Isle of Wight rocket engineer and author Derek Mack dies aged 88
DEREK Mack, who participated in the Black Knight and Black Arrow rocket programs, has died aged 88.
Born February 8, 1933 at Queen Charlotte Hospital in Hammersmith, Derek served an apprenticeship as a teenager with Vickers Armstrong, Weybridge aircraft builders, where as a year-old underage he started as a shop boy in their wind tunnel department.
This happy turn of events proved decisive for his entire career, as it placed him within a team of researchers and engineers whose talents and enthusiasm awakened his lifelong attraction to research and aerospace development.
Four years of formal guided weapons training taught him how to maintain electronic flight systems and related explosive material before moving on to assisting with live-fire testing at the Aberporth and Larkhill missile ranges.
Derek joined Saunders Roe on the Isle of Wight in 1957 for the Black Knight Land Reentry Project, where he installed static shot recorders at Highdown.
He spent eight weeks performing static engine firings to test Launch Site 5A in Woomera, Australia.
On November 21, 1964, Derek married his wife Anne and moved to Norton Green.
While working with the British Hovercraft Corporation (BHC), Derek was honored by the French government for his work in the French space program.
Derek had overseen the construction of Diamant in Cowes, Bordeaux, and every launch in Kourou in French Guiana.
He traveled to Paris with his family to receive a diploma of merit from the president of the French National Center for Space Studies.
Derek hadn’t realized he was just one of six people in the industry to be honored until he arrived.
Derek joined the Falstaff space exhibit rocket testing, where he was appointed quality controller for all firings.
To cover Falstaff’s trials, Anne and the family joined him in the village of Woomera, for two and a half years, before returning to West Wight.
Derek presided as chief designer at BHC and worked at Westland Aerospace, where he was known by the nickname Danger Mouse.
Among his projects were the Wessex helicopters in service, the Airbus A330 composite engine bypass case and the SAAB 2000 engine nacelle design teams.
Having retired in early 1993, he and his wife Anne spent many years traveling and enjoying cruises.
Derek’s book, titled Black and Wight Fireworks and published in September 2018, was a taste of daily life during his 15-year stint at the High Down and Woomera rocket test sites.
His family said he was always the life and soul of the party, was ready for a laugh and loved sailing.
Derek leaves his wife, son and daughter.
