Frank Henry Russell (July 17, 1878 – August 4, 1947) was an American

aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes airplane, fixed-wing and helicopter, rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as aerostat, lighter- ...

pioneer and the first General Manager of the Wright Brothers Company at

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

. He went on to co-found the

Burgess Company The Burgess Company was a U.S. airplane manufacturer between 1910 and 1918. History The business was incorporated in 1910 as the "Burgess Company and Curtis, Inc." (after W. Starling Burgess and Greely S. Curtis, its co-founders with Frank Henr ...

and the Manufacturers Aircraft Association. He was the Vice President and a director of

Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Company Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company (1909 – 1929) was an American aircraft manufacturer originally founded by Glenn Hammond Curtiss and Augustus Moore Herring in Hammondsport, New York. After significant commercial success in its first decades ...

and a director of

Curtiss-Wright Corporation The Curtiss-Wright Corporation is a manufacturer and services provider headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina, with factories and operations in and outside the United States. Created in 1929 from the consolidation of Curtiss, Wright, and v ...

Biography

Russell was born on July 17, 1878 in Mansfield, Ohio, to Reverend Frank Russell, Congregationalist minister and descendant of Reverend

Noadiah Russell The Reverend Noadiah Russell (22 July 1659 – 3 December 1713) was a Congregationalist minister, a founder and trustee of Yale College, and one of the framers of the Saybrook Platform. Life Russell was born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of W ...

, and Aurelia Squire Henry Russell. He was a nephew of

Russell Alexander Alger Russell Alexander Alger (February 27, 1836 – January 24, 1907) was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 20th Governor of Michigan, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of War. He was supposedly a distant relation of author Ho ...

and Avra P. Russell. He was graduated from Yale in 1900, and married Marietta Ford on December 31, 1902. He joined the Laurentide Paper Company of Quebec as Manager of Sales, but came to be recognized for ability in manufacturing management. He became president of Automatic Hook & Eye Company, a predecessor company to Talon Zipper, in Hoboken, New Jersey and held patents for processes in the manufacture of the zipper. In 1908, the Wright brothers demonstrated their aeroplane in a flight over New York harbor. Russell witnessed the demonstration from the roof of his factory and sought to meet them. Russell joined the newly formed Wright Brothers Aeroplane Company as General Manager in 1910. Russell sold the first military aircraft to the US Army, and donated the prior experimental model which is now at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. In 1911, Russell joined in the formation of the

, which had been manufacturing aircraft under license from Wright. Burgess was acquired by Curtiss in 1914 and Russell became the Vice President - General Manager, and a director of the Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor Co. Under his direction the company developed many of the most successful military planes of the time, which included the NC-4 flying boat and racing planes flown by Jimmy Doolittle and Major Al Williams. Curtiss-Wright was formed in 1929 by the merger of the two formerly rival companies and Russell became a director of the combined enterprise, as well as president of Curtiss Asset Corporation and Curtiss-Caproni, Inc. Some sources credit Russell with pioneering the designs for US fighter aircraft of World War II. In 1931, Russell moved to his farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in active retirement until his death there in 1948. He was a director of the

Budd Company The Budd Company was a 20th-century metal fabricator, a major supplier of body components to the automobile industry, and a manufacturer of stainless steel passenger rail cars, airframes, missile and space vehicles, and various defense products ...

and focused his efforts on applying aircraft streamlining concepts to trains. In 1917, Russell participated in the formation of the Manufacturers Aircraft Association and was elected its secretary and later its president, which he remained until his death. The industry association was created to mediate patent disputes between aircraft and component manufacturers that had been hampering American military preparedness during World War I. He was also a member of the

National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its assets ...

. Russell served as president of the

Montauk Club The Montauk Club is a social club located in a Francis Kimball-designed building in Park Slope, Brooklyn. The Club provides dining and drinking services and offers an extensive schedule of events including a Book Club, a Beer Club, Murder Mystery ...

and vice-commodore of the Manhasset Bay Yacht Club on Long Island. He died at his home in

Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania Newtown is a borough in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,248 at the 2010 census. It is located just west of the Trenton, New Jersey metropolitan area, and is part of the larger Philadelphia metropolitan area. It ...

on August 4, 1947.

References

* Aviation & Aeronautical Engineering, Volume 3. McGraw Hill, 1917. 43

* The Aircraft Year Book 1919. Manufacturers Aircraft Assoc., Inc. New York, 1919. 95-96

* Aerial Age Weekly, Who's Who in American Aviation. Volume 13, no 14. The Aerial Age Co. New York, June 13, 1921.
Who's Who in American Aviation
' * Gardner, Lester D. Who's Who in American Aeronautics. The Gardner, Moffatt Co, New York, 1922. 90.
Who's Who in American Aeronautics
' * Curtiss Company Report, 192

Smithsonian Institution exhibit record
* ''New York Times'', 1 January 1930.

* Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 10 March 1938

* Roach, Edward J. The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry. Ohio University Press, Athens, OH. 2014.
The Wright Company: From Invention to Industry
'. * Gaffney, Timothy R.
The Dayton Flight Factory: The Wright Brothers & the Birth of Aviation
'. The History Press. Charleston, 2014.

Speeches and testimony

* On the State of Civll Aviation, Hearing Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Commerce, United States Senate. December 19, 1921

* Buffalo, Hub of Aviation.Buffalo Chamber of Commerce, 1929

Collections

The Frank Henry Russell papers, 1901-1947
at the University of Wyoming American Heritage Center. Includes biography. * Frank Henry Russell papers, journals and photographs at the Smithsonian Institution, Garber Facility, Maryland. {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Frank Ford 1878 births 1947 deaths American businesspeople American aviators Wright brothers

Biography

See also

References

Speeches and testimony

Collections