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Happy Birthday to Fred Lanchester, born on the 23rd October 1868

23rd October 2020

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On October 23rd 1868, Fred Lanchester was born to Octavia and Henry in Lewisham, beginning a lifetime of innovation and invention which still reverberates around the institution that maintains such strong links with the Lanchester legacy.

Coventry Engineering student Osita Uguwueze.

His impact is still being felt today through the work of past and current students like Osita Ugwueze, Jordan Perrett and Mandeep Mann investigating his aeronautical designs from the turn of the last century. Using new techniques, simulations and computer models combined with our archives based in the library that still bears his name, we are gaining even more insight into the genius of his innovation.

1032 Lanchester 15-18 outside the Lanchester Library of Coventry University

1032 Lanchester 15-18 outside the Lanchester Library of Coventry University

From the first of over 200 patents in 1888 when he was aged just 20, to the luxury Lanchester cars driven by King George VI and our present Queen Elizabeth he left a legacy of creative thought and engineering skill that remains second to none.

Happy Birthday Fred!

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