Joe Clark (September 9, 1941 – March 30, 2020) was a Canadian-born American aerospace pioneer. He co-founded

Horizon Air Horizon Air is an American regional airline headquartered in SeaTac, Washington, within the Seattle metropolitan area. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Alaska Air Group and it is paid by fellow group member Alaska Airlines to staff, ope ...

in 1981. He founded an early dealership for the

Learjet Learjet was a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use based in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation, it became a subsidiary of Canadian Bomba ...

, one of the first private business jets, in the 1960s. Later, in the 1990s, he co-founded a company,

Aviation Partners Aviation Partners Inc. (API) is a Seattle-based private corporation that specializes in performance-enhancing winglet systems. The corporation was founded in 1991 and is owned by The Washington Companies. History API was founded in 1991 by Joe C ...

, to design and sell

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft ...

which enhanced performance of airplane wings at their tips, reducing drag. It has been estimated that the technology developed, applied to

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is an American narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Boeing Renton Factory, Renton factory in Washington (state), Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the t ...

s and other planes, has saved more than 10 billion gallons of fuel, saving money, extending range, and avoiding carbon emissions. He was a

Living Legends of Aviation The Living Legends of Aviation is an organization that recognizes accomplished people in aviation and aerospace including entrepreneurs, innovators, industry leaders, engineers, astronauts, record breakers, pilots who have become celebrities and ...

honoree, inducted in 2004 as "Aviation Entrepreneur of the Year" and in 2009 as "Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur". He was "a generous (though low-profile) philanthropist and trustee of the Seattle Museum of Flight and other aviation causes, but also supported nonprofits doing work with children and people who are homeless." Clark died at a hospital near his home in

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

, on March 30, 2020, after suffering a fall two days before.

Legacy

For his life long dedication to aviation Clark was inducted into the

National Aviation Hall of Fame The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) is a museum, annual awards ceremony and learning and research center that was founded in 1962 as an Ohio non-profit corporation in Dayton, Ohio, United States, known as the "Birthplace of Aviation" with ...

alongside the class of 2022.

References

External links

AirportJournals page, with photo
1941 births 2020 deaths Aviators from California Businesspeople from Calgary Canadian aviators Canadian emigrants to the United States {{aviation-bio-stub