is there one person (historically) who, for you, stands out as having contributed more to aviation’s growth than any other ?
The Marine Corps first aviator, Major Alfred A. Cunningham
Semper Fi
Not just one, as there were very many who made significant contributions. The obvious ones of fame such as Charles Lindberg, Wiley Post, Amelia Earhart, Doolittle, Mitchell, Chuck Yeager, the list is long. Would be hard to pick one over another.
I agree. Too many to mention, from Icarus to Yeager. I don’t think I could choose only one.
Starting with Joseph and Étienne Montgolfier, my list would include those peviously mentioned along with Jackie Cochran.
That’s a difficult question to answer!
For a long time the only thing I knew about Charles Lindberg was about his flight across the Atlantic in the Spirit of St. Louis. Then I saw a documentary about him and I have to say he did a lot of amazing things – an interesting person to read about. Before that I had never known about his contributions to aviation in WWII. The F4 Corsair and the P-38 (stretching the Lightning’s radius by 400 hundred miles).
there are too many to name. but the ones that come to mind are the designers.
joe
How about Kelly Johnson, the designer of the p-38, SR-71, U-2 etc.
Another fella here who thinks there’s too many to list, but I’ll put my vote in for Jackie Cochran.
To me, her single most important contribution to the aerospace community, in the USA anyway, was her instrumental role in furthering the study of aviation medicine in this country.
Without an understanding of how the human body can be affected when exposed to the widely varying conditions which are possible in flight, the pilots which have achieved so much over the last 60+ years might not have achieved what they did…
Fade to Black…
For me being an Aussie I would have to say Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith for his distance records.But one of my heroes would have to be Sir Douglas Robert Stuart Bader who proved you didn’t need two legs to fight for you country!
My personal favorite is Jimmy Doolittle. He lived a very storied life. Paul Tibbets had lots of variety and notoriety in there too. There are so very many more though that it would take too long to properly list and recognize them all.
For an aviatrix Hanna Reistch should be considered. For the German’s she ranks up there with David Hasselhoff.
the only way to answer that question is to put each indiviual (the best in your opinion)
in each or there respected catagories, for example
designers:
Pilot:
Test pilot:
and otehr catagories
Orville and Wilbur’s parents.
I would have to go with Otto Lilienthal. He designed 18 different gliders over a 5 year period and is the the person that many early inventors like the Wright brothers and Glenn Curtiss give credit as giving them the inspiration to do their work by proving a heavier than air machine could fly. If not for his untimely death from injuries sustained in a crash of one of his gliders, the Wright brothers may have just been a footnote in history
[:X]Well, for women, Jackie Cochran would have to be hands down most influential. Not only for her records setting. That would be down the list of her contributions. Her fights on behalf of the WASPS in WW II, later her fights to get women taken seriously and admitted to mainstream aviation jobs, and her contributions to design and technology as a test pilot that had nothing to do with sex, all put her near the front door of the Hall of Fame.
We’ve all see pictures of her on tour in the F-104. I used to have frequent dealings with a lifelong Lockheed F-104 crew chief and tech rep who accompanied Jackie on her tours all over the world trying to see the F-104 in the face of absolutely disastrous public relations when they were falling out of the sky all over the U.S. and particularly with the Luftwaffe in Germany and Europe.
Sending a woman to promote the safety of this airplane, to prive it was not a designed-in man killer, Lockheed brass (of maybe it was Jackie’s idea) came up with the brilliant notion to hit the macho fighter jocks right in their testosterone poisoned egos – show that a woman can make this frightening no-winged, aluminum demon could make that aircraft stand up and its hind legs and beg.
Jackie Cockran – they broke the mold with her.
(And I’m not sure I can even spell her name correctly.)
tom
Well, you got it right once. It’s up to you to figure out which time though. [;)][:)][}:)]
6 yeers of colich studyin them words n stuf, an’ I are 1 edicated boy fum eas’ tecsis.[:I]
Add Leonado Da Vinci, Bernuli (spelling) who’s principle made the carburator and the airfoil possible, Sir Frank Whittle the Englishman who developed the jet engine, Goodyear who developed rubber for tires and fuel tank bladders, Goddard, Chanute, and many, many, others.
We should not forget todays pioneer, Burt Rutan. rangerj
Ranger, is Bernulli’s – also can’t spell it – principle the one they taught us in ground school, some equasion about how propellors bite the air more or less depening on whether the blade is on the up or down stroke? I’ve forgotten all that except to hold my foot on the pedal to combat the torque on TO. What else do you need? Told you above I’m an ignorant Texan.[;)]
Sharkskin,
When a fluid (air is a fluid) flows over a curved surface the air flows faster over the greater curvature, and has a decrease in preasure. The decrease in pressure is kinda like a vacuum and “lifts” the surface, such as a wing or a propeller. In a carburator venturi the vacuum sucks fuel from the bowl into the air stream, thus providing the fue/air mix for combustion. The above is an over-simplified explanation of the physics involved in creating “lift”, but is essentially accurate. Torque is another matter!
When you go to full power on take-off (or otherwise) in a propeller driven aircraft, with clockwise propeller rotation, you are right in that you need to “stand” on the right rudder to off-set the torque.
As for the dumb Texan comment, I used to call Universal City TX (near San Antone’ )home, so I ressemble that remark! Ye Hah. rangerj