engineering

Richard Clarkson

Richard Clarkson is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Richard Clarkson rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Milroy Clarkson OBE FCGI FRAeS (14 July 1904 – 7 October 1996) was a British aeronautical engineer with de Havilland, then Hawker Siddeley. He led the design of the HS121 Trident wing, certain features of which were subsequently used for the Airbus A300 wing in the late 1960s.

Key takeaways

Richard Clarkson belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Richard Clarkson to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Richard Clarkson from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Richard Milroy Clarkson OBE FCGI FRAeS (14 July 1904 – 7 October 1996) was a British aeronautical engineer with de Havilland, then Hawker Siddeley. He led the design of the HS121 Trident wing, certain features of which were subsequently used for the Airbus A300 wing in the late 1960s.

Early life He attended Clayesmore School in Dorset.

Career

de Havilland He joined de Havilland at Edgware in 1925. He was responsible for the aerodynamics of the de Havilland Mosquito. The first Mosquito W4050 flew in November 1940. He became Head of Aerodynamics in 1935, and Assistant Chief Engineer in 1941.

Hawker Siddeley Aviation He was responsible for the aerodynamics of the DH.121 Trident and his team later designed the wing for the Airbus A300. He retired in February 1969.

Personal life He lived at Whitwell, Hertfordshire in the 1930s. He married Sylvia Paice in 1940, and they had one daughter. He received the OBE in the 1950 New Year Honours. He lived at Kinsbourne Green near Harpenden in the 1950s. In April 1964 he became a Fellow of City and Guilds. He received the Gold Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1966. From the Royal Society he received the Mullard Award in 1969 for his work on the Trident. He died in Somerset in 1996.

See also A. H. Tiltman, another de Havilland designer Tim Wilkins OBE, Chief Designer for de Havilland

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Clarkson

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Clarkson claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Richard Clarkson before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Richard Clarkson ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Richard Clarkson

In research: Richard Clarkson appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Richard Clarkson in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Richard Clarkson is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1904 births, 1996 deaths, 20th-century British engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Clarkson outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Richard Clarkson in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Clarkson means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Richard Clarkson out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Clarkson in simple terms?

Why does Richard Clarkson matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Richard Clarkson?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Richard Clarkson.