Edson Fessenden Gallaudet (April 21, 1871 in Washington, D.C. – July 1, 1945 in Pine Orchard, Connecticut) was a pioneer in the field of aviation.[1] He was best known for his development of practical airfoils and aircraft propulsion systems for use in early seaplanes.

Edson Fessenden Gallaudet
Edson Fessenden Gallaudet, c. 1892–1896
Born	(1871-04-21)April 21, 1871
Died	July 1, 1945(1945-07-01) (aged 74)

Early life and early career

Edson Gallaudet was born in Washington, D.C. to Edward Miner Gallaudet, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of Gallaudet University. Both his father and grandfather were famous educators in the field of deaf education. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1893, and his PhD in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1896. As a student at Yale in the class of 1893 he was a member of Psi Upsilon and Skull and Bones. He was an associate fellow with the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences, a member of the American Society of Aeronautic Engineers, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and a member of the Aero Club of America, Sigma Xi, Engineers' Club.[2] He was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. He worked at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1896 to 1897, then became an instructor of physics at Yale, where he taught from 1897 to 1900. From 1900 to 1903 he worked at William Cramp & Sons' Ship and Engine Building Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then, in 1903, worked at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio. He married Marion Cockrell on February 14, 1903. From 1903 to 1908 he worked as an assistant to the President and General Superintendent of the Stillwell Bierce & Smith Vaile Company in Dayton (which later became the Platt Iron Works Company). In 1908 he worked for the New England Refrigerator Company in Norwich, Connecticut.

Career in aviation

Gallaudet was the first person to experiment with warped wings in 1896, and in 1898 he built a warping-wing kite to test his invention of a warping-wing mechanism; this kite survives and is on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.[3] In 1911 he obtained US pilot's license No. 32 with the Aero Club of America,[4] flying a Wright biplane in Garden City, New York.[5] Also in 1911 he earned a pilot's brevet with the Aero Club of France flying a Nieuport monoplane.In 1908 Gallaudet founded the Gallaudet Engineering Company in Norwich, Connecticut where, as President, he did work as a mechanical and consulting engineer and, in 1909, built his first airplane.[6][7] In 1914 he patented a radical new aircraft propulsion system that was later incorporated into his first seaplane prototype, the Gallaudet D-1 that was first tested on the Thames River in Connecticut. The need for larger facilities and a better location to test his seaplanes, he moved his company to Chepiwanoxet Point on the Narragansett Bay coast in Rhode Island[8] The Gallaudet Engineering Company was incorporated as the Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation in 1917. In 1923 Gallaudet built an all-metal aircraft , the TW-3 that first flew on June 20, 1923 at Wilbur Wright Field in Ohio.[9][8]

Retirement and family life

In 1924 Gallaudet retired from the company he had founded. The company assets were acquired by Major Reuben H. Fleet, who used them as the core around which he founded Consolidated Aircraft Corporation.[8]

Edson's wife Marion Cockrell Gallaudet, daughter of Francis Marion Cockrell, launched USS Missouri (BB-11).^{[citation needed]} Edson's brother, Herbert D. Gallaudet, graduated Yale in 1898 and his son, Edward D. Gallaudet, graduated Yale in 1924. Edson's mother, Susan Denison, was the daughter of Dr. Joseph Adam Denison, Jr and Eliza Skinner Denison of Royalton, Vermont.[10] He died in 1945 in Pine Orchard, Connecticut, and is buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.[11]

Papers and publications

• Schatzberg, Eric. 1999. Wings of Wood, Wings of Metal: Culture and Technical Choice in American Airplane Materials, 1914–1945. Princeton University Press,
• Gallaudet, Edson Fessenden. 1896. Relations between Length, Elasticity, and Magnetization of Iron and Nickel Wire. Washington, DC: Gibson Bros.
• Gallaudet, Edson F. 1920. The Gallaudet Review. East Greenwich: Gallaudet Aircraft Corp.
• Gallaudet, Edson. 1915. Affidavit (in The Wright Company vs. The Curtiss Aeroplane Company lawsuit). New York: January 8, 1915, 11 pages, plus illustrations. (Source: Renstrom, Arthur G. 2002. "Wilbur & Orville Wright—A Bibliography Commemorating the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the First Powered Flight, December 17, 1903" (PDF). Archived from the original on January 4, 2011. Retrieved December 20, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link), Monographs in Aerospace History, Number 27, September 2002, p. 87.) (Unpublished.)

References

External links

• Works by or about Edson Fessenden Gallaudet at Internet Archive
• "The Early Birds" mural by Justin Gruelle (Gallaudet is figure number 43 in mural key).
• Edson Fessenden Gallaudet at www.flyingmachines.org
• Edson Gallaudet at aerospaceweb.org
• Edson F. Gallaudet at www.earlyaviators.com
• The First U.S. Aircraft Manufacturing Companies at www.centennialofflight.net
• Early airplanes designed and built by Edson F. Gallaudet at gallaudetfamily.com
• Gallaudet at aerofiles.com
• Gallaudet Aircraft at 456fis.org
• "The Gallaudet D-1 and the Gallaudet Drive Aircraft". Archived from the original on February 7, 2007. Retrieved January 3, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) by Robert A. Gordon at web.archive.org
• Edson Fessenden Gallaudet riding bicycle at age 13-14 (fourth from right) (Additional information)