- Robert Edison Fulton, Jr.
Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. (April 15, 1909-May 7, 2004), was an American
inventor andadventurer . He is known for having traveled around the world on amotorcycle and for severalaviation related inventions, among his 70patent s. Fulton was also a professionalphotographer .EXPLORATIONS: [http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/archive/2004-09/a-2004-09-21-2-1.cfm "Robert Edison Fulton Jr."] . -Voice of America . - September 24, 2004. - Retrieved: 2007-03-27]Biography
Born in
Manhattan ,New York on April 15, 1909 and named forThomas Edison , who was a friend of his father, Robert Fulton, Sr. His father was also a president ofMack Trucks . His maternal grandfather, Ezra Johnson Travis, ranstagecoach lines across the old west after the Civil War and his uncle, Elgin Travis, who took them over from his father, eventually converted the stagecoach routes into bus lines, which became Greyhound Bus Line. As a teenager he was in the elite when he traveled by commercial aircraft fromMiami, Florida , toHavana ,Cuba , in 1921. And then toEgypt whenTutankhamun 's tomb was opened in 1923. He attended middle school at Le Rosey inLausanne, Switzerland for 2 years, then went toExeter andChoate , graduated with a degree inarchitecture fromHarvard in 1931, and spent a further year of architectural study inVienna , at theUniversity of Vienna . Then, at age 23, he traveled 25,000 miles (fromLondon toTokyo in 18 months) on a twin-cylinder Douglas motorcycle, to study architecture around the world. Along the way he shot 40,000 feet of film of his travels, over the year and half period.Martin, Douglas. - New York/Region: [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/nyregion/11FULT.html?ei=5070&en=85157278fee14319&ex=1213675200&pagewanted=print&position= "Robert E. Fulton Jr., an Intrepid Inventor, Is Dead at 95"] . - "New York Times ". - May 11, 2004. - Retrieved: 2008-06-15] [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,777344,00.html "Fulton's Folly, New Version"] . - "TIME". - November 18, 1946. - Retrieved: 2008-06-15]Upon his return he detailed his adventures in a book, "One Man Caravan", telling of being shot at in the
Khyber Pass by Pathan (Pashtun) tribesmen, avoidingIraq i bandits, a night's stay in a Turkish jail, and being a guest ofIndia nraja hs.Fulton, Robert Edison Jr., (1937). - "One Man Caravan". - New York, New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co. - (Reprint: North Conway, N.H.: Whitehorse Press. 1996. ISBN 1884313051)] He went on a lecture tour of the United States, showing his film footage and telling of his journeys. In 1983 he produced, edited, and released, with his fillmmaking sons, a 90 minute film compiled form his home movies, "The One Man Caravan of Robert E. Fulton, Jr. An Autofilmography". [Fulton, R. E. Jr., (1983). - "The One Man Caravan of Robert E. Fulton, Jr. An Autofilmography". - Newtown, Connecticut: Flying Ridge] Later in life, he revisited his motorcycle journey in another film program retelling of the epic trip, "Twice Upon A Caravan." For more information on these programs, contact Searchlight Films, Bernardston MA 01337, info@searchlightfilms.comHe then went to work for Pan American Airways, using his skills in cinematography to document the Pan American Clipper (flying boat) air routes from New York to South America and across the Pacific Ocean, just prior to World War II. He then formed a company to manufacture aeronautical equipment, Continental Inc.
He married for the first time in 1935, to Florence (Sally) Coburn (1912-1996) of Greenwich, CT, with whom he had three sons - Robert E., III (1939-2002), Travis (1943- ) of Snowmass CO, and Rawn (1946- ) of Bernardston MA. Divorced in 1982, he later married Anne Boireau Smith of Nantes, France (1926-2002). He died at his home in
Newtown, Connecticut on May 7, 2004 .Inventions
During
World War II , Fulton invented the first ground-based aerial flight trainer. But when the military wasn't interested, he modified it into a training aid for aerial gunners, the first fixed aerial gunnery trainer, called the "gunairstructor".After the war, he designed and built an airplane that was convertible to be an automobile, called the "Airphibian", because of the time it took to travel to demonstrate the gunnery trainer.
Charles Lindbergh flew it 1950 and, although it was not a commercial success (financial costs of air worthiness certification forced him to relinquish control of the company, which never developed it further), it is now in theSmithsonian .During the 1950s, after studying the way trains in Britain pick up mail bags by the side of the tracks, Fulton developed the
Fulton surface-to-air recovery system , also called the "Skyhook" for theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA), theUnited States Navy , and theUnited States Air Force . It was a system that was used to pick up people from the ground with an aircraft. [https://www.cia.gov/csi/kent_csi/docs/v38i5a11p.htm| "Robert Fulton's Skyhook and Operation Coldfeet"] . -Central Intelligence Agency . - Retrieved: 2007-03-27] [http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=1239 "Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System"] . -National Museum of the United States Air Force . - Retrieved: 2007-03-27] It was used by the United States Air Force until 1996. A sister invention for Navy frogmen was called "Seasled".References
Further reading
*Johnson, Allan. - [http://www.thestar.com/Wheels/article/184754 "An Adventure Tour Worthy of the Name"] . - "
The Toronto Star ". - February 24, 2007. - p.G.25.
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