What is the full name of the first inventor of the VTOL engine?
Thomas Bilbe (1811 in Sheerness - 1896)  shipbuilder and shipowner. He built tea clippers  and was involved in the opium trade with China
Sir Edward James Reed, KCB, FRS (1830–1906)  naval architect, author, politician and railroad magnate, also a Liberal politician in the House of Commons from 1874 to 1906.  Reed was born in Sheerness and was a naval apprentice there
Charles Hezlet DSO (1891 in Sheerness – 1965)  soldier and Irish amateur golfer. He was runner-up in the 1914 Amateur Championship and was in the British Walker Cup team in 1924, 1926 and 1928.
Sir Stanley Hooker, FRS, DPhil, BSc, FRAeS, MIMechE, FAAAS, (1907 in Sheerness – 1984)  was a Mathematician and jet engine engineer, first inventor of the VTOL engine
William Penney, Baron Penney OM KBE FRS FRSE, (1909–1991)  mathematician and professor of mathematical physics and leading figure in Britain's nuclear weapons development. Penney was raised in Sheerness, Kent and was educated at Sheerness Technical School for Boys from 1924 to 1926
Dr Richard Beeching (1913 in Sheerness – 1985)  commonly known simply as Dr Beeching, was a physicist and engineer who for a short but very notable time was chairman of British Railways, severely cutting the British rail network
Uwe Johnson German writer and scholar, lived on Marine Parade
Geoff Beynon (1926 in Sheerness – 2012)  teacher and trade union leader, joint general secretary of the Assistant Masters and Mistresses Association
Rod Hull (1935–1999)  English comedian, appeared with Emu, a mute, highly aggressive arms-length puppet. Hull was born in the Isle of Sheppey and attended Delemark Road School and the County Technical School, Sheerness
Richard Carpenter (born 1972 in Sheerness)  footballer and midfielder, made approx. 500 pro. appearances mainly for Gillingham F.C. and Brighton & Hove Albion F.C.
Sir Stanley Hooker