Richard Stanton-Jones was born on 25 September 1926, the son of John C. Stanton Jones and Katharine Stanton. He was educated at King Edward VI School, Stourbridge; King’s College, Cambridge (MA), 1945-8; and the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield (MSc), 1948-9, where he won the post-graduate prize for most original thesis. In 1949 he married Dorine Mary Watkins, with whom he had one son.

Once qualified as an aerodynamicist, he worked for the de Havilland Aircraft Company Limited, 1949, Saunders-Roe Limited, from 1949, and the Lockheed Corporation (United States), 1955-6, becoming Chief Aerodynamicist, 1956-9, and Chief Designer, 1959-66, with Saunders-Roe/British Hovercraft Corporation Limited (later Westland Helicopters Limited) on the SRN series of hovercraft (Britain's first cross-Channel hovercraft). He was Technical Director for the British Hovercraft Corporation at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, 1966-8, then Managing Director, 1968-82, becoming Deputy Chairman and Westland Group Director for Hovercraft and Helicopter business, 1982-4. He subsequently practised as an Engineering consultant, having established RSJ Engineering, in 1984.

Stanton Jones received the A. Sperry Award (Transportation) in 1968; the Royal Aeronautical Society Silver Medal in 1965; Elmer Awards FEng in 1984; and an Honorary DSc from University of Exeter in 1987. From 1988 to 1990 he was employed as an expert witness on hovercraft patents by the United States Department of Justice. He published numerous papers and 31 patents on hovercraft.

He died on 23 January 1991.