Roxbee Cox , Baron Kings Norton Harold Roxbee Cox , Baron Kings Norton , Kt , FEng , FIMechE ( 6 June 1902 – 21 December 1997 ) was a British aeronautical engineer . Life . He was the son of William John and Amelia Roxbee Cox ( " née " Stern ) . As a child , his father took him to early air shows and air races , and his imagination was fuelled by pilots of the time such as Claude Grahame - White , B . C . Hucks and Gustav Hamel , beginning a lifelong fascination with aircraft . He left Kings Norton Grammar School at the age of 16 and joined the Aircraft Design Department of the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge , which was , at that time , designing and building light aircraft such as the Whippet and Kestrel . Guided by the chief designer , he was responsible for the design of the tail unit of the single - seat Whippet . When Austin ' s aviation interests failed in 1920 , Roxbee ( as he was known to his friends ) was transferred to the workshops to work with the apprentices , and worked towards an external University of London BSc , which he gained with first class honours . In 1922 , he left Longbridge for London , where he began studying for both a PhD and a DIC ( Diploma of the Imperial College ) at Imperial College London in the aerodynamics and instabilities of wings . As soon as he had graduated , he joined the state - financed Airship R101 engineering team at the Royal Airship Works , Cardington . After the R101 tragedy , the work that had been planned for the R100 was cancelled , and Roxbee Cox began working on the development of aeroplanes at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough . It was here that he contributed to aircraft safety with his studies on the problem of wing flutter and the stability of structures . By 1936 , relations between what was still the British Empire and Nazi Germany were steadily deteriorating , and there was a need to be prepared in case of war . An Air Defence Department was founded at the Royal Aircraft Establishment , and Roxbee became its head . Much of this work was with barrage balloon s . There were two aims to this research . Allied balloons needed to be able to bring down enemy aircraft , and conversely friendly aircraft needed to go through any barrages unscathed . In 1936 , the Government created the Air Registration Board , a new body that would examine civil aircraft and issue certificates of airworthiness . With his experience in air safety from the Royal Aircraft Establishment , Roxbee became their Chief Technical Officer in 1938 . Immediately war was declared , Roxbee was transferred back to Farnborough as Superintendent of Scientific Research and was then moved to the new Ministry of Aircraft Production in May 1940 , as Deputy Director of Scientific Research . He dealt with a whole range of wartime projects , and indeed was promoted to become Director of Special Projects in 1943 . Roxbee had the special responsibility to work on jet engines . It was now Roxbee ' s job not to be the engineer , but the facilitator . The major aircraft and engine companies had each been conducting their own research into combining gas turbines and jet propulsion , but only Group Captain Frank Whittle ' s jet engine design worked . However , collaboration was now more important than trade secrets , with the government encouraging any efforts that could give the Allies any edge in conflict . Roxbee founded , and chaired , the Gas Turbine Collaboration Committee , helping to pool ideas and experience . In 1944 the Minister of Aircraft Production , Sir Stafford Cripps , nationalised Power Jets , making Roxbee both Chairman and Managing Director . Power Jets was restyled again in 1946 as the National Gas Turbine Establishment ( NGTE ) with Roxbee as its Director . In 1948 , Roxbee moved from the National Gas Turbine Establishment to become Chief Scientist at the Ministry of Fuel and Power , where he applied his gas turbine knowledge for the benefit of power generation . In 1954 , Roxbee left the civil service to begin a second career in industry and over the next twenty years he served on the boards of companies as diverse as the British Printing Corporation , the engineers Ricardo , and chemicals company Hoechst UK . He also chaired the packaging company Metal Box and the paint - makers Bergers , Jenson and Nicholson , and was President of the Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association for 33 years . Playing a wider role in business , Roxbee was involved with a number of industry bodies . He was the Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research , and President of both the National Council for Quality and Reliability and the Institute of Marketing . Cranfield University . In the summer of 1943 , as the vice - president of the Royal Aeronautical Society , Roxbee chaired two open meetings during to discuss the education and training of aeronautical engineers . The Minister of Aircraft Production , Sir Stafford Cripps soon commissioned Sir Roy Fedden , a speaker at the meetings , to report on the state of aeronautical education . His 1944 report " A College of Aeronautics " was the blueprint for Cranfield . The College of Aeronautics opened in October 1946 , and was truly a unique establishment . The concept of hands - on learning with access to aircraft and an airfield was completely revolutionary . In 1953 , Roxbee was appointed one of three new Deputy Chairmen on the Board of Governors , and in 1962 , on the death of Sir Frederick Handley Page , he became the Board ' s Chairman . Years of negotiation followed , and university status and a Royal Charter were granted in 1969 with the college now officially renamed Cranfield University . When Roxbee was honoured with a life peerage in 1965 , he took the title Baron Kings Norton , of Wotton Underwood in the County of Buckinghamshire and his chosen motto , " Precision and Tolerance " , was highly appropriate . He specifically intended these words to have a double meaning and they summed him up perfectly . They were to be interpreted in both their narrow engineering context , and also their broader , social context . He was a man with great skills in science . He was also a man whose success lay in his tolerance . It wasn ' t only that he was a good with people ; he was also a diplomat . He believed that there shouldn ' t be divisions between disciplines : the arts and sciences , technology and management , commerce and education . It was an ethos that he lived by , successfully having careers in aviation , education and industry . He died on 21 December 1997 at the age of 95 .