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I saw the HISTORY CHANNLE show on Howard Hughes , and I was amazed in how much he contributed in aviation.
Not only did he help design, build, fiance, manage his airplane company, he also was the test pilot for some of his planes.
With politics aside, who are probity the top 5 or 10 most inflewanical people in aviation ?
1# The Wright Brothers of course.
But, just imagine ? if the Wright Brothers ( they had the airframe design correct ) had joined up with Samuel Langley ( Samuel Langley had the engine ( even though, it was to heavy ) they could have worked together and could have come up with a better plane sooner, and more advanced ).
2# Samuel Langley. if his airframe and engine was not to heavy, he could have beat the Wright Brothers in the first powered flight , Glen Curtiss restored( made 90 some modifications to the Arodrome to make it airworthy, and it flew in 1914
http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0004.shtml.
I don't know if anyone at the time realized it or not, but, the boat and platform that Samuel Langley had to launch his Arodrome looks like the forerunner of the aircraft carries.
3# Glen Curtiss " The father of Navel Aviation "
Glen Curtiss made many inovations in aviation, and set many records.
4# Howard Hughes. innovator, builder, test pilot, visionary.
Well,,, that is a few that I can think of at the moment.