John Frederick Clarke FRS (1 May 1927 – 11 June 2013) was a professor, an aeronautical engineer, and a pilot.

Biography

After his schooling, he got training from

Fleet Air Arm The Fleet Air Arm (FAA) is the naval aviation component of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy (RN). The FAA is one of five :Fighting Arms of the Royal Navy, RN fighting arms. it is a primarily helicopter force, though also operating the Lockhee ...

as a Navy Pilot and then from

Royal Air force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Lossiemouth Lossiemouth () is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, Moray, Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over the ...

. He left Navy and worked few months at Armstrong Siddeley Motors, but his interest were in academics. Subsequently he quit the job and joined

Queen Mary College Queen Mary University of London (QMUL, or informally QM, and formerly Queen Mary and Westfield College) is a public research university in Mile End, East London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London. Today, ...

in Aeronautical engineering course in 1949. He married Jean Gentle in 1953. His thesis advisor Norman A.V. Piercy died in 1953,Winny, H. F. (1953). Prof. NAV Piercy. Nature, 171(4353), 593-594. then he temporarily advised by Leslie G. Whitehead and then finally by Alec David Young. He received his PhD at

in 1957. He briefly worked for

English Electric The English Electric Company Limited (EE) was a British industrial manufacturer formed after World War I by amalgamating five businesses which, during the war, made munitions, armaments and aeroplanes. It initially specialised in industrial el ...

company from 1955 to 1957. In 1958 he joined

Cranfield University Cranfield University is a postgraduate-only public research university in the United Kingdom that specialises in science, engineering, design, technology and management. Cranfield was founded as the College of Aeronautics (CoA) in 1946. Throug ...

as a lecturer and stayed there till 1991. After his retirement he continued to do research for a decade. His research interests were

Shock waves In physics, a shock wave (also spelled shockwave), or shock, is a type of propagating disturbance that moves faster than the local speed of sound in the medium. Like an ordinary wave, a shock wave carries energy and can propagate through a me ...

detonations Detonation () is a type of combustion involving a supersonic exothermic front accelerating through a medium that eventually drives a shock front propagating directly in front of it. Detonations propagate supersonically through shock waves with ...

gas dynamics Compressible flow (or gas dynamics) is the branch of fluid mechanics that deals with flows having significant changes in fluid density. While all flows are compressible, flows are usually treated as being incompressible when the Mach number (the ...

, flame theory etc.

Awards and honours

Clarke was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1982. His nomination reads:

Books

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References

Fellows of the Royal Society Fluid dynamicists 1927 births 2013 deaths {{UK-scientist-stub

Biography

Awards and honours

Books

See also

References