Gene Salvay

Last updated • 2 min readFrom Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia
Gene Salvay
Born(1919-11-15)November 15, 1919
DiedApril 8, 2016(2016-04-08) (aged 96)
NationalityAmerican
EducationCurtiss-Wright Technical Institute
OccupationAircraft engineer
Employer(s)No Am Aviation (Rockwell)
Lockheed Aviation (Skunk Works)
Known forAircraft design
SpouseBetty Mae Goodman
Parent(s)Israel David Salvay
Anna Salvay

Melvin Eugene Salvay (November 15, 1919 April 8, 2016) was an American aircraft engineer.

Contents

Early life

Salvay was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Gene's father, Israel David Salvay (b:1889 in Veisiejai, Lithuania) was a fashion designer and pattern maker; his mother, Anna (Kiansky) Salvay (b:1895 in Starodub Russia) worked as a seamstress in order to get her sons, Seymour Nathan Salvay (b:1916; Hump Pilot in WWII and, later, Vice President of Milgram Food Stores, Kansas City, MO) and Gene through high school and training as aeronautical engineers.

Education

Salvay graduated Central High School, Kansas City, Missouri, in 1936. That same year, he won 1st place nationally in the Fisher Body coach-building contest with a model of a horse-drawn carriage. The next year, he won 2nd place nationally in the Fisher Body auto-design contest. He continued his education at Curtiss-Wright Technical School, Glendale Airport, California from which he received his engineering degree in Spring 1941: Design courses at Curtiss-Wright were given at the school's campus in Glendale; its more technical engineering courses were given at Caltech.

Career

Salvay went to work for Rearwin, designing the Rearwin Skyranger, later the Commonwealth Skyranger. During World War II, Salvay went to work at North American Aviation in Kansas City developing the B-25 Mitchell. Salvay partnered with a fellow North American Aviation engineer Stark to design the Salvay-Stark Skyhopper in 1944. Initially planned to be a production aircraft, it became an early post-war Homebuilt aircraft. He also helped develop the Morrisey "Nifty", which was the basis for the later Varga Kachina aircraft. Salvay later became the chief engineer for North American Sabreliner [1]

Salvay became the Director of Structural Design for the B-1 Lancer bomber. Later Salvay became director of Lockheed's Trans Atmospheric Vehicle program.[ citation needed ]

Salvay encouraged Australian aircraft engineers to work with American companies to share experience. [2]

Family life

In 1952, Salvay married Betty May Goodman. [3] In 1964, Salvay moved to Encino, California. [4]

Salvay died in April 2016 at the age of 96. [5]

Related Research Articles

The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and various supplier companies, the company was immediately the country's largest aviation firm and built more than 142,000 aircraft engines for the U.S. military during World War II. Today, it no longer makes aircraft but makes many related components, particularly actuators, aircraft controls, valves, and surface-treatment services. It also supplies the commercial, industrial, defense, and energy markets; it makes parts for commercial and naval nuclear power systems, industrial vehicles, and oil- and gas-related machinery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter M. Bowers</span> American journalist

Peter M. Bowers was an aeronautical engineer, airplane designer, and a journalist and historian specializing in the field of aviation.

Rearwin Airplanes was a series of US airplane-manufacturing businesses founded by Andrew ("Rae") Rearwin in 1928. Rae Rearwin was an American businessman who had developed several successful business ventures in the Salina, Kansas area in the early 20th century. Although he had no experience with aircraft manufacturing, he felt that he could succeed with his solid business acumen. With his two sons, Ken and Royce, he hired some engineers and built the Ken-Royce in a garage in Salina. The business moved to the Fairfax Airport in Kansas City, Kansas, and went through several variations before it was sold to Commonwealth Aircraft in 1942, which went bankrupt in 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bert Kinner</span> American aircraft engine designer

Winfield Bertrum "Bert" Kinner was an American aircraft engine designer and designer of the first folding wing aircraft. Kinner founded Kinner Airplane & Motor Corporation in Glendale, California which produced radial engines and aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commonwealth Skyranger</span> Type of aircraft

The Commonwealth Skyranger, first produced as the Rearwin Skyranger, was the last design of Rearwin Aircraft before the company was purchased by a new owner and renamed Commonwealth Aircraft. It was a side-by-side, two-seat, high-wing taildragger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swallow Airplane Company</span>

The Swallow Airplane Company was an early manufacturer of airplanes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rearwin Speedster</span> Type of aircraft

The Rearwin Speedster was a two-seat, high-wing, sport aircraft produced by Rearwin Airplanes Inc. in the United States in the 1930s.

Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology is a college within Saint Louis University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairfax Municipal Airport</span> Airport in the U.S. state of Kansas

Fairfax Municipal Airport was a Kansas City, Kansas airfield from 1921 that was used during 1935–1949 by the military. Federal land adjacent to the airfield included a WWII B-25 Mitchell plant and modification center and a Military Air Transport terminal. After being used as a Cold War-era Air Force Base, it was used for airliner servicing by TWA and for automobile and jet fighter aircraft production by General Motors, which built a 1985 Fairfax Plant over runways when the municipal airport closed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George H. Prudden</span> American aircraft engineer

George Henry Prudden, Jr. was an American aircraft engineer. He was instrumental in designing the first all metal aircraft in America. He was president of the Early Birds of Aviation in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rex Smith Biplane</span> Type of aircraft

The Rex Smith Biplane was a pioneering biplane based mostly on designs of Glen Curtiss. It was built and demonstrated at College Park, Maryland, at the same airfield that the Wright Brothers trained pilots using their aircraft for the U.S. Army Signal Corps just north of Washington, D.C. This followed the initial demonstration at Fort Myer, Virginia, in 1908 and 1909, when the U.S. Army Signal Corps accepted the Wright Flyer in July 1909. Both the Wright Brothers and Curtiss continued to demonstrate their aircraft at the College Park Airport.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvay-Stark Skyhopper</span> Type of aircraft

The Salvay-Stark Skyhopper I is a low-wing single-place homebuilt aircraft designed in 1944.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginius E. Clark</span>

Virginius Evans Clark was an officer in the United States Army, a military aviation pioneer, and a World War I engineer. Clark designed the 1922 Clark Y airfoil used by many early aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aviation in Washington, D.C.</span>

The United States capital, Washington, D.C., has been the site of several events in the nation's history of aviation, beginning from the time of the American Civil War, often for the purpose of promoting the adoption of new aeronautical technologies by the government. It has also been home to several aircraft manufacturers and aviation organizations, and many aerospace contractors have maintained a presence there as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curtiss Model J</span> Type of aircraft

The Curtiss Model J was a prototype tractor configuration aircraft that became the basis for the Curtiss Jenny series of aircraft.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas-Beazley Airplane Company</span>

Nicholas-Beazley Airplane Company was an American aircraft manufacturer of the 1920s and 1930s

Curtiss-Caproni was an Italian-American aircraft manufacturer formed in the late 1920s to produce Caproni aircraft in America as part of the Curtiss-Wright aviation conglomerate.

Charles B. Kirkham (1882–1969) was an American engineer of aircraft engines and aircraft.

The Grinnell Aeroplane Company was an American aircraft manufacturer based in Grinnell, Iowa, that built aircraft prior to World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rearwin Ken-Royce</span> Type of aircraft

The Rearwin Ken-Royce was an American three-seat sport/touring biplane built by Rearwin Airplanes first in Salina, Kansas then Kansas City. It was the first airplane built by the company.

References

  1. Sport Aviation. January 1992.{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  2. Aircraft & Aerospace. Royal Aeronautical Society. 70.{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  3. Los Angeles Times. Jul 13, 1952.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  4. Los Angeles Times. December 19, 1993.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. "Melvin Eugene "Gene" Salvay Obituary (1919 - 2016) Los Angeles Times". Legacy.com .