Roger S Dickson
(1906 - 1981)
Roger Savernake Dickson was born on 22 Jun 1906 Westminster, City of Westminster, Greater London, the second son of Ernest Dickson and Agnes Phoebe Dickson (née Arthur). He attended University College in London, studying engineering. Dickson lost his hearing and the sight in one eye at the age of 19 in a motorcycle accident. Doctors told his father the best he could hope for was a career in manual labour, but he continued his studies, graduated, and was apprenticed at Supermarine in the mid-1920s. There, he began work on various flying boats and seaplanes, including the Schneider Trophy winning Supermarine S6B.
In 1930 he founded and ran Cloudcraft while still employed by Supermarine in the Technical Office, but the company closed for business at the end of 1931. In the meantime, he worked in preliminary design for the Supermarine Spitfire.
In 1934 he quit, dissatisfied at not having been promoted, and moved to Saunders Roe where he worked as a Senior Stressman. In 1937 he joined CW Aircraft as Chief Designer and was responsible for the design of the Swan, a twin-engine light transport aircraft project. However, the company ran into financial difficulties, was taken over by General Aircraft Ltd. and the Swan was never built. At GAL Dickson was part of the design team for the GAL.40 airliner. On the outbreak of war he moved back to Supermarine, where he was part of the small Special Projects team that worked on things such as cabin pressurisation for the Spitfire and semi-laminar aerofoils.
He worked on several jet fighter projects at Supermarine, but was lured away by Lockheed in Burbank, California, arriving in the United States on 2 May 1952. At Lockheed, he worked on everything from jet fighters, deep-sea submersibles Deep Quest and the DSRV, and spacecraft, including the Agena.
Roger Savernake Dickson died on 5 March 1981 in Hilo, Hawaii County, Hawaii, USA.