Robert Stanley (aviator)

Robert Morris Stanley was born in El Reno, Oklahoma on August 19, 1912, to George and Jenny (Coffman) Stanley. His family moved to Venice, California where he finished high school and then enrolled at the California Institute of Technology majoring in aeronautical engineering. Stanley worked part time at the Douglas Aircraft Company during the creation of the DC-1 and DC-2 to help finance his education. While still a student, Stanley created a patent for a mechanically controlled reversible pitch propeller later copied and used by the German Luftwaffe. ==Navy career==

After graduating from Caltech in 1935, Stanley joined the US Navy and earned his Naval Aviator Wings in 1936. At the 1939 National Soaring Contest in Elmira, New York, he flew it to an altitude record of 17,284 feet, more than doubling the old record. This glider also set a cross-country record by flying from Elmira, to the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. The Nomad is now in the collection of the National Air and Space Museum and displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Center. He served as both president and vice-president for the National Soaring Society. ==Bell Aircraft==

Stanley joined Bell Aircraft in 1940 as chief test pilot. He became the first American to fly a jet aircraft on October 1, 1942, when he flew the Bell XP-59A Airacomet, which was the United States’ first turbojet aircraft. Stanley was promoted to engineering vice president at Bell Aircraft and oversaw the design of the world's first supersonic aircraft, the Bell X-1 and X-2. == Stanley Aviation ==

In 1948, Stanley left Bell and started the Stanley Aviation company in his basement in Buffalo, New York. ==Personal life==

He married Katherine Norman in 1942. They had three children, one daughter and two sons. He enjoyed white water rafting on the Colorado and Green Rivers in Colorado with his family and also traversed the Grand Canyon by raft. ==Death and honors==

Stanley died July 16, 1977, flying with his two sons, along with the wife of one son and fiancé of the other, in the crash of the Stanley company's Aero Commander. The plane encountered severe wind-shear on approach to Fort Lauderdale International Airport and broke up in flight. Stanley's body was lost at sea. • Stanley was selected to the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1990. • Stanley was selected to the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973. • Stanley was an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. the Bell XP-59A Airacomet, and the Stanley Nomad. ==References==