THE COLLECTION
The Visionaries
The Entrepreneurs and Artists Who Built an Industry
The story of early aviation in the United States isn't just about planes. It's primarily about people. The people included, first of all, those men and women whose imagination and courage allowed them not only to dream, but to do. And what did they do? They built companies. They built airplanes and engines. But mostly, they built the future.
Today, we have much to learn from what they did. And perhaps most importantly, we have the opportunity to be inspired by them, because the future of aviation is always being written.
The People Behind the Airplanes
J. Don and D. M. Alexander1885–1955 and 1893–1971The film-advertising brothers who built airplanes because no one would sell them any
A. Francis Arcier1891–1969The engineer behind the Wacos of the 1930s
Walter H. Beech1891–1950The pilot and salesman who led Travel Air
Clyde V. Cessna1879–1954The monoplane man from the Salt Plains
E. L. Cord1894–1974The automobile man who put Stinson and Lycoming under one roof
Sherman M. Fairchild1896–1971The camera inventor who built airplanes to carry his cameras
Major Reuben H. Fleet1887–1975The Army major who started the air mail and built Consolidated Aircraft
Charles W. "Charlie" Meyers1896–1972The test pilot behind the Great Lakes Sport Trainer
Russell Nicholas and Howard BeazleyThe garage men who made Marshall, Missouri, an airplane town
Bernard H. Pietenpol1901–1984The Minnesota mechanic who drew an airplane anyone could build
Edward E. Porterfield1890–1948The Kansas City builder who started over
Edward Vernon "Eddie" Rickenbacker1890–1973Race driver, America's ace of aces, and the man who built Eastern Air Lines
Jean A. Roché (1894–1981) and the Aeronca foundersThe Army engineer whose garage-built flivver became the Flying Bathtub
Victor H. Roos1888–1964The most traveled of the pioneers
Jennings W. "Jack" Rosec. 1901–1979The Chicago pilot who built a three-dollar-an-hour biplane
T. Claude Ryan1898–1982The airline pioneer whose trainers taught a nation to fly
Lloyd Stearman1898–1975From the Swallow to the Kaydet
The Stinson FamilyFour flying children, a mother who ran the business, and a name that stayed on airplanes for decadesC. Gilbert Taylor1898–1988The self-taught designer who drew the first Cub and then the Taylorcraft
Clayton Brukner, Sam Junkin and Buck WeaverThree young men, a rented dance hall, and the name on more biplanes than anyone else'sThe People Behind the Engines
Marc Birkigt1878–1953The Swiss engineer whose aluminum V-8 became the American "Hisso"
Ross W. Judson (c. 1881–1946), William R. Angell (1877–1950) and Robert InsleyThe car-engine men who gave America the W670 radial and the little flat-four
Glenn Curtiss and Charles KirkhamTwo engine men from the hills above Keuka Lake, and the V-8 that carried the barnstormers
Henry Ford1863–1947The carmaker whose engine flew the Air Camper and whose name flew on the Trimotor
Ed Heath and the Henderson BrothersTwo Detroit brothers built a four-cylinder motorcycle, and a Chicago flier made it an airplane engine
Albert R. "Al" Jacobs1894–1960The Philadelphia engineer behind the radials pilots call "Shakey Jake"
Bert Kinner1882–1957The self-taught builder who sold Amelia Earhart her first airplane
Charles L. Lawrance1882–1950The Paris-trained architect who gave America the air-cooled radial
Frederick Rentschler (1887–1956) and George Mead (1891–1949)The businessman and the engineer who founded Pratt & Whitney Aircraft and gave America the Wasp
Otto E. SzekelyThe Budapest-born engineer behind the little Szekely radial
William O. Warnerborn 1891The Curtiss draftsman who designed the Scarab and ran the company that bore his nameSee also Browse Aircraft by Type, the engines of the Collection and The Founders’ Tree.