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Eyerly Aircraft Company
Eyerly Aircraft Company was an amusement ride manufacturing company in Salem, Oregon, founded by Lee Eyerly in 1930. The company originally intended to design flight simulators for the aircraft industry but shifted to amusement rides after an early simulator, called Orientator, became a popular pay-per-ride attraction with the public. The company manufactured rides until 1985 and went bankrupt in 1990, following a fatal accident in 1988 that occurred on a ride built by the company. Aircraft manufacturing Lee Eyerly founded Eyerly Aircraft Company in 1930 to manufacture two inexpensive ways to train pilots which he devised when the Great Depression hit. The first was the Whiffle Hen, a plane which only burned two US gallons (8 L) of fuel per hour of flight. The second was a ground-based flight training device patented under the name "Orientator". The Orientator consisted of a small airplane suspended in what looked like the tines of a giant tuning fork. Air from the electrically dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lee Eyerly
Lee Ulrich Eyerly (February 22, 1892 – March 23, 1963) was an American civil aviation pioneer and amusement ride manufacturer. Early life Eyerly was born February 22, 1892 in Cuba, Illinois, and raised in Canton, Illinois, Canton. In 1909, his family moved to the Judith Basin area of Montana to take advantage of the Homestead Act. Because he was mechanically handy, he found work repairing broken farm equipment. While in his early 20s, he built his first airplane in the lobby of the hotel his mother managed, but was unable to fly it because he had no suitable engine. Around this same time, he married his wife Meta. By 1919, Montana suffered from wind erosion and drought, and the opportunities for repairing farm equipment dwindled. Eyerly moved his young family to Salem, Oregon, where he became a heavy-equipment operator, working on the state’s burgeoning system of roads. As automobiles became more popular, he opened a service station called "The Grease Spot." In 1920, he took t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |