Nicholas Goodhart Rear Admiral Hilary Charles Nicholas ' Nick ' Goodhart CB Legion of Merit FRAeS RN rtd ( 28 September 1919 – 9 April 2011 ) was an engineer and aviator who invented the mirror - sight deck landing system for aircraft carrier s . He was also a world champion and record breaker in gliding . Early life . He was born at Inkpen , Berkshire , the son of a patent engineer . He was educated at Miss White ' s Kintbury , and Connaught House Weymouth . Early career . Goodhart entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in the Hawke Term in 1933 . He then attended the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham , Devonport . He served as an engineering lieutenant , and saw action in the evacuation of Crete in 1941 on which was hit by two 1 , 000 lb bombs . He then served on and saw more action escorting convoys to Malta and the assaults on Italy over the next two years . He undertook pilot training in Canada in 1944 and joined the Fleet Air Arm . While flying in a Grumman Hellcat with 896 Naval Air Squadron from the carrier off the coast of the Nicobar Islands , he ditched because of engine failure on 11 July 1945 and was picked up by the destroyer , . He graduated from Empire Test Pilots ' School at Cranfield in 1946 and later tested the turboprop Westland Wyvern fighter for acceptance by the Royal Navy for use on aircraft carriers . He survived five serious incidents including the implosion of the aircraft ' s canopy during a high speed dive . He then became senior pilot of 700 Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton before returning to test pilot duties at the Naval Air Station ( NAS ) Donibristle , Scotland ; the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment ( A & AEE ) at Boscombe Down , Wiltshire ; and the US Naval Air Test Center , Maryland , USA . During his military career he flew over 50 types of aircraft . After a period as technical secretary at the Ministry of Supply he was promoted to commander in 1953 . Carrier developments . Trials after 1945 by the Royal Navy revealed that the new jet aircraft had slow throttle responses and could not safely use the standard deck landing technique then in use . Even in peacetime carrier operations killed 20 % of the aircrew . Goodhart therefore invented the mirror - sight deck landing system in 1951 . The device was first introduced in the Royal Navy in 1954 and by the US Navy in 1955 . It greatly increased the safety when landing on an aircraft carrier . There was also a saving in arrester gear units and barriers – Ark Royal needed only four wires and one ( emergency only ) barrier . The reduction in weight and the extra space that this conferred enabled more mess - decks to be fitted in , thus reducing congestion in living spaces . It was recorded that for US carriers , the landing accident rate fell by 80 % from 35 per 10 , 000 landings in 1954 to 7 per 10 , 000 landings in 1957 . The US Navy awarded him the Legion of Merit for his invention and he received an undisclosed sum from the Admiralty . Later naval career . After a further spell at Yeovilton , Goodhart was posted to the air warfare department at the Admiralty and then at sea as the staff aviation officer to the flag officer aircraft carriers . He was promoted to Captain in 1962 and made project manager of the Sea Dart anti - aircraft missile programme . After a course at the Imperial Defence College in 1965 , he became director of aircraft maintenance and repair in the Admiralty until 1968 . He was then promoted to commodore and then rear - admiral and became director of defence operational requirements and finally military deputy to the head of defence sales . He was appointed Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1972 and he retired from the Royal Navy in 1973 . Gliding . Goodhart joined Yorkshire Gliding Club in 1938 , quickly going solo within a week . He was also at various times a member of Cambridge University Gliding Club and Lasham Gliding Society . He began gliding competitively , at first with his brother , Tony , winning the British Team Championship in 1950 . In 1955 he climbed to 30 , 500 ft in USA and became the first British glider pilot to gain the Diamond Badge . Later in 1955 he broke the British National Altitude Record in a Schweizer SGS 1 - 23 in California climbing to 11 , 500 m ( 37 , 050 feet ) . He was a member of the British team at the World Championships from 1956 to 1972 . In 1956 at Saint - Yan in France , he and Frank Foster won the World Gliding Two Seater Championship in a Slingsby Eagle . The US " Soaring " magazine noted that the only single seater to beat them was the winner , Paul MacCready . He finished in second place in the single seater World Championships in 1958 Leszno , Poland , and fourth in 1960 and 1972 . He was British single - seater champion on three occasions ( 1962 , 1967 & 1971 ) , and in second place on four others . He finished first in the American Championships in 1955 , though as foreigner could not be the US Champion . At Lasham on 10 May 1959 he declared a goal of Portmoak in Scotland and achieved a record goal flight of 579 . 36 km in a Slingsby Skylark 3 at an average speed of . This is still the UK 20 metre goal distance record and the speed record for a goal flight . During his gliding career he held eleven British records . Goodhart set up the project in 1966 to develop a glider called Sigma to compete in the 1970 World Championship Open class . After problems during production and then with its Fowler flaps , the only prototype flew in 1971 . In a modified form the Sigma is still flying . He was awarded the Silver Medal by the Royal Aero Club in 1956 . In 1972 he was award the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the FAI in 1972 . This award recognizes " those who have served the cause of Aviation in general and Sporting Aviation in particular , by their work , initiative , devotion or in other ways " . Human - powered flight . Goodhart ' s team put in over 3 , 000 man - hours of effort developing the two seater " Newbury Manflier " project in an effort to win the Kremer prize for man - powered flight . The aircraft ' s two pilots were seventy feet apart , each in their own fuselage . However the team was beaten by Goodhart ' s old rival Paul MacCready with the " Gossamer Condor ' s " flight in 1977 and by the Gossamer Albatross for the first cross - Channel flight in 1979 . The project was terminated soon after the first flights had been achieved in 1979 because the hangar and runway at Greenham Common were required for the US Air Force . Other activities . He was a consultant to Boeing ( 1973 – 1980 ) during which time the Royal Navy acquired a hydrofoil HMS Speedy and the RAF acquired its first Chinooks . He held directorships including at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Building Society and was a member at Lloyd ' s where he gained and lost large sums over a period of twenty years . He was elected Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London . He finished 35th of 350 in the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally . Simon Hoggart is married to his step - daughter and claimed that Goodhart also invented the box junction but was uncredited . He proposed a method of suppressing hurricanes during their formation . His proposal involved covering 100 km of ocean with a reflective material using four aircraft , each with a 2 km wingspan . He was persuaded it would not work , so he switched the concept to putting out forest fires . At the age of 88 he raised funds for a hospice near Exeter by abseiling down Cullompton church . Goodhart married Lydia Sward in 1957 and Molly Copsey in 1975 . He had three step - children : Alyson , Ian and Fiona .