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PIONEERS & DESIGNERS:
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Glenn L. Martin
(Pioneer barnstormer & leading manufacturer, born in Iowa, raised in Liberal, Ks. Powerful force in early aviation development; founded one of the world's first major aircraft manufacturers before World War I -- becoming the world's youngest aircraft manufacturer. Martin's aircraft were among the major pioneering aircraft of early aviation, especially in the U.S.
Martin's family of seaplanes was the greatest in world history -- stretching from early biplanes to the great China Clipper airliners, and giant wartime flying boats. Martin aircraft included important pioneering military bombers in the 1920s and 1930s, and his company's B-26 Marauder was one of the fastest, toughest bombers of World War II.
Among Martin's early employees was designer Donald Douglas -- who later founded industry leader Douglas Aircraft, and designed the Douglas DC-3 -- generally regarded by historians as the most important aircraft in world history. William E. Boeing learned to fly at the Glenn L. Martin flying school in Los Angeles, and the first airplane he owned was a Martin biplane on pontoon floats -- soon somewhat imitated by Boeing's first airplane design: the "B&W" ("Boeing & Westervelt").
After the war, Martin's company became one of the chief sources of U.S. missiles -- including America's giant Titan ICBMs -- and exotic spacecraft. Martin Marietta Corp. recently joined with Lockheed to become Lockheed-Martin, one of America's only three remaining major aircraft manufacturers -- competing with Boeing and Northrop-Grumman.)
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Clyde Cessna
(Pioneer barnstormer & manufacturer; founded one of the world's longest-lived aircraft manufacturers -- and the most prolific. In 1916, set 124-mph U.S. speed record in plane he designed, and designed other renowned racers of the 1930's. First major American manufacturer to use modern, strutless "cantilever" wings -- now used almost exclusively by every major manufacturer, except, ironically, his own company, Cessna Aircraft. Hundreds of thousands of aircraft, in virtually every nation on earth, have carried his name, including the most popular light airplane -- the Cessna 172/Skyhawk -- and the fastest civilian airplane manufactured today, the Citation X bizjet.)
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Emil Matthew "Matty" Laird
(Famed early "boy-wonder" barnstormer; came from Chicago to Wichita, in 1920, and co-founded America's first successful "commercial" airplane company, E.M. Laird Mfg. Co., in Wichita, building his industry-reshaping 3-seat Laird "Swallow" biplane; later returned to Chicago to design famous race planes.)
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Jacob Melvin "Jake" Moellendick
(Oklahoma oil wildcatter, and aviation entrepreneur; co-founded America's first successful "commercial" airplane company, E.M. Laird Mfg. Co., in Wichita; later renamed it Swallow Aircraft Mfg. Co.; the forgotten founding father of the Wichita aviation industry)
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Albin K. Longren
(Topeka aviation pioneer; built Kansas's first airplane, 1911; later designed pioneering-concept planes, leading to the famed Alexander Eaglerock, and America's first composite-shell aircraft. Ended career as V.P. of Cessna)
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Lloyd Stearman
(Harper, KS.; pioneer designer & manufacturer at Laird/Swallow and Travel Air, created Stearman Aircraft (famous for its stout commercial biplanes and military trainers), key leader at Northrop and Boeing; with Charles Varney he revived bankrupt Lockheed; started Lockheed Electra design, and helped with Lockheed Constellation airliner)
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Gerard F. "Jerry" Vultee
(Laird/Swallow craftsman, became Douglas, then Lockheed engineer -- Lockheed's chief engineer by 1928. Designed the Lockheed 8 Sirius for Charles Lindbergh. Left Lockheed in 1930 to start Vultee Aircraft, which -- after his 1938 death -- became Consolidated-Vultee, then Convair, then General Dynamics)
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Walter Beech
(Pulaski, TN.; pioneer racer & manufacturer. Brought speed and luxury to the sky. Moved to Wichita where he worked at E.M. Laird, 1922; managed Swallow, 1924, co-founded and led Travel Air, 1925; founded Beech Aircraft, 1932 -- now Raytheon Aircraft -- with the world's fastest and most luxurious production aircraft; also V.P. of Culver.)
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Olive Ann Beech
(Manufacturing leader; formative in the success of Travel Air, then Beech Aircraft -- which she led upon her husband's death in 1950, for the next 3 decades, before selling it to Raytheon. One of the main forces in making general aviation airplanes attractive to the general public (especially the elite) as personal transportation -- largely responsible for the popularity of business and charter aircraft, and the success of corporate aviation.)
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T. Claude Ryan
(Parsons, Kansas born-and-bred, California-based manufacturing leader. His "Spirit of St. Louis" monoplane -- famously flown by Charles Lindbergh in the first trans-Atlantic solo -- triggered one of the most decisive revolutions in American airplane design: the switch to monoplanes (in place of biplanes). During World War II the Ryan School of Aeronautics Company trained 14,000 Army Air Corps pilots. Though rarely successful, his company would remain a famously unusual and daring innovator in aviation well into the jet age -- with aircraft like the Navy's first jet fighter, jet/propeller hybrid planes, and vertical-takeoff jets.)
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William B. Stout
(Pioneer designer & manufacturer, created Stout Metal Airplane Co. in the Great Lakes area, which produced America's first metal airliner; it later became the famous Ford TriMotor. After leaving Ford, Stout came to Buckley Aircraft in Wichita to try his hand at developing a stainless-steel airplane -- which didn't really work out.)
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Dwayne Wallace
(Clyde Cessna's nephew, revived bankrupt Cessna Aircraft in 1935, designed its most successful rag-wing planes, first all-metal Cessna, and first Cessna twin. Wallace took over a floundering business, and made Cessna #1 in general aviation, and the world aviation industry leader in numbers of aircraft manufactured.)
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Al Mooney
(Brought Culver Aircraft to Wichita, ca.1939; started Mooney Aircraft there, twice; left to work at Lockheed-Georgia on JetStar, Hummingbird V/STOL jet, & C-130 Hercules.)
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Ted Wells
(Design chief for Beech Model 17 Staggerwing, the fastest production plane in the world in 1932, and Model 18 Twin Beech, which pioneered modern hollow-shell all-metal construction in large, popular general aviation aircraft, and became one of the longest continually-built aircraft in world history.)
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Ralph Harmon
(Design chief for Beech Bonanza, the longest continually-manufactured airplane in the world, and metalized Mooney M20 series; popularized modern hollow-shell all-metal construction, trim "flat" engines, and retractable gear in light, high-performance general aviation aircraft.)
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Bill Lear
(Hannibal, MO. Invented car radio, leading to Motorola, and first car stereo cartridge tape player: the "8-track". Invented important avionics for WWII, leading to first major defense electronics contractor, Lear-Siegler. Modified WWII bombers into postwar America's fastest business aircraft. Created the first widely-used business jet, the LearJet, in Wichita -- where it is still built today. Designed the LearStar & LearLiner -- which later became the basis of Canadair Challenger "jumbo-bizjet" and the industry-shaping Bombardier CRJ airliners)
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Jim Bede
(Very controversial Ohio designer/entrepreneur, famous for designing compact, personal high-performance homebuilt aircraft. Developed the BD-1 into the American Yankee, the origins of today's popular, fast Grumman-American/Tiger Aircraft light singles. Aeronautical Engineering degree from Wichita State University. Moved to Newton, Ks. to develop the BD-5 Micro, tiny plane which revolutionized America's interest in single-seat personal planes and experimental aircraft, and excited the "kitplane" movement. With jet engine, BD-5 became world's smallest jet plane.)
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Burt Rutan
(Design engineer for Bede, pioneer of popular canard/composite aircraft, former Beech design chief, where he created America's 1st certificated composite aircraft: the canard/pusher, turboprop-twin Beech Starship; back in Mojave, Calif., in 2004, Rutan won the "X-Prize" for putting the first successful private manned spacecraft into space.)
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Pug Piper
(Son of Piper Aircraft founder William S. Piper. Design chief for Piper, then Beech; helped develop Piper Cherokee family and most modern Pipers; when a hostile takeover forced the Piper family out of their company, Pug Piper moved to Wichita and developed Beech Skipper and Duchess.)
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Julius Earl Schaefer
(Leader of Boeing-Wichita from World War II to the 1960's, Earl turned Wichita's Stearman factory into chief manufacturer of Boeing's B-29 Superfortress -- WWII's most advanced bomber. Helped lead development of the world's first intercontinental jet bomber, the B-47 Stratojet -- and oversaw most production of the B-52 Stratofortress, in Wichita, including all B-52's flying today. Made Wichita the chief manufacturing site for most of the structure of Boeing's most popular airliners -- the 727 and 737 -- though final assembly remained in Seattle.)
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Jack Frye
(Leader of Trans-World Airlines, Kansas City, Ks., was one of the most powerful and influential forces in commercial aviation history. His influence shaped the aircraft and aviation of mass transportation more than almost any other man.)
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PILOTS:
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Amelia Earhart
(First woman to fly the Atlantic, and many other firsts. Raised in Atchinson, Ks. In the 1930's, her flying exploits were world-famous, and inspired women everywhere to believe they could be more than tradition dictated. Profoundly influential in the growth of women in aviation, she also helped found the leading women-pilots' organziation, the "Ninety-Nines." Attempting to be the first woman to fly around the world, Earhart disappeared over the Pacific on the last leg of her flight -- creating one of the most famous mysteries of all time.)
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Clay Lacy
(Kansas-raised king of fast civilian aircraft; former National Air Race champion and Professional Race Pilots Assn. president; leading bizjet entrepreneur; famous supplier of fast planes to Hollywood; flew in various movies; senior editor of Professional Pilot magazine, United Airlines 747 captain, "...and the unchallenged holder of the highest number of flight hours of any active pilot," according to his 2007 biography.)
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Lt. Erwin Bleckley, U.S. Army Signal Corps
(Wichita-bred son of fortunate parents, volunteered in World War I as an aerial observer, and earned America's first Medal of Honor for a combat aviator, at the cost of his life, for attempting valiantly to provide lifesaving aid to "the Lost Battallion" -- an American army unit trapped in the Argonne Forest, being annihilated by surrounding enemy forces. Flying repeatedly into the battle area, lower and lower into a hail of deadly enemy fire, to precisely drop desperately needed supplies, and get a clearer picture of the situation, he and his pilot were finally shot down. By the wreckage of his plane, the dying Bleckley struggled to scrawl out maps that eventually led to the rescue of the battered battalion's survivors.
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Col. James Jabara, USAF
(Wichita-born son of Lebanese immigrants, the short, eyesight-handicapped Jabara insisted on becoming a military aviator, going to extraordinary lengths to earn his wings. Was a victorious P-51 fighter pilot in late World War II, then flew the F-86 SabreJet during the Korean War, becoming America's first jet ace (5 confirmed shoot-downs), and eventually a triple ace, the second-highest scoring U.S. ace in the war. Later trained U.S. fighter pilots, and served as supersonic fighter test pilot, and early unit commander of America's fastest supersonic jet fighters and bombers. Known for exceptional pilot airmanship and marksmanship (the Air Force Academy annually issues its Jabara Award for the most superlative airmanship in the Air Force). Became youngest Colonel in U.S. Air Force. Widely expected to become youngest Air Force general, but died in accident just before scheduled transfer to VietNam War command post.)
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Alvin "Tex" Johnston
(Raised Admire, Ks., nicknamed "Tex" for his western-style attire, Johnston was one of the most famous test pilots of all time, and Boeing's chief test pilot during the 1950's. Raised and schooled in Kansas, including aeronautical engineering at Kansas State University and mechanical training at Spartan School of Aeronautics in neighboring Oklahoma, and began his flying career in Kansas. Test-flew P-47, P-51, Bell XP-59A Airacomet (America's first jet), Mach-busting X-1 rocketplane, B-47 Stratojet bomber (in Wichita), B-52 Stratofortress, the KC-135 tanker and Boeing 707 jetliner, Bell helicopters, and more. Showing off to airline executives, Tex shocked the world by rolling a Boeing 707 completely upside-down, then righting it. In 1946, he won the National Air Races in a modified P-39 Airacobra. In 1964, he took charge of Boeing's Atlantic Test Center, managing its NASA Saturn S-1C/Apollo moon-rocket programs until 1968.)
(NAHF)
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Gen. Paul Tibbets, USAF
(Commander of the B-29 "Enola Gay," which dropped the first atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan, August 1945; came to Wichita's McConnell AFB in the 1950's to oversee development of the world's first intercontinental jet bomber -- the B-47 Stratojet -- at neighboring Boeing-Wichita. Played a major role in the development of modern air-to-air refueling.)
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Gen. Robert Cardenas, USAF
(Key U.S. military aviator from WWII to the jet age; immigrated to U.S. from Mexico at age 5. Bomber pilot in WWII, piloted the B-29 that carried Chuck Yeager's Bell X-1 aloft to "break the sound barrier," and was put in command of the X-1 program. Cardenas flew many other major experimental missions, including the Northrop Flying Wing -- with which he buzzed Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington D.C., at the request of President Truman. After a combat tour, leading the 18th Fighter Wing in F-105 raids over Vietnam, Cardenas came to Wichita in 1966 to command McConnell Air Force Base during the Vietnam War, when McConnell was one of the main training bases for F-105 Thunderchief combat pilots -- and one of America's three active Titan ICBM nuclear missile centers. His last job was as chief of the military's nuclear war target-selection program.).
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Gen. Joe Engle, USAF/ANG
(Joined NASA's X-15 rocket-plane program in 1963, becoming America's youngest "astronaut" at 32. Commanded 2nd Space Shuttle mission, Nov.1981, becoming the 1st person to hand-fly an aircraft from outer space to a landing -- becoming, at Mach 25, the fastest aircraft pilot, ever. Commanded the 1985 five-man crew of Shuttle Flight STS-511, which performed the first successful in-orbit rendezvous with, and repair of, a satellite.
NAHF
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