CHARLES HURON KAMAN | 1919-2011; Aerospace engineering pioneer

Feb. 4, 2011
Charles Huron Kaman, an aviation pioneer who founded Kaman Aerospace Corp., has died. He was 91.

BLOOMFIELD, Conn. - Charles Huron Kaman, an aviation pioneer who founded Kaman Aerospace Corp., has died. He was 91.

The Bloomfield, Conn., company said Mr. Kaman died Monday.

The company said Mr. Kaman was a 26-year-old engineer when he started Kaman Aircraft Co. in the garage of his mother's Connecticut home in 1945 with $2,000 from two friends. He was chief executive for 54 years, from 1945 to 1999.

"He led a remarkable life as an inventor, entrepreneur, musician, humanitarian and visionary. His career was, in many ways, the epitome of the American dream," said Neal J. Keating, chairman and CEO of Kaman.

He started the company to demonstrate a rotor concept he devised to make helicopters more stable and easier to fly. Today it's a $1.2 billion company that makes and distributes a wide range of parts for commercial, military, and general aviation fixed and rotary wing aircraft.

AP