Aviators of the Millennium

[Barrett]

Maybe this should be another Forum poll, but while Germans dominated the Aces of the Millenium, my aviator nominees are all Americans:

The Wrights, who started it all. Devoid of formal training, they analyzed the conventional scientific wisdom of their era, concluded it was wrong, and proceeded independently with only their own resources to accomplish the dream of the ages.

Jimmy Doolittle: did it all extremely well. A terrific "stick," he earned the first PhD in aeronautics; made the first 24-hour coast to coast flight; pioneered instrument flying; won almost every race going; midwifed high octane fuel between Shell and the Army; led two air forces in combat; and other stuff (the Tokyo mission and CMH are almost incidental). I was privileged to know him.

Charles Lindbergh: with a handful of others, brought aviation out of the barnstorming age into genuine pioneering; probed long-distance air routes; almost single-handedly made the world air minded. As a result of his 1927 NY-Paris flight, nobody else approached his stature or prestige.

Designer of the Millennium: probably Lockheed's Kelly Johnson, who did awesome things with late 50s/early 60s technology. What he may have done thru the 70s evidently is still classified Beyond Top Secret.

Aviation Industrialist of the Millennium: maybe a tie between Bill Boeing and Donald Douglas. Between them they dominated the air transport market approximately forever, to say nothing of their firms' war-winning designs (B-17/29 and SBD).

[PeterL]

Barrett, can I just sling in Sir George Cailey to couneract an otherwise strong 20th century bias

VBR
Peter

[Ira_Silverman]

Barrett:

I'll buy into most of your choices, but take exception to your choice of designer. My vote goes overwhelmingly to Jack Northrop. Aside from designing the Lockheed Vega, Northrop Gamma (which begat the Dauntless) and the flying wings - which were only 40 years ahead of their time, his proteges included Donovan Berlin of Curtiss, Dayton Brown of Brewster and Ed Heinemann of Douglas. And when he left Lockheed, his choice of successor was Kelly Johnson,who would be my number 2.

In my purview, Jack Northrop is the Oswald Boelcke of aircraft design - a fine designer AND a teacher.

For number 3, I go with Sir Sydney Camm (Hawker), and a tie for 4 between Reginald Mitchell (Supermarine)and Heinemann.

My choice for worst autobiography of a designer goes to Kelly Johnson's, which reads like a bad soap opera. The best, IMHO, is Heinemann's, which, aside from being a good read, also functions as a "short course" in combat aircraft design.

VBR,

Ira

[Ira_Silverman]

In mentioning designer autobiographies, I neglected to mention Nevil Shutes's SLIDE RULE.

As a designer, Shute wasn't in the class of those mentioned, but as a writer its no contest. Far and away, SLIDE RULE is the best one going, worth its weight in gold for Shute's perspective on the R.100/R.101 dirigible situation alone.

VBR,

Ira

[Barrett]

Ira: absolutely no doubt that Jack Northrop was one of the biggies. He took available knowledge and technology about as far as it could go. Kelly Johnson was blessed with the opportunity to work with cutting-edge materials and propulsion to an extent that probably no other single designer ever did and therefore gets my nod.
I am a HUGE fan of Ed Heinemann--dedicated my 3rd novel to him. He had a working relationship of sorts with Sir Sidney Camm, whom he admired and respected. Camm arranged to "borrow" the A-4's wing for the Harrier.
I agree that Ed's autobio (done with Zip Rausa) is among the most readable. Zip and I knew Ed in about the last decade of his life, and despite a debilitating stroke, he overcame severe physical problems to keep working with that marvelous mind. Ed was first, last, and always an engineer. The last time we had lunch together at Rancho Santa Fe he stopped in the parking lot and pointed with his cane. "You see those two cars?" he asked. They were a Ford LTD and a Ferrari of some sort. "There's more room in the Ford but the red one (he didn't know!) makes better use of available space." That was Engineering 101 from the Heinemann School. Of all his designs he was proudest of the A-3 and the Douglas blimp that was never built.
What a great guy.

Barrett,

In the interest of international goodwill, how about adding Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith to that list? That way there's at least one non-American.

But seriously, Kingsford-Smith is definately up there with the best of the early aviators. In addition, he was a scout pilot in WWI. That's gotta be worth a few extra points in these parts! I think he was awarded the Military Cross.

Post-war, he and his crew were the first to fly across the Pacific, and had numerous other achievements.

There are certainly a lot of aviators who deserve it, but Kingsford-Smith has gotta be up there. The fact he was an Aussie of course has had no influence on my suggestion.

Regards,

Simon

Barrett,
Where does Amelia Earhart fit in? She was the pioneer woman who opened it up for other women to fly in the male dominated field of aviation. Also she was the first woman who tried to fly around the world. You also neglected to mention Curtiss Martin who pioneered the amphibious aircraft. Were it not for his PBY Catalina "Strawberry 4" they would've never found the Jap fleet to deliver it it's decisive defeat at Midway in 1942. Also I believe that it was four Navy pilots who first tried to fly across the Atlantic in the early 20's in the Curtiss flying boats, one of which was the N4. Also while we're at it, there were Chance/Vought who designed the F-4U Corsair ( a HUGE success in the Pacific Theater ). Just a few thoughts. And there was Willy Messerschmidt who pioneered the way for jet propulsion. And Igor Sikorsky who pioneered the use of the helicopter (saw it's first service during Korea, and is widely used throughout much of the world.) BTW Igor Sikorsky was an American citizen when he invented the helicopter (for those of you who don't know.)
VBR,
Jim

Very meritorious men but others require a place in that list,



The Flying Doctor Service, in 1919 medicene was saving more people with the advances made but distance was still proving a killer in many cases. Lt Clifford Peel ( ex AFC ) and Rev John Flynn came up with the idea of a mobile Doctor Service made mobile by aviation. Backers of the idea included Hudson Fysh and his new QANTAS airways. The Flying Doctor Service allowed the remote inland area's of Australia to be settled while still having access to such modern aspects of civilisation such as practised medicene. Distance was no longer life threatening. The Flying Doctor is the forerunner for the, Air Ambulances in WWII, evac helicopters in Korea and Vietnam, the Westpac Emergency helicopters that patrol the coast and the Rugby grounds for injuries and rescues. This is the most noble and after transport the greatest application aviation has been put to. It started in Cloncurry.

Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness ( both ex AFC ) for beginning one of the worlds oldest airlines. Hudson Fysh in particular who remained with the business and built an airline that is not only one of the largest airlines on the planet in the year 2000 and with the industries most enviable accident record ( and one celebrated in cinema ). Transport is the greatest application aviation has been put to, QANTAS has been a leader in people transport, service and safety right through it's early origins to it's modern day history.

Ross Smith ( ex AFC ), connecting the Northern Hemisphere with the Southern Hemisphere in 1919 when he and his brother flew from England to Australia and for connecting West with East in 1918 when he flew to India. Shrinking the globe with speed in 1919 and opening up cloistered little Europe to the idea that the Southern Hemisphere was reachable without taking 6 months. The globe shrunk at that point drastically.


Other mentions,

Charles Kingford-Smith and Bert Hinkler ( both ex RFC ) connecting the North hemisphere to the South hemisphere and the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere, they match Lindberghs entry in the age of exploration and achievement becoming professional and shrinking the globe with fewer stops for inconveniences like fuel and maintenance.

Sidney Cotton ( ex RNAS ) for designing the Sidcott flying suit which until the advent of the enclosed cockpit and pressurised cabin was the only protection that a pilot had in the first 30 years of aviation. The Sidcott was the enclosed cockpit of early aviation.

Harry Hawker for being the first to work out how to recover an aircraft from a
spin. Very important aspect of aviation.





Surprise surprise, but all those mentioned above are Australian. Quiet achievers?

cam

[Barrett]

Now we're rolling, gang--keep 'em coming.
I should've included Igor Sikorski in my original list.
Kingsford-Smith and Cotton were pioneers fershure, but IMO didn't influence aviation progress the way that, say, the Wrights and Doolittle did. BTW, Cotton's best work was in the '30s, flying clandestine recon missions over Euroland. The fact that the Brit gov't chose to ignore his info only emphasizes how farsighted he was.
Jim: you mean Glenn Curtiss? Certainly a pioneer but his patent fight with the Wrights indicates that he wasn't the innovator they were. Consolidated built the PBY, though both Martin and Curtiss also made flying boats.
Earhart is way over-rated. Her female contemporaries described her aviation skills as "laughable" and in no way up to accomplished aviatrixes such as Jackie Cochran, Ruth Elder, or Katherine Stinson. (How long since you heard "aviatrix"?) Amelia's contribution was to popularize aviation careers for women, thanks to the great PR generated by her publisher husband.
Chance Vought died before WW II; the Corsair was designed by Rex Beisel. BTW: the F4U gets my nomination as greatest (most versatile) fighter of the piston era. First carrier bird with performance equal to or greater than its landbased counterparts. The F-4 Phantom gets the jet title.

Jim,

1. I think Amelia Earhart should be remembered, but was far from the first woman involved in aviation (it may have been Harriet Quimby - at least in the US). While she was an excellent pilot, she was in some ways a product of the media of the time.

2. GLENN Curtiss was the early designer you're thinking of, a competitor of the Wright brothers, and also a pioneer. I believe he was the first to use ailerons on the wings, as opposed to wing-warping. Glenn L. MARTIN learned to fly in 1909, and in 1912 founded Martin Aircraft, which he led for 40 years.

3. The PBY Catalina was a Consolidated aircraft, designed by Isaac Laddon.

4. In late 1918, Curtiss built four NC flying boats, with which the Navy would attempt the Atlantic crossing. Under CDR John H. Towers, NC-1, NC-3, and NC-4 left Newfoundland on 16 May 1919, NC-4, commanded by LCDR Albert C. Read, reached the Azores the next day. Ten days later, it flew on to Lisbon, then to Plymouth, to complete the first Atlantic crossing by air.

5. The lead designer of the Chance Vought F4U Corsair was Rex Biesel.

6. Willy Messerschmitt's name is not spelled with a "d". And it was actually Heinkel who designed the first jet fighter, but he was even less popular with the RLM than Willy!

7. For many reasons, Igor Sikorsky definitely deserves consideration on such a list.

Rich