John will bring 35 years of experience in aerodynamic design of axial flow compressors and fans, and in the development of advanced analysis methods for these types of turbomachines.
John began working on the aerodynamics of axial compressors in 1971 at the National Gas Turbine Establishment, Pyestock, England (which subsequently merged with the Royal Aerospace Establishment). In recent years he has continued working in the same field at QinetiQ. During that time John worked on the development of new design and analysis methods, and on their application to compressor designs. In the seventies he assisted A R Howell in the development of a new mean-radius method for multistage axial compressors, later published and subsequently known as the Howell & Calvert method. In 1978 he helped conceive, and then carried out the aerodynamic design for, the C147 highly-loaded research compressor, which provided basic technology for the HP compressor for the Eurofighter EJ200 engine.
Later John worked on blade-to-blade techniques and devised the S1BYL2 method for compressor blade-to-blade performance, which was perhaps the first practical method to enable transonic compressor blade sections to be tailored accurately to the aerodynamic duty. He subsequently led a small team to incorporate S1BYL2 into a quasi-3D calculation scheme for transonic compressors and to apply the new techniques. This produced several successful high-speed axial compressors and fans, including the back-up HP compressor for the EJ200 engine. More recently he led the development and application of the QinetiQ TRANSCode 3D viscous flow code for turbomachinery.
John Calvert's contribution to turbomachinery research and design was recognised by the award of the Royal Aeronautical Society's British Silver Medal in 1999. He is also author or co-author of over 90 technical reports related to turbomachinery.