Arthur Middleton Young (November 3, 1905 – May 30, 1995) was an American

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 ...

, helicopter pioneer,

cosmologist Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

astrologer Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

, and author. Young was the designer of

Bell Helicopter Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, as well as commercial helicopters in M ...

's first helicopter, the Model 30, and inventor of the stabilizer bar used on many of Bell's early helicopter designs. He founded the "Institute for the Study of Consciousness" in Berkeley in 1972. Young advocated

process philosophy Process philosophy, also ontology of becoming, or processism, is an approach to philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only true elements of the ordinary, everyday real world. In opposition to the classi ...

, an attempt to integrate the realm of human thought and experience with the realm of science so that the concept of

universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...

is not limited to that which can be physically measured. Young's theory embraces

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

and the concept of the

great chain of being The great chain of being is a hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought by medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God. The chain begins with God and descends through angels, humans, animals and plants to minerals. The great ...

. He has influenced such thinkers as

Stanislav Grof Stanislav "Stan" Grof is a Czech-born psychiatrist who has been living in the United States since the 1960s. Grof is one of the principal developers of transpersonal psychology and research into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness ...

and Laban Coblentz.

Biography

Model helicopter being controlled by its creator Arthur M

Arthur was the son of Eliza Coxe and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

landscape painter Charles Morris Young. He was interested in developing a comprehensive theory of

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, re ...

from an early age. He felt that to acquire the intellectual tools needed for such rigorous study, he should first develop an understanding of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and engineering. With this decision he was following a career path similar to that of philosopher

Alfred North Whitehead Alfred North Whitehead (15 February 1861 – 30 December 1947) was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found applica ...

, who was a mathematician before he developed the first process philosophy. Thus after graduation from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1927 Young searched for a suitable invention to develop. In 1928 he returned to his father's farm in

Radnor, Pennsylvania Radnor is a community located approximately 13 miles west of Philadelphia, in the Main Line suburbs. It straddles Montgomery and Delaware Counties, Pennsylvania. The community was named after Radnor, in Wales. Radnor is home to Cabrini Univer ...

, to begin twelve solitary years of efforts to develop the

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 attribu ...

into a useful device. Young's private experiments with helicopter design had mostly involved small scale models. After twelve years on his own using the models, he took his results and models to the Bell Aircraft Company in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from Sou ...

, in 1941, and the company agreed to build full-scale prototypes. While war was looming for the USA in late 1941 he was issued the key rotor stabilizer bar (also known as a flybar) patent, assigned it to Bell and moved to Buffalo to work with them. In June 1942 he moved his five-person team to Gardenville, New York, a hamlet on the north border of West Seneca, New York, where they could work in relative secrecy. The first test flight of the prototype Model 30 occurred in July 1943, and on March 8, 1946, the company received Helicopter Type Certificate H-1 for the world's first commercial helicopter, the

Bell Model 47 The Bell 47 is a single-rotor single-engine light helicopter manufactured by Bell Helicopter. It was based on the third Bell 30 prototype, which was the company's first helicopter designed by Arthur M. Young. The 47 became the first he ...

. This was the "whirlybird" featured in the ''

M*A*S*H ''M*A*S*H'' (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) is an American media franchise consisting of a series of novels, a film, several television series, plays, and other properties, and based on the semi-autobiographical fiction of Richard Hooker. T ...

'' movie and television series and was so successful that it continued to be manufactured through 1974. A design as well as a utilitarian success, it was added to the permanent collection of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1984. Young had become profoundly disturbed by the development of nuclear weapons at the end of the Second World War and decided that humanity needed a new philosophical paradigm. In August 1946 Young recorded in his notes the idea of the ''psychopter'' – the helicopter as the "winged self", a metaphor for the human spirit. By October 1947 Young felt his work at Bell was complete, and he turned to the next phase of his career as a philosopher of mind (or soul). In 1949, the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

awarded him the

Edward Longstreth Medal The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

. In 1952, Young and his wife Ruth organized the Foundation for the Study of Consciousness in

, the forerunner of the Institute for the Study of Consciousness. Also in 1952, Young and Ruth participated in seances conducted by

Andrija Puharich Andrija Puharich (February 19, 1918 – January 3, 1995) — born Henry Karel Puharić — was a medical and parapsychological researcher, medical inventor, physician and author, known as the person who brought Israeli Uri Geller (born 1946) and ...

's Roundtable Foundation.

Marriages

Young married Priscilla Page in 1933. He was divorced from Priscilla in 1948, and later that year, married artist Ruth Forbes Paine (1903–1998) of the

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Forbes family, a great-granddaughter of

Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a cham ...

and the mother of

Michael Paine Michael Ralph Paine (June 25, 1928 – March 1, 2018) was an American engineer. He became notable after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, because he was an acquaintance of the President's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. His wife, Ruth ...

. Ruth Forbes was formerly married to George Lyman Paine Jr. Their son Michael Paine married Ruth Hyde Paine, a friend of

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at the age of 12 fo ...

's wife

Marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or ...

, who was living with her at the time of the JFK assassination.

Death

On 30 May 1995, Arthur Young died of cancer at age 89, at his home in Berkeley, California.

Philosophical views

In 1976, Young's theory of evolution of life on Earth – which attempted to synthesize understandings from

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other Astronomical object, astronomical objects, the features or rock (geology), rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology ...

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...

psychology Psychology is the science, scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immens ...

, and

parapsychology Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena ( extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related t ...

– appeared under the title ''The Reflexive Universe''. Young accepted the general "theory of evolution," but pointed out where he felt the Darwinian theory was insufficient to the facts. The book also incorporates a brief speculative discussion of further human psychological and spiritual growth.Young, Arthur M. 1976 ''The Reflexive Universe: Evolution of Consciousness''. New York: Delacorte Press,

Published works

* ''Consciousness and Reality: The Human Pivot Point'', Charles Musès and Arthur M. Young (editors), 1972, New York: Outerbridge and Lazard, * ''Geometry of Meaning'', 1976, New York:

Delacorte Press Dell Publishing Company, Inc. is an American publisher of books, magazines and comic books, that was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. with $10,000 (approx. $145,000 in 2021), two employees and one magazine title, ''I Confess'', and so ...

, , reprint ed. 1984, Robert Briggs Associates, * ''The Reflexive Universe: Evolution of Consciousness'', 1976, New York: Delacorte Press, , corrected ed. with introduction by

Huston Smith Huston Cummings Smith (May 31, 1919 – December 30, 2016) was an influential scholar of religious studies in the United States, He authored at least thirteen books on world's religions and philosophy, and his book about comparative religion, ' ...

, 1976, Anodos Foundation, * ''The Bell Notes: A Journey from Physics to Metaphysics'', 1979, New York: Delacorte Press, , reprint ed. 1979, Doubleday, ; reprint paperback ed. 1984, Robert Briggs Associates, , foreword by

Peter Dreyer Peter Richard Dreyer (born November 15, 1939, at Caledon in the Western Cape) is a South African American writer. He is the author of ''A Beast in View'' (London: André Deutsch), ''The Future of Treason'' (New York: Ballantine), ''A Gardener Touc ...

* ''Zodiac: An Analysis of Symbolic Degrees'' by Eric Schroeder, (editor A.M. Young), 1982, Robert Briggs Associates, * ''Mathematics, Physics and Reality : Two Essays'', (120p.) 1990, Anodos Foundation, * ''Which Way Out? and Other Essays'', (206 p.) 1990, Anodos Foundation, * ''Nested Time: An Astrological Autobiography'', (editor Kathy Goss), 2004, Anodos Foundation,

Broadsides

* ''The Foundations of Science: The Missing Parameter'', (26 p.) 1985, Robert Briggs Associates, * ''The Shakespeare/Bacon Controversy'', (26 p.) 1987, Robert Briggs Associates, * ''Science and Astrology : The Relationship Between the Measure Formulae and the Zodiac'', (48 p.) 1988, Anodos Foundation,

Related essays

* John S. Saloma and Ruth Forbes Young, ''Theory of Process 1: Prelude - Search for a Paradigm'', (38 p.), * John S. Saloma, ''Theory of Process 2: Major Themes in 'The Reflexive Universe, Robert Briggs Associates, Mill Valley, CA, 1991 (50 p.),

Patents

* ''Floating Wing Assembly'', filed September 1933, issued June 1937 * ''Aircraft and Means for Stabilizing the Same'', filed August 1939, issued September 1941 * ''Aircraft'', filed August 1939, issued September 1941 * ''Helicopter Aircraft'', filed March 1943, issued February 1945 * ''Captive helicopter-kite means'', filed August 21, 1943, issued October 21, 1947 * ''Variable Diameter Propeller'', filed October 24, 1962, issued April 1964

References

External links

Arthur Young
homepage

from ''Thinking Allowed'' PBS television series
Recordings of Arthur M. Young
– extensive video and audio archive of Young and the Institute for the Study of Consciousness

{{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Arthur 1905 births 1995 deaths Amateur radio people 20th-century American inventors Aviation inventors American consciousness researchers and theorists American parapsychologists 20th-century American philosophers Philosophical cosmologists American expatriates in France