Harold Roxbee Cox, Baron Kings Norton (6 June 1902 – 21 December 1997) was a British aeronautical engineer. He was notable for his contributions to British industry, particularly aeronautical engineering, and for his part in the establishment of Cranfield University. Life Cox was the son of jeweller William John Roxbee Cox, of Handsworth, Staffordshire, and Amelia (née Stern). The statistician David Cox is a distant cousin. Born Harold Roxbee Cox, he was known as 'Roxbee' to his friends. As a child, his father took him to early air shows and air races, and his imagination was fuelled by pilots of the time such as Claude Grahame-White, B. C. Hucks and Gustav Hamel, beginning a lifelong fascination with aircraft. Cox left Kings Norton Grammar School (now King's Norton Boys' School) at the age of 16 and joined the Aircraft Design Department of the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge, which was at that time, designing and building light aircraft such as the Whippet and Kestrel. Guided by the chief designer, he was responsible for the design of the tail unit of the single-seat Whippet. When Austin's aviation interests failed in 1920, Cox was transferred to the workshops to work with the apprentices, and worked towards an external University of London BSc, which he gained with first class honours. In 1922 he left Longbridge for London, where he began studying for both a PhD and a DIC (Diploma of the Imperial College) at Imperial College London in the aerodynamics and instabilities of wings. As soon as he had graduated, he joined the state-financed Airship R101 engineering team at the Royal Airship Works, Cardington. After the R101 tragedy, the work that had been planned for the R100 was cancelled, and Cox began working on the development of aeroplanes at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. It was here that he contributed to aircraft safety with his studies on the problem of wing flutter and the stability of structures. By 1936 relations between Britain and Nazi Germany were steadily deteriorating, and there was a need to prepare for a possible war. An Air Defence Department was founded at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, and Cox became its head. Much of the work carried out there was with barrage balloons. There were two aims to this research. Allied balloons needed to be able to bring down enemy aircraft, and conversely friendly aircraft needed to get through any