Sir Frederick William Page CBE FRS FREng (20 February 1917 – 29 May 2005) was an English aircraft designer and manager. He had large involvements with two British aircraft projects - the English Electric Lightning and the BAC TSR.2. Arguably, the sum total of his contribution to the British aerospace community over a period of 45 years until his retirement in 1983 was greater than that of any other individual.\n', '

Frederick William Page was born at Wimbledon on 20 February 1917, the only child of Richard Page, a chauffeur then serving in the army, and his wife, Ellen Sarah, née Potter.[Note 1] His father was killed on active service in France a few months before his birth and he was brought up by his mother with only her income as a domestic servant. He won a scholarship to Rutlish Grammar School followed by a Surrey County Major Scholarship and entrance to St Catharine\'s College, Cambridge in 1935. He was awarded a College Exhibition for the first-year result in mathematics Part 1, and took aeronautics as a special subject in the two final years where he achieved the rare distinction of a Star first-class honours with special distinction in aeronautics and mathematics. He was also elected a Scholar of St Catharine’s.\n', '

From his mid-teens Page had ambitions to design aircraft, but it was not a dream of the marvels of flight that motivated him, instead it was the recognition that aircraft design was the most rapidly advancing of\n', 'all the branches of engineering and therefore a field in which new things could he created. After graduating in 1938 he joined Hawker Aircraft at Kingston upon Thames working under Sydney Camm. As his career at Hawkers developed he was increasingly asked to help solve difficult problems. The Typhoon was subject to severe propeller-induced vibration and to counter this Page developed anti-vibration mountings for the engine and a sprung seat for the pilot. But it was in the aerodynamics and control of the Tempest that he made major contributions.\n', '

Return to Frederick Page Autograph Profile