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Albin K. Longren
On the 100th Anniversary of Kansas Aviation

Biographic Notes

Sept. 2, 2011

by Richard Harris, (316)371-9079
Kansas Aviation Historian
for the Kansas 150 Speakers Bureau
of the Kansas Humanities Council

Photos Courtesy
American Aviation Historical Society
Click to enlarge.

On Sept. 2, 1911, Albin Kasper Longren, of Topeka, became the first successful Kansas aviator and airplane-maker to actually fly in Kansas (for photo of Longren's first plane, in flight, click here ). Longren, with the help of correspondence courses in business and engineering, was a self-taught engineer and machinist, who appears to have made a huge mark on aviation, without being terribly conspicuous.

(The following info is chiefly based on research by his main biographer & champion, Rev. Richard "Dick" Taylor, of Berryton, KS (near Topeka), now of Andover, KS; supplemented by other reputable historic sources):

Among Longren's companies, employment, or consulting clients, are...:

1911-1914
Young Aviation co., Topeka, KS (built 1st planes)
(his own company?)

1914-1918, and
1919-1924 (bankruptcy)
1924-1930s
Longren Aircraft, Topeka, KS - moved 1930 to Kansas City, MO; moved 1938 to Torrance, CA (his own company, with other workers; apparently concurrent with intermittent employment elsewhere.) (Photos at right. Exterior shot is of building as it appears in downtown Topeka, today.)

July 1918 - June 1919
U.S. Army aviation research center, McCook Field, Dayton Ohio (ultimately as Chief Inspector) (NOTE: A glowing 1941 letter of reference from Lt.Col. F.O. Carrol of the Exp.[erimental?] Engineering Section of the War Dept. Air Corps, at McCook's neighbor, Wright Field, says "Some of the engineers of the Matieral Div. have known Mr. Longren for the past 12 years...," implying that Longren was actively engaged with them since 1929.

1927
Spartan Aircraft, Tulsa, OK (Spartan C-3 biplane; Spartan would later be a pioneer in aluminum-shell light airplanes, with its Spartan Executive.)

Feb 1930-?
Butler Aircraft, Kansas City, MO
(design consultant on Butler Blackhawk)

1933
Luscombe Aircraft, Kansas City, MO
(design/manufacturing engineer on Luscombe Phantom, pace-setting design of modern aluminum-shell aircraft).

1934-1939
Cessna Aircraft, Wichita, KS
(Vice President; provided Cessna with his technology and use of his patents; Cessna, in 1940s, lept ahead of competition by being first major light-plane maker to switch to aluminum-shell aircraft, along with neighboring Beechcraft. Those two companies survived the general aviation "shakeout" of the 1940s/1950s, quickly becoming the dominant force in light planes, rivaled only by Piper.)

1943
LONGREN RETIRES during World War II
(newspaper clipping says his techniques have been adapted by Douglas, Lockheed, Vega, Northrup [Northop?] & Boeing in dozens of fighters & bombers. It is quite likely Longren consulted for one or more of them; in 1938 he moved his business to the Los Angeles area industrial suburb of Torrance, California, in the middle of most of those companies' major aircraft factories, where he remained until his death in 1959.)

HISTORY of Albin Longren & his work:

On Sept. 2, 1911, Albin Longren flew his "Longren Flyer" (a scratch-built imitation of the Curtiss Pusher) from a field just outside of Topeka, Kansas.

NOTE: Although Kansas-bred Clyde Cessna had flown months earlier in HIS home-built plane, it was from the Salt Plains at Jet, near Enid, Oklahoma -- NOT in Kansas. (Cessna DID return to Kansas the following year, beginning a legendary aviation career, there.)

Over the next several years -- with a break for military service during World War I -- Longren would produce a few dozen planes, including America's first composite-shell aircraft -- today's "latest" cutting-edge construction technique for aircraft.

Longren's military service in late World War I (and shortly thereafter) included a stint at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio (home of the Wright Brothers) which was the military's main aviation-research center. Longren reportedly rose to the lofty status of Chief Inspector, earning high praise from superiors, before returning home in about 1919.

It is worth noting that Longren was already apparently showing interest in "monocoque" / "semi-monocoque" construction techniques -- essentially creating a hollow-shell airplane whose exterior skin was also its structure. This technique, once mastered and accommodated by the availability of "aircraft grade" aluminum during World War II, would fundamentally change the way planes were built.

Longren's postwar attempts to revive the Longren airplane company were noteworthy, particularly for the Longren AK Fibre Sport -- America's first "composite-shell" plane manufactured in quantity -- of which he produced about 10 just after World War I. The sleek, 1-2 place, open-ockpit biplane, which managed 87mph on just a 60-horsepower Anzani radial engine, used a tubular fuselage of rolled plywood and "molded fiber laminate" (some say vulcanized rubber was used) . The wings folded quickly for towing and storage. (For a common promotional photo posted on Aerofiles.com -- showing wings stowed, and tail hoisted on a pair of support wheels for towing -- click here.)

In perhaps his most important contribution to aviation, Longren managed to develop a superior method for shaping the complex curves of the modern, aluminum-shell airplane, by "stretch forming" the aluminum sheeting over wooden forms.

The result was a much-faster, much-cheaper way to build aluminum-shell airplanes, radically increasing their practicality and profitability, almost certainly a key factor in the shift to such airplane design for most of the mid- to late-20th Century -- starting mainly with World War II, greatly increasing America's modern plane-manufacturing productivity during the critical war years.

Through a bankruptcy in 1924, Longren's assets -- including his airplane designs and manufacturing machinery -- were largely sold off to the Alexander Film Co. , in Denver. They used Longren's assets to start the Alexander Aircraft Co., soon one of the world's top sellers of airplanes -- igniting the legendary career of airplane designer Al Mooney -- who would later bring Culver Aircraft Co. to Kansas (in Wichita), and twice start Mooney Aircraft there, as well. Today, the still-busy Mooney Aircraft Co. (now in Texas) remains one of the world's most respected lightplane manufacturers).

Yet bankruptcy did not end the inventive entrepreurship of Albin Longren, who continued to innovate newer, better airplane design and construction techniques. During the decade before the war, Longren appears to have been a technical consulting vagabond, traveling from aircraft company to aircraft company, sharing his technological insights, particularly about aircraft manufacturing technology.

In the early 1930s, Longren worked for Luscombe Aircraft, in Kansas City, developing the Luscombe Phantom, the first popular light plane to use aluminum-shell design. He also served as consultant to other companies, as well.

In the mid/late-1930s, Longren joined Cessna Aircraft as Vice President -- trading in rights to use his patents and inventions. During the following years, Cessna would leap ahead of most competitors largely on the strength of its exceptional expertise -- apparently first provided by Longren -- in manufacturing modern aluminum-shell airplanes.

Alumni of Longren's company went on to found small aircraft manufacturers throughout the Kansas City area, ulimately attracting World War II factories (of North American, Allison and others) that built many of the key airplanes (like B-25 Mitchell bombers) and airplane engines of the war.

But his greatest influence seems to have been in providing a technology to ALL of aviation that made the modern airplane much more practical and affordable to produce, improving the economics and popularity of aviation, worldwide.

TODAY, the industry is just beginning to adopt his even more advanced notion: carbon-fiber composite-shell aircraft -- first developed in America by Longren around World War I -- now sweeping the aviation world.

For more information, see:

EarlyAviators-Org

Albin K. Longren - earlyaviators-com

Albin K. Longren

KansasHistoricalSociety

Albin K. Longren - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society

Albin Longren - Kansas Historical Society

Cool Things - Longren's Biplane - Kansas Historical Society

- on KansasMemory-org:

Albin K. Longren - Kansas Memory

Albin K. Longren airplane - Kansas Memory

Albin K. Longren's first flight - Kansas Memory

Albin Longren's first airplane - Kansas Memory

Longren aircraft factory, Topeka, Kansas - Kansas Memory-org

New Longren airplane - Kansas Memory-org

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

TOPEKA CAPITAL-JOURNAL

'Birdman' took flight 100 years ago CJOnline.com

'Birdman' took flight 100 years ago - Topix

ALBIN K. LONGREN Search Topeka, KS CJOnline.com

ALBIN LONGREN Search Topeka, KS CJOnline.com

"Topeka Remembers" VIDEO - CJOnline.com
- multiple videos showing Longren planes
- and other Topeka history.

WICHITA EAGLE & BEACON

Kansas 1901-1911 Reform and Progression Wichita Eagle

LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD

PHOTO: A postcard showing Albin K. Longren taking his first flight - LJWorld.com

AUGUSTA CHRONICLE

ALBIN K. LONGREN Search Augusta The Augusta Chronicle

LegendsOfKansas-com

Historic People of Kansas Index - Page 4

MILITARY_work

AFHSO.af.mil-AFD-101101-028.pdf

AvHistMILITARY_KansasAvPioneers_cQOoso06 oo 1-PDF

DUCTED FAN RESEARCH - MILITARY

Answers-com

What airplane manufactures did Albin Longren work for?

PATENTS by Albin Longren (probably only a partial list)

Free Patent Search online: search for "Albin Longren"

Document	Document Title
2006468	Airplane fuselage
1471906	Method of forming curved bodies from fiber sheets
1861219	Airplane construction
1498050	Airplane-control-surface rib connection
1541976	Fuselage
2531080	Chair tray
2428890	Metal stretching press which straightens and moves work edges into drawing chucks
2428891	Controur grinder
2767767	Method and apparatus for straightening integrally reinforced metal extrusions