Octave Chanute Award

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This award was created about 1901 by the Western Society of Engineers for papers of merit on engineering innovations. It is now called the "Chanute Flight Award" and is awarded by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. (AIAA).

Octave Chanute, 1832–1910, was born in France and became a naturalized American. He was a self-taught engineer. He designed the first railroad bridge over the Missouri River and also the Union stockyards in Chicago and those in Kansas City.

In later life Chanute waged a long campaign to encourage the invention of the airplane. He collected information from every possible source and gave it back out to anyone who asked. He published a compendium of aviation information in 1894. In 1896 he commissioned several aircraft to be built, the Katydid had multiple wings that could be attached variously about the fuselage for ease of experimentation.

He is universally recoginsed as a prominent engineer, experimenter, writer and communicator, which is why the award is named in his memory.