- Fred Weick
Fred Ernest Weick (1899—
July 8 1993 ) was one of theUnited States ' earliest aviation pioneers, working as an airmail pilot,research engineer , and aircraft designer. A contemporary of aviation legendsCharles Lindbergh andAmelia Earhart , he did not receive the same attention as his more glamorous colleagues yet the contributions he brought to the country's struggling aircraft industry arguably outstripped any of his peers.A 1922 graduate of the University of Illinois, he was one of the first university graduates to apply his degree to a career in aeronautics. Weick was also one of the first engineers hired by the original U.S. Air Mail Service. His efforts in the early 1920s to establish emergency fields for night-flying mail pilots were a major challenge.
Weick helped design the first
wind tunnel devoted to full-scalepropeller research and wrote atextbook on propeller design that became a classic. During that period, Weick worked for theNational Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at itsLangley Aeronautical Laboratory , inHampton, Virginia .It was also at Langley that Weick headed the development of
streamlined , low-drag engine cowling technology that was to advance aircraft performance dramatically. The NACA cowling first revolutionized civil air transport by making aircraft faster and more profitable. It also found application on thebombers and fighters ofWorld War II . For this engineering breakthrough, he won the prestigiousCollier Trophy for NACA in 1929.The
experimental airplane he built in the early 1930s demonstrated Weick's passion for safety. His goal was to make flying as easy and safe as driving the family auto. In addition to the integrated controls for ease of flying, he incorporated thetricycle landing gear that later became standard on most of the world's aircraft.Later in the 1930s, he improved on that design with the
Ercoupe , the two-seat, all-metal, low-wing aircraft that was so easy and safe to fly that many students mastered it in five hours or less. Half of the 6,000 Ercoupes built were still flying at the time of Weick's death. In February 1946, he received theFawcett Aviation Award for the greatest contribution to the scientific advancement of private flying.Weick joined
Texas A&M University in 1948. There, he worked on the design and development of the Ag-1 crop duster, and designed the Ag-3, predecessor to thePiper PA-25 Pawnee series. He joined Piper in 1957 as director and chief engineer of their development center, remaining there until hisretirement at age 70. In addition to the Pawnee, Weick co-designed Piper's Cherokee line of personal and business lightplanes.Weick died on
Thursday ,July 8 ,1993 , inVero Beach, Florida .References
* cite book
author=Weick, Fred E. and Hansen, James R.
title=From the Ground Up
publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press
location = Washington D.C.
year=1988
id=ISBN 0-87474-950-6|
* [http://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Dictionary/Weick/DI125.htm "Fred Weick"] "US Centennial of Flight Commission", retrieved January 12, 2006
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