John Gilbert Ackroyd (31 January 1937 – 25 January 2021) was a British engineer.

Early and personal life

Ackroyd born in Muttra, India, on 31 January 1937, and grew up in England from the age of seven. He was educated in Ryde, Folkestone and

Ardingly College Ardingly College () is an independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition located near Ardingly, West Sussex, England. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference and of the Woodard Corp ...

. Ackroyd married Birgit Häggman in 1963. The couple divorced in the early 1980s. They had two daughters Anna and Lisa.

Career

Ackroyd started his engineering career with an apprenticeship at

Saunders-Roe Saunders-Roe Limited, also known as Saro, was a British aero- and marine-engineering company based at Columbine Works, East Cowes, Isle of Wight. History The name was adopted in 1929 after Alliott Verdon Roe (see Avro) and John Lord took a co ...

in East Cowes on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

. His final job as an apprentice was in the design department working on the SR53 prototype fighter aircraft with a mixed jet and rocket propulsion system. Ackroyd then took a lead role in designing and engineering at

Cushioncraft Cushioncraft Ltd was a British engineering company, formed in 1960 as a division of Britten-Norman Ltd (manufacturer of aircraft) to develop/build hovercraft. Originally based at Bembridge Airport on the Isle of Wight, Cushioncraft later moved t ...

for Britten-Norman. The CC7 launched in 1969 but when the company was sold Ackroyd was again out of a job. After two years in Germany with the aircraft manufacturer Dornier, he became the project designer of the world's first production electric car for the Isle of Wight-based

Enfield Automotive Enfield Automotive was an electric car manufacturer founded in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. Under the ownership of Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris, production was moved to the Greece, Greek isle of Syros during the 1973 oil crisis, oil ...

, which commenced sales in 1973 as the

Enfield 8000 The Enfield 8000 is a two-seater battery electric vehicle, battery-electric city car, introduced in 1973 and developed in the United Kingdom by Isle of Wight company Enfield Automotive, owned by Greek millionaire Giannis Goulandris. The car was ...

. In 1978 he joined the Thrust 2 land speed record project, which went on the achieve the record in 1983. In 1981 he was involved with the Vanishing Point rocket sled which achieved the World Ice Speed Record at in 1981, and in 1999, the Gillette Mach 3 Challenger which set the motorcycle speed record of . In 1987 he teamed up with the Swedish aeronautical engineer

Per Lindstrand Per Lindstrand (born 8 September 1948) is a Swedish aeronautical engineer, pilot, adventurer and entrepreneur. He is particularly known for his series of record-breaking trans-oceanic hot air balloon flights and, later, attempts to be the first ...

and

Richard Branson Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson (born 18 July 1950) is a British billionaire, entrepreneur, and business magnate. In the 1970s he founded the Virgin Group, which today controls more than 400 companies in various fields. Branson expressed ...

for a project to cross the Atlantic in a balloon. Ackroyd designed the pressurised capsule for the Virgin Atlantic Flyer, and the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1987.

Death

Ackroyd died of complications from Alzheimer's disease on 25 January 2021, aged 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ackroyd, John 1937 births 2021 deaths British engineers People educated at Ardingly College