Visionary engineer and designer behind World Records on land, air, water and ice, John Ackroyd’s genius made a permanent change to every field of mechanical engineering.
 
John was a cornerstone of world records and would bring impossible projects to life at every opportunity. His amazing career saw him design and build vehicles that were way ahead of technology, achieving the impossible time after time. His achievements include the design and build of Thrust 2, which broke the World Land Speed Record at 633.468mp Long Distance record balloons; the Spirit of America Jet Powered Car; Rocket Motorcycles; Rocket Dragsters; Rocket Sleds; the first ever production electric car; wheel driven record breakers and waterspeed attempts.
 
John had a life well lived, filled with cutting edge, seat of your pants speed and engineering. He was born in Muttra, India, to Major H. J. Ackroyd and his wife Kay, and brought up in the foothills of the Himalayas until the age of seven when the family returned to war time England.
After primary education, John was sent to Prep School in Folkestone and then to Ardingly College where he achieved excellent academic qualifications. He followed his dream of becoming an engineer through a first class apprenticeship at Saunders-Roe in East Cowes on the Isle of Wight. His final training task was in the design department working on the SR53 prototype fighter aircraft which operated a cutting edge mixed jet and rocket propulsion system.
 
While at Saunders-Roe, John’s career nearly came to an abrupt halt during a water fight when he let fly with a bucket of water on an opening door and soaked the head of the company and a group of important delegates from the Russian Embassy. Although the Russians found it amusing, he had an awkward discussion with the boss afterwards!
 
Ryde became the geographical hub of John’s life. Much of his brilliant work was centred there, and he embodied the attitude that anything can be achieved on the Isle of Wight. Although his exciting life also took him to many far flung places, John carried out much work to promote the Isle of Wight as a centre for innovation and creativity. John’s hard work in engineering and invention was recognised later in life through the Isle of Wight Hidden Heroes project and he was awarded the Freedom of Ryde in 2018.
 
At the beginning of his career, John worked for short periods with some internationally acclaimed companies, always looking for his next big project. He eventually took a role in design and engineering at ‘Cushion Craft’, producing some of the world’s first hovercraft. His work directly influenced the Isle of Wight’s association with hovercraft for evermore.
 
John moved on to design, build and market the first ever production electric car, the Enfield 8000. It was a design way ahead of its time and laid the foundations for the development of the modern electric car.
 
Out of work in 1978, John’s career was about to capture the world.  John responded to an advert entitled ‘Wanted, 650mph Car Designer’. Within a day, John was at his design desk in Fishbourne, pencil sharpened, ready to go.
Using a Rolls Royce Avon jet engine from an RAF Lightning, John designed and oversaw the build of Thrust 2, even travelling as a passenger in the early runs. In October 1983, Thrust 2 broke the World Land Speed Record, achieving 633.468mph at Black Rock Desert USA, driven by Richard Noble.  A remarkable and safe record that was held for some thirteen years and formed the inspiration for John’s first book, ‘Just for the Record’.
 
After this, John set out looking for new adventures and focused on balloons.
After brief spells working on the ARV Super 2 aircraft and in the Fokker aircraft design office, John saw an advert for a designer required for the ‘Endeavour Round the World Project’ which aimed to fly the first balloon to circumnavigate the world. Part way through the project they ran out of funds, but John had proved himself as a balloon designer and moved on to work for Richard Branson and Per Lindstrand to design the pressurised capsule for the ‘Virgin Atlantic Flier’, the largest balloon ever made at the time and the first balloon ever to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Many other engineering adventures followed with many amazing people, including Stratoquest which gained the World Altitude Record, and the ICO Global and Earthwinds Hilton balloons. There were many other smaller but notable projects of varying involvement in between the larger projects. To name a few, these involved the Spirit of America jet powered car, the Gillette Mach 3 Challenger rocket motorcycle which took the Motorcycle Speed record, designing the toilet for the Hermes Space Plane on behalf of the European Space Agency (lots of suction..), building the Vanishing Point rocket sled which achieved the World Ice Speed Record at 248mph and restoring Donald Campbell’s ‘Jetstar’ boat. One of John’s final projects was working with good friend Rosco McGlashan on the design of Aussie Invader, the Australian World Land Speed Record attempt car.
 
To say that John had a huge impact on the world of engineering and record breaking would be an understatement, but John was well known for his charm and good character and his crowning achievement was building up a global network of friends and family. His amazing life was spent making machines that changed the world, but it is the people that will miss him most.
 
In later life, we slowly lost John before his time to Alzheimer’s, and he finally passed away at home. He leaves behind daughters Anna and Lisa, grandchildren Moza and Luca, brother David and partner Meryel Boyd.
 
The amazing full story of John’s life may be read in John’s book ‘Jet Blast and the hand of fate’.
 
Due to Covid restrictions funeral capacity will be limited, but the family are planning a celebration of John’s life in Ryde in January 2022 where we look forward to welcoming all. For notification of the event, please contact design@recordprojects.com