Aviation History in Buffalo/WNY Area

[rocketman]

Well as we honor those who bravely gave their lives in service of this country, I'd like to also mention some aviation history on the Buffalo/Western New York area that most people don't know about. I can actually sum this up best from something Bill Schweizer told me recently. He was one of the founding brothers of Schweizer Aircraft and is still alive (90 years old). Schweizer Aircraft, currently owned by the Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, was an internationally recognized builder of gliders, among other things.

 

Anyhow, he said that more planes were built in the Buffalo area than all of Boeing and Airbus...combined!! These planes were mostly built by the Curtiss-Wright Corporation and Bell Aircraft. Please click the links to learn about all the aviation contributions they made. The most visible contributions that people know about are the Bell X-1 and the Bell Rocket Belt. Our university has the actual Rocket Belt that was flown at the beginning of the James Bond movie Thunderball (look at the 0.07 mark of this trailer).

 

There is some history that shaped my brother and me here as well. Curtiss-Wright Corporation pioneered a high velocity wind tunnel and a large altitude chamber through a laboratory they developed. Dr. Clifford C. Furnas was its first director, who later became the ninth Chancellor of the University of Buffalo and the first President of the State University of New York (SUNY) from 1955 to 1966. My current office is in Clifford C. Furnas hall. The Curtiss-Wright laboratory was denoted to Cornell University, which became Cornell Aeronautical Labs and then later Calspan. This company is one of its kind that does in-flight simulation (pilots believe they are actually flying other planes). My brother worked there for 10 years, mostly on the VISTA airplane. Calspan was also the first ones to help numerous U.S. Olympic skiers, ski jumpers, bobsledders and lugers by refining their techniques and equipment, and minimizing wind drag, in their wind tunnel. Some more history can be found here. Bell Aircraft actually funded my entire graduate schooling (nice to go to school for free!) where I worked on an improvement to their automatic carrier landing system.

 

There is a lot more I can say, but hopefully I've given you a glimpse on the rich history we have here. We also have the second oldest flying club (the Aero Club of Buffalo) in the world; on that website you'll see a neat picture of Curtiss P-40s being assembled in Buffalo. The Paris one is the oldest. We also have an Aerospace Museum, which is temporarily housed in HSBC arena, where the Sabres play, until a permanent home is built. If you happen to be near Buffalo please take some time to visit it and learn more about our history. Niagara Falls is only 20 minutes from downtown Buffalo too!