There has been threads about the greatest aircraft, usually fighters, ad infinitum. But aircraft don't make themselves. Like soylent green, it's people. Aircraft are designed by more than one person mostly, but not always. But there is usually one man who is the designer of note. Who is most worthy of mention, of all those designers of note? I can only think of forty or fifty great ones, and sometimes, they goofed. How many just pop into your head?
Greatest aircraft designer of all time?
- Thread starter Just Leo
- Start date
Deleted member 1487
Kurt Tank definitely deserves some note for his achievements. He's the only individual designer with a track record of success that deserves note; I don't include Messerschmitt because of the dud that was the Me210 that was his fault. Plus Messerschmitt had nothing to do with the 262.
Kelly Johnson out of Lockheed.
A few highlights:
Model 10/12/14 Electra airliner
PV-1
Constellation airliner
P-38
P-80
P2V
U-2
F-104
SR-71
Started out designing twin piston engine airliners (the aircraft that Amelia Earhart was flying was a modified Electra) and ended his direct hands-on designers role with the Blackbird.
Led the Skunk Works throughout the Cold War (Have Blue, F-117, C-130, etc).
A few highlights:
Model 10/12/14 Electra airliner
PV-1
Constellation airliner
P-38
P-80
P2V
U-2
F-104
SR-71
Started out designing twin piston engine airliners (the aircraft that Amelia Earhart was flying was a modified Electra) and ended his direct hands-on designers role with the Blackbird.
Led the Skunk Works throughout the Cold War (Have Blue, F-117, C-130, etc).
You are absolutley right. He was the most overrated designer of all time. Here's an example of something he designed on his own.
The insert is the pilot who was killed along with eight passengers when this dog crashed.
The 109 would have been a real dog without Robert Lusser, and the 210 was a piece of junk because Lusser had already left for Heinkel and was working on the He219.
As for the best? Mitchell. Almost a 100% hit rate. Supermarine S4, S5, S6, S6b, Stranraer, Walrus and... what was that single engine fighter he designed? I forget.
Unfortunately (on many levels) his life and career were cut short and it's an open question what he could have achieved had he had Sydney Camm's life span. Given his talent for high speed flight, I for one believe Britain would have been first through the sound barrier.
James Martin of Martin Baker. However since non of his designs made it into production he probably won't count. However the ejection seats almost make up for that.
James Martin certainly counts. He designed the greatest fighter that never was, the MB-5, as always, without encouragement from the gummint.
Kurt Tank also designed the FW-200 Condor, of broken fuselage fame, as well as the Pulqui II and HAL Marut.
I'm glad someone mentioned Orville and Wilbur, who started it all, and with a thoughtful scientific approach.
How many aircraft did Ed Heinemann actually design? I can't count that high.
Sir Sydney Camm had an assistant with a hanky to deal with the people Camm talked to tears to.
Roy Chadwick also created the Tudor, the famous disappearing airliner that took Mary Coningham away.
Clarence didn't design the Electra, he designed the tail. Lloyd Stearman and Hall Hibbard did the rest. He built it with a twin tail, a design feature he carried over to the SR-71. I heard he went to good school.
Kurt Tank also designed the FW-200 Condor, of broken fuselage fame, as well as the Pulqui II and HAL Marut.
I'm glad someone mentioned Orville and Wilbur, who started it all, and with a thoughtful scientific approach.
How many aircraft did Ed Heinemann actually design? I can't count that high.
Sir Sydney Camm had an assistant with a hanky to deal with the people Camm talked to tears to.
Roy Chadwick also created the Tudor, the famous disappearing airliner that took Mary Coningham away.
Clarence didn't design the Electra, he designed the tail. Lloyd Stearman and Hall Hibbard did the rest. He built it with a twin tail, a design feature he carried over to the SR-71. I heard he went to good school.
Barnes Wallis.
A bit more of a theoretician, but his career went from rigid Airships > Supersonic, variable geometry flying wings (at the theoretical & wind tunnel level anyway).
Honourable mentions to Bill Strang and Joe Sutter. No one man designs an aircraft, but one took a leading role in the most stunning thing ever to fly, the other's plane changed the way people fly.
A bit more of a theoretician, but his career went from rigid Airships > Supersonic, variable geometry flying wings (at the theoretical & wind tunnel level anyway).
Honourable mentions to Bill Strang and Joe Sutter. No one man designs an aircraft, but one took a leading role in the most stunning thing ever to fly, the other's plane changed the way people fly.
I think More importantly James Martin developed the Ejector seat - which has a club with about 7500 members
Roy Chadwick also ended his life in a Tudor - but that was due to piss poor maintenance.
Arnold
Jim Bede
Bill Booth (hand-deploy pilot-chute, 3-Ring release, etc.)
Clyde Cessna
Helmut Cloth (modern electronic AADs)
Marcel Dassault (pretty French airplanes)
Fairchild
Domina Jalbert (ram-air parachutes)
Withold Kasper
Bill Lear
Jack Northrup
Claude Piel (pretty wooden airplanes)
George Quilter (some of his designs were packed into Mr. Martin's ejection seats)
Francis Rogallo
Ray Stitts
Burt Rutan (round the world Voyager)
John Thorp
Tupolev
Richard van Grusven
Steve Wittman
Greg Yarbenet (reinvented the slider during the 1970s)
Zlin
Jim Bede
Bill Booth (hand-deploy pilot-chute, 3-Ring release, etc.)
Clyde Cessna
Helmut Cloth (modern electronic AADs)
Marcel Dassault (pretty French airplanes)
Fairchild
Domina Jalbert (ram-air parachutes)
Withold Kasper
Bill Lear
Jack Northrup
Claude Piel (pretty wooden airplanes)
George Quilter (some of his designs were packed into Mr. Martin's ejection seats)
Francis Rogallo
Ray Stitts
Burt Rutan (round the world Voyager)
John Thorp
Tupolev
Richard van Grusven
Steve Wittman
Greg Yarbenet (reinvented the slider during the 1970s)
Zlin
Admiral Beez
Banned
Marcel Bloch. His MB.157 was arguably the fastest fighter of its day at 441 mph http://www.aviastar.org/air/france/bloch_mb-157.php Followed by his great Mirage fighters.
Jiro Horikoshi deserves mention.
Jiro Horikoshi deserves mention.
Admiral Beez
Banned
Don't forget Folland designed the S.E.5a, IMO the RAF's best WW1 fighter. It amazes me how these guys could transition from wood and dope to jets.
