William Austyn Mair

After the war, Mair went to Manchester University as a Reader and Director of the new Fluid Motion laboratory. He carried out further research in the field of supersonic flow and turbulence, using wind tunnels set up in a hangar at one of the airfields near Manchester (Manchester airport did not then exist). When he was appointed to run the Manchester lab, he recalls that there were no facilities at all, 'not even a table and chair, but there was an awful lot of good will'.

He was convinced of the necessity for experimental work to be closely linked with theoretical research and his experience at Manchester made him determined not to accept a laboratory miles away from the main Engineering Department at Cambridge. His determination led to Aeronautics becoming established in the South Wing of the Baker Building.