John Anthony David Gorham John Anthony David Gorham, a pioneering aviation engineer and manufacturer, died on Nov. 28 after complications from a fall at home. He was 86.

The former Thousand Oaks resident was a World War II veteran who served in India designing test equipment and repairing combat aircraft.

He had a lifelong love of modeling and won many national and international championships throughout his life.

His passion for flight served him as a hobby and a profession. Gorham moved from his native England to the United States to work for Lockheed on the supersonic transport program in 1965. The SST would have competed with the Concorde.

When that program was shelved, he moved from Maryland to Lynn Ranch in 1966 and went to work on the wide-body L-1011 passenger jet airliner for Lockheed Aircraft in Burbank. He was in charge of 800 engineers working on the first commercial Category III automatic pilot for the landmark airliner. Cat III systems allow for landings with limited or no visibility. Gorham was considered one of the world's foremost authorities on allweather landing systems.

In 1971, when the aerospace and aviation industries were in the process of mass layoffs, Gorham started Gorham Associates, a consulting company that worked with major aviation companies worldwide, including the Federal Aviation Administration. He spoke at international symposiums from 1963 through 1997 and spent six years on the Aerospace Advisory Panel for NASA, where he gave annual technical reports to congress regarding space shuttle safety criteria and operation.

"My dad was always larger than life, and he showed us with his actions that we could achieve anything if we put our minds to it," his son John Peter Gorham said.

The late Gorham was the founder of Helicopters Anonymous, a modeling club dedicated to the advancement of radio-controlled helicopters.

He made six small model helicopters for the Barbara Streisand and Gene Hackman 1981 film "All Night Long."

Gorham is survived by his first wife, Audrey Beryl Brooks, his children Michael David, Robert Steven, John Peter, Susan Patricia and Christine Leslie, along with his stepsons Michael and Scott Cummings, and grandchildren Julie, Erik, Andrew, Sonya, Michelle, Shawna, John, Matthew and Jessica. He was preceded in death by his second wife, Louise, in 2006 and his brother Peter in 2007.

For information about the memorial service, e-mail his daughter Christine at johng.info @gmail.com or his son John at PoetShop@aol.com.