totm Nominate the Most "Kerbal" Aerospace Pioneer

[Jonfliesgoats]

John Stapp and his experiments with rocket sleds, human deceleration and ejection seats.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stapp

[Leafbaron]

Chuck Yeager for being the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound in the Bell X-1 in 1947, paving the way for all super-sonic aerospace. He's also still alive at the ripe ol' age of 93.

 

http://www.chuckyeager.com/

 

-leafy

[MaxwellsDemon]

Samuel P. Langley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Pierpont_Langley

[ZooNamedGames]

Buzz Aldrin or John Glenn. Both are still alive and one is the sole survivor of the Mercury program on top of flying onboard the space shuttle AND being a US senator and the other was known as "Doctor Rendezvous", helped pioneer rendezvous in space and also landed on the moon next to the Mr. Armstrong himself.

20 minutes ago, Leafbaron said:

Chuck Yeager for being the first human to travel faster than the speed of sound in the Bell X-1 in 1947, paving the way for all super-sonic aerospace. He's also still alive at the ripe ol' age of 93.

 

http://www.chuckyeager.com/

 

-leafy

Born on the day he broke the sound barrier  .

Edited September 16, 2016 by ZooNamedGames

[Leafbaron]

1 minute ago, ZooNamedGames said:

Buzz Aldrin or John Glenn. Both are still alive and one is the sole survivor of the Mercury program on top of flying onboard the space shuttle AND being a US senator and the other was known as "Doctor Rendezvous", helped pioneer rendezvous in space and also landed on the moon next to the Mr. Armstrong himself.

Born on the same day he broke the sound barrier  .

he was born in 1923 haha

[ZooNamedGames]

On September 16, 2016 at 4:23 PM, Leafbaron said:

he was born in 1923 haha

and I was born 74 years later.

Edited September 28, 2016 by ZooNamedGames

[Jimmidii]

The Wright Brothers...

"You want to do what with these parts!?!?"

[UnusualAttitude]

I would nominate the French aviation pioneer Louis Blériot.

He got into aviation in 1905 (when the Wright brothers' experiments were still largely unknown in Europe) and basically did things the Kerbal Way: designed, tested, crashed, redesigned and tested again until he cracked it. Monoplanes, biplanes, tandem wings, canard configurations, you name it: he tried it (and crashed it).

On the 2nd of July 1909 he was badly injured when he kept his Blériot XII aircraft flying despite being badly burnt when the asbestos (lol) insulation came loose from his engine's exhaust. He ended the flight only when his engine failed completely.

Three weeks later, he hobbled out to his aircraft on crutches (still injured) and took off from France to become the first to fly across the English Channel. He didn't know how to swim.

Awesome moustache, too. Bad*ss = true.

[Vanamonde]

Since this is not about KSP itself, the thread has been moved to the Lounge. 

[TheSaint]

Colonel Joseph W. Kittinger, of Project Excelsior fame. Ride a balloon 19 miles into the air, and then jump out of it. Yes, I know that Baumgartner beat his record for highest jump. But Baumgartner had so much more support gear and infrastructure. Kittinger literally just got into a balloon and went. On his first jump he nearly died. He made two more. On his third jump the pressure seal in his glove failed and he decided to not tell the ground controllers because he was afraid that they would cancel the jump because of it. badS=True

[razark]

Most "Kerbal"? 

I have to go with Douglas Corrigan.

Denied permission to make a transatlantic flight, he left New York for California.  Twenty-eight hours and a a misread compass later, he landed in Ireland.

[UnusualAttitude]

29 minutes ago, razark said:

Most "Kerbal"? 

I have to go with Douglas Corrigan.

Denied permission to make a transatlantic flight, he left New York for California.  Twenty-eight hours and a a misread compass later, he landed in Ireland.

"Wrong way"...  Reminds me of Mathias Rust.

 

[Jonfliesgoats]

For more consideration I'd like to suggest

1.)

Roland Garros who simply stuck metal deflectors on propeller blades rather than worrying about synchronizing weapons to propellers.  Very Kerbal engineering solutions there.

 

2.)

James Doolittle.  He is right up there among the stars of dynamic nerds due to his pioneering work in instrument flight, developing anti knock ratings for aviation fuel, etc..  References to his war time exploits abound.  He was Jeb-like

 

3.)

Douglas Badder, who was able to keep flying despite the loss of both of his legs.  He has the physical resilience of a Kerbal.

 

4.)

The Montgolfier Bros who just heaped a bunch of farm animals into a bag full of hot gas and observed the results.  Very Kerbal experimental techniques!

 

 

[UnusualAttitude]

2 minutes ago, Jonfliesgoats said:

James Doolittle.  He is right up there among the stars of dynamic nerds due to his pioneering work in instrument flight, developing anti knock ratings for aviation fuel, etc..  References to his war time exploits abound.  He was Jeb-like

...and leading a flight of fuel-heavy bombers off the deck of an aircraft carrier. He certainly deserves the award for best misuse of what was available in the inventory. 

[Bill Phil]

Wan Hu. Although he, very likely, doesn't exist.

Most Kerbal? I'm going to say Sergei Korolev.

[Jonfliesgoats]

Wan Hu is a great nomination!  

Korolev is a good one too.

What do you guys think of this Kenyan trying to make his way to Mars?

http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/lifestyle/article/2000174173/rongai-s-rocket-man-with-mars-on-his-mind

[Nikolai]

Leroy.  Gordon.  Cooper.

His Faith 7 spacecraft was meant for an endurance test and ended up falling apart around him -- falsely indicating premature re-entry, losing altitude readings, elevating carbon dioxide levels, losing power to attitude control... he resorted to using marks on the window and his wristwatch to perform a manual re-entry and ended up making the most accurate splashdown in the entirety of the Mercury program.  (This accomplishment is even more impressive in light of the fact that Mercury capsules were not lifting bodies like Gemini and Apollo capsules that could be "steered" to a landing site as they fell.)  He completed all of his mission objectives in spite of a failing ship.

Edited September 17, 2016 by Nikolai

[pTrevTrevs]

I guess Alexey Leonov probably wins that contest. When he realized his spacesuit was too large to allow him to reenter the airlock of Voskhod 2 after making the world's first EVA he did what anyone would do; he opened the valve of his suit and vented his air  supply into space so he would fit in the airlock.

Igor Sikorsky also seems a little crazy to me. Rotary wing aircraft are awesome, but after years of pondering, I have yet to see how people could have made the jump from "aerofoils create lift from air that passes over them from forward motion" to, "You see, Ivan, if wing is spin in circle, it is always of forward movement, without aircraft moving forward. Airplane fly, but no move" so easily.

Also, the pilots in the early stages of World War I who had steel plating installed on their propellers to allow them to fire forward facing machine guns were nuts. They definitely get at least an honorable mention (Although it isn't as bad as the stories I've read of certain pilots who tried to chew up the tails of enemy planes with their own propellers).

[RizzoTheRat]

How about George Cayley?  On the face of it a bloke who worked out the principles of inclined planes generating lift in 1792, and then develop the cambered aerofoil and built a manned glider in 1853 (50 years before the Wright Flyer) sounds a bit too cerebreal for a Kebal, but he had the mind of a true KSP player....he built his plane and then sent his footman up in it for the first flight

 

Then there's Samuel Cody who used to measure the thrust of his aircraft by tethering them to a tree, and the tree is now so famous it was preserved

 

 

Oh and he gives Bleriot a run for his money in the moustache stakes

 

Edited September 24, 2016 by RizzoTheRat

[Just Jim]

Valentina Tereshkova

First woman in space, and much, much more...

 

Edited September 22, 2016 by Just Jim

[NSEP]

Andre Kuipers. My national hero! 3rd Dutchman in space, he is the space icon of The Netherlands, Wubbo sadly passed away, and Lodewijk is a ''forgotten'' Dutch Astronaut, nobody even knows him sadly.

And he lives about 15 kilometers from where i live! How cool is that?

[StevieC]

I'm distantly related to Jimmy Doolittle, that said, I'd call it a tie betwixt Otto Lilienthal, and Burt Rutan. I actually met Rutan and got his autograph at the Oshkosh Air Show in 2000. Met Chuck Yeager there, too.

Another strong candidate would be the late, great Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson, who was the founder of Lockheed's "Skunk Works" division, and the man behind the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, the P-38 Lightning, the P-80 Shooting Star, the F-104 Starfighter, the U-2, and the SR-71 Blackbird. Rutan and Johnson are the only two people in history to win aviation's most prestigious award, the Collier Trophy, more than once. They are both two-time Collier Trophy winners, and the only two such people in all of aviation history, thus-far.

My 4th nominee would be Igor Sikorsky, who is unanimously called the father of today's modern helicopter. He was the first aviator to attempt making a helicopter with only a single lifting-rotor. All helicopter pioneers prior to Sikorsky used paired lifting rotors that would spin in opposite directions to counteract rotor-torque. Sikorsky's big innovation was using what amounted to a sideways-thrusting propeller on the end of a tailboom to counteract the torque of a single main lifting-rotor. He test-flew his experimental helicopters (which had nothing to protect the pilot from being hit by the rotor-blades) wearing his business suit, and a black Homburg hat on his head.

Edited September 24, 2016 by StevieC

[RizzoTheRat]

1 hour ago, StevieC said:

Another strong candidate would be the late, great Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson, who was the founder of Lockheed's "Skunk Works" division, and the man behind the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, the P-38 Lightning, the P-80 Shooting Star, the F-104 Starfighter, the U-2, and the SR-71 Blackbird.

If you haven't already read it I'd recommend Ben Rich's book Skunkworks.  He was Kelly's number 2 for years and took over from him when Kelly retired.

[Norcalplanner]

1 hour ago, StevieC said:

I'm distantly related to Jimmy Doolittle, that said, I'd call it a tie betwixt Otto Lilienthal, and Burt Rutan. I actually met Rutan and got his autograph at the Oshkosh Air Show in 2000. Met Chuck Yeager there, too.

Another strong candidate would be the late, great Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson, who was the founder of Lockheed's "Skunk Works" division, and the man behind the Lockheed Model 10 Electra, the P-38 Lightning, the P-80 Shooting Star, the F-104 Starfighter, the U-2, and the SR-71 Blackbird. Rutan and Johnson are the only two people in history to win aviation's most prestigious award, the Collier Trophy, more than once. They are both two-time Collier Trophy winners, and the only two such people in all of aviation history, thus-far.

My 4th nominee would be Igor Sikorsky, who is unanimously called the father of today's modern helicopter. He was the first aviator to attempt making a helicopter with only a single lifting-rotor. All helicopter pioneers prior to Sikorsky used paired lifting rotors that would spin in opposite directions to counteract rotor-torque. Sikorsky's big innovation was using what amounted to a sideways-thrusting propeller on the end of a tailboom to counteract the torque of a single main lifting-rotor. He test-flew his experimental helicopters (which had nothing to protect the pilot from being hit by the rotor-blades) wearing his business suit, and a black Homburg hat on his head.

For me it would be a tie between Kelly Johnson and Burt Rutan.

"That damn Swede can see air..."

Edited September 24, 2016 by Norcalplanner
Stinking autocorrect

[StevieC]

I still think that Sikorsky's willingness to test-fly his own experimental helicopters puts him in serious contention for the title.