Paul, William (Bill), and Ernest Schweizer were three brothers who started building gliders in 1930. In 1937, they formed the Schweizer Metal Aircraft Company. Their first commercial glider sale was an SGU 1-7

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 ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's Altosaurus Glider Club. At that time,

Eliot Noyes Eliot Fette Noyes (August 12, 1910 – July 18, 1977) was an American architect and industrial designer, who worked on projects for IBM, most notably the IBM Selectric typewriter and the IBM Aerospace Research Center in Los Angeles, Californi ...

was a

sailplane A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...

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 ...

in the Harvard soaring club. That glider was later restored and currently resides at the

National Soaring Museum The National Soaring Museum (NSM) is an aviation museum whose stated aim is to preserve the history of motorless flight. It is located on top of Harris Hill near Elmira, New York, United States. The NSM is the Soaring Society of America's officia ...

Elmira, New York Elmira () is a city and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. The population was 26,523 at the 2020 cens ...

. In 1939, the Schweizer brothers relocated to

, and incorporated as

Schweizer Aircraft The Schweizer Aircraft Corporation was an American manufacturer of sailplanes, agricultural aircraft and helicopters located in Horseheads, New York. It was incorporated in 1939 by three Schweizer brothers (Paul, William, and Ernest), who bui ...

. Best known internationally for their gliders, they also remembered the importance of the folks who worked with them and for them. Over their nearly 70 years, they enabled creation of various flying machines; from gliders to

crop duster A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

s to

helicopters 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 ...

, while contributing to the

aircraft industry 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 ...

as a whole, and the Southern Tier of New York in particular. According to a recent editorial in the ''Elmira Star-Gazette'', when it came time to sell the company, the brothers wanted to find a buyer who respected their values and their folks, and chose the

Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923 and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian and military use. Pr ...

(a UTC subsidiary) in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

. The sale was completed successfully in 2004, providing growth opportunities for Schweizer. All three brothers have been inducted to the U.S.

Soaring Hall of Fame The Soaring Hall of Fame recognizes individuals who have made the highest achievements in, or contributions to, the sport of soaring in the United States of America. It has been located at the National Soaring Museum in Elmira, New York, since 19 ...

;U.S. Soaring Hall of Fame web page
Paul and Ernest in its second year, 1955 (along with the Wright Brothers), and later William in 1984. Paul and Ernest also won the 1953 Warren E. Eaton Memorial Trophy, considered

Soaring Society of America The Soaring Society of America (SSA) was founded at the instigation of Warren E. Eaton to promote the sport of soaring in the USA and internationally. The first meeting was held in New York City in the McGraw–Hill Building on February 20, 1932. ...

's highest award.

References

External links

November 2005 issue of SKYLINES
eference photo & caption on page 2
Schweizer corporate history page

* ttps://www.soaringmuseum.org/files/bzx_SCHWEIZER_P.pdf Article about Paul Schweizer at Soaring Museum website
Article about Bill Schweizer at Soaring Museum website

Article about Ernest Schweizer at Soaring Museum website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schweizer brothers People from Elmira, New York American aerospace engineers Businesspeople in aviation Aviation pioneers Glider pilots Sibling trios Engineers from New York (state)