Alex Moulton

Alexander Eric Moulton, born on 9 April 1920 and died on 9 December 2012, was an English engineer and inventor who specialised in suspension design. After working on engine design at the Bristol Aeroplane Company in World War II, he joined the family rubber company at Bradford-on-Avon, which made suspension parts for railway carriages, and turned it toward rubber suspension for road vehicles. Through Moulton Developments he designed the suspension for the British Motor Corporation Mini, working with Alec Issigonis, and the combination of conical rubber springs and small wheels helped the Mini achieve its small size. The system was refined into the Hydrolastic and Hydragas suspensions used on later British Leyland cars. He also designed the Moulton bicycle, launched in 1962, with rubber suspension and small wheels. He was appointed CBE in 1976.