Neale was a leader in a field known as tribology — a branch of mechanical engineering concerned with friction, wear and lubrication of surfaces in relative motion, which draws on physics, chemistry and metallurgy. For nearly 40 years he specialised in solving problems in machinery design.
He also investigated mechanical failures in marine, aviation, automotive and industrial settings around the world. This work included giving expert evidence after an Alaska Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft crashed off the coast of California in January 2000 with the loss of 88 lives (a subsequent investigation concluded that the probable cause was a failure in the aircraft’s horizontal stabiliser system). Power stations, steelworks and other major industrial plants also called him in after accidents or emergencies.
Michael Neale was born in Hampstead on December 14 1926. His father was an engineer who died when his son was 14. His mother was an Irish actress.
Michael was educated at St Edward’s School in Oxford but rebelled against the prevailing team sports ethos and left at 16, going on to work, during the Second World War, as an apprentice and later flight test engineer at Rolls-Royce in Derby.
During one airborne test in an aircraft fitted with Merlin engines, his efforts to improve the fuel mixture resulted in all four engines stalling at once; fortunately he managed to get them restarted — though only when the aircraft was 3,000ft from disaster.
During his apprenticeship Neale took a part-time degree, and in the 1950s he went on to do research on piston ring lubrication at Imperial College, London, where he served as president of the Students’ Union, as captain of the college gliding club, and amused himself by rebuilding a vintage 1902 James and Browne motor car, known as “Boanerges”, which has been maintained by Engineering students from the college ever since it was acquired in 1933. In 1955 he was a member of the British team which won the World Gliding Championships in Madrid.
In the mid-1950s Neale joined Glacier Metal as engineering research manager before, in 1958, setting up a new technical design and consultancy service for the company’s customers. Four years later he established his own consultancy, Michael Neale and Associates (later Neale Consulting Engineers).
Neale was respected as an educator with a gift for integrating theoretical work with his own practical experience to produce easy-to-understand design guides. The Tribology Handbook, which he first edited in 1973 and updated in 1995, is used around the world and forms the basis of numerous training courses for engineering designers. His many other publications include Component Failures, Maintenance and Repair and Lubrication and Reliability.
Neale did much work in developing countries, designing training courses for engineers and contributing to international symposia. A Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and of the Royal Society of Arts, Manufacturers and Commerce, he was awarded the tribology silver medal in 1978. In 1991 he served as president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and at the time of his death he was president of the Association of Consulting Scientists.
He was appointed OBE in 1984.
Always a hands-on engineer, in the 1960s Neale rebuilt a derelict Fowler steamroller which he took to fetes, weddings and local pubs. In 1959 he found a derelict thatched cottage at Herriard, Hampshire, and, with the help of friends, completely rebuilt it as his own home.
Neale was unusual in his profession in being openly gay, and on the first day it was possible, December 21 2005, entered into a civil partnership with Ian Lansley, who survives him.
Michael Neale, born December 14 1926, died August 4 2012
