By Afreeman Umhlangana
Professor Landson Mhango whose credentials and CV is too long to mention for this purpose.
Suffice it to say that the planes you see flying today, whether manufactured by BOEING, AIR BUS or British Aerospace or even China, all have his patented part.
The Space shuttle and the American Army tanks also have that patented part. It is a high-speed motor, a tiny gadget which goes at 11 500 revolutions per minute. Professor Landson Mhango invented this in 1980 just before he became the Director of Engineering at British Aerospace where he remained for over twenty years.
In the same year he also invented a small gadget that detects tumors in the human body. He was accorded the Galileo Award in 1980 as The World Engineer of the Year (1980) at a ceremony held in Canada. He also invented a nuclear powered generator for the Japanese; an invention which he said cannot break down in a 100 years.
Professor Landson Mhango also designed the British Harrier Jet Fighter which needs no airport as it takes
off and lands vertically. The Harrier jets first saw combat in Belize in the early 1980s and also saw action during the Falkland Islands War later that decade. The crucial point at issue about Professor Landson Mhango is that, following the Chernobyl disaster of 1986, a lot of nuclear energy reactor plants were shutting
down in Europe. After extensive research about what caused the blast at Chernobyl in Russia, he came up with a solution. The inlet chambers of nuclear reactors were rectangular cuboids, so could not-withstand excessive pressures. So he designed a spherical one.
He designed the nuclear reactor in Britain which is powering Britain. Nuclear reactors in Europe are now facing the dawn of a new era and are being resuscitated. At this point in time Professor Landson Mhango is busy constructing a nuclear reactor for South Africa, which he himself designed.
Mhango who has recently retired from a long and distinguished service at British Aerospace and was back home serving as the *Vice Chancellor of Mzuzu University* in Northern Malawi, close to his original home in *Rumphi District* of Malawi.
* Professor Mhango died in 2011 in Coventry, United
Kingdom where he was receiving treatment.
