Motorcycle Explorer September 2016 Issue 13 | Page 36

MEET THE
Norman Magowan
I hail from the beautiful city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, where I worked in the aerospace industry for 10
years before moving to Stevenage in England in 1989 to take up gainful employment in the UK Space
industry. In 2003 I decided to quit my role as Quality Manager on a leading space programme to take up
the challenge of the Pan-American bike trip.
Since returning from the Americas in 2006, I have written two books, Leprechauns in Latin America and
Leprechauns in Alaska, which relate the story of that Pan-American trip. This was followed by a return to
work as Quality Manager for the highly successful MIRI Instrument programme, one of the four instruments
that will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope (successor to Hubble). With MIRI delivered to NASA, I
then worked on a number of ESA programmes, including Aeolus and EarthCARE, before deciding to return
to the road for this latest two-wheeled adventure.