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Percival Hopkins Spencer (April 30, 1897 – January 16, 1995) was an American inventor, aviation pioneer, test pilot, and businessman. [1] [2] He was one of the Early Birds of Aviation , a group which required members to have flown a glider, gas balloon or airplane prior to December 17, 1916. [2]
The New England Air Museum's Boeing B-29A Superfortress is a product of the Boeing Plant in Renton, Washington and was assigned the AAF serial number 44-61975. Although delivered too late to be assigned to an overseas unit during World War II, it did serve with training units until 1949.
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- First Solo
- Motored Flight
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Spence's lineage has been traced to the Crusades.Two of his Hopkins forebears were of the 102 passengers aboard the MAYFLOWER when they landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620, one of whom signed the Mayflower Compact.Three brothers in the Spencer family arrived in 1639 with grants from the King and settled the Connecticut cities of Hartford and East Hadda...
His famous inventor-father would have a major influence on Spence when growing up. In the preface to a 1983 book entitled "Spencer Repeating Firearms", authored by Mr. Roy Martin Marcot, Spence wrote several interesting stories about his childhood as a son of the great inventor.
When Popular Mechanics Magazine published plans for a hang glider, the youngster built one, thus providing the means to make his first solo flight April 2, 1911 at age thirteen from Prospect Hill in Keeney Park.Having a rather frail physique, he suffered skinned knees and elbows and bruised his back when landing, as he could not run fast enough wit...
A year or so later, a local man built a Curtiss type flying boat which crashed during take off on its first flight, and was left on a sand bar without the engine.Spence convinced his father to purchase the wreck and proceeded to rebuild it to flying condition.He discovered a 4 cylinder Roberts water cooled 50 horsepower, two cycle engine of aluminu...
Shortly after this flight, he substituted tricycle landing gear for the boat and made several flights from Charter Oaks Race Track.Once, as he was banking around the track, the engine "wound down" causing the wing to make contact with the track rail pitching Spence out to miraculously land unharmed in a pile of straw used to protect the track from ...
Spencer Perceval KC (1 November 1762 – 11 May 1812) was a British statesman and barrister who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1809 until his assassination in May 1812. He is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated, and the only solicitor-general or attorney-general to have become prime minister.
Percival H. Spencer formed the Spencer-Larsen Aircraft Corporation and designed the SL-12C amphibian. Disenfranchised with corporate policies in the development of the SL-12C amphibian, Spencer started the Spencer Amphibian Air Car in 1940.
The Spencer Repeating Rifle is credited as having shortened the Civil War and for deciding the battle of Gettysburg. Even as a youngster, Spence exhibited a creative mind and mechanical ability. With three feathers from his pigeon loft, he made a successful ornithopter and used this expertise later in life to market a rubber propelled model ...
Jan 22, 1995 · Percival H. Spencer, an aviator and aircraft designer who began flying homemade gliders in 1910 and held a pilot's license until he was 90, died last Sunday at a nursing home here. He was...
