Professor John Leslie Stollery, was a British engineer and academic. He was Professor of Aerodynamics at Cranfield University. He served as President of the Royal Aeronautical Society from 1987 to 1988 and Editor-in-Chief of its The Aeronautical Journal from 1996 to 2006. He pioneered the 'Gun Tunnel' that is widely used in aerospace engineering.
In 1952, he joined the Aerodynamics Department at De Havilland. However, he left the company in 1956 to return to academia. In 1956, he was appointed lecturer in aerodynamics in the Department of Aeronautics at his alma mater Imperial College London. He worked with Donald Campbell as a part of the design team on both the Bluebird car and boat projects. There was a need to develop new test facilities as flight speeds increased and so he developed the 'Gun Tunnel'. He was promoted to Reader in Aerodynamics in 1962, in recognition of this important innovation. He was visiting professor at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, Buffalo, New York, USA in 1964 and at the Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio in 1971. In 1973, he was appointed to a Chair, as Professor of Aerodynamics, at Cranfield Institute of Technology. He served as head of the Institute's College of Aeronautics from 1976 to 1986. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Engineering between 1976 and 1979. He was Visiting Professor at the National Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore, India in 1977. He was Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the Institute between 1982 and 1985. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia in 1983. He once more headed the College of Aeronautics from 1992 to 1995. He retired from academia in 1995 and became Professor Emeritus of Cranfield University. Outside academia, he held positions on government committees and aviation related organisations. He was Chairman of the Defence Technology Board, Ministry of Defence between 1986 and 1989. He was Chairman of the Aviation Committee, Department of Trade and Industry between 1986 and 1994. He was President of the Royal Aeronautical Society from 1987 to 1988. From 1990 to 2000, he was a member of the Airworthiness Requirements Board of the Civil Aviation Authority.
Later life
Following his retirement from academia, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Aeronautical Society's The Aeronautical Journal from 1996 to 2006. Stollery died on 28 June 2013, aged 83.
