physics

Richard Parry-Jones

Richard Parry-Jones is a physics 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 Parry-Jones rather than just read about it. In short: Richard Parry-Jones (15 September 1951 – 16 April 2021) was a British engineer. He was the Group Vice-President of Global Product Development, Chief Technical Officer, and Head of Global R&D Operations at Ford Motor Company.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Richard Parry-Jones (15 September 1951 – 16 April 2021) was a British engineer. He was the Group Vice-President of Global Product Development, Chief Technical Officer, and Head of Global R&D Operations at Ford Motor Company. He retired in December 2007. Parry-Jones directed the concurrent development of dozens of vehicles at Ford and significantly influenced vehicles including the 1993 Ford Mondeo, both the 1998 International Ford Focus and 2000 North American Ford Focus, the European 1981 Escort and 1983 Sierra, as well as the Ka, Fiesta, Puma, Cougar, and Galaxy. Parry-Jones oversaw product development for Ford vehicles worldwide, as well as design, research and vehicle technology. As Chief Technical Officer, he reported to the company's board of directors on technical matters, headed a technical staff of 30,000 engineers, scientists, designers and business professionals in North America, Europe, Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region, including the Ford, Lincoln, Jaguar, Volvo, Land Rover, and Aston Martin brands. Responsible for product safety and environmental initiatives at Ford, his work included follow-up work on the company's response to problems that arose through its use of Firestone tyres on Ford Explorer SUVs. He has described this as his most difficult time as an engineer. "I probably lost a half a stone over that period because it was just so intense. I learned a lot from that. Most of all I learned the power of really rigorous engineering analysis in saving lives." Parry-Jones has been noted for suggesting that "building a supercar is much easier than creating excellence for the millions." Edmunds.com called Parry-Jones a "driving dynamics guru" and Autocar called him "one of the world's leading automotive engineers."

Personal and professional history

Born on 15 September 1951 in Bangor, North Wales, the descendant of a North Wales slate quarry worker, Parry-Jones got the idea to become an automotive engineer after seeing the RAC Rally (now Rally GB) pass through the forest near his childhood home. Parry-Jones joined Ford product development in 1969 as an undergraduate trainee, and was awarded a first class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from Salford University, Manchester in 1973. That year, he married Hilary Gater, with whom he had two children. He was appointed Manager of Small Car Programs in 1982 and was named Executive Engineer of Ford's Technological Research in Europe in 1985, before adding responsibility for Vehicle Concepts a year later. Fluent in English and German, Parry-Jones's international experience includes an assignment as Director of Vehicle Concepts Engineering in the United States in 1988, before taking charge of Manufacturing Operations at Ford's Cologne, Germany, assembly plant in 1990. He retired from Ford in 2007, after 38 years with the company. While at Ford, Parry-Jones had been courted by Ferdinand Piëch to head the product development group at Volkswagen AG. On retiring from Ford, Parry-Jones became involved on policy matters. He advised the Welsh Government on economic development, transport, energy and IT infrastructure. He also worked with central government, including the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), where he chaired the new Automotive Innovation and Growth Team and then the Automotive Council UK which supports the automotive industry in Britain. In 2008, Parry-Jones and his wife divorced, and he re-married, to Sara Price, with whom he had a son. In July 2012, Parry-Jones became the chairman of Network Rail, a position he retained for nearly three years. He was non-executive chairman of Kelda Group, non-executive director of GKN plc and Cosworth Group Holdings and a council member of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and Bangor University. Parry-Jones was a rugby fan, having played as a schoolboy. On 16 April 2021, he died from a heart attack on his tractor at his farm in Barmouth.

50 metre test In developing automobile dynamics, Parry-Jones became well known for suggesting that a great deal could be learned about a vehicle's dynamics within a simple 50 Metre Test, rather than testing the vehicle at top speed, Parry-Jones insisted that engineers drive very slowly for 50 metres, sensing the subtleties of the vehicle's dynamics. suggesting that "an engineer could learn more from the 50-metre test than laps at the limits around the track." Parry-Jones credited the racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart with influencing his approach to testing cars, saying "Jackie was tremendously helpful and influential with my approach. He's not an engineer so he can't fix cars, but he can extract information about a car's behavior in an uncannily detailed and superb way."

Environmentalism Parry-Jones embraced environmental initiatives. In a 2000 speech to the Society of Automotive Engineers at The Greenbrier, Parry-Jones said, "What our society wants us to do is to invent the technology to make personal, private transportation sustainable. People expect engineers to do the right thing. It's as if we had taken some kind of Hippocratic oath. And our profession has been around nearly as long as medicine itself."

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Richard Parry-Jones

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Richard Parry-Jones claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In physics, 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 Parry-Jones 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 Parry-Jones 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 Parry-Jones

In research: Richard Parry-Jones appears in physics 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 Parry-Jones 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 Parry-Jones is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1951 births, 2021 deaths, 20th-century Welsh businesspeople, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Richard Parry-Jones 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 Parry-Jones in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Richard Parry-Jones 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 Parry-Jones out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Richard Parry-Jones in simple terms?

Why does Richard Parry-Jones matter?

Because it connects several physics 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 Parry-Jones?

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 Parry-Jones.