![Not Much of an Engineer](http://monsterbookshop.co.uk/cdn/shop/files/9781853102851_a6971e5d-a917-4ddc-b606-29f043fd82ce.jpg?v=1718882996&width=1445)
Stanley Hooker joined the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1949 and tugged a rather reluctant company into the jet age, determined to give real competition to Rolls-Royce. So successful was he that in 1966 Rolls-Royce decided the best thing to do was to spend GBP63.6 million and buy its rival. By this time there was scarcely a single modern British aero-engine for which Hooker had not been responsible.