Bernard Pietenpol

Harold Bernard Pietenpol (* 1901 in Cherry Grove, Minnesota † 1984 ) was an American aircraft designer.

Life

Bernard Pietenpol was born in 1901, his father ran a general store in Cherry Grove. Bernhard attended primary school in his birthplace. The shop of the father still stands today as one of the few original shops in the city. From the beginning, Bernard showed an aptitude for all things mechanical were driven and was referred to the city as a " mechanical genius". He repaired to lawn mowers, tractors and built wheelchairs for needy residents, developed gas-driven power generators and built motorcycles and automobiles.

Through his mentor WJ Krueger, a wood craftsman he came to flying. Together with his friends Don Finke and Orrin Hoopman was built in 1920 after plans by the first aircraft to be powered by a car engine from a Model T Ford. In 1926 he built a single biplane with Gnome engine was not marketed.

The goal of Pietenpol was to design an aircraft that you could easily assemble itself and that was very reasonably priced. Pietenpol was known as a designer in the 1920s through its high-wing Pietenpol Air Camper Pietenpol Sky Scout and the model. The plans for the self of the Pietenpol machines were first published in a four-part series in the magazines Mechanix Illustrated Magazine and Flying and Glider 1932-1933. Worldwide, such as in Canada, England, Europe, Australia and Africa its aircraft after a long time with different engines were equipped in large numbers built. Pietenpol preferably at his aircraft wooden structures, so that any average carpenter could build his airplane with normal abilities. Later, he also offered machines with a steel tube fuselage version as an option.

In 1981 his workshop and garage in the National Register of Historic Places was recorded. His hangar on the airfield in Cherry Grove was dismantled AirVenture Museum as part of the EAA and rebuilt at the airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Pietenpol died 1984.

Posthumously

1991 Bernard H. Pietenpol was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Minnesota Aviation.

A restored by Pietenpol Air Camper built from the first series is now in the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, Pennsylvania and a Sky Scout at the Pioneer Flight Museum, Kingsbury, Texas Area.

Published in 2007 a ​​documentary entitled: "Finding Flight" by Jesse Roesler and Jen Larson rotated. The film tells the story of Bernard H. Pietenpol, who was a part of American aviation history with only eight classes of primary school.