JOHN GETTY
Project management, entrepreneur and motivational speaker.
A sort of “Billy Connolly meets Tomorrow’s World,” John Getty is an inspirational and entertaining business speaker.
His catchphrase is “Don’t just survive in business – ATTACK !”
John is the chairman of a North of England engineering company which is one of the fast rising stars of the industry - having won several major awards for expertise. Currently working as Fast Response for such Aerospace giants as Rolls Royce and GE., the firm often has to perform pioneering feats for its customers.
His mechanical talents grew from a curiosity to find out how things worked. An enterprising arcade owner recognised that it was easier to employ the young mechanical wizard rather than keep losing money to him from the machines during the summer.
In the winter months he put together a team and raised local sponsorship to go car racing stock cars at Nelson, and Manchester Stadiums most weekends. At that time in his late teens John built some pretty amazing cars including a Jaguar engined Morris Minor . . . as well as several big Rover engined specials.
After studying law, he soon realised that a career in the Legal Profession was not going to give him the excitement or buzz that racing cars and engineering would. John went to work for Mullards/Phillips Industries, a television manufacturer in the Glass factory at Simonstone near Padiham, as a Process Controller.
Then
he became Planning Engineer and Production Controller for Cussons Imperial Leather. During his time at Cussons John also took up Motorcycle Road Racing and qualified for an International Racing License.
To allow him to spend more time on Motorcycle Racing John joined his father’s firm, Burnley Engineering (Aircraft) Products at the age of twenty-five.
Organising transport and distribution for the Aircraft parts manufacturer gave him an insight into the Aerospace Industry. John was eventually teamed up with the Maintenance and Training Departments of the major player in sophisticated aircraft parts.
The highlight of John’s motorcycle racing career (which lasted five years or so) was two respectable finishes and bronze medals in the Isle of
Man TT Races.
He was one of the first riders to take large Japanese and Italian engined Production Motorcycles into the road racing arena.
Eventually gravitating into Machine Tools through BEP and their requirements for ever more sophisticated equipment, John was one of the first people to deal in CNC Machine tools.
He set up a company to sell and service the latest generation of equipment and the experience and contacts he had made in the Aero Industry gave him an instant edge on the competition.
Taking on an agency for an Italian manufacturer of CNC Lathes whom were themselves just moving in to CNC gave John the opportunity to work with some of the finest engineering operations in the World to produce specialist equipment. Ferrari, Fiat, Ford, TVR, Vauxhall, in the Automotive Industry as well as Major manufacturers like Rolls Royce, G.E., Plessey, T&N Group, British Aerospace, Lockheed Martin, have all been clients for the work that John has done.
His
work has encompassed being involved in such exciting projects as the Thrust
Supersonic Car and Landspeed Record; the Virgin Global Challenger Balloon and
now the Quicksilver World Water Speed record.
These are some of John’s projects.
The Thrust SSC World's first Supersonic Car and World Landspeed Record Holder- 766 MPH in the Black Rock Desert Nevada.
John worked with Glynne Bowsher the chief designer of the vehicle to perform
most of the high tech and precision tolerance machined parts for the car
including the axles.
Stories from the project include the time Richard Noble phoned him because of
his contacts in the Petrochemical Industry and asked if he could get 600,000
gallons of aviation fuel from one of the Scottish Islands to Falmouth free of
charge.... John found him a ship to do it.
He was in the desert with the Team when the Thrust SSC took the landspeed record
and there he met John Ackroyd the designer of the USA challenger Spirit of
America driven by Craig Breedlove.
John was involved in Richard Branson's Virgin Round the World Balloon Attempt
– being called in to make precision parts and to sort some problems they were
having.
The Virgin
Global Challenger Balloon.
In Morocco John was instrumental in sorting several unexpected engineering
problems that the balloon capsule had encountered. Working all night, he
manufactured by hand the bolts for the winches to hold the huge floodlit balloon
canopy down while staff in the UK were fighting time to acquire a special valve
and get it to Marrakech in time.
Various stories of Richard Branson, Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett ranging
from comic to tragic are in his portfolio.
Virgin flew to various places in the world, including South America, on
engineering missions for the project.
Quicksilver
World Water Speed Record.
This is a vessel being built by John’s company with John as Project Manager
for Nigel Macknight the driver and Ken Norris, the designer of Donald Campbell's
Bluebird Car and Boat. The new boat will be powered by a Spey jet fighter engine
which develops 40,000 horse power and will travel at 400 mph on the lake which
Campbell tried to conquer.
For power source we have acquired a Buccaneer Jet Fighter, fully operational.
The boat is currently under construction in John’s Lancashire factory.
Miss
Windermere Vl
This is a hydroplane boat which currently holds the unlimited class propellor
driven boat World Water Speed Record. The boat is named after the famous one
which killed Sir Henry Seagrave many years ago on the lake whose name it bears.
His company has recently been called in to sort some problems with the drive
shaft and propellers and is now officially the engineering backup for the
project. The owner of the boat Mr John Lee and the Driver Jim Noone have worked
with John succesfully for several years
NASA
Johnson Space Center USA
Last but not least is the connections made with NASA and Space Center Houston.
John is presently employed on a joint venture which promotes the USA Space
Agency in the sharing of their technical capabilities in the UK and the whole of
Europe.
His company has also signed an agreement with Space Center Houston to install a
tethered aerostat gigantic balloon which will give up to thirty people a
“ride” in the sky above Johnson Space Center in Houston.
He also has a wonderful collection of props that he can use in talks, or
lectures including a full scale mock up of the front 14 feet of the Thrust SSC
Car made from the original spares which were made for the project as well as a
model of the Quicksilver Water Speed Record Boat.
Current ongoing minor projects include runners for the next British Bobsleigh Team for the Winter Olympics and sorting troublesome drive shafts and mechanism for an Edwardian Steam ship on Lake Windermere.