My friend Mike Owen, who has died aged 83, was a merchant navy engineer who became a world-renowned expert in the field of fluid mechanics and jet engines.
Born in Cheam, Surrey, to Charles, an electrical engineer, and Ruth Hadfield, a forewoman at an electrical company, Mike went to Epsom grammar school until he was 16, when he started a marine engineering apprenticeship with Esso in 1954, spending two years at college, two years at sea and then a final year back at college and in workshops.
