![Forrest-bird-card](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Forrest-bird-card.jpg)
Forrest Morton Bird (June 9, 1921 – August 2, 2015) was an American
aviator
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...
,
inventor
An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, idea or process. An invention may be an improvement upon a machine, product, or process for increasing efficiency or lowering cost. It may also be an entirely new concept. If an ...
, and
biomedical engineer
Biomedicine (also referred to as Western medicine, mainstream medicine or conventional medicine) . He is best known for having created some of the first reliable
mass-produced
Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch ...
mechanical ventilator
A ventilator is a piece of medical technology that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs, to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently. Ventilators ...
s for acute and chronic
cardiopulmonary
The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...
care.
Biography
Bird was born in
Stoughton, Massachusetts
Stoughton (official name: Town of Stoughton) is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 29,281 at the 2020 census. The town is located approximately from Boston, from Providence, Rhode Island, and from Cape ...
. Bird became a
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
at an early age due to his fathers encouragement. By age 14, he flew his first solo fight.
By age 16 he was working to obtain multiple major
pilot certifications.
Bird enlisted with the
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...
, and entered active duty in 1941 as a technical air training officer due to his advanced qualifications. This rank, combined with the onset of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, gave him the opportunity to pilot almost every
aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engines ...
in service, including early
jet aircraft
A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines.
Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, je ...
and
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
s.
The newest models of aircraft were capable of exceeding
altitude
Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
s at which humans can breathe, even with 100% oxygen supplementation, introducing the risk of
hypoxia. Bird discovered an oxygen regulator in a crashed German bomber he was ferrying to the U.S. for study seemed to contain a
pressure breathing circuit. He took the oxygen regulator home, studied it, and made it more functional. It became the standard design for high-altitude oxygen regulators for most military aircraft until recent time. Bird studied medicine " ... to understand the human body and its stress in flight". This led to him developing efficient respirators and ventilators.
In 1967, Bird developed the
Bird Innovator
The Bird Innovator was an American four-engined executive amphibious airplane modified from a Consolidated PBY Catalina by the Bird Corporation.
Design and development
During the late 1960s Forrest Bird and his Bird Corporation developed a convers ...
, a conversion of the Consolidated
PBY Catalina
The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wit ...
amphibian aircraft, the aircraft being based at
Palm Springs
Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land ...
until 1976. His company was Bird Oxygen Breathing Equipment Inc, later renamed Bird Corporation.
Bird resided in
Sagle, Idaho
Sagle is an Unincorporated area, unincorporated community in Bonner County, Idaho, Bonner County, Idaho, located south of Sandpoint, Idaho, Sandpoint. Sagle has a post office with ZIP code 83860.
Sagle has an elementary school that lies on Sag ...
, close to the
Canada–US border which is where his home, production facilities, museum and ranch were located. Bird collected and restored old planes, old cars, and motorcycles.
Forrest and Pamela Bird opened the Bird Aviation Museum and Invention Center in July 2007, with aviator
Patty Wagstaff
Patty Wagstaff ( née Patricia Rosalie Kearns Combs; born September 11, 1951) is an American aviator and U.S. national aerobatic champion.
Wagstaff was introduced to aviation as a child; her father was a pilot for Japan Airlines. After gradu ...
cutting a ceremonial ribbon at the end of the runway ''while'' flying. The Bird's are the founders and owners of the museum, which showcases Bird's various aircraft and inventions.
On December 10, 2008, Bird received the
Presidential Citizens Medal
The Presidential Citizens Medal is an award bestowed by the President of the United States. It is the second-highest civilian award in the United States and is second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Established by executive order on Nov ...
from President George Bush. The United States honored him for his groundbreaking contributions and for his work to keep America at the forefront of discovery. On October 7, 2009, President Barack Obama awarded Bird the
National Medal of Technology and Innovation
The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...
, a recognition of his "outstanding contributions to the promotion of technology for the improvement of the economic, environmental or social well-being of the United States."
Bird died at the age of 94 of natural causes at his Sagle, Idaho home on August 2, 2015.
Mechanical ventilators
The first "Bird" units
All of Bird’s ventilators were contained in transparent plastic cases. Bird's rationale for see-through encasements for his machines was a stroke of genius: he thought if people could see the inner workings of mechanical devices, they would understand them better, and be able to use, fix, and apply them better in the real world.
Bird created a car unit which was tested on seriously ill patients with limited success. His first prototype consisted of strawberry shortcake tins and a doorknob. Most of these first units were sold to the Army, in the original format of tins and the doorknob. Further revision resulted in the 1955 release of the "Bird Universal Medical Respirator" (sold as the Bird Mark 7 Respirator and informally called the "Bird"), a small green box that became familiar to hospital patients soon after its introduction. The Bird Mark 8 added the capabilities of NEEP (Negative End Expiratory Pressure). This was frequently used to power a set of fluidic servos (sort of relays.) He subsequently made a ventilator for infants, nicknamed the "Babybird". This device was one of several devices that appeared on the market designed to effectively ventilate small children and infants. These devices played a significant role in reducing the rate of breathing-related infant mortality from 70% to 10%. The Bird Mark 7 Respirator is still in use around the world. In addition he produced the Fluid Control Device.
Accolades
Bird was awarded the Lifetime Scientific Achievement Award in 1985 by the
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
(AAAS), receiving a second award in September 2005. He continued to contribute to the field of
pulmonary science by participating in the development of the VDR, a ventilator that permits management of the most challenging patients including ARDS, trauma and inhalation injury. In 1995, Bird was inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...
. He was named "Inventor of the Week" by
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
in February 2001. The
American Respiratory Care Foundation names one of its annual awards after Bird.
History of Bird Corp.
*1965: First factory assembly line rolls out a medical respirator for home health, the Mark III.
*1971: Bird introduces first infant ventilator.
*1978: Bird sells his namesake company to
3M, which took it public.
*1984: 3M sells Bird Products to the management group of a competitor, Bird Medical Technologies Inc.
*1987: The Bird 6400ST is released, the first new-generation ventilator.
*1990: Bird Medical Technologies goes public, and is traded on
NASDAQ
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
under the ticker, BMTI.
*1992: Bird Medical, reporting $36.5 million in sales in 1991, lays off 21 of 211 workers, citing poor economic conditions and falling sales. Despite the downturn, construction of its new, building at 1100 Bird Center Drive, its present site, continues.
*1995:
Thermo Electron Corp., which acquired Bird in a $67 million buyout of Bird stock, moves a
Riverside
Riverside may refer to:
Places Australia
* Riverside, Tasmania, a suburb of Launceston, Tasmania
Canada
* Riverside (electoral district), in the Yukon
* Riverside, Calgary, a neighbourhood in Alberta
* Riverside, Manitoba, a former rural m ...
-based subsidiary into the Palm Springs location. That year, Bird is inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also opera ...
.
*2002: Through acquisition and consolidation, the venture becomes a part of VIASYS Respiratory Care.
*2009:
Cardinal Health Inc., a ''
Fortune
Fortune may refer to:
General
* Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck
* Luck
* Wealth
* Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling
* Fortune, in a fortune cookie
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'' 20 company based in
Dublin, Ohio
Dublin is a city in Franklin, Delaware and Union counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The population was 49,328 in the 2020 census with a census estimate of 49,037 in 2019. Dublin is a suburb of Columbus. The city of Dublin hosts the yearly Mem ...
, that was spun off from its parent company to the wholly owned subsidiary,
CareFusion Corp. The year before, Cardinal Health relocated three sister companies to the Palm Springs operation: Bear Medical of Riverside, SensorMedics Corp. of
Yorba Linda
Yorba Linda is a suburban city in northeastern Orange County, California, United States, approximately southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, and had a population of 68,336 at the 2020 census.
Yo ...
and EME Medical of
Brighton, England
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Ag ...
.
References
External links
MIT Inventor of the Week: Forrest BirdAmerican Respiratory Care Foundation: Forrest M. Bird Achievement AwardForrest Bird on 60 MinutesPercussionaireBird Aviation Museum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bird, Forrest
1921 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American inventors
American pulmonologists
American aviators
National Medal of Technology recipients
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
United States Army Air Forces officers
United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II
People from Stoughton, Massachusetts
Northrop University alumni
Physicians from Massachusetts
Military personnel from Massachusetts