Career history of Bernard Hooper CEng., MIMechE.
After completing an apprenticeship with Lucas Industries in Birmingham, Bernard studied Mechanical Engineering at Cornwall Technical College. He studied to ultimately become a chartered engineer (CEng) via the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) chartered engineer status entrance examinations. Soon after graduating from Cornwall Technical College he decided to emigrate to Australia. He worked initially for Lawton Forklift Trucks in Adelaide and latterly for Chrysler Australia Ltd also in Adelaide.
In the early 1950s, after a spell working for the Ministry of Supply, he joined BSA, working at the Redditch plant and rising to the position of Senior Design Engineer. Key engine and gearbox projects he was responsible for included: -
The Sunbeam S10 500 cm3 OHV engine unit
The BSA Bantam 150 cm3 engine
The Bantam 4 speed gearbox
BSA Bantam 150 cm3 engine
Sunbeam
S10 500 cm3 OHV engine
unit At BSA Bernard became a close colleague of Hermann Meier and
became ever more fascinated with two-stroke cycle engines. The design process
seemed to be a black art and he decided that there must be a more consistent
approach to consider the design methodology involved in porting, inlet and
exhaust system. He was fascinated by the work of Prof.
Hans List (AVL, Graz, Austria) and Walter Kaaden s
pioneering work at MZ. Bernard became disillusioned with the lack of forward
thinking evident at BSA. He regularly visited the Frankfurt Motorcycle show and
was well aware of the developments coming forward from the key World
competitors. Back at BSA he made proposals for the future way forward for BSA
to remain a World leading motorcycle manufacturer and was staggered to hear
push backs from senior managers. One comment being "you can't go saying things
like this. They (the BSA directors) might want us to do something about it."
Completely unimpressed by this blinkered thinking he resigned from BSA as he
could see no future there and formed a partnership with Meier (Hooper Meier
Partnership) offering engineering consultancy. During this period the following
were successfully developed: - The Scott Swift 500 cm3 twin cylinder engine (with
BH designed Schnurle ported) Outboard designs for Coventry
Apex The Norton 5 speed gearbox
(for Harold Daniell) 400 cm3 engine for a small coupe for Saville Cars Scott Swift 500 cm3 twin
cylinder engine By this point in his career Bernard Hooper's talents were
making larger companies take notice and in 1958 he was offered the position of
Chief Designer at the Villiers Engineering Company. At VEC he became famous for
the highly successful Starmaker engine. His key
projects included: - The Starmaker
Scrambler and Racing engines The 4T Roadster and Minicar
engine 150 cm3 Lightweight four-stroke engine 500 cm3 Twin Minicar engine 75/2 100 cm3 Vertical shaft engine Starmaker
and Stormer engines Starmaker
Racer - Bultaco framed 250cm3
Starmaker At Villiers he formed another strong key partnership with
John Favill. John was a gearbox specialist and they
both worked successfully on the Starmaker engine and
integral gearbox unit. Unfortunately again Bernard felt heavily constrained by
the limited plans that Villiers had. He and John decided to resign in 1965 and
formed their own consultancy partnership, Hooper Favill.
This resulted in further key projects and developments: - The modern stepped piston
engine (SPX and SPR concepts) TSS improved engine concept Transamatic
high speed roller feed system Soon after leaving Villiers, significant changes were
happening in the British motorcycle industry. The AMC Group was taken over by
Manganese Bronze led by Dennis Poore. Poore immediately set to work in trying to turn around AMC
and wanted talented engineers to lead the newly formed Norton Villiers. On
visiting the Villiers plant at Marston Road he was told that his most talented
engine designer had recently left. Poore tracked Bernard
down and asked him if he would return as Chief Engineer of the Group. Bernard
was however by this time keen to develop the stepped piston engine concept and
was therefore reluctant until he showed the designs to Poore.
Poore readily became keen on the designs shown to him
and NV became the first licensee of the SP Engine. Bernard and Favill joined Norton Villiers and the new Technical
Director Dr Stefan Bauer. The first task was to save the Group by developing a
ground breaking new motorcycle. Bauer insisted that the high vibration of the
proposed parallel twin must be tamed. The Norton Commando was from this point
born. Bernard invented the famous Isolastic anti
vibration system while returning to Wolverhampton on the train from Plumstead with his assistant Bob Trigg. The key engineers, reporting to Dr Bauer as Technical
Director were: - Engineer 1 Bernard Hooper
(Chief Engineer) Engineer 2 Bob Trigg Engineer 3 Tony Denniss Engineer 4 John Favill Norton Commando DOHC engine and
gearbox unit for the new Norton Commando The original plan for the Commando was to design and develop
a completely new engine and gearbox. Unfortunately due to the need to have a
bike in production at break neck speed this was a long shot. Bernard realised
this was a long shot but he and Favill did their best
and a Double Overhead Cam engine and gearbox unit was designed. The need for
the Commando to be in production so quickly really meant that there was
insufficient time and resources for the engine's development. Bernard knew that
a faster solution was the only way. The engine continued through development
but Bernard had also seen the results of Wally Wyatt's great work on the Atlas
750 cm3
engine. Bernard saw this as a much more rapid and viable option to meet the
stringent production deadlines imposed by management. He was frustrated by the
director's inability to be able to make decisions. In
desperation he scheme-ed out a design with the
cylinders leaning forward, creating a more modern design. He was always
a fan of tail fairing layouts and so the future Norton Commando Fastback design
was born. The directors finally made a decision and the Commando was to become
the saviour of Norton. The Norton Commando is one of the most successful
motorcycles the industry has seen being voted MCN Motorcycle of the year for 5
consecutive years despite the increasing competition from Japanese
manufacturers such as Honda and Yamaha. In 1970 Bernard Hooper and Bob Trigg were awarded the Castrol Design Award for best
contribution to motorcycle safety, comfort and performance, for the Norton
Commando Isolastic Engine Mounting System. Other engines and projects, in addition to the Commando,
completed by Bernard Hooper at Norton Villiers included: - The Wulf
500 cm3 Motorcycle
(SPX500 stepped piston engine) AJS Stormer
and Starmaker engines C30 Four-stroke 256 cm3 industrial engine Vertex 172 cm3 rotary mower engine SPR150 and SPR270 Industrial
engines (Single cylinder stepped piston engines) As is well-known the British Motorcycle industry struggled
with deep financial constraints in the 1970s. Bernard again became frustrated
by the lack of support for future ground breaking designs and future advanced
projects and he resigned from Norton Villiers Triumph (NVT) in 1974. NVT went into receivership in July 1975 following the recall
of loans by the Labour Industry Minister Eric Varley. The Action Committee at
Marston Road tried to save the industry and approached Bernard to see if he
would help. He agreed and Hooper and Favill teamed up
again to quickly develop the following in order to show what the new industry
could do if the Government would support the efforts at the factory at Marston
Road: - The Wulf
500 cm3 Motorcycle
(SPX500 stepped piston engine) Norton 76 Motorcycle (New
modernised Commando design) EURO 50 (50 cm3 entry level motorcycle) Norton Wulf - 500 cm3 SPX500 stepped piston engine motorcycle Norton 76
Modernised Commando EURO 50 (50 cm3 entry level motorcycle) Sadly efforts to save the industry and factory at Marston
Road were not supported by the Government despite the strong remaining
popularity of the Commando. Government funding was redirected to fund the
Chrysler factory at Ryton in Coventry and the Triumph co-operative at Meriden.
Hooper and Favill therefore re-established their
partnership and concentrated on stepped piston engine developments along with
other non-SP based projects including:- Wulf II low emission liquid cooled
stepped piston engine and motorcycle Vertex vertical shaft engine (for Mountfield) L150 Anti-vibration system (for Scooters India) FLT Anti-vibration system (for Harley Davidson) 750 Bonneville/Tiger Anti-vibration system
(for Triumph) Opposed piston two-stroke engine design
and development for National Research Council, Canada. Golfcar engine upgrade (for AMF
Harley Davidson) Mitchell VVT engine development (for BTG/Austin Rover Group) 750 Bonneville/Tiger
Anti-vibration system In 1981 Bernard Hooper won the Castrol Silver Award for Best
paper "Minimal Maintenance Engines". His paper focussed on the
stepped piston engine and its inherent advantages over conventional two-stroke
and four-stroke engines. Wulf
II Motorcycle with liquid cooled stepped piston engine Further details of other stepped piston engine projects can
be seen on the other pages of this website. LINKS TO BHE WEBSITE PAGES SHOWING MORE RECENT WORK OF BERNARD HOOPER ABOUT BERNARD HOOPER ENGINEERING LTD Bernard Hooper was also retained by Ford Motor Company and
other leading companies as a consultant. More detail on Bernard Hooper's career can be found in Peter
Watson's excellent 2 part article in Classic Bike Magazine published in January
1991 and February 1991.
(Peter Inchley rode to 3rd in the TT Races)
