Maynard L. Pennell (April 12, 1910 – November 22, 1994) was a
Boeing executive and aircraft designer.
Born in
Skowhegan, Maine
Skowhegan () is the county seat of Somerset County, Maine. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 8,620. Every August, Skowhegan hosts the annual Skowhegan State Fair, the oldest continuously-held state fair in the United States. Skowh ...
, his family moved to
Seattle in 1920. Pennell studied
aeronautical engineering, graduating from the
University of Washington in 1931. While a student at Washington, he was inducted into the
Tau Beta Pi
The Tau Beta Pi Association (commonly Tau Beta Pi, , or TBP) is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. It honors engineering students in American universities who have shown a ...
engineering honor society and became a brother of the
Pi Kappa Phi social fraternity.
After working for the
Douglas Aircraft Company
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...
for six years, he joined Boeing in 1940. He became assistant manager for the
B-29 Superfortress program in 1942 and was involved in the development of the
B-52 Stratofortress
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is an American long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber. The B-52 was designed and built by Boeing, which has continued to provide support and upgrades. It has been operated by the United States Air ...
, later joining the commercial development division, where he was involved in the creation of the
Boeing 707
The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
and
Boeing 727, a keen advocate of the development of jet-powered civil aircraft.
Boeing SST
In the 1960s, Pennell managed the
Boeing 2707 supersonic transport program, in a contest against the
Lockheed L-2000 for the right to manufacture the airframe. In 1966, Boeing unveiled a model of a 300-passenger, 330-foot-long aircraft meant to fly at almost three times the speed of sound. Although Boeing won the contest, the SST project ran into objections from various groups and the plane was never built, leaving ''
Concorde'' to become the first SST aircraft, making its first test flight in 1969.
Awards
In 1965, Pennell was awarded the
Elmer A. Sperry Award for distinguished engineering and was a member of the
National Academy of Engineering and the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 2007, he was a co-recipient of the Distinguished Group achievement Diamond Award from the University of Washington for his work on the development of the passenger jet.
Since 1989, Boeing has endowed a research professorship in structural analysis in his honor at the University of Washington.
Pennell retired from Boeing in 1974, and died in Seattle in 1994 from
Parkinson's disease.
References
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*
* After 60 Years, B-52s Still Dominate U.S. Fleet, New York Times, December 5, 2015 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/us/b-52s-us-air-force-bombers.html?_r=0
External links
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1910 births
1994 deaths
Boeing people
People from Skowhegan, Maine
Neurological disease deaths in Washington (state)
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
University of Washington College of Engineering alumni
20th-century American businesspeople
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