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Peter Garrison is an American journalist and amateur aircraft designer/builder. He was born in Los Angeles, California, in 1943, and received a BA in English from Harvard College in 1965. In 1968–1973, while living in Tarzana,
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, he designed and built an all-metal, two-seat, single-engine low-wing monoplane. The design was influenced by the T-18 of
John Thorp John Willard Thorp (June 20, 1912 – April 18, 1992) was an American aeronautical engineer who made significant contributions to aircraft design throughout his life. Born in French Camp, California, John Thorp grew up from age four in the ...
and the
PL-2 The PL-2 () is an infrared homing (IRH) air-to-air missiles (AAM) developed in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was a reverse-engineered Soviet Vympel K-13, which in turn was a reverse-engineered American AIM-9B Sidewinder. The PL-2 was ...
of
Ladislao Pazmany Ladislao Pazmany (November 25, 1923 – August 21, 2006) was an aviation pioneer, aeronautical engineer, designer, pilot, teacher, speaker, and author. Born a Hungarian, Pazmany grew up, went to school and worked in his formative years in Arg ...
, both California airplane designer/builders. Garrison called the plane Melmoth after an 1820 Gothic novel, ''
Melmoth the Wanderer ''Melmoth the Wanderer'' is an 1820 Gothic novel by Irish playwright, novelist and clergyman Charles Maturin. The novel's titular character is a scholar who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for 150 extra years of life, and searches the wo ...
''. It was notable for unusually long range and for Mr. Garrison's lack of academic qualifications for designing it. With his companion, television documentary producer Nancy Salter, Mr. Garrison used the aircraft to fly to Europe, Japan and South America. The 1976 Pacific crossing was the first nonstop flight from the United States to Japan by a homebuilt aircraft. In 1981 he began design work on an enlarged fuselage for Melmoth. In 1982, however, the original airplane was destroyed at Orange County (California) Airport (now
John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
) when a landing Cessna collided with it. The completely redesigned Melmoth 2 first flew in 2002. It is constructed of glass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced composites and has four seats; the rear seats face aft, an arrangement that reduces the required cabin size and center-of-gravity range. The airplane, which has retractable landing gear, large hydraulically operated Fowler flaps and a 200 hp turbocharged Continental engine salvaged from the first Melmoth, is based at
Whiteman Airport Whiteman Airport (previously known as Whiteman Air Park) is a general aviation airport in the northeastern San Fernando Valley community of Pacoima, in the city of Los Angeles, California, United States. The airport was founded as Whiteman Air ...
in Los Angeles. Like its predecessor, it has a cruising range of more than 3,000 miles. Peter Garrison is a free-lance writer. He contributes two monthly columns, Aftermath and Technicalities, to ''Flying'' magazine, for which he has written since 1968. With David Pinella, he co-founded AeroLogic, a company that creates and sells computer software programs to analyze fluid dynamics. Mr. Garrison has 4,000 hours of flight time. He holds a single-/multi-engine commercial pilot license with instrument, Learjet,
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 ...
,
seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...
,
glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...
,
gyroplane An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), also known as a ''gyroplane'', is a type of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. Forward thrust is provided independently, by an engine-driven propeller. Whi ...
and
hot-air balloon A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket (in some long-distance or high-altitude balloons, a capsule), which carries p ...
ratings. He is the great-grandson of the Armenian author
Muratsan Grigor Ter-Hovhannisian ( hy, Գրիգոր Տեր-Հովհաննիսյան; December 1, 1854 – September 12, 1908), better known as Muratsan ( hy, Մուրացան), was a prolific Armenian writer, known best for writing '' Gevorg Marzpetuni'' ( ...
. He and Ms. Salter have a son, Nicholas, born in 1981, and a daughter, Lily, born in 1988. Mr. Garrison has no connection to
Craig Shaw Gardner Craig Shaw Gardner (born July 2, 1949) is an American author, best known for producing fantasy parodies similar to those of Terry Pratchett. He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA), a loose-knit group of Her ...
, a prolific science-fiction writer, born in 1949, who writes under the pseudonym "Peter Garrison."


Bibliography

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References


External links


Aerologic softwareMelmoth airplane page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garrison, Peter 1943 births Living people People from Tarzana, Los Angeles American male journalists Journalists from California American aviators American aviation writers Harvard College alumni Commercial aviators