Document Type: Presentation (Industry).

Purpose: Informational.

Authority: Author Expertise.

Scope: 33rd Wings Club General Harold R. Harris "Sight" Lecture, presented on May 15, 1996 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, New York by Charles H. Kaman, founder of the Kaman Corporation and a helicopter pioneer.

Contents (from the Introduction): "It's a delightful treat to be back here at the Wings Club. I have been coming to the Wings Club since the early days of my career in aviation. Over the decades since then, the Wings Club has been an important source of friendship, knowledge and inspiration for me. I appreciate the honor of joining the long line of distinguished speakers who have preceded me in this series of lectures named in memory of General Harold R. Harris.

This gives me the opportunity to reminisce about the start of Kaman Corporation and its contributions to advancing aviation over the years. But just as important is the opportunity to look ahead in anticipation of the exciting future of aviation.

I founded Kaman Corporation after World War II, when I was a 25-year-old engineer with an idea for a new helicopter for the future. Pursuing this vision, I started the company with small investments by two friends. At that time, we were poised at the beginning of an era of great change. There were no jetliners spanning the continents. Radios were driven by tubes and trans-formers. The transistor had not yet appeared, let alone its successor the microchip. Satellites and space stations were the dreams of science fiction. Mention of computers evoked visions of rooms filled with enormous tube systems or amplifiers. And engineers still used slide rules. Little was known about helicopters. Even after engineers had learned how to achieve horizontal motion by tilting the main rotor and how to rise or descend vertically by using collective pitch, the machines of the day were quite primitive."