Victor H. Roos (April 26, 1888 - October 6, 1964) was an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

and the founder or co-founder of several early aircraft companies, including

Cessna Aircraft Cessna () is an American brand of general aviation aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of the Cessna Aircraft Company, an American general aviation aircraft manufacturing ...

Biography

The only Bellanca CF built, at the National Air and Space Museum An American Eaglet B-31 In 1917 Roos was a distributor of

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pedal cycles in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest ...

, becoming one of the largest distributors in the Midwest. In 1922, Roos and partner A.H. Fetters bought the aviation assets of the Maryland Pressed Steel Company and formed the Roos-Bellanca company (also known as the Omaha Aircraft Company) to build rising designer

Giuseppe Bellanca Giuseppe Mario Bellanca (March 19, 1886 – December 26, 1960) was an Italian-American aviation pioneer, airplane designer and builder, who is credited with many design firsts and whose aircraft broke many aviation records. He was inducted into t ...

's monoplane design, the CF. Only one example was built, but it became famous from its modern design, and publicity stunts such as holding in-flight weddings. The company dissolved in 1924. In September 1927,

Travel Air The Travel Air Manufacturing Company was an aircraft manufacturer established in Wichita, Kansas, United States in January 1925 by Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech, and Lloyd Stearman. History The company initially built a series of sporting and tr ...

founder Clyde Cessna split from Walter Beech forming Cessna-Roos aircraft. Roos became the second largest shareholder in the start-up venture that went on to produce the most popular general aviation aircraft in the world. Roos resigned just one month into the partnership, selling back his interest to Cessna, and the company changed its name to Cessna Aircraft in December 1927. In November 1927, the owner of the

Swallow Airplane Company The Swallow Airplane Company was an early manufacturer of airplanes. History In January 1920, the E.M. Laird Aviation Company Ltd. was started with the purchase of the six-month-old Wichita Aircraft Company, its aircraft and the factory of the Wa ...

, Moellendick, became insolvent after sidelining Swallow production to make the '' Dallas Spirit'' on credit to enter the Dole Air Derby. Roos took control of the company, becoming the general manager, then left in 1928. In 1928 Roos joined the American Eagle aircraft company, which produced more Bellanca designed aircraft. Roos and partners agreed to merge with Lincoln-Page Aircraft Company, becoming the American Eagle-Lincoln Aircraft based at Fairfax Airport in Kansas City, Missouri, where he became president. When the company dissolved during the depression, Roos founded the short lived Victor H. Roos Aircraft Company to continue to sell the American Eaglet design. With Roos's permission,

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built his famous air racer " Mr. Mulligan" at the factory site after production of the Eaglet had ceased. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Roos founded the Automatic Coin Machine Company in Kansas City to distribute

jukebox A jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that will play a patron's selection from self-contained media. The classic jukebox has buttons, with letters and numbers on them, which are used to sele ...

machines.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roos, Victor 1888 births 1964 deaths American aviation businesspeople Cessna Businesspeople from Omaha, Nebraska 20th-century American businesspeople