Edson Fessenden Gallaudet

Who was Edson Fessenden Gallaudet?

Edson Fessenden Gallaudet was a pioneer in the field of aviation, being the first person to experiment with warped wings in 1896. In 1898, he built a warping-wing kite to test his invention of a warping-wing mechanism; this kite survives and is on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. In 1911 he obtained US pilot's license #32 with the Aero Club of America, flying a Wright biplane in Garden City, New York. Also in 1911 he earned a pilot's brevet with the Aero Club of France flying a Nieuport monoplane.

Gallaudet was born in Washington, DC to Edward Miner Gallaudet, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. Both his father and grandfather were famous educators in the field of deaf education. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1893 and his Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from Johns Hopkins University in 1896. He worked at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1896 to 1897, then became an instructor of physics at Yale, where he taught from 1897 to 1900. From 1900 to 1903 he worked at William Cramp & Sons' Ship and Engine Building Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and then, in 1903, worked at the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio. He married Marion Cockrell on February 14, 1903. From 1903 to 1908 he worked as an assistant to the President and General Superintendent of the Stillwell Bierce & Smith Vaile Company in Dayton. In 1908 he worked for the New England Refrigerator Company in Norwich, Connecticut. In 1908 he founded the Gallaudet Engineering Company in Norwich, where, as President, he did work as a mechanical and consulting engineer and, in 1909, built his first airplane. Gallaudet Engineering Company was incorporated as the Gallaudet Aircraft Corporation in 1917. As a student at Yale in the Class of 1893 he was a member of Psi Upsilon and Skull and Bones. He was an Associate Fellow with the Institute of the Aeronatical Sciences, Inc., a member of the American Society of Aeronautic Engineers, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and a member of the Aero Club of America, Sigma X1, Engineers' Club.