page_title: Val Cleaver
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Val Cleaver / Early life
caption_attribution_description: Rolls-Royce RZ.2 rocket engine Photographed at Armagh Planetarium
context_page_description: Arthur Valentine Cleaver OBE FRAeS was a distinguished British rocket engineer. He co-authored a paper which discussed the possibilities and problems of nuclear rocket engines in 1948. After the Second World War he developed de Havilland's Sprite and Spectre rocket engines. He moved to Rolls Royce in 1957 and in 1960 he became general manager and chief engineer of the Rolls Royce's rocket departments, where he was responsible for the engines which powered the Blue Streak missile and Black Arrow launch vehicle. While the ELDO vehicle was ultimately unsuccessful and abandoned, the Blue Streak vehicle and its engines worked perfectly on every launch, and Cleaver was awarded the OBE for his part in developing them.
context_section_description: He was born at Conway in Wales to Percy and Mildred Cleaver. From the age of 11 he became fascinated by space. For three years from 1931 he attended Acton Technical College. He joined the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) in 1937, aged 20.
caption: Rolls-Royce RZ.2, which he was responsible for
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