Frank Piasecki

Infobox Person
name=Frank Piasecki


caption=Frank Piasecki (L) receives the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan
birth_date= Birth date|1919|10|24|
birth_place=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
death_date= death date and age|2008|02|11|1919|10|24
death_place= Main Line, Pennsylvania [ [http://www.philly.com/philly/business/homepage/15528637.html Helicopter pioneer Piasecki dies] ]

Frank Piasecki (October 24, 1919 – February 11, 2008) was the pioneer of the tandem rotor helicopter.

Biography

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to an immigrant Polish tailor, Piasecki worked for autogyro manufacturers while still in high school and studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania before graduating with a bachelor's degree from New York University. In 1940, he formed PV Engineering Forum with his Penn classmate, Howard Venzie. This was the beginning of what became a small aeronautical company, Piasecki Helicopter. He built a single-person, single-rotor helicopter designated the PV-2 and test-flew it on April 11, 1943. This helicopter impressed the US Navy sufficiently to win Piasecki a development contract. [Wall Street Journal, February 16-17 2008, pA6] The name PV Engineering was changed to Piasecki Helicopter Corporation in 1946.

Piasecki invented the concept of the tandem, front and rear, rotor design. After the war, Piasecki received a contract to build several military prototypes and this design principle came to be used in a number of helicopters that were very successful in both military and civilian use. These include the Piasecki H-21, which entered service in the 1950s, the Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight, and the CH-47 Chinook. After a boardroom dispute, Piasecki left Piasecki Helicopter in 1955 and formed the Piasecki Aircraft Company.

The name Piasecki Helicopter was changed to the Vertol Aircraft Corporation (from vertical takeoff and landing) in 1956. [Spenser 1998. p.160-162.] In 1960, Vertol was purchased by the Boeing Company and became the Boeing Vertol Division. In 1987 Boeing Vertol gained its current name of Boeing Helicopters.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan awarded Piasecki the country's highest technical honor, the National Medal of Technology. In 2005 Piasecki received the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Lifetime Achievement award.

Piasecki was married to Vivian O'Gara Weyerhaeuser in December 1958. They had seven children, Nicole, Frederick, John, Lynn, Frank, Michael, and Gregory.

Piasecki died at his home on February 11, 2008 after a series of strokes. He was 88.

See also

* Piasecki Helicopter
* Piasecki Aircraft Corporation
* Boeing Helicopters

References

* Spenser, Jay P. "Whirlybirds, A History of the U.S. Helicopter Pioneers". University of Washington Press, 1998. ISBN 0-295-97699-3.

External links

* [http://www.piasecki.com Piasecki Aircraft Corporation web site]
* [http://nationalaviation.blade6.donet.com/components/content_manager_v02/view_nahf/htdocs/menu_ps.asp?NodeID=-911146831&group_ID=1134656385&Parent_ID=-1 Frank Piasecki biography on National Aviation Hall of Fame site]
* [http://www.ainonline.com/news/single-news-page/article/piasecki-passes-on-but-his-pioneering-work-lives/?no_cache=1&cHash=107a736b5d Summary of Frank's aviation legacy from AIN online]