Hooker, Stanley Vom Mathematiker zum Ingenieur. Die Goldenen Jahre der Rolls-Royce Düsentriebwerke

Within a few months of joining Rolls-Royce, Stanley Hooker, who had never seen an aircraft engine before, had helped the legendary Merlin engine to 30 per cent more power. This was the beginning of a meteoric career. In the middle of the Second World War, Hooker was tasked with turning the Whittle jet engine, which was in its infancy, into a production engine. In just twenty months, the thrust of Hooker's jet engine increased from 820 to 2280 kp.

After an emotional break with Rolls-Royce, Hooker joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1949. Here he transformed a rather conservative company into the jet age, determined to rival Rolls-Royce. He was so successful that in 1966 Rolls-Royce decided to do the best thing, namely to buy the competitor.
At that time there was hardly a modern British aircraft engine for which Hooker had not been responsible. In 1966 he was heavily involved with the engines for the Concorde and the Harrier. On his sixtieth birthday in 1967, Hooker decided to retire. Little did he think that within four years Rolls-Royce would be bankrupt! Rolls-Royce was so important that the government intervened immediately. It ordered Hooker to go to Derby and run the RB211 programme - the engine that had brought the company to the brink. For saving Rolls-Royce he was given a peerage.