Eugene Luther Vidal (1895–1969) At West Point In 1918
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Eugene Luther Vidal (; April 13, 1895 – February 20, 1969) was an American commercial aviation pioneer,
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official, inventor, and
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. For eight years, from 1929 to 1937, he worked closely with
Amelia Earhart Amelia Mary Earhart ( ; July 24, 1897 – January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer. On July 2, 1937, she disappeared over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the world. During her li ...
in a number of aviation-related enterprises, and was President
Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
's top civil aviation director from 1933 to 1937. In his obituary, ''Time'' noted: "Eugene Vidal, 73, pioneer promoter of civil aviation and father of author Gore Vidal; in Los Angeles, California. Vidal starred in football at
West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
and competed in the decathlon in the Antwerp Olympic Games of 1920. He later taught aviation and coached football at the academy, resigning his commission in 1926 to become assistant general manager of
Transcontinental Air Transport Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) was an airline founded in 1928 by Clement Melville Keys that merged in 1930 with Western Air Express to form what became TWA. Keys enlisted the help of Charles Lindbergh to design a transcontinental network t ...
(later TWA)." From September 1933 to March 1937 he was Director of the Bureau of Air Commerce (a predecessor of the
Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...
) in Washington, where he organized and expanded the government's civil aeronautics program, including creation of the first
air traffic control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled air ...
system. Later he served as a director and part owner of
Northeast Airlines Northeast Airlines was an American trunk carrier, a scheduled airline based in Boston, Massachusetts, originally founded as Boston-Maine Airways that chiefly operated in the northeastern United States, and later to Canada, Florida, the Bahamas, ...
, and as aviation adviser to the Army Chief of Staff." Vidal became one of the pioneers in the commercial aviation industry and was an executive for three airlines during the 1920s and 1930s which developed into TWA,
Eastern Airlines Eastern Air Lines (also colloquially known as Eastern) was a major airline in the United States that operated from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade ...
, and Northeast Airlines. He was the father of author
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...
.


Early life

Vidal was born in 1895 in
Madison, South Dakota Madison is a city and the county seat of Lake County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 6,191 at the 2020 census. It is home to Dakota State University. Geography Madison is located in the center of Lake County in southeastern So ...
, the son of Margaret Ann (née Rewalt) and Felix Luther Vidal. He was the second eldest of five children.The Vidal children were: Lurene Vidal (born 1893), Gene Vidal, Amy Vidal (born 1903), Margaret Vidal (born 1910), and Felix L. Vidal, Jr. (born 1912). Felix graduated from West Point in 1933 and became a career officer in the
United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...
, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
His paternal grandfather, Eugen Fidel Vidal, was born in Feldkirch, Austria, of Romansh descent, and his paternal grandmother, Emma Hartmann, was Swiss. Vidal was a versatile athlete in both high school and college. At the
University of South Dakota The University of South Dakota (USD) is a public research university in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States. Established by the Dakota Territory legislature in 1862, 27 years before the establishment of the state of South Dakota, USD is t ...
from 1913 to 1916, he was a
letterman Letterman may refer to: * Letterman (sports), a classification of high school or college athlete in the United States People * David Letterman (born 1947), American television talk show host ** ''Late Night with David Letterman'', talk show that ...
in
football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
,
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,
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, and track. Vidal was captain of the university's 1915 football and 1916 basketball teams, leading the basketball team in scoring in both years, thereby assisting the university in winning an Intercollegiate Conference Title during his participation. Vidal received an engineering degree from USD and subsequently accepted an appointment from Congressman Royal C. Johnson to the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
in July 1916. As a football player for
Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
, he was described as a " ball carrier, punter,
drop kick A drop kick is a type of kick in various codes of football. It involves a player intentionally dropping the ball onto the ground and then kicking it either (different sports have different definitions) 'as it rises from the first bounce' ( rugby ...
er, pass receiver and backup defenseman." In 1916 Vidal scored three touchdowns and drop-kicked a 45-yard field goal in a 30–10 victory over Notre Dame. He also scored the deciding touchdown in a 15–7 win against
Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
on a
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thrown by Army quarterback Charlie Gerhardt. Army went 9–0 that season and outscored its opponents 235–36. ''
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'' reported that he sat out the 1917 season because of a "hazing episode" but was afterward named captain of the 1918 team. He also starred in
track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
and was Army's leading scorer on its 1917–18 basketball team at 8.3 points a game, for which he was named an
All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed on outstanding athletes in the United States who are considered to be among the best athletes in their respective sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an Al ...
by the
Helms Foundation The Helms Athletic Foundation, founded in 1936, was a Los Angeles-based organization dedicated to the promotion of athletics and sportsmanship. Paul H. Helms was the organization's founder and benefactor, funding the foundation via his owner ...
. At the age of 25, he was listed as in height and weighing by the
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.


Military service, Olympics and football

Vidal's West Point class (originally Class of 1920) graduated on November 1, 1918, 19 months early because of World War I, with Vidal ranked 72nd in general merit. He was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers but the war ended on November 11, 1918, before he could be sent overseas. Vidal was assigned to Camp A. A. Humphreys in Virginia between December 2, 1918, and June 4, 1919, as a student officer to complete his branch officer training at the
U.S. Army Engineer School The United States Army Engineer School (USAES) is located at Fort Leonard Wood (military base), Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. It was founded as a School of Engineering by General Headquarters Orders, Valley Forge on 9 June 1778. The U.S. Army Engin ...
.Cullum Vol. 7, p. 1374 Vidal's national renown and prowess as an athlete resulted in many instances during his military career, with the war ended, where he was granted leaves or assignments outside his normal duties to perform in sports from intramurals to the
Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...
and professional football. During the summer of 1919 he was a member of the United States team at the
Inter-Allied Games The Inter-Allied Games was a one-off multi-sport event held from 22 June to 6 July 1919 at the newly constructed Pershing Stadium just outside Paris, France following the end of World War I. The host stadium had been built near the Bois de Vi ...
at
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, touring World War I battlefields afterwards. He returned to Camp Humphreys in September to enter its Company Officers Course and was promoted to
first lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...
on September 28, 1919. In May 1920 he was assigned to the 13th Engineer RegimentThe 13th Engineers were the school unit for the Engineer School. When not detailed to athletics, Vidal spent his entire service in the Corps of Engineers at the school. but took another leave of absence over the summer to attend the Olympic tryouts at Travers Island, New York, and the Summer Games in
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, touring Europe afterwards with the U.S. Olympic Rugby Team until November. On his return to Camp Humphreys he undertook the advanced technical course in civil engineering. On July 2, 1921, Vidal was detailed to
Carlstrom Field Carlstrom Field is a former military airfield, located southeast of Arcadia, Florida. The airfield was List of airfields of the Training Section of the United States Army Air Service, one of thirty-two Air Service training camps established in ...
, Florida, for pilot training at the Air Service Pilot School, and transferred in grade to the Air Service on July 28. The course of instruction lasted four months and Vidal received his Airplane Pilot rating. On January 16, 1922, he was assigned for advanced flight training at the Air Service Observation School at Henry Post Field, Oklahoma, remaining until June 15, 1922.From 1920 to 1924, because of a lack of appropriations, the Air Service offered only primary flying training to pilot trainees, conducted at either Carlstrom or March Field, California. All advanced pilot training was provided only in one of the four combat specialties (Pursuit, Bombardment, Attack, or Observation), and only Observation then had a specialized school for it. (A formal school for phased advanced pilot training was finally instituted in 1924 at Kelly Field.) The Air Service had only two pilot ratings in 1921–1922, Airplane Pilot and Junior Airplane Pilot, with the latter normally awarded only to enlisted pilots who did not undertake advanced training and be commissioned. (Cameron, pp. 223–226) Vidal returned to West Point on July 5, 1922, for a four-year tour of duty as an assistant instructor in the Department of Tactics, the first member of the Air Service to be assigned to the academy staff. Later he was also an assistant instructor in Military Gymnastics and Physical Culture, with collateral duties coaching the academy's
gymnastics Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring Balance (ability), balance, Strength training, strength, Flexibility (anatomy), flexibility, agility, Motor coordination, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movem ...
(1922–1923) and
track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...
(1923–1924) squads. In 1925 Army head football coach John "Cap" McEwan named him an assistant football coach.Vidal and McEwan played together on the 1916 Army team, McEwan as a defensive standout. At the end of the 1925 season he took a leave of absence from the academy on December 12. Vidal resigned his commission on March 10, 1926, to go into Florida real estate, but he lost all his investments in the subsequent "bust." After coaching college football from 1926 to 1928, in March 1929 Vidal joined Transcontinental Air Transport (T.A.T.), where he rapidly rose to assistant general manager in its
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...
, office.


Olympics

Vidal participated as an athlete in the 1920 Olympic Games and as a coach in the 1924 Games. In 1920 he had one first-place finish in competing in the
decathlon The decathlon is a combined event in athletics consisting of 10 track and field events. The word "decathlon" was formed, in analogy to the word "pentathlon", from Greek δέκα (''déka'', meaning "ten") and ἄθλος (''áthlos'', or ἄ ...
, in heat eight of the 100 meter dash, and placed seventh overall in the event. In 1924 in Paris, Vidal was an assistant track coach in charge of the modern pentathlon and decathlon squads. He was the first graduate of USD to be on an Olympic team."Gene Vidal."
''South Dakota Hall of Fame.''


Post-college football

While stationed at Carlstrom, Vidal also played briefly for the
American Professional Football Association The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...
's Washington Senators in 1921, appearing in one game.Vidal stated that he also played briefly for the
New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
, apparently during its inaugural season while he was stationed at the academy. (Association of Graduates memorial page)
When Cap McEwan left
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to become head football coach at
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, he hired Vidal as an assistant coach for the 1926, 1927, and 1928 seasons.


Commercial aviation professional

In the Wall Street Crash of 1929, T.A.T. suffered significant financial losses. Before the year ended the entire executive staff in St. Louis, including Vidal, were fired. The following February he and veteran airmail pilot Paul Collins, who had also been let go by T.A.T., went to
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
to organize the first commuter airline, the New York, Philadelphia and Washington Airway Corporation, better known as the Ludington Line, financed and owned by brothers Nicholas and Charles Townsend Ludington. Vidal became a company vice president and general manager. Amelia Earhart made an investment of $30,000 and was also made a vice president, in charge of publicity. In its first year, using seven 10-passenger Stinson SM-6000B tri-motors on an hourly daytime schedule between Washington, D.C., and New York, Ludington became the first purely passenger air carrier to show a profit. However, Vidal, Collins and Earhart all left the airline in 1932 when its profitability declined because of a failure in 1931 to obtain an airmail contract and its subsidies.This failure, in which the contract was awarded to Ludington's arch-rival Eastern Air Transport for a rate triple its own bid, subsequently led to the
Air Mail scandal The Air Mail scandal, also known as the Air Mail fiasco, was a political controversy that erupted in 1934 following a United States Congress, congressional investigation into the awarding of airmail contracts to select airlines. The scandal inte ...
of 1934.
In August 1933, all three invested $2,500 each in the
Boston and Maine Corporation The Boston and Maine Railroad was a United States, U.S. Class I railroad in northern New England. It was chartered in 1835, and became part of what was the Pan Am Railways network in 1983 (most of which was purchased by CSX in 2022). At the e ...
's passenger airline subsidiary, Boston & Maine Airways, and incorporated a holding company, National Airways, Inc., to procure aircraft for the endeavor. Collins and Earhart were president and vice president respectively in the B&MA while Vidal, by then in government service, was an unpaid director. He became a partner in Boston & Maine Airways in 1938, which merged with National Airways in November, 1940 and became
Northeast Airlines Northeast Airlines was an American trunk carrier, a scheduled airline based in Boston, Massachusetts, originally founded as Boston-Maine Airways that chiefly operated in the northeastern United States, and later to Canada, Florida, the Bahamas, ...
.Cullum Vol. 8, p. 402


Department of Commerce

Vidal joined the
United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce (DOC) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government. It is responsible for gathering data for business and governmental decision making, establishing industrial standards, catalyzing econ ...
in June 1933, appointed by President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
as assistant director for Air Regulation in its Aeronautics Branch. Over 40 candidates were being sponsored for the directorship by various political supporters of the president, including Vidal, but Roosevelt delayed making the appointment. On September 19, 1933, with Earhart's recommendation to
Eleanor Roosevelt Anna Eleanor Roosevelt ( ; October 11, 1884November 7, 1962) was an American political figure, diplomat, and activist. She was the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, first lady of the United States, during her husband Franklin D ...
, Vidal was named Director of Aeronautics. Soon after his appointment he appeared on the December 18, 1933, cover of ''Time'' magazine and was recognized by the
United States Chamber of Commerce The United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC) is a business association advocacy group and is the largest lobbying group in the United States. The group was founded in April 1912 out of local chambers of commerce at the urging of President Will ...
as one of the "12 Outstanding Young Men of America." On July 1, 1934, with Vidal continuing as its director, the Aeronautics Branch was renamed the Bureau of Air Commerce (BAC) to emphasize its status as a regulatory agency. Vidal's term as director was a rocky one. In November 1933 he made public a proposal to develop a safe mass-produced light aircraft, the aviation equivalent of the
Ford Model T The Ford Model T is an automobile that was produced by the Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable automobile, which made car travel available to middle-class Americans. Th ...
automobile, that would cost only $700, calling it the "Poor Man's Airplane" project and part of a "
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
for Aviation." The "$700 airplane" became an object of ridicule that would haunt the remainder of his time in government.While Vidal's admirers in general attribute the opposition to conservative opponents of the New Deal or those with vested interests in expensive commercial aircraft, most who opposed it did so on economic grounds, particularly the costs for engines and owner maintenance. Established manufacturers, who were being called upon to develop the product, saw it as a direct attack on themselves and the industry with the "unmistakable implication" that they were not making an honest effort to produce a safe aircraft at the lowest possible price, which they feared would undermine public confidence in aviation itself. (''Innovation and the Development of Flight'', p. 183) Vidal called for $1,000,000 to be Federally funded to underwrite the project, and half of that was immediately allocated by the
Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by United States Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was ...
, but by March 1934 opposition had solidified and the funds were cancelled, leaving Vidal no option except to find private sector sources willing to experiment on their own.
National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...
curator Tom D. Crouch put possibly the final word on "the People's Car" in 1999: "At a fundamental level, Eugene Vidal was wrong. ... Flying is not like driving an automobile. It is an unforgiving pursuit that demands a high degree of concentration and specialized skill." (''Innovation and the Development of Flight'', p. 184)
Vidal also organized Bureau headquarters so that decision-making authority was divided among himself and two assistant directors, for Air Navigation and for Air Regulation, in an attempt to make the Bureau more effective in its regulatory role. Of the BAC's seven functional divisions, however, only Administration and Aeronautic Information were responsible to Vidal and disorganization resulted from a lack of clear lines of authority. A dearth of procedures and policy created what one aviation historian described as a "paper jungle" of rules, bulletins, notices, and reports.Earhart's biographer Butler alleges he was undermined by his two assistants, both of whom she states coveted the director's job. Although they remained with the BAC when Vidal left, neither subsequently got the job when the Bureau was reorganized in April, 1937. FDR's Secretary of Commerce Daniel C. Roper ordered the shakeup of the BAC, citing "divided responsibility," "inefficient administration," and a "mess" in the Bureau. The two assistant positions were immediately reduced to one and their occupants sent on "study missions" to Latin America and Europe. After TWA Flight 6, a
Douglas DC-2 The Douglas DC-2 is a retired 14-passenger, twin-engined airliner that was produced by the American company Douglas Aircraft Company starting in 1934. It competed with the Boeing 247. In 1935, Douglas produced a larger version called the DC-3 ...
carrying 13 persons, crashed at Atlanta, Missouri, on May 6, 1935, killing five including
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Bronson M. Cutting, Vidal and the BAC came under severe criticism. The airliner had become lost in fog, missed its approach at the airport in
Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...
and was unable to find the secondary airport at Kirksville because the
radio beacon In navigation, a radio beacon or radiobeacon is a kind of beacon, a device that marks a fixed location and allows direction finding, direction-finding equipment to find relative Bearing (navigation), bearing. But instead of employing visible lig ...
there was not operating properly. Flight 6 ran low on fuel and either inadvertently flew into the ground or crashed trying to make an emergency landing in the dark. It was the seventh in a series of fatal crashes that took 43 lives. A lengthy investigation into the Flight 6 crash and airline safety in general (and by inference, the BAC) ensued throughout 1936 by a special subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, chaired by Senator Royal S. Copeland. The Copeland Committee issued a "scathing" preliminary report in June 1936, indicting the BAC for a lack of airline safety, and while the report was biased against Vidal because he was a
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
er (FDR had supported Copeland's opponent in the Democratic
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of 1934), the criticism damaged Roosevelt's re-election campaign.Nolan (2010), p. 15Vidal was open to personal criticism when an investigator testified that "a niggling economy" may have played a role in the crash because Vidal had ordered all secondary airports to reduce beacon wattage to save electricity costs. The beacon should have been detectable up to 25 miles from the airport but evidence showed that its effective range at the time of the crash was only two. The pilot had also been flying more than eight hours on a special waiver of the DOC regulation that Vidal granted TWA. Vidal made perceptions of his own culpability more likely three weeks after the crash, when he cancelled all such waivers after public criticism of them by the
Air Line Pilots Association The Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA) is the largest pilot union in the world, representing more than 79,000 pilots from 42 US and Canadian airlines. ALPA was founded on 27 July 1931 and is a member of the AFL-CIO and the Canadian ...
resulted in denunciations from members of Congress. (Hopkins, pp. 85 and 87)
In the face of criticism of his aviation policy by Congress and the airline industry, Roosevelt moved to reorganize the BAC, dismiss Vidal and his two assistant directors, and appoint a lawyer to replace him. He was compelled to reinstate Vidal, however, when Earhart advised Mrs. Roosevelt that she would publicly withdraw her support for FDR's re-election if he did not. After Copeland announced a new round of investigations in November, disorganization in the Bureau and continuing hostility from the aviation industry contributed to his resignation on February 28, 1937.Vidal was replaced on March 1, the day after his resignation, by attorney Fred D. Fagg, Jr., an authority on aviation law and a professor at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
. Fagg may have been the lawyer FDR had in mind for the job in September 1936, as he was then a technical adviser to the Copeland Committee. Fagg had also been an Air Service pilot in Europe during World War I and was appointed to the BAC as a troubleshooter. He completely reorganized the Bureau, setting it in proper working order, and restored confidence in both the BAC and its programs before resuming his interrupted academic career. Of note, he created a safety and planning section in the BAC for the study of improved safety devices for pilots. Rudolph W. "Shorty" Schroeder, head of the airline inspection service and a noted former test pilot for the Air Service, was promoted to the only assistant director's position, directly accountable to Fagg.
After the 1936 elections, Earhart began final planning for her proposed
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ial
circumnavigation Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical object, astronomical body (e.g. a planet or natural satellite, moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first circumnaviga ...
of the world, with fuel and routing across the
Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...
major considerations. Vidal suggested that landing strips be built on tiny, uninhabitable
Howland Island Howland Island () is a coral island and strict nature reserve located just north of the equator in the central Pacific Ocean, about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia and is an Territories of the ...
as the largest point of land along the planned route within range of both
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and Hawaii. Earhart agreed with the suggestion and made the request for its use. At the president's direction, the
Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relatin ...
, which administered the island, began constructing the strips in January 1937, using
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
funds, an engineer from the BAC to supervise, a
U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...
construction crew and a
USCG The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, mi ...
cutter to transport them. Her first attempt to cross the Pacific ended in damage to her aircraft when it ground-looped in Hawaii on March 20, 1937, and, with Vidal by then gone from the BAC, she encountered obstacles from the new management of the Bureau attempting to prevent a second attempt. Earhart herself wrote that permission for the trip was granted by the BAC despite its reluctance because it was in no position to refuse after Vidal previously granted it. Between November 1935 and July 1936, Vidal directed the establishment of the first
air traffic control centers An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
in the United States, initially negotiating an interline air traffic agreement with the airlines to build and operate several until funding could be appropriated for a Federal takeover of the system, which was obtained in March, 1936 for the next
fiscal year A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...
. The BAC took over air control duties at the first three centers in Cleveland, Newark and Chicago on July 6, 1936, and hired the first 15 Federal
air traffic controller An Air traffic controller (ATC) is a person responsible for the coordination of traffic in their assigned airspace. Typically stationed in area control centers or control towers, they monitor the position, speed, and altitude of aircraft and c ...
s. As head of the BAC, Vidal occupied the Chair 10 position on the 15-member Main Committee of the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a United States federal agency that was founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved and its ...
(the NACA) from November 1933 to April 1937, and was one of only 120 persons to serve on the committee during its existence between 1915 and 1958, when it became
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
. Among the non-military members of the Main Committee during Vidal's term were Joseph S. Ames, Charles G. Abbot, Lyman J. Briggs, Harry F. Guggenheim, Charles A. Lindbergh, William P. MacCracken, Jr., and
Orville Wright The Wright brothers, Orville Wright (August 19, 1871 – January 30, 1948) and Wilbur Wright (April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912), were American aviation pioneers generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world's first succes ...
. His expertise in aviation led him to a number of consulting positions in industry and the government. After leaving the BAC, Vidal was a technical consultant for
Bendix Aviation Bendix Corporation is an American manufacturing and engineering company founded in 1924 and subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse since 2002. During various times in its existence, Bendix made automotive brake shoes and systems, vacuum tubes, aircraft ...
through 1938, establishing his own laboratory in Bendix Borough ( Teterboro), New Jersey. This was the foundation for what he described as "a development-licensing-patenting firm", the Vidal Research Corporation, "which for the next fifteen or so years acquired a number of licenses companies."Eugene L. Vidal 1918
, Memorial page, USMA Association of Graduates. retrieved 2016-01-18
In 1938, he incorporated the Aircraft Research Corporation to establish a
brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...
for aircraft sales. In the same year, he became an aviation consultant for the United States Plywood Corporation.


Post-New Deal entrepreneur

In 1935, while pushing his concept of the $700 airplane, Vidal had seen the Atwood Duply Airmobile (civil registration number NC-15318), an experimental aircraft invented by Harry Atwood and test flown by
Clarence Chamberlin Clarence Duncan Chamberlin (November 11, 1893 – October 31, 1976) was an American pioneer of aviation, being the second man to pilot a fixed-wing aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean, from New York to the European mainland, while carrying the firs ...
. It was constructed with a seamless one-piece fuselage using "Duply," a steam-cooked laminate made from
birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...
veneer strips impregnated with
cellulose acetate In biochemistry, cellulose acetate refers to any acetate ester of cellulose, usually cellulose diacetate. It was first prepared in 1865. A bioplastic, cellulose acetate is used as a film base in photography, as a component in some coatings, and ...
."Duply" was a portmanteau derived from "DuPont," whose labs were the site of the first experimentation, and "plywood." Atwood still owned Atwood Carolina, a pre-war airplane manufacturing company. His biographer states that he and Vidal were vying to be known as the "Henry Ford of aviation" and Atwood felt he was "cheated" out of his patent by Vidal, whom he says purchased it for $10,000 in 1939 and then only paid a year's royalty before filing for a patent under his own name with slight changes in the process. Atwood's process and Vidal's superficially resembled each other but employed different bonding methods. (Mansfield, pp, 132, 165, and 185–186) After leaving the BAC, Vidal experimented from 1937 to 1940 with wood-resin composites using a
thermosetting polymer In materials science, a thermosetting polymer, often called a thermoset, is a polymer that is obtained by irreversibly hardening (" curing") a soft solid or viscous liquid prepolymer (resin). Curing is induced by heat or suitable radiation and ...
process similar to Duramold under the banner of the Vidal Research Corporation. The experiments with the durable waterproof
plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...
material, said to have a greater
tensile strength Ultimate tensile strength (also called UTS, tensile strength, TS, ultimate strength or F_\text in notation) is the maximum stress that a material can withstand while being stretched or pulled before breaking. In brittle materials, the ultimate ...
than a comparable thickness of
aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...
, evolved initially into a small business producing only trays and dinghies. Vidal patented the process as "Vidal Weldwood", variously described as "cooked wood" or "molded plywood." Howell W. Miller, a designer of light aircraft doing business as the Summit Aeronautical Company of
Westfield, Massachusetts Westfield is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, Hampden County, in the Pioneer Valley of western Massachusetts, United States. Westfield was first settled by Europeans in 1660. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Springfield metrop ...
,"Pete" Miller assisted the Granville Brothers on the design of their Gee Bee racing aircraft. Starting with the New England Aircraft Corporation and the HM-1, he started a series of short-lived companies to market his original designs, one of which was Summit. (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Archives Division – SIRIS) worked with Vidal in Bendix Borough to build a small airplane entirely from Weldwood: the Summit HM-5. A prototype was built (NX25332) and successfully flown.The HM-5 ("HM" for Hawks-Miller) was a two-person, low-wing, cantilever monoplane with retractable landing gear and side-by-side cabin seating, powered by a Continental A75 4-cylinder air-cooled engine. It resembled both the Culver Cadet and Globe Swift all-metal sport planes but was developed independently. The wings were made in three lateral sections and the fuselage in two halves, from Weldwood, using spruce and mahogany veneers. The HM-5 had a wingspan of , a height of , and an overall length of just , roughly the size of an automobile, with a top speed of , a very low landing speed with flaps of , and without flaps of . If Vidal felt justified that he had at last produced his "People's Airplane," he was disappointed that another was never built. The design was used for an additional prototype, a sport aerobatic trainer marketed by Summit as the "Westfield Trainer," but only one was flown before World War II shut down Summit's production. (''Jane's All the World's Aircraft'', 1941 edition) In 1940, based on the successful fabrication of the HM-5, Vidal began a project under the Aircraft Research trade name to manufacture a basic trainer for the Air Corps, designated the XBT-11,The BT-11 was to be an all-Weldwood airplane similar in size and weight to the Vultee BT-13 and powered by the same Pratt & Whitney R-985-25 () engine. But, Vidal was unable to procure a contract from the Materiel Division of the Air Corps after fabricating a mockup. After the United States was drawn into World War II, Vidal obtained contracts to manufacture war materiel, primarily deck houses for
PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, and it was valued for its maneuverability and speed. However, PT boats were hampe ...
s,The variant of the Vidal process used for watercraft was known as Weldwood Marine. pontoons and aircraft
drop tank In aviation, a drop tank (external tank, wing tank or belly tank) is used to describe auxiliary fuel tanks externally carried by aircraft. A drop tank is expendable and often capable of being jettisoned. External tanks are commonplace on modern ...
s then earned him the wealth that had eluded his earlier entrepreneurial attempts. Restrictions on the use of metals in 1942, particularly aluminum, caused by an increased demand by shipbuilders and aircraft manufacturers, led both the Army and the Navy to demand designs for components and training equipment that could be manufactured from wood composites. Investments in factories to build Weldwood products under license boomed immediately. One such licensee was the Hughes Aircraft Division of
Hughes Tool Company Hughes Tool Company was an American manufacturer of drill bits. Founded in 1908, it was merged into Baker Hughes Incorporated in 1987. History The company was established in December 1908 as Sharp-Hughes Tool Company when Howard R. Hughes ...
, and another was U. S. Plywood. The success of the product was well-publicized and earned him an honorary doctorate from
Lawrence College Lawrence College may refer to: * Lawrence College Ghora Gali, a boarding school in Punjab, Pakistan * Lawrence University, a private liberal arts college in Appleton, Wisconsin, United States, named "Lawrence College" from 1913 until 1964 * Sarah L ...
. Vidal wanted to re-enter military service in the
Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...
during the war but, in July 1942, suffered a massive
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
, spending eight months as a convalescent, which prevented him from serving again. He retired from active participation in his company in the early 1950s, but remained a part-owner and director of Northeast Airlines. He continued to make furniture and other products out of Weldwood in his home workshop. Vidal acted as aviation adviser to the Army Chief of Staff from 1955 to 1965, served on the Scientific Advisory Panel of the
Secretary of the Army The secretary of the Army (SA or SECARMY) is a senior civilian official within the United States Department of Defense, with statutory responsibility for all matters relating to the United States Army: manpower, personnel, reserve affairs, insta ...
Cullum Vol. 9, p. 298 and was a member of the
Howze Board The Howze Board was the informal name given to the Tactical Mobility Requirements Board created at the direct request of Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara to review and test new concepts integrating helicopters as close air support into the Uni ...
in 1962, which developed the
air assault Air assault is the movement of ground-based military forces by vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, such as helicopters, to seize and hold key terrain that has not been fully secured, and to directly engage enemy forces behind enemy l ...
concept for the Army. In 1967, he visited the most famous offshoot of the concept, the
1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) 1st Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, 1st Cavalry Brigade, 1st Cavalry Regiment or 1st Cavalry Battalion may refer to: Armies * 1st Cavalry Army, Soviet Union Corps * I Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée) * I Cavalry Corps (German Empire) * 1st Cavalry ...
, at its base camp in
South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...
.


Personal life

On January 11, 1922, Vidal married Nina Gore, daughter of Democrat
Thomas Gore Thomas Pryor Gore (December 10, 1870March 16, 1949) was an American politician who served as one of the first two United States senators from Oklahoma, from 1907 to 1921 and again from 1931 to 1937. He first entered politics as an activist for t ...
, one of the first two senators from Oklahoma. Their only child was born on October 3, 1925: *
Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...
(born Eugene Louis Vidal) (1925–2012) They divorced in 1935 and Nina subsequently married stockbroker Hugh D. Auchincloss."Gore Vidal: Laughing Cassandra."
''Time'', March 1, 1976.
In December 1939, after a brief courtship, Vidal married Katharine "Kit" Roberts, then a 20-year-old Powers Agency model. They had two children: *Gene Vance Vidal (born 1942) *Valerie Vidal Hewitt (born 1945) It is alleged in Susan Butler's biography ''East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart'', and the possibility endorsed by Kathleen Winters in ''Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of an American Icon'', that Vidal had a long-standing romantic relationship with Earhart, from 1929 when they worked together for
Transcontinental Air Transport Transcontinental Air Transport (T-A-T) was an airline founded in 1928 by Clement Melville Keys that merged in 1930 with Western Air Express to form what became TWA. Keys enlisted the help of Charles Lindbergh to design a transcontinental network t ...
to her disappearance in 1937. His son, Gore Vidal's, cover testimonial to Butler's biography adds credence to the story.On the other hand, another of Earhart's many biographers, Doris Rich, takes the same set of circumstances and concludes the opposite is true: that Vidal was "a family man, not a lover." (Rich, p.237) Vidal died of complications from kidney cancerKaplan (1999). pp.627–32. in 1969 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 73, while on a trip around the world."Milestones: Feb. 28, 1969."
''
Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York Cit ...
,'' February 28, 1969. Retrieved: 2013-03-07.
His ashes were scattered at
Fort Belvoir Fort Belvoir ( ) is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It was developed on the site of the former Belvoir (plantation), Belvoir plantation, seat of the prominent Lord ...
, which had been Camp A.A. Humphreys and his first posting after graduation from West Point.


Legacy

* Vidal is in the South Dakota Sports Hall of Fame. * Vidal was portrayed by actor
Ewan McGregor Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to drama and ...
in the 2009 film '' Amelia''." 'Amelia' Full credits."
''IMDb''. Retrieved: 2010-01-13.
* Since 1971, each year the Gene L. Vidal Memorial Award is presented at the
United States Military Academy The United States Military Academy (USMA), commonly known as West Point, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York that educates cadets for service as Officer_(armed_forces)#United_States, comm ...
to the Cadet who has the "Most Significant and Practical Suggestion Adopted for Future Benefit of the United States Military Academy."


Notes

Footnotes Citations


References

* Vol. 7 1920–1930; Vol. 8 1930–1940; Vol. 9 1940–1950 ("''Cullum's Biographical Register''") * Bridgman, Leonard (editor) (1942). ''Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1941'', New York: The MacMillan Company * Butler, Susan (1997). ''East to the Dawn: The Life of Amelia Earhart''. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. . * * Gillespie, Ric (2006). ''Finding Amelia: The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance'', Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, * Hopkins, George E. (1982). ''Flying the Line: The First Half Century of the Air Line Pilots Association''. Washington, D.C.:ALPA. * Kaplan, Fred (1999). ''Gore Vidal: A Biography'', New York: Doubleday. * Laurnius, Dr. Roger D. (editor) (1999). ''Innovation and the Development of Flight'', College Station: Texas A&M University Press. * Lehrer, Henry R. (2014). ''Flying the Beam: Navigating the Early U.S. Airmail Airways 1917–1941''. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press. * Longyard, William H. (1974). ''Who's Who in Aviation History: 500 Biographies.'' Toronto, Ontario: Elsevier Canada. . * Mansfield, Howard (1999). ''Skylark: The Life, Lies, and Inventions of Harry Atwood'', Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England. * Nolan, Michael (2010). ''Fundamentals of Air Traffic Control'', Delmar Publishing, * Pisano, Dominick A. (2001). ''To Fill the Skies with Pilots: The Civilian Pilot Training Program, 1939–1946''. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. * Rich, Doris (1989). ''Amelia Earhart: A Biography'', Washington, D.C.: The Smithsonian Institution. * Van der Linden, F. Robert (2002). ''Airlines and Air Mail: The Post Office and Birth of the Commercial Aviation Industry.'' Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. * Vidal, Gore (2007). ''Point to Point Navigation: A Memoir.'' New York: Vintage Books. * Winters, Kathleen C. (2010). ''Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of an American icon'', New York: St. Martin's Press.


External links


Eugene L. Vidal 1918
, Association of Graduates memorial page
''Time'' magazine article
February 28, 1969 *
Eugene L. Vidal papers
at the
American Heritage Center The American Heritage Center is the University of Wyoming's repository of manuscripts, rare books, and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West (including politics, settlement, Native Americans, and W ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vidal, Eugene Luther 1895 births 1969 deaths All-American college men's basketball players American aviation businesspeople American men's basketball players American male decathletes American people of Austrian descent American people of Romansh descent American people of Swiss descent American investors Army Black Knights men's basketball players Athletes (track and field) at the 1920 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1924 Summer Olympics American aviation pioneers Aviators from South Dakota Basketball players from South Dakota Army Black Knights men's track and field athletes Military personnel from South Dakota Olympic track and field athletes for the United States People from Madison, South Dakota Players of American football from South Dakota South Dakota Coyotes baseball players South Dakota Coyotes football players South Dakota Coyotes men's basketball players Olympic decathletes United States international rugby union players American military personnel of World War I Bendix Corporation people Oregon Ducks football coaches South Dakota Coyotes men's track and field athletes Washington Senators (NFL) players 20th-century American sportsmen