Richard Antony Varvill (born 23 September 1961) is a British engineer, famous as the former Chief Designer (Technical Director) at

Reaction Engines Limited Reaction Engines Limited (REL) was a British aerospace manufacturer founded in 1989 and based in Oxfordshire, England. The company also operated in the USA, where it used the name Reaction Engines Inc. (REI). REL entered administration on 31 ...

Early life

He was born in

Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. It ...

in west London. He is the son of Mark Varvill, a naval architect, and Elizabeth Agar, and has a younger sister. His great-great-great-great grandfather on his mother's side is

Hucks Gibbs, 1st Baron Aldenham Henry Hucks Gibbs, 1st Baron Aldenham, (31 August 1819 – 13 September 1907), was a British banker, businessman and Conservative Party politician. Life Aldenham was the son of George Henry Gibbs, whose father Antony Gibbs was a brother of Si ...

. He was educated at Belmont Preparatory School at

Holmbury St Mary Holmbury St Mary is a village in Surrey, England centered on shallow upper slopes of the Greensand Ridge. Its developed area is a nucleated village, southwest of Dorking and southeast of Guildford. Most of the village is in the borough of Gui ...

in the

Surrey Hills AONB The Surrey Hills National Landscape is a National Landscape in Surrey, England. It comprises around one quarter of the land area of the county and principally covers parts of the North Downs and Greensand Ridge. It was designated as an Area ...

, then

Bryanston School Bryanston School is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Private schools in the United Kingdom, private boarding school, boarding and day school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. He read Mechanical Engineering at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

, where he did an undergraduate apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce. Reaction Engines offered an annual prize at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at Bristol.

Career

Rolls-Royce

He started his career with Rolls-Royce Military Engine Division, in the Advanced Projects division. He worked on preliminary ideas for what could have become the RB545 air-breathing rocket engine for

HOTOL HOTOL, for Horizontal Take-Off and Landing, was a 1980s British design for a single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) spaceplane that was to be powered by an airbreathing jet engine. Development was being conducted by a consortium led by Rolls-Royce and Br ...

Reaction Engines

He co-founded Reaction Engines in 1989. At Reaction Engines, he was working on the successor to the RB545,

SABRE (rocket engine) SABRE (Synergetic Air Breathing Rocket Engine) was a concept under development by Reaction Engines Limited for a hypersonic precooled hybrid air-breathing rocket engine. The engine was designed to achieve single-stage-to-orbit capability, prop ...

. On 22 May 2014 he appeared in an edition of ''

Horizon The horizon is the apparent curve that separates the surface of a celestial body from its sky when viewed from the perspective of an observer on or near the surface of the relevant body. This curve divides all viewing directions based on whethe ...

'', called ''The £10 Million Challenge''.

Personal life

He first married Julie O'Brien in December 1998. They have a son (born March 1999). He later married Marianne Suhr, having two sons.Family
/ref> He lives in the

Vale of White Horse The Vale of White Horse is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district of Oxfordshire in England. It Historic counties of England, was historically part of Berkshire. The area is commonly referred to as the 'Vale of ''the'' White Hors ...

in Oxfordshire.

References

External links

*
2009 interview

The Three Rocketeers
on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

in September 2012
C-Fly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Varvill, Richard 1961 births Alumni of the University of Bristol British mechanical engineers People educated at Bryanston School People from Hammersmith People from Vale of White Horse (district) Rocket scientists Rolls-Royce people Space programme of the United Kingdom Living people