Professor Martin Lowson (5 January 1938 â 14 June 2013) was an aeronautical engineer. He held a number of senior academic appointments in UK and US universities, was a co-patentee of the BERP helicopter rotor system, and also made a significant contribution to the development of personal rapid transport systems.
Martin Vincent Lowson was born in Totteridge, Hertfordshire, on 5 January 1938.
He attended The King's School in Worcester, after which he became an apprentice with Vickers-Armstrong. Lowson gained a PhD in 1963, after which he spent a year in the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research, where he worked on aero-acoustics. In this year he produced a number of important papers on noise generation which are still regarded as fundamental in the field .
Lowson married Ann Pennicutt in 1961. They had two children, Sarah and Jonathan. Lowson's interests included squash and bluegrass music.
Lowson died of a stroke on 14 June 2013, at the age of 75.