Born in Atherton, Lancashire, on 14 June 1921, Eric Laithwaite grew up in the Fylde and joined the Royal Air Force in 1941. During the Second World War he rose to Flying Officer, working as a test engineer on autopilot technology at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough.
After the war he studied electrical engineering at the University of Manchester, where his doctoral research began his fascination with the linear induction motor. In 1964 he became Professor of Heavy Electrical Engineering at Imperial College London, and his pioneering work would see him remembered as the “Father of Maglev”.
Then came 1974. Invited by the Royal Institution to speak on a subject of his own choosing, he chose gyroscopes. He lifted a spinning gyroscope on a rod with one hand and argued that Newton’s laws could not account for it. The Institution rejected his ideas, and for the first time in its history, his lectures were not published.
He later accepted that gyroscopes obey Newton ,yet he never stopped exploring. Eric Laithwaite died on 27 November 1997, aged 76. A true British original