Geoffrey Pardoe
Encyclopedia
Dr Geoffrey Keith Charles Pardoe OBE FREng FRAeS FBIS (2 November 1928 - 3 January 1996) was Project Manager of the Blue Streak ballistic missile
programme. He was also the main cheerleader for British advanced science and technology
, and involvement in space exploration, deploring (repeated) government negligence and its aborted technology programmes.
, a co-educational grammar school
in Wanstead
, east London. He attended and gained a BScEng
from Loughborough of College of Technology (the college's degree was awarded by the University of London). He later gained a PhD in Astronautics from Loughborough University
in 1984.
, then part of Hawker Siddeley. He worked on rocket design and the Sea Slug (missile) (Britain's first guided missile).
From 1951-6 he was Chief Aerodynamicist at the Guided Weapons division of de Havilland Propellers
, working on the De Havilland Firestreak. He worked on aerodynamics and flight analysis.
De Havilland was given the Blue Streak ballistic missile project, and he was the Project Manager from 1956-60. In 1959 he proposed a scheme known as Black Prince whereby a Blue Streak would be the main first stage, with the second stage a Black Knight
, with a third stage a military solid rocket on top. It was also considered to have a Black Arrow
as the second stage or third stage.
On 13 April 1960 the Blue Streak project was abruptly cancelled. He argued in September 1959 that the space vehicle could be transformed into the first stage of a European rocket launcher. He spoke fluent French and German. He found it difficult to forgive the British government when it withdrew from the European Launcher Development Organisation
(ELDO) in 1968, with funding finishing in 1971. The government was paying £9 million pounds a year to ELDO, which he argued was less than a few miles of motorway, and that leaving ELDO would keep Britain out of spaceflight forever, which was largely later proved correct (although work on satellites would continue). The French government would later massively support the Ariane project. By 1988 Ariane had around £2 billion worth of orders for flights. The earlier British rocket project was later referred to as the ill-fated Blue Streak, but it was only ill fated at the administrative level, not the technical.
De Havilland merged with Hawker Siddeley in 1960, and he was the Chief Engineer of Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Weapons and Space Research division from 1960-3. From 1963-9 he was Chief Project Engineer of the company's Space Division.
He was Managing Director from 1985-7 and Deputy Chairman from 1987-93 of Surrey Satellite Technology.
From 1993 until his death in 1996 he was Director of the International Academy of Science. In 1986 he became Chairman of the Watt Committee on Energy.
From 1984-5 he was President of the Royal Aeronautical Society
. The RAeS has honoured him with the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award.
. He became the Executive Director. With Blue Streak, Britain had the technology to make it possible.
The idea was flatly turned down by the British government on the grounds that such a system could not be envisaged in the next 20 years (1961-81). America then set up COMSAT
in 1963, resulting in Intelsat
, the world's largest fleet (52) of commercial satellites. The first of Intelsat's fleet, Intelsat I
(Early Bird) was launched in April 1965. Intelsat has been very commercially successful.
Private finance would have been available for the project, but the project was scuppered by not receiving government approval. Later in the mid-1980s he campaigned for a British space agency, as Britain was the only main Western country not to have one, even though the Chairman of the European Space Agency, from 1984-7, was Britain's Dr (later Professor) Harry Atkinson. The BNSC
was formed in 1985.
in 1973, with a colleague from the Blue Streak project, Bill Stephens. It was later based at the Brunel Science Park at Brunel University
in 1988. In the late 1980s GTS was developing an 80 foot satellite launcher called LittLEO, to carry 700 kg payloads into orbit from the Andøya Rocket Range
launch site in Norway
. The cost would be around £10,000 per kg. The company LittLEO Ltd was established. A first launch was planned for 1992. It would have been multi-staged with a solid fuel propellant.
mission to the Moon in 1969, he was part of the television commentary team with Reg Turnill
. He was chosen for this role as he was a good communicator.
.
He was made OBE in 1988, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society
in 1968, and of the Royal Academy of Engineering
in 1988.
Ballistic missile
A ballistic missile is a missile that follows a sub-orbital ballistic flightpath with the objective of delivering one or more warheads to a predetermined target. The missile is only guided during the relatively brief initial powered phase of flight and its course is subsequently governed by the...
programme. He was also the main cheerleader for British advanced science and technology
Science and technology in the United Kingdom
Science and technology in the United Kingdom has a long history, producing many important figures and developments in the field. Major theorists from the UK include Isaac Newton whose laws of motion and illumination of gravity have been seen as a keystone of modern science and Charles Darwin whose...
, and involvement in space exploration, deploring (repeated) government negligence and its aborted technology programmes.
Early life
He attended Wanstead County High SchoolWanstead High School
Wanstead High School , formerly Wanstead County High School, is a co-educational, non-denominational, comprehensive high school in Wanstead, London, United Kingdom.-Admissions:...
, a co-educational grammar school
Grammar school
A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and some other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching classical languages but more recently an academically-oriented secondary school.The original purpose of mediaeval...
in Wanstead
Wanstead
Wanstead is a suburban area in the London Borough of Redbridge, North-East London. The main road going through Wanstead is the A12. The name is from the Anglo-Saxon words wænn and stede, meaning "settlement on a small hill"....
, east London. He attended and gained a BScEng
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
from Loughborough of College of Technology (the college's degree was awarded by the University of London). He later gained a PhD in Astronautics from Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
in 1984.
Career
From 1949-51 he was Senior Aerodynamicist at Armstrong Whitworth AircraftArmstrong Whitworth Aircraft
Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company, or Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft, was a British aircraft manufacturer.-History:Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft was established as the Aerial Department of the Sir W. G Armstrong Whitworth & Company engineering group in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1912, and...
, then part of Hawker Siddeley. He worked on rocket design and the Sea Slug (missile) (Britain's first guided missile).
From 1951-6 he was Chief Aerodynamicist at the Guided Weapons division of de Havilland Propellers
De Havilland Propellers
de Havilland Propellers was established in 1935, as a division of the de Havilland Aircraft company when that company acquired a license from the Hamilton Standard company of America for the manufacture of variable pitch propellers...
, working on the De Havilland Firestreak. He worked on aerodynamics and flight analysis.
De Havilland was given the Blue Streak ballistic missile project, and he was the Project Manager from 1956-60. In 1959 he proposed a scheme known as Black Prince whereby a Blue Streak would be the main first stage, with the second stage a Black Knight
Black Knight (rocket)
Black Knight was a British launch vehicle to test and verify the design of a re-entry vehicle for the Blue Streak missile.The United Kingdom's first indigenous rocketry project, Black Knight was manufactured by Saunders-Roe on the Isle of Wight, had its engines tested at The Needles and was...
, with a third stage a military solid rocket on top. It was also considered to have a Black Arrow
Black Arrow
Black Arrow, officially capitalised BLACK ARROW, was a British satellite carrier rocket. Developed during the 1960s, it was used for four launches between 1969 and 1971...
as the second stage or third stage.
On 13 April 1960 the Blue Streak project was abruptly cancelled. He argued in September 1959 that the space vehicle could be transformed into the first stage of a European rocket launcher. He spoke fluent French and German. He found it difficult to forgive the British government when it withdrew from the European Launcher Development Organisation
European Launcher Development Organisation
The European Launcher Development Organisation was a multinational consortium formed in the 1960s to build an indigenous European space launch vehicle, Europa....
(ELDO) in 1968, with funding finishing in 1971. The government was paying £9 million pounds a year to ELDO, which he argued was less than a few miles of motorway, and that leaving ELDO would keep Britain out of spaceflight forever, which was largely later proved correct (although work on satellites would continue). The French government would later massively support the Ariane project. By 1988 Ariane had around £2 billion worth of orders for flights. The earlier British rocket project was later referred to as the ill-fated Blue Streak, but it was only ill fated at the administrative level, not the technical.
De Havilland merged with Hawker Siddeley in 1960, and he was the Chief Engineer of Hawker Siddeley Dynamics Weapons and Space Research division from 1960-3. From 1963-9 he was Chief Project Engineer of the company's Space Division.
He was Managing Director from 1985-7 and Deputy Chairman from 1987-93 of Surrey Satellite Technology.
From 1993 until his death in 1996 he was Director of the International Academy of Science. In 1986 he became Chairman of the Watt Committee on Energy.
From 1984-5 he was President of the Royal Aeronautical Society
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...
. The RAeS has honoured him with the Geoffrey Pardoe Space Award.
British Space Development Company
In 1960 the British Space Development Company, a consortium of thirteen large industrial companies was set up, to plan the world's first commercial communication satellite company, by Robert Renwick, 1st Baron RenwickRobert Renwick, 1st Baron Renwick
Robert Burnham Renwick, 1st Baron Renwick, KBE , known as Sir Robert Renwick, 2nd Baronet, from 1932 to 1964, was a British industrialist and public servant....
. He became the Executive Director. With Blue Streak, Britain had the technology to make it possible.
The idea was flatly turned down by the British government on the grounds that such a system could not be envisaged in the next 20 years (1961-81). America then set up COMSAT
COMSAT
The Communications Satellite Corporation is a global telecommunications company, based in the USA, and with branches in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and several other countries in the Americas. It is present also in Turkey...
in 1963, resulting in Intelsat
Intelsat
Intelsat, Ltd. is a communications satellite services provider.Originally formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization , it was—from 1964 to 2001—an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites providing international broadcast...
, the world's largest fleet (52) of commercial satellites. The first of Intelsat's fleet, Intelsat I
Intelsat I
Intelsat I was the first communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit, on April 6, 1965...
(Early Bird) was launched in April 1965. Intelsat has been very commercially successful.
Private finance would have been available for the project, but the project was scuppered by not receiving government approval. Later in the mid-1980s he campaigned for a British space agency, as Britain was the only main Western country not to have one, even though the Chairman of the European Space Agency, from 1984-7, was Britain's Dr (later Professor) Harry Atkinson. The BNSC
British National Space Centre
The British National Space Centre was a British government body that coordinated civil space activities for the UK. It was replaced on 1 April 2010 by the UK Space Agency.-Structure:...
was formed in 1985.
General Technology Systems
He founded the consultancy General Technology Systems in BrentfordBrentford
Brentford is a suburban town in west London, England, and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located at the confluence of the River Thames and the River Brent, west-southwest of Charing Cross. Its former ceremonial county was Middlesex.-Toponymy:...
in 1973, with a colleague from the Blue Streak project, Bill Stephens. It was later based at the Brunel Science Park at Brunel University
Brunel University
Brunel University is a public research university located in Uxbridge, London, United Kingdom. The university is named after the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel....
in 1988. In the late 1980s GTS was developing an 80 foot satellite launcher called LittLEO, to carry 700 kg payloads into orbit from the Andøya Rocket Range
Andøya Rocket Range
Andøya Rocket Range is a rocket launch site and rocket range on Andøya island in Andøy municipality in northern Norway...
launch site in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. The cost would be around £10,000 per kg. The company LittLEO Ltd was established. A first launch was planned for 1992. It would have been multi-staged with a solid fuel propellant.
Broadcasting
During the Apollo 11Apollo 11
In early 1969, Bill Anders accepted a job with the National Space Council effective in August 1969 and announced his retirement as an astronaut. At that point Ken Mattingly was moved from the support crew into parallel training with Anders as backup Command Module Pilot in case Apollo 11 was...
mission to the Moon in 1969, he was part of the television commentary team with Reg Turnill
Reg Turnill
Reginald Turnill was the BBC's aviation correspondent for over forty years throughout the heyday of space exploration and British aviation prowess. He saw at first hand the development of modern aviation and NASA's space missions...
. He was chosen for this role as he was a good communicator.
Personal life
He married Patricia Gutteridge in 1953. They had a son and a daughter. He died of a heart attack aged 67 on a business visit to KansasKansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
.
He was made OBE in 1988, a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society
Royal Aeronautical Society
The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...
in 1968, and of the Royal Academy of Engineering
Royal Academy of Engineering
-Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....
in 1988.
Publications
- The Future for Space Technology 17 May 1984, Frances PinterFrances PinterFrances Pinter is the publisher at , an imprint of the Bloomsbury Publishing Group, which publishes titles in the social sciences and humanities; Bloomsbury Academic both markets the books commercially using print on demand technology and also provides free digital versions with Creative Commons...
(Thomson LearningCengage LearningCengage Learning is a publisher of print and digital information services for the academic, professional and library markets, and delivers customized learning solutions for colleges, universities, professors, students, libraries, government agencies, corporations and professionals around the...
), 192 pages, ISBN 0861874625
Video clips
- Discussing on BBC1 with Michael RoddMichael RoddMichael Rodd is a British television presenter and businessman.-Education:Rodd was educated at the independent school Trinity College, Glenalmond near Perth in Scotland, and at Newcastle University.-Life and career:Rodd became a familiar face to millions of television viewers in Britain as a...
the launch of STS-1STS-1STS-1 was the first orbital flight of NASA's Space Shuttle program. Space Shuttle Columbia launched on 12 April 1981, and returned to Earth on 14 April, having orbited the Earth 37 times during the 54.5-hour mission. It was the first American manned space flight since the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project...
on 12 April 1981 - Panorama 20 July 1969 - The Impact on Earth