Owen Finlay Maclaren MBE (1907, Saffron Walden – April 13 1978) was the inventor of the lightweight baby buggy with a collapsible support assembly.
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He was born in Essex to Andrew Maclaren and Eva (née Friend). His father died in 1914. His family descended from the Clan MacLaren in Argyll.
He invented the Spitfire undercarriage when living in West Drayton, Middlesex when working for Maclaren Undercarriage Company Ltd. The design allowed aircraft to be steered or swivelled whilst on the ground. He retired from aeronautical design in 1944, forming the company Andrews Maclaren and making aircraft components.
The former test pilot and designer of the Supermarine Spitfire undercarriage was inspired when his daughter visited from the United States with his first grandchild. After watching the parents struggle with the clumsy conventional pushchair, he used his knowledge of lightweight, collapsible structures to create a new generation of infant transport and inspire the design of future collapsible objects such as the Strida bicycle.[1]
He designed his first buggy in 1965, which was built in his medieval farmhouse stables in Barby, Northamptonshire in England just south of Rugby. He applied for a patent on July 20 1965, for his 6lb B01 prototype with lightweight aluminium tubes receiving Patent No. 1,154,362. On July 18 1966 he filed for an American patent, receiving Patent No. 3,390,893.
Only after this design would aluminium tubes be used in other household equipment. The buggy went on sale in 1967. He also designed the 'Gadabout folding chair' which was produced from 1961, and was commissioned by the Ministry of Health to design a larger folding buggy for larger children with disabilities called the 'Buggy Major' this buggy was designed on square tubes instead of the usual round tubes like the 'Baby Buggy', being produced around 1970. Today the modern version of the 'Baby Buggy' are sold in over 50 countries under the Maclaren brand based in Long Buckby.
He was married to Marie and they had a son and daughter.
In January 1978 Queen Elizabeth II awarded him with an MBE in the New Year's Honours List.