Eric Laithwaite

Eric Laithwaite ( born June 14, 1921 in Atherton, Lancashire, † 27 November 1997) was an English engineer who developed the linear motor and Maglev ( magnetic levitation ).

He grew up in Fylde, Lancashire, attended Kirkham Grammar School and went in 1941 to the Royal Air Force and became a test engineer for autopilot at Royal Aircraft Establishment. From 1946 he studied electrical engineering at the University of Manchester, where he earned with his staff at the Manchester Mark I his master. His subsequent doctoral thesis to his interest for linear motors. In 1951 he married Sheila Gooddie, with whom he has two sons and daughters. In 1964 he became professor of power engineering at Imperial College London, where he successfully developed the linear motor.

1966 and 1974 he held the televised Royal Institution Christmas Lectures. When the Royal Institution in 1974 invited him to speak on a topic of his choice, he led before a gyroscope. Since this but not kept to Newton's laws and lost weight, the Royal Institution was not safe. With William Dawson later he founded Gyron Ltd. and received in 1993 a patent for a propulsion system.