Arthur Valentine Cleaver

From The Space Library

Born in 1917 in Merionethshire in Wales. Cleaver was educated at Acton Technical college and Northampton Polytechnic in England. He was hired by de Havilland aircraft in 1936 and worked in the drafting and aerodynamics offices. At the end of the war he was Project Engineer for de Havilland's propeller division. He then went on to become chief engineer of the rockets department of the de Havilland Engine Company, a role he kept until leaving on August 31 1956.

He became a council member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He joined the BIS in 1937 and then the CBAS during the war. He became chairman of the BIS in 1946-1947.

Cleaver was one of the British representatives at the first International Astronautical Congress and would subsequently write the constitution for the International Astronautical Federation.