John Scott Scott

John Scott-Scott, or ‘Scotty’ as many of us knew him, died in the early hours of Saturday 12th December 2015. This marked the passing of a truly remarkable aerospace engineer, forged by Britain’s military demands post-World War Two and in the subsequent Cold War years. John’s speciality was hydrodynamics, in particular of high performance centrifugal pumps for rocket engines, for which he gained World renown. However, his broader expertise encompassed space launchers; aircraft; road vehicles and surface ships, and any form of propulsion relating to them. John was equally at home with analysis, building test rigs or hands-on work with actual engines and indeed had his own workshop in which he manufactured model aircraft engines, scientific equipment and components for test rigs to very tight tolerances. He made little distinction between work time and leisure time when it came to engineering; it was all the same to him. John’s aviation interests led him first to become a glider pilot when he was 14. He then flew Tiger Moths when he was 15/16 and went on to gain a private pilot’s license. He eventually became a Flying Officer in 637 Squadron.