Charles Kaman

Charles Huron Kaman ( born June 15, 1919 in Washington, DC; † January 31, 2011 in Bloomfield (Connecticut) ) was an American engineer and businessman. He was known for his design of helicopters and also as a guitar maker.

Professional activity

His professional career began at Igor Sikorsky as a developer for helicopters. In 1945, Kaman founded at the age of 26 years in the garage of his mother's house in West Hartford a company. He also laid the foundation stone for the present Kaman Corporation. Kaman brought in 1951 the first helicopter of the type K -225 on the market, which was equipped with a gas turbine. The company employs in the year 2009, a total of 4,032 employees and achieved a turnover of 1.14 billion U.S. dollars.

The amateur musicians Kaman developed in 1964 with some of his engineers a guitar, where he combined with a wooden ceiling and thus paired high-tech materials, a high stability of the instrument with a balanced sound. With the success of Ovation guitars called the product portfolio of the company grew. The Kaman Music Corporation was, until December 2007, the largest retailer of musical instruments and accessories in the U.S. market. Over five months, beginning in June 2007, Kaman negotiated with the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation ( FMIC ) on the takeover. On 29 October 2007, FMIC announced the adoption together with the purchase price in the amount of 117 million U.S. dollars.

Family

Kaman was married twice. Helen married Sylvander of 1945. After the divorce in 1971, he married Roberta Hallock († 2010). He had three children, C. William Kaman II, Steven W. Kaman and Cathleen Kaman Wood.