The greatest aircraft designer of all time.

oldironside

oldironside

As it says in the title, in your opinion who was the greatest aircraft designer of all time.

Although there are candidates from WW1 (Tony Fokker?), I personally think the winner will be from the golden age from the 1930s to the 1950s and personally I would nominate RJ Mitchell. Although he died young and we probably didn't see the best of him, he left a legacy of wildly different designs, from the biggest seaplanes to the Schneider Trophy sprint freaks. And of course this thing.

300px-Ray_Flying_Legends_2005-1.jpg


You could also offer up Sir Sidney Camm, Roy Chadwick, Kurt Tank, Kelly Johnson, Alexander Yakovlev, Marcelle Bloch/Dassault...

I don't think Willi Messerschmitt would make even the final short list since the 108 and 109 were mostly designed by Robert Lusser (who also gave us the He 219), and Messerschmitt's real legacy is the 210/310/410.

So, who was the best designer?
 
Insider

Insider

Banned
I second Kurt Tank and Kelly Johnson and raise the stakes by Nikolai Nikolaevich Polikarpov, and Robert Ludvigovich Bartini.
 

Just Leo

Wilbur and Orville. They had the smallest body of work on which to base their design, including engine and propellers, also theirs. They also had a small engineering department, 2.

Apart from them, there are at least 30-50 great designers.

RJ Mitchell had the help of Beverly Shenstone and his German papers to help him design the Spitfire wing, while Sir Sydney Camm didn't even know how to pronounce "aerodynamicist" at one point, but picked it up later.
 

Just Leo

jsb said:
P38 to SR71 is a hard act to beat not even thinking about C130.....
Click to expand...

Good thing you're not even thinking about the C-130, because Kelly advised Hall Hibbard to give it a pass because it would ruin the Lockheed Company. Willis Hawkins was chief designer on the team.
 
Insider

Insider

Banned
oldironside said:
Yes, but to start a discussion you need to give us some reasons, some pictures and some poetry.
Click to expand...
Well then to defend my entries: Polikarpov was called the father of fighter because practically every soviet fighter before 1940 was build with his design. + he is responsible for this:
8cc691cef38dc4d6c6ee91e9768484b7.jpg

A slow, ungainly biplane. Most produced, and most versatile aircraft ever, also accidentaly first stealth airplane.

plus, loads of others, mostly successful constructions.

As for Bartini he is probably the most tragic figure among designers rather then best of them. Few of his designs were ever build, but I simply have a softspot for hipersonic flying boats.

Entries of Kelly Johnson and Kurt tank were already covered so I see little point for being redundant. What seems be to missing is that Johnson should be also credited by creation by Skunk Works. A model of aircraft developing company.
 
marathag

marathag

Banned
Ed Heinemann

SBD Dauntless dive bomber
A-26 Invader attack aircraft
AD-1 Skyraider attack aircraft
A2D Skyshark attack aircraft
A-3 Skywarrior/ B-66 Destroyer bomber
A-4 Skyhawk light attack aircraft
DB-7 Boston/A-20 Havoc
BT-1 dive bomber (he invented the perforated Dive flap, modifying the Northrop Gammas to warplanes)
BTD Destroyer
F3D Skyknight night fighter
F4D Skyray carrier fighter aircraft
Douglas Skystreak and Skyrocket research aircraft
Oversaw development of the F-16
And about 10 more aircraft
 

Ramontxo

Donor
From Hurricane to Harrier through Hunter... I do second mister Sydney Camm his aircraft were winning another battle for his country more than forty years after the Battle of Britain. Hard to argue against that.
 

riggerrob

Walter Beech - Staggerwing, Twin Beech, etc.
Greg Bowlus - gliders and camper trailers
Clyde Cessna
Glenn Curtiss - ailerons
Geoffrey DeHavilland
Leroy Grumman
Hugo Junkers - stressed skin consruction
Abraham Karem - Predator drone
Frank Piaseki - heicopters, guitars
Arthur Emmons Raymond - DC series of airliners, NASA, RAND Corporation
Burt Rutan - a wide variety of experimentals including Voyager and Space Ship One
Igor Sikorsky - helicopters
Tom Sopwith - long line of fighter planes
C.G. Taylor - Piper Cub, etc.
Orville and Wilbur Wright - wind tunnels and engines
Arthur Young who developed the first Bell helicopters

Homebuilts and kitplanes

Jim Bede - early kitplanes
Curtiss Pitts - aerobatic biplanes
Tom Stoddard Hamilton - Glasair, Glastar, Aerocet, Kodiak and drones
Paul Poberezny - founded EAA
Ray Stitts - Playboy and Poly Fibre fabric
Richard Van Grunsven - RV series of kitplanes
 
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riggerrob

Parachute design is dominated by a handful of inventors, few of whom held engineering degrees.

Dan San Abbott - conical canopy
Hank Asciutto - curved pin, diaper
Bill Booth - throw-out pilot-chute, 3-Ring, Skyhook, tandem
Jean/John Bouchard- tapered canopies based on Jalbert's
Charles Broadwick - Coat-Pack, ripcord, soft links
Francis Xavier Chevrier - AAD
Helmet Cloth - electronic AAD
Leslie Irvin
Domina Jalbert - square canopy
Theo Knacke - OperationPaper Clip and textbooks
Pierre Lemoigne - pulled down apec
Troy Loney - single-pin reserve container
Dan Poynter - Pop-Top container
George Quilter - spiral spring pilot-chute
Francis Rogallo - kites, hang-gliders, and triangular parachutes
Steve Snyder - Sentinel AAD
Greg Yarbenet - re-invented slider

But Domina Jalbert dominates the skydiving because all modern canopies are based on his patents.

Sorry if my list mostly contains American parachute designers, but textbooks on British, French, German, Russian, etc. parachute development are not readily available here.
 
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