Aviation pioneer dies

Charles Kaman, the US aviation pioneer who founded Kaman Aerospace Corporation, has died at 91.

The Bloomfield, Connecticut, company said Mr Kaman died on Monday.

Mr Kaman was a 26-year-old engineer when he started Kaman Aircraft Company in the garage of his mother’s Connecticut home in 1945 with $2,000 (£1,250) from two friends. He was chief executive officer for 54 years, from 1945 to 1999.

“He led a remarkable life as an inventor, entrepreneur, musician, humanitarian and visionary. His career was, in many ways, the epitome of the American dream,” said Neal Keating, chairman and chief executive officer of Kaman.

He started the company to demonstrate a rotor concept he devised to make helicopters more stable and easier to fly. Today it is a $1.2 billion company that makes and distributes a wide range of parts for commercial, military, and general aviation fixed and rotary wing aircraft.

Mr Kaman’s company has been credited with breakthroughs including the first gas turbine-powered helicopter, the first twin-turbine-powered helicopter and the first remotely-controlled helicopter.

Among his technical accomplishments, Mr Keating said Mr Kaman was most proud of the lives that the Kaman H-43 Husky helicopter saved by flying rescue missions during the Korean and Vietnam wars.

In 1996 President Bill Clinton awarded Mr Kaman the National Medal of Technology, the nation’s highest recognition for contributions to technical excellence. A year later he received the National Aeronautic Association’s Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in recognition of his contributions to American aviation.