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Raised in Fylde, Lancashire, he joined the Royal Air Force in 1941 and, through his service in World War II, rose to the rank of Flying Officer, becoming a test pilot at the Royal Aircraft Establishment.
On demobilisation in 1946 he attended the University of Manchester to study electrical engineering. His work on the Manchester Mark I computer earned him his master's degree. His subsequent doctoral work started his interest in linear induction motorss. He became professor of heavy electrical engineering at Imperial College, London in 19?? where he continued his successful development of the linear motor.
Laithwaite was an able communicator who made many television appearances. Memorable among there were his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures to young people in 1966 and 1973. The latter of these made much of the surprising phenomena of gyroscopes.
In 1974, Laithwaite presented a demonstration to the Royal Institution, which he claimed violated the accepted account of gravity and produced lift without any reaction. His theories met with nothing but ridicule from the scientific establishment. Laithwaite dedicated the rest of his life to exploiting what he saw as non-Newtonian behaviours of gyroscopes. He continued to find collaborators and applied for patents for various forms of anti-gravity and novel propulsion devices. None has yet found any practical application.
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