The Chartered Engineer who made a Star Wars icon

On ‘Star Wars Day’ we celebrate a former Institution member whose work has been seen and loved by millions of fans around the world.

4^th May is now widely celebrated, especially on social media, as ‘Star Wars Day’ because – excuse the pun – ‘May the Fourth Be With You’.

Such an event seems like a good opportunity to celebrate the impact of mechanical engineers on the globally-renown Star Wars series of films ­- engineers like Dr David Watling.

Movie history books relate that Dr Watling built seven remote-controlled R2D2 units for the original 1977 Stars Wars film (given its subtitle ‘A New Hope’ in 1981), while based at Shepperton studios. Non-remote controlled versions of the R2 droids were occupied by Kenny Baker, the much-loved actor who died in 2016.

The Chartered Engineer also went on to build a remote-controlled Alien head for the first in the series of Alien films. Sadly his work didn’t appear on screen this time, as a rival head built by legendary special effects artist Carlo Rambaldi was chosen instead. Certainly not the first time British and Italian engineering efforts have gone head-to-head.

Hollywood’s loss was healthcare’s gain, as Dr Watling’s later successes included a bug-battling robot for use in clinical areas. The so-called Robocleaner, devised by his company Bioquell, uses Hydrogen Peroxide Vapour technology to help eliminate the dark side from the star wards of hospitals around the world.