FIRST - Canadian Aeronautical Engineer - Ottawa, Ontario
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N 45° 27.485 W 075° 38.649
18T E 449637 N 5034041
Wallace Rupert Turnbull was Canada's first aeronautical engineer. A plaque in his memory and that of his accomplishments is located inside the Space and Aviation Museum, in Ottawa, Ontario.
Waymark Code: WMYMXH
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 07/01/2018
Views: 4
Text of the plaque:
Wallace Rupert Turnbull
Canada's First Aeronautical Engineer
Wallace Rupert Turnbull was born into a wealthy family in Saint-John, New Brunswick, on October 16, 1870.
As a young man he studied engineering at Cornell University in the United States and in Germany before working as a experimental engineer at the Edison Lamp Works at Harrison, New-Jersey.
In 1901 Turnbull returned to Canada and established himself as a consulting engineer with his own laboratory workshop at Rothesay, New Brunswick.
It was an opportunity to pursue his interest in aeronautics, for he was convinced that heavier than air-flight would soon be a reality. In 1902, Turnbull built the first wind tunnel in Canada for use in the experiments that, seven years later, earned him the bronze medal of the Aeronautical Society. During this same period, he collaborated with other aviation pioneers, including Alexander Graham Bell.
Turnbull spent the was years in England involved in research and by 1918 he had produced a working model of a variable-pitch propeller. When the war ended, the Royal Air Force lost interest in his invention and Turnbull returned to Canada, where he obtained funding from the newly established National Research Council to develop a prototype. The variable-pitch propeller, one of the most important advances in the history of aviation and Turnbull's greatest achievement, was successfully demonstrated in flight by the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1927. Unable to interest Canadian companies in developing his invention, Turnbull sold his patent to Curtiss Wright in the United States. Since that time Curtiss electric variable-pitch propellers have been used world-wide on many thousands of aircraft, and this and many other designs are still in use.
Turnbull shared a characteristic common among inventors: he lost interest in a project once its problems had been mastered and immediately moved on to a new challenge. For more that 50 years Turnbull's enquiring mind delved with energy and enthusiasm into many areas of research, though aeronautical problems were always attacked with particular relish. A modest man, shy of publicity, Turnbull died almost unknown on November 26, 1954, after a long and accomplished life.
FIRST - Classification Variable: Person or Group
Date of FIRST: 01/01/1901
More Information - Web URL: [Web Link]
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