Kaman Aircraft Company founder Charles Huron Kaman, one of the leading aviation pioneers of the 20th Century, passed away on Monday January 31 at the age of 91.
Kaman was a 26-year-old engineer when in 1945 he founded Kaman Aircraft Company in the garage of his mother’s West Hartford, Connecticut home with US$2000 invested by two friends. Kaman aimed to use the company to realise and demonstrate a new rotor concept he devised to make helicopters more stable and easier to fly.
Aiming to address the unstable nature of rotary wing aircraft of the day, Kaman designed the concept of rotor control based on ‘servo-flaps’, small ailerons added to the edges of the rotor blades to improve helicopter stability. He also proposed intermeshing rotors, which would increase lift while eliminating the tail rotor, and these inventions became the hallmarks of all Kaman helicopters to follow.
While Kaman’s childhood dream was to become a professional pilot, deafness in one ear forced him to change his plans. Nonetheless, from humble beginnings Kaman, also an astute entrepreneur, spent the next 50 years building Kaman Aircraft Company into an aviation industry leader, particularly in military helicopter design.
A man with imagination to burn, Kaman’s helicopters achieved many breakthroughs, including: • the first gas turbine-powered helicopter; • the first twin-turbine-powered helicopter; • the first remotely controlled helicopter; and • the first all-composite rotor blade.
The first Kaman helicopter, the K-125, made its maiden flight on January 15, 1947, and his designs would go on to set numerous records for performance and altitude.
Amongst a long list of other accolades, in 1997 Kaman joined fellow aviation greats such as Charles Lindbergh, Jimmy Doolittle, Neil Armstrong and one-time colleague Igor Sikorsky as a recipient of the National Aeronautic Association’s Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy.
Readers please note: this is an excerpt from an official obituary issued by Charles Kaman’s family.
Kaman Aircraft Company founder Charles Huron Kaman.
