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 gliding ...

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 highe ...

's Altosaurus Glider Club. At that time, Eliot Noyes was a sailplane pilot in the Harvard soaring club. That glider was later restored and currently resides at the National Soaring Museum in

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 censu ...

. 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 ...

. 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 dusters 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 attribu ...

, 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 (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 (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

. 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;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'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)