Joe Clark (September 9, 1941 – March 30, 2020) was a Canadian-born American aerospace pioneer. He co-founded

Horizon Air Horizon Air Industries, Inc., operating as Horizon Air, is an American regional airline based in SeaTac, Washington, United States. Horizon Air and its sister carrier Alaska Airlines are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, and all Horizon-opera ...

in 1981. He founded an early dealership for the Learjet, one of the first private business jets, in the 1960s. Later, in the 1990s, he co-founded a company,

Aviation Partners Aviation Partners Inc. (API) is a Seattle-based private corporation that specializes in performance-enhancing winglet systems. The corporation was founded in 1991 and is owned by The Washington Companies. History API was founded in 1991 by Joe Cl ...

, to design and sell

winglets Wingtip devices are intended to improve the efficiency of fixed-wing aircraft by reducing drag. Although there are several types of wing tip devices which function in different manners, their intended effect is always to reduce an aircraft' ...

which enhanced performance of airplane wings at their tips, reducing drag. It has been estimated that the technology developed, applied to

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...

s and other planes, has saved more than 10 billion gallons of fuel, saving money, extending range, and avoiding carbon emissions. He was a

Living Legends of Aviation The Living Legends of Aviation is an award honoring achievements in the aerospace industry, bestowed by the 130 current title holders and owned and produced by the Kiddie Hawk Air Academy, a non-profit 501(c)(3). The Living Legends have all made ...

honoree, inducted in 2004 as "Aviation Entrepreneur of the Year" and in 2009 as "Lifetime Aviation Entrepreneur". He was "a generous (though low-profile) philanthropist and trustee of the

Seattle Museum of Flight The Museum of Flight is a private non-profit air and space museum in the Seattle metropolitan area. It is located at the southern end of King County International Airport (Boeing Field) in the city of Tukwila, immediately south of Seattle.< ...

and other aviation causes, but also supported nonprofits doing work with children and people who are homeless." Clark died at a hospital near his home in

Palm Springs, California 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 a ...

, on March 30, 2020, after suffering a fall two days before.

References

External links

AirportJournals page, with photo
1941 births 2020 deaths Aviators from California Businesspeople from Calgary Canadian aviators Canadian emigrants to the United States {{aviation-bio-stub