Wings Club

The Wings Club, also known as the Wings Club of New York, is a social and professional club formed for aviators, based in New York City. Founded in 1942 by a group of American aviation pioneers, it is known for its monthly lunches, annual dinners and special occasions at which talks are given on various aspects of aviation. The club gives out scholarships to aviation students, and selects individuals and organizations for recognition with the "Distinguished Achievement Award".

History

The Wings Club was founded in New York City on May 15, 1942.[1] It was housed within the Yale Club and served World War II pilots as a place of leisure and occasional living quarters.[1] The first board of directors included Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan American World Airways, and World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker.[2] The first president was Caleb Bragg, a racer of automobiles and speedboats, aviation pioneer, and automotive inventor. Bragg had previously been a governor of the Aero Club of America. He was made president of the Wings Club despite suffering from a longterm illness which led to his death later the next year.[3]

The club grew quickly to 500 members in its first year, then to 1,000 by the end of its second year.[2] In the 1970s there were 1,500 members, including women for the first time. By 2011, membership had decreased to about 1,200.[1] Members met at the Yale Club in the first few years, then in April 1946 the Wings Club relocated to the Biltmore Hotel where it stayed for 37 years.[2] The Biltmore was torn down in 1981, so the club moved to nearby 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, a 20-story building opposite Grand Central Terminal. The Wings Club maintained a library, kitchen and dining hall on the 18th floor until 2002 when they stopped keeping their own quarters and instead met only at the Yale Club. In 2011, the club again moved into a permanent home, consisting of offices and a boardroom inside the MetLife Building, formerly the headquarters of Pan Am.[1]

Activities

Many notable aviators have delivered speeches at lunches and dinners hosted by the Wings Club. The first lunch talk was delivered by Gill Robb Wilson, the president of the National Aeronautic Association and an invited guest of the Wings Club. This event was so well received that it was used as the template for monthly lunch speeches. The first annual dinner speech was presented by founding club member Eddie Rickenbacker on March 22, 1944.[2]

Following the record-breaking 1945 Japan–Washington flight made by three U.S. Army Air Force generals in Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, the generals and their crews were invited to a Wings Club dinner held in their honor at the Yale Club. B-29 generals Curtis LeMay and Emmett O'Donnell Jr were able to attend, as were other USAAF generals such as Carl Andrew Spaatz and Jimmy Doolittle.[4]

In early 1964, Joseph A. Walker, the chief test pilot for NASA, spoke about NASA's space program, especially about the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle for which he served as project manager. Walker expressed great confidence in the likelihood of a successful moon landing but he died two years later in an air collision and never saw the program to completion.[5]

Also in 1964, founding club member, former club president and retired USAF General Harold Ross Harris implemented the annual "Sight Lecture" series at which a leading aviation notable was to be invited to deliver a lecture adhering generally to "insights, foresights and hindsights" of aviation.[6] Each lecture was to be published in book form by the Wings Club.

Beginning in 1975, the Wings Club selects one or more organizations or individuals each year to be honored with the "Distinguished Achievement Award", conferred at the annual dinner in October. The first awardee was aviation pioneer and USAF General Jimmy Doolittle.[7]

Since 2000, the club has awarded scholarships to aviation and aerospace students, beginning with Maurice Stanley who was studying aviation management at Dowling College, Long Island, New York.[8]

Guest speakers

Notable members

Honorary members

Sight Lecture Series

Some notable Sight Lectures include:

A complete list of speakers, topics and dates collected from the published volumes of Sight Lecture Series is summarized in the table below. Note: there is some ambiguity regarding lectures and numbering from 1997-2009.

# Year Date Presenter Topic
1 1964 16-Nov-1964 Igor I. Sikorsky Recollections and Thoughts of a Pioneer
2 1965 26-May-1965 Dr. Jerome C. Hunsaker Some Lessons of History
3 1966 18-May-1966 William Littlewood Perspectives In Air Transport
4 1967 19-Apr-1967 Sir William Hildredy Administrative Aspects of International Air Transport
5 1968 15-May-1968 Dr. Wernher von Braun Space Flight Past, Present, and Future
6 1969 21-May-1969 Grover Loening The Air Road Will Widen! With Systems Approach and Design Courage
7 1970 20-May-1970 Air Commodore F. R. Banks Aircraft Prime Movers of the Twentieth Century
8 1971 19-May-1971 C.R. Smith Safety in Air Transportation Over The Years
9 1972 17-May-1972 Sir Peter Masefield Gateways to the World over the Years
10 1973 16-May-1973 William P. Gwinn Technology-Key to the Universe
11 1974 15-May-1974 Edward C. Wells Aerospace Engineering: 1916-1974
12 1975 16-Apr-1975 Wayne W. Parrish A Traveler-Journalist Views the Air World
13 1976 2-Dec-1976 H.R.H, The Prince of the Netherlands (Bernhard Leopold) The Netherlands People, Their Country and Their Civil aviation, To-day and in the Future
14 1977 20-May-1977 Juan T. Trippe Charles A. Lindbergh and World Travel
15 1978 12-Apr-1978 Richard M. Jackson The Second Generation Speaks Out
16 1979 16-May-1979 Dr. Knut Hagrup Cooperation in World Civil Aviation
17 1980 14-May-1980 Robert B. Hotz The Promise Of The Space Age
18 1981 22-Apr-1981 Senator Barry Goldwater The State of Our Industry and Raw Materials in Relation to Defense
19 1982 21-Apr-1982 Jerome Lederer Aviation Safety Perspectives: Hindsight, Insight, Foresight
20 1983 15-Jun-1983 Willis M. Hawkins Maintaining Aerospace Leadership
21 1984 16-May-1984 General Harold R. Harris The First Eighty Years
22 1985 16-May-1985 Gerhard Neumann Aircraft Engines. . . Never A Dull Moment
23 1986 21-May-1986 Joseph F. Sutter Changing Scene in the U.S. Air Transportation System
24 1987 20-May-1987 Ralph H. Robins To The Standards of Sir Henry Royce
25 1988 18-May-1988 Neil A. Armstrong Wingless on Luna
26 1989 24-May-1989 Sergei I. Sikorsky Reflections on a Pioneer
27 1990 16-May-1990 Sanford N. McDonnell Much May Be Made of a Scotsman: The Story of McDonnell Douglas
28 1991 Max E. Bleck
29 1992 20-May-1992 R. Dixon Speas Perceptions of the Past as a Prologue for the Future
30 1993 Thomas P. (Paul) Poberezny
31 1994 Russell W. Meyer, Jr.
32 1995 17-May-1995 David Russell Hinson Air Carrier Safety - A New Paradigm for the 21st Century
33 1996 15-May-1996 Charles H. Kaman Kaman Helicopters and the Evolution of Vertical Flight
1997 Al Ueltschi The History & Future of Flight Safety International
1998 Admiral Donald D. Engen
1999 Brian Rowe
2000 Ronald E. G. Davies
34 2007 15-May-2007 Joseph F. Sutter The Boeing 747: Definition of a Champion
35 2008 21-May-2008 Fernando Alonso The A380 Adventure from the Inside
40 2009 14-Jun-2009 Michael D. Griffin The Importance of Human Spaceflight
41 2010 19-May-2010 Tom Ridge Risk Management: Security, Resiliency and the Aviation Sector
42 2011 25-May-2011 General Duncan J. McNabb Meeting A Global Challenge
43 2012 24-May-2012 Frederick Smith Air Cargo: Back to the Future
44 2013 14-Sep-2013 Marillyn A. Henson How to Inspire Innovation
45 2014
46 2015 Mar-2015 Robert L. Crandall
47 2016 Sep-2016 John Leahy

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Negroni, Christine (August 2, 2011). "Aviation Club Secures a Home on Park Avenue, in a Space With Significance". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "History". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Ceb Bragg Dies; Flier, Auto Racer; Pioneer in Automotive Field Also Noted as an Inventor and Speedboat Pilot". The New York Times. October 26, 1943. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  4. ↑ American Aviation. 9: 52. 1945. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. 1 2 3 4 Berg, Bradford (2008). Brad's Story of Dreams and Addiction. Trafford Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 1-4251-5073-X.
  6. ↑ Narvaez, Alfonso A. (July 29, 1988). "Harold Ross Harris Is Dead at 92;, Early Pilot and Aviation Pioneer". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Distinguished Achievement Awards". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Scholarship". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  9. ↑ Head, William P. (2003). Plotting a true course: reflections on USAF strategic attack theory and doctrine : the post-World War II experience. Greenwood. p. 37. ISBN 0-275-97717-X.
  10. ↑ Winter, Frank H. (December 1980). "Ducted Fan or the World's First Jet Plane? The Coanda claim re-examined". The Aeronautical Journal. Royal Aeronautical Society. 84: 408–416.
  11. ↑ Leishman, J. Gordon (2006). "Bibliography". Principles of helicopter aerodynamics (2 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-521-85860-7.
  12. ↑ "Sikorsky Finds VTOL Unequal to Copter". The New York Times. November 17, 1964.
  13. ↑ "Upcoming Events". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/4/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.