Frank Nicolas Piasecki ( ; ; October 24, 1919 – February 11, 2008) was an American engineer and

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribut ...

aviation pioneer. Piasecki pioneered tandem rotor helicopter designs and created the compound helicopter concept of vectored thrust using a ducted propeller.

Early life and education

Born in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

to an immigrant Polish tailor, Piasecki worked for

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. ...

manufacturers while still attending Overbrook High School, then studied mechanical engineering at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

before graduating with a bachelor's degree from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

. He was employed by the

Platt-LePage Aircraft Company The Platt-LePage Aircraft Company was a manufacturer of aircraft for the armed forces of the United States of America. Based in Eddystone, Pennsylvania, the company produced the first helicopter to be officially acquired by the United States Army ...

as a control engineer on their XR-1 twin-rotor project. In 1940, he formed PV Engineering Forum with former Pennsylvania classmate Harold Venzie. He built a single-person, single-rotor helicopter designated the PV-2 and flew it on April 11, 1943. This helicopter impressed the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

sufficiently to win Piasecki a development contract.

Career

The name PV Engineering was changed to

Piasecki Helicopter Piasecki Helicopter Corporation was a designer and manufacturer of helicopters located in Philadelphia and nearby Morton, Pennsylvania, in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Its founder, Frank Piasecki, was ousted from the company in 1956 and start ...

Corporation in 1946. After a boardroom dispute, Piasecki was forced out of Piasecki Helicopter in 1955, and formed the

Piasecki Aircraft The Piasecki Aircraft Corporation (PiAC) is a manufacturer of aircraft, principally advanced rotorcraft. It was founded by American vertical flight pioneer Frank Piasecki to develop compound helicopters and other advanced rotorcraft after he w ...

Company. At Piasecki Aircraft, he participated in the development of the Piasecki 16H-1 the world's first shaft driven compound helicopter, the PA-59K/VZ-8P Flying Geep (also known as the AirGeep) the

Piasecki PA-97 Helistat The Piasecki PA-97 Helistat was an American experimental heavy-lift aircraft, built by Piasecki by fastening four H-34J helicopters to a framework beneath a helium-inflated blimp envelope. The sole prototype was lost during a test flight, kill ...

heavy vertical airlifter and the Piasecki X-49 experimental compound helicopter.

Personal life

Piasecki married Vivian Weyerhaeuser on December 20, 1958. They had seven children: Nicole, Frederick, John, Lynn, Frank, Michael, and Gregory. His son John W. Piasecki is now President and CEO of Piasecki Aircraft. His son Fred W. Piasecki is Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer of Piasecki Aircraft. His daughter Nicole Piasecki was the vice president and general manager of Propulsion Systems for

Boeing Commercial Airplanes Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) is a division of The Boeing Company. It designs, assembles, markets, and sells jet airliners and business jets (Boeing Business Jets), and also provides product-related maintenance and training to customers w ...

."All Female Flight"
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Later life and death

Piasecki died at his home on February 11, 2008 of a heart attack after a series of strokes. He was 88.

Awards

* Philip H. Ward, Jr. Medal from

The Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memor ...

in 1979. *

National Medal of Technology The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...

President Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

presented Piasecki with the country's highest technical honor in 1986. * Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Lifetime Achievement award - awarded in 2005

References

External links

Founder Origins: Frank Nicholas PiaseckiExclutive Biography of Frank N. Piasecki''The Boy Who Grew Flying Bananas'' by L.B. White
1951 article on Piasecki at age 31 and his early helicopters. Rare photos.
Frank Piasecki biography on National Aviation Hall of Fame site Summary of Frank's aviation legacy from AIN online
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Piasecki, Frank 1919 births 2008 deaths Businesspeople from Philadelphia American people of Polish descent American aerospace engineers Aviation pioneers Aviation inventors Businesspeople in aviation 20th-century American inventors National Medal of Technology recipients Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland 20th-century American businesspeople University of Pennsylvania alumni New York University alumni