My father, Peter Seaton, who has died aged 91, was a senior design engineer who started his career as a shipwright apprentice and went on to work on several landmark defence projects, including the Thunderbird missile and UK-3 satellite.

Born in Gillingham, Kent, the son of Henry Seaton, an electrical engineer, and his wife Ellen (nee Bonnick), he was one of four children: an older sister, Pat, older brother, Harry, and younger brother, John, who was born the day after Henry’s death following kidney surgery. Ellen courageously brought up the family by earning a meagre wage as an outworker seamstress at Chatham Dockyard making naval clothing.

During the second world war, Peter left Gillingham grammar school aged 16, joining Chatham Dockyard as a shipwright apprentice. In 1943 he successfully passed the entrance exam to enlist for aircrew but, being in a reserved occupation, he was unable to join up. He joined the Home Guard.

After the war, Peter worked as a shipwright at the dockyard until 1955, briefly studying photography and art at Medway College of Art. Then he accepted a friend’s invitation to work in the airframe drawing office at English Electric in Stevenage, designing structures for guided missiles until 1962.

After his Ordinary National Certificate at Hatfield College he undertook Higher National Certificate studies at North Hertfordshire College, where he met Irene Fenn, known as Rene, who was taking a secretarial course there.

Peter and Rene married in July 1958. Their first son, Mark, was born in 1960, their second, Neil, the following year. From 1962 to 1964, Peter was a design engineer at Hawker Siddeley, designing wing structures on the DH121 aircraft, and from 1964 to 1966, at the British Aircraft Corporation, he was group leader on structural design on the UK-3 satellite.

In 1966, the family emigrated to Long Island, in the US, where Peter worked on the Grumman F-14A jet fighter. It was a wonderful experience for parents and children.

They returned to Stevenage in 1970 with their third son, me, born the previous November. Peter resumed his work at British Aerospace. He was involved with the Sea Skua missile, the ground-based Compact Site Reflector for the Tornado fighter jet’s radar, and other projects, finally retiring in 1992.

Through his life he had many interests, including cycle racing (he was a member of the Medway Velo cycle racing club from 1950 to 1955), photography, chess and music – especially jazz, which his older brother Harry introduced him to.

Peter is survived by Rene, Mark, Neil and me, and three grandchildren.