Thomas William Smith (27 March 1927 – 3 October 2012) was a British aerospace engineer, and the team leader of the proposed BAC

MUSTARD Mustard may refer to: Food and plants * Mustard (condiment), a paste or sauce made from mustard seeds used as a condiment * Mustard plant, one of several plants, having seeds that are used for the condiment ** Mustard seed, small, round seeds of ...

(''Multi-Unit Space Transport And Recovery Device'') reusable spacecraft design.

Early life

He was born in

Old Clee Old Clee is located in the Clee Road ( A46) and Carr Lane area of eastern Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England, and adjoins the neighbouring town of Cleethorpes, to which it has historic links. It is in the Heneage ward of the North East L ...

Grimsby Grimsby or Great Grimsby is a port town in Lincolnshire, England with a population of 86,138 (as of 2021). It is located near the mouth on the south bank of the Humber that flows to the North Sea. Grimsby adjoins the town of Cleethorpes dir ...

. He attended the Grimsby Wintringham Boys' Grammar School, since 2007 the

Oasis Academy Wintringham Oasis Academy Wintringham is a secondary school (academy) on Weelsby Avenue in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, England. It is just off the A16 Peaks Parkway just south-west of the A46 crossroads next to the Lisle Marsden CE Primary School in ...

. He studied Aeronautical Engineering at

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 east London.

Career

After graduation in 1948 he worked for a year for the

Gloster Aircraft Company The Gloster Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer from 1917 to 1963. Founded as the Gloucestershire Aircraft Company Limited during the First World War, with the aircraft construction activities of H.H. Martyn & Co. of Chelte ...

BAC

He joined English Electric in 1949. Working under Sir Frederick Page, he worked on the

English Electric Lightning The English Electric Lightning is a British fighter aircraft that served as an interceptor during the 1960s, the 1970s and into the late 1980s. It is capable of a top speed above Mach 2. The Lightning was designed, developed, and manufactured ...

. Later he was one of the leaders of the team that developed the

BAC TSR-2 The British Aircraft Corporation TSR-2 is a cancelled Cold War strike and reconnaissance aircraft developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC), for the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The TSR-2 was designed ...

, which was cancelled in April 1965. He became Chief of the Aerospace Department at BAC ( Preston Division) at Warton.Flight International March 1966
/ref> The MUSTARD

hypersonic In aerodynamics, a hypersonic speed is one that exceeds five times the speed of sound, often stated as starting at speeds of Mach 5 and above. The precise Mach number at which a craft can be said to be flying at hypersonic speed varies, since i ...

design had begun life as the

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 ...

MUSTARD at Warton in

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. It would be powered by LOx (

liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear cyan liquid form of dioxygen . It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which is ongoing. Physical ...

) and LH2 (

liquid hydrogen Liquid hydrogen () is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecule, molecular H2 form. To exist as a liquid, H2 must be cooled below its critical point (thermodynamics), critical point of 33 Kelvins, ...

). After MUSTARD he worked on the

SEPECAT Jaguar The SEPECAT Jaguar is a British-French supersonic jet attack aircraft originally used by the British Royal Air Force and the French Air Force in the close air support and nuclear strike role. As of 2025, the Jaguar remains in service with the ...

and

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary #Variants, Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ...

, both largely BAC designs.

Personal life

He retired in 1990 and moved to

Tetford Tetford is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. History Tetford is listed as "Tesforde" in the ''Domesday Book'', with a mill, probably on the site of the present 17th-century watermill near the c ...

East Lindsey East Lindsey is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Lincolnshire, England. Its council is based in Horncastle and the largest town is Skegness. Other towns include Alford, Lincolnshire, Alford, Burgh le Marsh, Coningsby, L ...

. He played

table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...

competitively until the age of 50. He married Winifred McCormick in 1948 in Grimsby. They had a daughter and four sons. His wife died in 2000, and he married again in 2000, moving to

East Keal East Keal is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated approximately north from the town of Boston, south from the town of Spilsby, and is located on the southern most edge of the Lincoln ...

. His second wife had died in 2009.

References

External links

MUSTARD at BAE Systems

The Engineer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Tom 1927 births 2012 deaths Alumni of Queen Mary University of London British Aircraft Corporation English aerospace engineers People from East Lindsey District People from Grimsby Space programme of the United Kingdom