Recipients of the John J. Schneider Historical Achievement Award

2004: Eugene K. Liberatore

As those who dwell in the field of rotary-wing aviation know all too well, there are few individuals who have succeeded in documenting the achievements and milestones brought about by the intrepid, and occasionally daring, pioneers of vertical flight. There are even fewer who have been able to comprehensively survey the entire scope of the technology from its first inspirations to crude experimental forms to contemporary, mature production models. Without question, the most comprehensive study of this subject was brought about by Eugene K. Liberatore, as part of a lifetime of significant achievements in creating, documenting and preserving the technology, progress and history of vertical flight.
E.K. Liberatore received his degree in aeronautical engineering in 1942. From the outset he was not only an active participant in the nascent helicopter industry, but was also a keen observer of the state of its technology. He was chief project engineer in the early 1950s for Prewitt Aircraft, working on a Rotachute delivery system for airdrops. He later went on to serve with American Helicopter on the XH-26 Jet Jeep program, and Bruno Nagler's NH-160 tip-jet powered project. He also worked with synchropter pioneer Anton Flettner. He began his own helicopter consulting firm to aid designers operating without support from government or the corporate giants of the aviation community.
In 1950, the U.S. Air Force's Air Materiel Command (later Air Research and Development Command) commissioned Prewitt Aircraft to undertake a comprehensive survey of rotary-wing and Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft from the eighteenth century to the present. Liberatore managed this project tirelessly for Prewitt over four years. This 5,000 page masterwork not only included a bibliography of every notebook, journal, article, or paper published on the subject to that point, but also summary copies of every patent - domestic and foreign - filed to address the technology. If this had constituted the entirety of Liberatore's project, it would have stood as one of the most significant efforts in rotorcraft historiography. However this aspect constituted just three of the eighteen volumes of the Rotary Wing Aircraft Handbooks and History compilation.
Liberatore authored and compiled thirteen of the volumes and supervised the production of the others. A significant component included surveying all existing manufacturers (and a few defunct ones as well) about each of their efforts, resulting in a comprehensive catalog of American and foreign designs up to that point. Liberatore designed the manufacturer data surveys to be more than mere summaries - they were essential tools to create clear progression of technology at the birth of the helicopter industry that allow close up analysis of trends, including the all-important weight-and-balance issue that bedeviled early helicopter programs. Not only did Liberatore cover helicopter and gyroplane development, but he also explored some of the more exotic and fantastical approaches to vertical flight, including all manner of cyclogiros, Magnus-effect craft, ornithopters, gyro-kites, and numerous variations of the convertible aircraft theme. It must be noted that not only was this the authoritative work on the subject, but in the case of these specialized examples, it is still the only one. This series of handbooks, though unfortunately unknown to most aviation historians, is by far, the most complete reference available on the technical evolution of the pre-turbine rotary-wing industry.
In 1998, Liberatore published Helicopters Before Helicopters (Krieger), which documented and analyzed rotary-wing concepts and experiments before the twentieth century and American helicopter projects that predated Sikorsky's VS-300. Although ostensibly drawn from his Prewitt Aircraft handbooks, the work added a significant amount of new material, and perhaps most importantly, some seasoned historical perspective to the merits of these early attempts. Possibly the greatest accomplishment of this work is the glossary, which, at 39 pages, is much more than its status might suggest. It is one of the most thorough and reasoned studies of the design imperatives of vertical flight and how they have shaped the industry.
Other accomplishments have included frequent conference presentations and acting as an authoritative reference that the few intrepid rotary-wing historians could call on to sort a piece of the murky past. Liberatore continues to conduct analysis on historical Vertical Flight machines, including several that have been submitted for Vertiflite.
In addition to donating many of the volumes of his Rotary Wing Aircraft Handbooks and History as well as many of the volumes of notes, calculations, and amplifying material to AHS, Liberatore also provided dozens of boxes of incredibly rare magazines and books on vertical flight, many over a century old. Included with this donating were approximately 350 print negatives that Liberatore had accumulated for the Handbooks series. Through a cooperative effort with the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, these photographs are now being preserved. This collection features numerous otherwise unknown photographs of early helicopter projects, many of which would have been irretrievably lost to history, had they not been preserved by Liberatore.
Through E.K. Liberatore's efforts, sizeable portions of rotary-wing legacy have been thoroughly documented that would have otherwise certainly been lost to the ravages of time. More than any other person, alive or deceased, he has contributed to the preservation of a nearly complete record of centuries worth of Vertical Flight advancements.

2005: John Slattery

2006: Sikorsky Historical Archives

2007:
Nominate someone!
Online form (html) | Mail-in form (pdf)
The award recipient will receive a scale model of Leonardo da Vinci's "Aerial Screw" on an inscribed mount, and a book selected from the list of titles available through AHS International. Nominations are due January 31^th, 2007. See the main AHS Awards webpage for more details.

Last updated Jul. 21, 2006 Questions / Comments

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2004: Eugene K. Liberatore	As those who dwell in the field of rotary-wing aviation know all too well, there are few individuals who have succeeded in documenting the achievements and milestones brought about by the intrepid, and occasionally daring, pioneers of vertical flight. There are even fewer who have been able to comprehensively survey the entire scope of the technology from its first inspirations to crude experimental forms to contemporary, mature production models. Without question, the most comprehensive study of this subject was brought about by Eugene K. Liberatore, as part of a lifetime of significant achievements in creating, documenting and preserving the technology, progress and history of vertical flight. E.K. Liberatore received his degree in aeronautical engineering in 1942. From the outset he was not only an active participant in the nascent helicopter industry, but was also a keen observer of the state of its technology. He was chief project engineer in the early 1950s for Prewitt Aircraft, working on a Rotachute delivery system for airdrops. He later went on to serve with American Helicopter on the XH-26 Jet Jeep program, and Bruno Nagler's NH-160 tip-jet powered project. He also worked with synchropter pioneer Anton Flettner. He began his own helicopter consulting firm to aid designers operating without support from government or the corporate giants of the aviation community. In 1950, the U.S. Air Force's Air Materiel Command (later Air Research and Development Command) commissioned Prewitt Aircraft to undertake a comprehensive survey of rotary-wing and Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft from the eighteenth century to the present. Liberatore managed this project tirelessly for Prewitt over four years. This 5,000 page masterwork not only included a bibliography of every notebook, journal, article, or paper published on the subject to that point, but also summary copies of every patent - domestic and foreign - filed to address the technology. If this had constituted the entirety of Liberatore's project, it would have stood as one of the most significant efforts in rotorcraft historiography. However this aspect constituted just three of the eighteen volumes of the Rotary Wing Aircraft Handbooks and History compilation. Liberatore authored and compiled thirteen of the volumes and supervised the production of the others. A significant component included surveying all existing manufacturers (and a few defunct ones as well) about each of their efforts, resulting in a comprehensive catalog of American and foreign designs up to that point. Liberatore designed the manufacturer data surveys to be more than mere summaries - they were essential tools to create clear progression of technology at the birth of the helicopter industry that allow close up analysis of trends, including the all-important weight-and-balance issue that bedeviled early helicopter programs. Not only did Liberatore cover helicopter and gyroplane development, but he also explored some of the more exotic and fantastical approaches to vertical flight, including all manner of cyclogiros, Magnus-effect craft, ornithopters, gyro-kites, and numerous variations of the convertible aircraft theme. It must be noted that not only was this the authoritative work on the subject, but in the case of these specialized examples, it is still the only one. This series of handbooks, though unfortunately unknown to most aviation historians, is by far, the most complete reference available on the technical evolution of the pre-turbine rotary-wing industry. In 1998, Liberatore published Helicopters Before Helicopters (Krieger), which documented and analyzed rotary-wing concepts and experiments before the twentieth century and American helicopter projects that predated Sikorsky's VS-300. Although ostensibly drawn from his Prewitt Aircraft handbooks, the work added a significant amount of new material, and perhaps most importantly, some seasoned historical perspective to the merits of these early attempts. Possibly the greatest accomplishment of this work is the glossary, which, at 39 pages, is much more than its status might suggest. It is one of the most thorough and reasoned studies of the design imperatives of vertical flight and how they have shaped the industry. Other accomplishments have included frequent conference presentations and acting as an authoritative reference that the few intrepid rotary-wing historians could call on to sort a piece of the murky past. Liberatore continues to conduct analysis on historical Vertical Flight machines, including several that have been submitted for Vertiflite. In addition to donating many of the volumes of his Rotary Wing Aircraft Handbooks and History as well as many of the volumes of notes, calculations, and amplifying material to AHS, Liberatore also provided dozens of boxes of incredibly rare magazines and books on vertical flight, many over a century old. Included with this donating were approximately 350 print negatives that Liberatore had accumulated for the Handbooks series. Through a cooperative effort with the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, these photographs are now being preserved. This collection features numerous otherwise unknown photographs of early helicopter projects, many of which would have been irretrievably lost to history, had they not been preserved by Liberatore. Through E.K. Liberatore's efforts, sizeable portions of rotary-wing legacy have been thoroughly documented that would have otherwise certainly been lost to the ravages of time. More than any other person, alive or deceased, he has contributed to the preservation of a nearly complete record of centuries worth of Vertical Flight advancements.
2005: John Slattery
2006: Sikorsky Historical Archives
2007:	Nominate someone! Online form (html) \| Mail-in form (pdf) The award recipient will receive a scale model of Leonardo da Vinci's "Aerial Screw" on an inscribed mount, and a book selected from the list of titles available through AHS International. Nominations are due January 31^th, 2007. See the main AHS Awards webpage for more details.