Vladimir Pavlecka (May 20, 1901 – June 28, 1980) was a Czech-American inventor and aircraft designer. He was the chief inventor of
flush riveting and held other important patents.
Biography
Pavlecka was born May 20, 1901 in the village of
Charvatce
Charvatce is a municipality and village in Mladá Boleslav District in the Central Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 400 inhabitants.
Notable people
*Vladimir Pavlecka
Vladimir Pavlecka (May 20, 1901 – June 28, 1980) was a Cz ...
in
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
(today in the
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
). One of the factories in the town considered branching out into aircraft production and acquired a
Blériot XI
The Blériot XI is a French aircraft of the pioneer era of aviation. The first example was used by Louis Blériot to make the first flight across the English Channel in a heavier-than-air aircraft, on 25 July 1909. This is one of the most fam ...
. Examining this machine inspired the teenaged Pavlecka with a lifelong interest in aviation.
[
]
In 1919, Pavlecka entered Prague Technical University. With his brother, he emigrated to the United States in 1923, and was graduated from Union College in 1925. He moved to Detroit and went to work for Buick
Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...
,[ then for the Aircraft Development Corporation of Detroit. Here, he became chief of hull design][ for the revolutionary ZMC-2 metal-clad airship, which first flew in 1929. Although the single ship built had a successful career with the Navy, there was no further production.][
In 1933, Pavlecka moved to ]Douglas Aircraft
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer based in Southern California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas; it then operated as ...
in Santa Monica, Calif and in 1934 became head of the structural research department, supervising about 20 engineers, and thus had a part in the development of the DC-3
The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner
manufactured by Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II.
It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper version ...
, which first flew in 1935 and is one of the most successful aircraft in history.[ In 1936 he designed Douglas's first pressurized fuselage, for the ]DC-4
The Douglas DC-4 is an American four-engined (piston), propeller-driven airliner developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company. Military versions of the plane, the C-54 and R5D, served during World War II, in the Berlin Airlift and into the 1960s ...
. He also designed the first tricycle landing gear
Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...
used on a large plane, invented a self-sealing fuel tank
A self-sealing fuel tank is a type of fuel tank, typically used in aircraft fuel tanks or fuel bladders, that prevents them from leaking fuel and igniting after being damaged.
Typical self-sealing tanks have multiple layers of rubber and reinforc ...
, and switched Douglas's fuselage construction from extrusion
Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile by pushing material through a die of the desired cross-section. Its two main advantages over other manufacturing processes are its ability to create very complex c ...
to sheet metal
Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process. Sheet metal is one of the fundamental forms used in metalworking, and it can be cut and bent into a variety of shapes.
Thicknesses can vary significantly; ex ...
rolling
Rolling is a type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an axially symmetric object) and translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the other moves), such that, if ideal conditions exist, the two are in contact ...
.[ Pavlecka and his department also invented flush riveting for which Pavlecka was assigned the patent.][ He also held patents for an improvement to the stop nut][ and other innovations.][
]
In the early 1930s Pavlecka became interested in the potential of gas turbine
A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...
turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...
engines, but was unable to interest Douglas in researching them. Pavlecka was able to interest Jack Northrop
John Knudsen Northrop (November 10, 1895 – February 18, 1981) was an American aircraft industrialist and designer who founded the Northrop Corporation in 1939.
His career began in 1916 as a draftsman for Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Com ...
in his Turbodyne design though, and was hired as head of research by Northrup Aircraft 1939, becoming one of the original employees of Northrup.[ Work on Northrup's turboprop engine began in early 1940 (and Turbodyne became a Northrup company trademark).][ Some setbacks slowed project development, and this Northrup project never came to fruition. Jack Northrup and Pavlecka were the main designers][ of the ]Northrop P-61 Black Widow
The Northrop P-61 Black Widow is a twin-engine United States Army Air Forces fighter aircraft of World War II. It was the first operational U.S. warplane designed as a night fighter, and the first aircraft designed specifically as a night fight ...
, a successful American night fighter
A night fighter (also known as all-weather fighter or all-weather interceptor for a period of time after the Second World War) is a fighter aircraft adapted for use at night or in other times of bad visibility. Night fighters began to be used i ...
of World War II.[
]
Pavlecka was the main designer[ of the ]Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet
The Northrop XP-56 Black Bullet was a unique prototype fighter interceptor built by the Northrop Corporation. It was one of the most radical of the experimental aircraft built during World War II. Ultimately, it was unsuccessful and did not ent ...
, an experimental interceptor
Interceptor may refer to:
Vehicles
* Interceptor aircraft (or simply "interceptor"), a type of point defense fighter aircraft designed specifically to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft
* Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor, a police car
* ...
incorporating several radical innovations. The Black Bullet was a stubby, almost tailless, pusher fighter, constructed with magnesium alloy (since demand for aircraft aluminum was expected to rise sharply as war production ramped up). Magnesium cannot be welded using conventional techniques, so Pavlecka, Tom Piper,[ and Russell Meredith developed ]heliarc
Gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), also known as tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, is an arc welding process that uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode to produce the weld. The weld area and electrode are protected from oxidation or other atmo ...
welding (or re-developed; it was later found that General Electric had used heliarc in the 1920s). The Black Bullet first flew in 1943, but had various flaws and never reached production.
After the war, Pavlecka worked at Hughes Aircraft
The Hughes Aircraft Company was a major American aerospace and defense contractor founded on February 14, 1934 by Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting p ...
and Lockheed. In the 1960s he worked at Rocketdyne
Rocketdyne was an American rocket engine design and production company headquartered in Canoga Park, California, Canoga Park, in the western San Fernando Valley of suburban Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles, in southern California.
The Rocke ...
, where he worked on the design of turbopump
A turbopump is a propellant pump with two main components: a rotodynamic pump and a driving gas turbine, usually both mounted on the same shaft, or sometimes geared together. They were initially developed in Germany in the early 1940s. The purpos ...
s and compressor
A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor.
Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...
s for the J-2, a rocket engine used in the Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
Rocket. These pumps were also used in the LEM (Lunar Excursion Module) used in the Apollo moon landings.[
To the end of his life, Pavlecka maintained that, given the plethora of advancements in aeronautics, the metal airship continued to be a viable and fuel-efficient transportation vehicle.][ At his death, he was a director of Airships International, a now-defunct][ company in California, and had been working on the design of a new metal-clad airship powered with jet engines and with thrusters at the front, rear, and bottom.][
Pavlecka died of a heart attack on June 28, 1980][ in ]Newport Beach, California
Newport Beach is a coastal city in South Orange County, California. Newport Beach is known for swimming and sandy beaches. Newport Harbor once supported maritime industries however today, it is used mostly for recreation. Balboa Island, Newport ...
.[
]
References
External links
website devoted to Pavlecka
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavlecka, Vladimir
1901 births
1980 deaths
People from Mladá Boleslav District
Czechoslovak emigrants to the United States
Aircraft designers
Airship designers