Stafford Cripps , and the associated renaming in National Gas Turbine Establishment (NGTE Pyestock), Cox became director of this company in 1946 and held this position until 1948. During this time he was awarded the bronze medal of the Catholic University in 1946 Löwen and was honored with the Medal of Freedom in 1947 .

Cox, who was president of the Royal Aeronautical Society between 1947 and 1949 , was chief scientist of the Ministry of Fuel and Power between 1948 and 1954 . For his services he was beaten to a Knight Bachelor in 1953 and since then has had the suffix "Sir".

After retiring from government service, he took on a number of functions as an economic manager in various private companies, such as in 1954 as a board member of Wilmot Breeden Ltd. In 1957 he became a member of the board of directors of Metal Box Company Ltd and in 1958 of the Norwich- based aircraft manufacturer Boulton Paul Aircraft . In 1961 he succeeded Sir Robert Barlow as CEO of the Metal Box Company.

He was also 1961-1965 chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ( Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ) and the Council for National Academic Honors (1964-1971 Chairman of the Council for National Academic Awards )

Through a letters patent dated June 22, 1965, Cox, who had been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science (Hon. D.Sc.) from the University of Birmingham in 1954, was given the title of Baron Kings Norton as a life peer under the Life Peerages Act 1958 , of Wotton Underwood in the County of Buckinghamshire , was promoted to Life Peer and belonged to the House of Lords until his death.

He also served as Chairman of the Air Registration Board from 1966 to 1972 and as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Berger, Jenson & Nicholson from 1967 to 1975 .

Chancellor of Cranfield University and President of the Royal Institution

In 1969, Cox, who received an Honorary Doctor of Technology (Hon. D.Tech.) From Brunel University in 1966 and another Honorary Doctor of Law (Hon. LL.D.) from the Council for National Academic Awards, became Chancellor of the Cranfield Institute of Technology , today's Cranfield University . He held the office of university chancellor for 28 years until his death in 1997.

In addition to his work as Chancellor of the Cranfield Institute of Technology, Cox was also President of the Royal Institution of Great Britain between 1969 and 1976 . He also received another honorary doctorate in science (Hon. D.Sc.) from the Cranfield Institute of Technology in 1970 and also became a Fellow of the City and Guilds of London Institute in 1976 . He also received an additional doctorate in science (Hon. D.Sc.) from the University of Warwick in 1986 and in 1987 he was named Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.

Publications

  • Airship design . In: The Handbook of Aeronautics . Co-author: Thomas Stanley Davies Collins, London: Gale and Polden, 1931
  • Cases of purely torsional loading on stripped airplane wings , London: HMSO, 1931
  • A statistical method of investigating the relations between the elastic stiffnesses of airplane wings and wing-aileron flutter , London: HMSO, 1932
  • Theory of loss of lateral control due to wing twisting , co-author AG Pugsley, London: HMSO, 1932 * The stability of the static equilibrium of the elastic and aerodynamic actions on a wing , co-author AG Pugsley, London: HMSO, 1932
  • Effect of stiff ribs on torsional stiffness of wings , co-author D. Williams, London: HMSO, 1933
  • The effect of the ribs on the stresses in the spars of a two-spar wing subjected to the most general type of loading , co-author D. Williams, London: HMSO, 1933
  • Stiffness determination in certain cantilever wings , co-authors J. Hanson and WT Sandford, London: HMSO, 1934
  • The aileron power of a monoplane , co-author AG Pugsley, London: HMSO, 1934
  • Abstract on the synthesis and analysis of simply-stiff frameworks , London: HMSO, 1934
  • Abstract. Notes on the optimum stiffness of thin shells , London: HMSO, 1936
  • Recent work on industrial gas turbines , London, 1954
  • Gas turbine principles and practice , London: Newnes, 1955
  • The coming of the Council for National Academic Awards , Association of Technical Institutions, 1964
  • Quality control for the manager , co-authors Alan Cowen and RF Rooke, Pergamon, 1964
  • Science, technology, education and management , London: British Institute of Management, 1966
  • Cars for cities: a study of trends in the design of vehicles with particular reference to their use in towns , co-author J. Garlick, London: HMSO, 1967
  • All my life I have been interested in ideas of precision, compactness, elegance and simplicity ... , Hillingdon: Hillingdon Press for the Society, 1971
  • A wrack behind , Cranfield: Cranfield University Press, 1999.

Web links

Life

Publications

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Company Meeting: The Metal Box Company Ltd . In: New Scientist, July 25, 1963, p. 202
  2. ↑ Honorary Graduates ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Homepage of Brunel University )
personal data
SURNAME Cox, Roxbee, Baron Kings Norton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cox, Harold Roxbee, Baron Kings Norton (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British aeronautical engineer, university president and politician
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham
DATE OF DEATH December 21, 1997
Place of death Chipping Campden , Gloucestershire