Grover Cleveland Loening (September 12, 1888 – February 29, 1976) was an American aircraft manufacturer.

Biography

Loening was born in Bremen, in what was then Imperial Germany, on September 12, 1888, while his American-born father was stationed there as U.S. Consul. He graduated from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

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, where he was awarded the first-ever degree in

Aeronautical Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

. Following graduation, he joined the Queen Aeroplane Company in New York, managed the

Wright Company The Wright Company was the commercial aviation business venture of the Wright Brothers, established by them on November 22, 1909, in conjunction with several prominent industrialists from New York and Detroit with the intention of capitalizing o ...

factory in

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for Orville Wright in 1913 and 1914, published a book, ''Military Airplanes'', and became Vice President of the Sturtevant Aeroplane Company and Chief engineer for the Army in San Diego. In 1917 he formed the Loening Aeronautical Engineering Corporation; after it merged with

Keystone Aircraft Keystone Aircraft Corporation was an early American airplane manufacturer. History Headquartered in Bristol, Pennsylvania, the company was formed as "Ogdensburg Aeroway Corp" in 1920 by Thomas Huff and Elliot Daland, but its name was quickly ...

in 1928, he formed the Grover Loening Aircraft Company. His work on the Loening Flying Yacht won the 1921 Collier Trophy. His notoriety increasing in 1927, Loening dated Elizabeth Nast, a

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model twenty years his junior with an affinity for flying. Loening would test fly his own aircraft. Among his employees were

Leroy Grumman Leroy Randle "Roy" Grumman (4 January 1895 – 4 October 1982) was an American aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and industrialist. In 1929, he co-founded Grumman Aircraft Engineering Co., later renamed Grumman Aerospace Corporation, and now ...

, William T. Schwendler, and

Jake Swirbul Leon Albert "Jake" "The Bullfrog" Swirbul (March 18, 1898 – June 28, 1960), was an aviation pioneer and co-founder of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation. Biography Swirbul was born in the Yorkville section of Manhattan. His parents Freder ...

who would go on to form

Grumman The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a 20th century American producer of military and civilian aircraft. Founded on December 6, 1929, by Leroy Grumman and his business partners, it merged in 1994 ...

. The company eventually closed in 1933. During

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

he was chief consultant to the

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NACA 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 ...

, and Grumman. Grover Loening monoplane

When asked how to say his name, he told ''The

Literary Digest ''The Literary Digest'' was an influential American general interest weekly magazine published by Funk & Wagnalls. Founded by Isaac Kaufmann Funk in 1890, it eventually merged with two similar weekly magazines, ''Public Opinion'' and '' Current ...

'': "The correct American pronunciation, used by me and universally in aviation, is one that ignores the ''e'' or the umlaut suggestion; viz., the ''low'' is pronounced as ''low'' to rhyme with ''doe'', and accenting the first syllable—''lo'ning''." (

Charles Earle Funk Charles Earle Funk (1881–1957) was an American lexicographer. He was a member of the Funk family who owned the publisher Funk & Wagnalls; Dr. Isaac Funk was his uncle. Funk wrote several etymological dictionaries An etymological dictionary di ...

, ''What's the Name, Please?'', Funk & Wagnalls, 1936.) In 1965 Loening was inducted into the

International Air & Space Hall of Fame The International Air & Space Hall of Fame is an honor roll of people, groups, organizations, or things that have contributed significantly to the advancement of aerospace flight and technology, sponsored by the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Si ...

for his innovation in seaplane technology and production. He is celebrated along with the other inductees in the Hall of Fame's portrait gallery within the

San Diego Air and Space Museum San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM, formerly the San Diego Aerospace Museum) is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California, United States. The museum is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, ...

.Sprekelmeyer 2006, p.10. He is a 1976 recipient of the

Langley Gold Medal The Langley Gold Medal, or Samuel P. Langley Medal for Aerodromics, is an award given by the Smithsonian Institution for outstanding contributions to the sciences of aeronautics and astronautics. Named in honor of Samuel P. Langley, the Smithson ...

from the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. He died on February 29, 1976, in

Coconut Grove, Florida Coconut Grove, also known colloquially as The Grove, is the oldest continuously inhabited neighborhood of Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The neighborhood is roughly bound by North Prospect Drive to the south, LeJeune Road to the west, S ...

References

Bibliography

* Loening, Grover. ''Our Wings Grow Faster: In These Personal Episodes of a Lifetime in Aviation May Be Found an Historical and Pictorial Record Showing How We So Quickly Stepped Into This Air Age - and Through What Kind of Difficulties and Developments We Had to Pass to Get There''. Garden City, New York: Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1935. * Loening, Grover. ''Takeoff Into Greatness: How American Aviation Grew So Big So Fast''. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1968. * Loening, Grover. ''Conquering Wing''. Philadelphia: Chilton Book Company, 1970. * Loening, Grover. ''Amphibian; The Story of the Loening Biplane''. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973. *Sprekelmeyer, Linda, editor. ''These We Honor: The International Aerospace Hall of Fame''. Donning Co. Publishers, 2006. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Loening, Grover Wright brothers American aerospace engineers Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni 1888 births 1976 deaths Collier Trophy recipients Members of the Early Birds of Aviation American expatriates in Germany