Stewart Tresilian (9 January 1904 – 20 May 1962) was a British mechanical engineer, who played a significant role in the early development of British aero engines during World War II.

Early life

He gained a BA degree in engineering from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

Career

Rolls-Royce

In the 1920s he worked at Rolls-Royce on aero-engines. In the early 1930s he worked as the chief assistant to Arthur Rowledge at Rolls-Royce on the R engine.

Lagonda

In 1936 Tresilian was invited by W.O. Bentley to follow him from Rolls Royce to Lagonda to become chief designer. The V12 Lagonda Tresillian designed followed the general principles he had set out at Rolls Royce for a new but unbuilt version of the Phantom III. Despite a lack of funding and development the V12 Lagonda was a great success.

Templewood Engineering

For around a year, from 1938 to 1939, he worked as an independent consultant under the name 'Templewood Engineering', an owned subsidiary of

High Duty Alloys Ltd. The Hiduminium alloys or R.R. alloys are a series of high-strength, high-temperature aluminium alloys, developed for aircraft use by Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce ("RR") before World War II. They were manufactured and later developed by #Hi ...

Wallace C. Devereux set up this offshoot company in order to market their

Hiduminium The Hiduminium alloys or R.R. alloys are a series of high-strength, high-temperature aluminium alloys, developed for aircraft use by Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce ("RR") before World War II. They were manufactured and later developed by #Hi ...

range of high-performance

aluminium alloy An aluminium alloy ( UK/IUPAC) or aluminum alloy ( NA; see spelling differences) is an alloy in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin, nickel and zinc. There ...

s to the motor-racing industry. One of Tresilian's innovations was to encourage the use of these alloys as

extrusion Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross section (geometry), cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a Die (manufacturing), die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing pro ...

s, as well as the previous forgings.

Armstrong Siddeley

In 1939 he became the Chief Engineer of

Armstrong Siddeley Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles and aircraft engines. The company was created following t ...

, based north of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

(now Rolls-Royce Ansty).

British Racing Motors

Tresilian designed an

oversquare Stroke ratio, today universally defined as bore/stroke ratio, is a term to describe the ratio between cylinder bore diameter and piston stroke length in a reciprocating piston engine. This can be used for either an internal combustion engine ...

twin-cam 2.5-litre four-cylinder for the

BRM P25 The BRM P25 was a Formula One racing car raced from 1956 to 1960 and the second car produced by the British Racing Motors consortium. After the failure of the complex BRM V16, the P25's design emphasized simplicity. The car was fitted with a 2.5- ...

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

car. Tresilian subsequently designed the

BRM P48 The BRM P48 was a Formula One racing car raced in 1960. It was BRM's first rear-engined car. With rear-engined cars in the ascendancy, BRM hastily reworked the front-engined, now five-year-old P25. The car proved to be slow and unreliable, and wa ...

, BRM's first rear-engined Formula One car.

References

External links

Biography at grandprix.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tresilian, Stewart 1904 births 1962 deaths Armstrong Siddeley British mechanical engineers Rolls-Royce people Alumni of the University of Cambridge