Aircraft Designer

Honored By The Navy

Rex Beisel

Aircraft designer Rex Beisel was inducted into the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor. The posthumous honor was conferred at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Fla., on May 4.

Mr Beisel is the father of Ann McNaughton and grandfather of Kimberly Proctor, both of Newtown.

Mr Beisel worked his way through college at the University of Washington in Seattle, as a coal miner and a mule driver. He graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1916, and soon thereafter took a position with the Navy’s Bureau of Construction and Repair, which became the Bureau of Aeronautics. He is acknowledged in the industry as an aircraft design genius whose work has shaped naval aviation almost from its inception. He began designing aircraft just six years after the birth of naval aviation. He helped develop the TS-1, the first Navy aircraft designed to fly from the deck of an aircraft carrier. He helped design the Curtiss R2C/R3C racers and the Hawk family of fighters that launched naval aviation into the public consciousness in the 1920s. He worked with the Curtiss Company on a number of early aircraft including the XF7C-1 “Seahawk” fighter and N2C “Fledgling,” a Navy trainer.

As chief engineer for Chance-Vought Aircraft in Stratford, he was responsible for the design and development of the SB2U Vindicator, the Navy’s first monoplane scout-bomber, as well as the OS2U Kingfisher. These designs were followed by what some say is the best aircraft ever designed by Rex Beisel and his team, the F4U-1 “Corsair.” This plane was the first American fighter to exceed 400 mph and is generally considered to be one of the best fighter planes ever produced.

Rex B. Beisel was born on October 24, 1893, in San Jose, California. He was named Rex Buren Riggins at birth, but was later adopted by a stepfather, changing his name to Beisel.

Three others were inducted into the Naval Aviation Hall of Honor on May 4: space pioneer Wally Schirra, Marine Corps General William Drive, and Navy Vice Admiral William Martin. The hall of honor was created in 1979, and since that time, 63 people have been inducted.