John Ackroyd

  • Team Involvement: Senior Design Engineer
  • Location: Isle of Wight, UK
  • Occupation: Retired – Design Engineer

John Ackroyd (Ackers to most people) is an extraordinary design engineer. He has been an inspiration to our project and one of the cleverest design engineers you would ever wish to meet.

Ackers was introduced to Rosco many years ago, soon after Richard Noble had set the WLSR at 633 mph for Britain in 1983. Rosco contacted Richard to applaud him and his mighty team for their brilliant effort. Rosco was impressed with Richards’s willingness to offer advice. As the phone calls became more consistent and the questions more technical, Richard introduced Rosco to Ackers and a lifetime friendship evolved with Ackers taking on a mammoth workload with engineering calculations, drawings and suggestions on a daily basis for many years. Rosco says “John is a truly remarkable man and one in a million”.

Ackers has played a key part in the concept and design of many aspects of Aussie Invader 5R, including our 1,000 mph wheels. His knowledge of Land Speed Record successes and failures and the quest to discover the reasons behind both, has made him such a valued asset and friend to our team.

Sadly John passed away recently, but his help with our project has meant we are on course to achieve our goal of a new Land Speed Record and heading towards a 1000 MPH. Thanks John!