Wings Club

The Wings Club, also known as the Wings Club of New York, is a social and professional club formed for aviators, based in New York City. Founded in 1942 by a group of American aviation pioneers, it is known for its monthly lunches, annual dinners and special occasions at which talks are given on various aspects of aviation. The club gives out scholarships to aviation students, and selects individuals and organizations for recognition with the "Distinguished Achievement Award".

Not to be confused with Winx Club.

History

The Wings Club was founded in New York City on May 15, 1942.[1] It was housed within the Yale Club and served World War II pilots as a place of leisure and occasional living quarters.[1] The first board of directors included Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan American World Airways, and World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker.[2] The first president was Caleb Bragg, a racer of automobiles and speedboats, aviation pioneer, and automotive inventor. Bragg had previously been a governor of the Aero Club of America. He was made president of the Wings Club despite suffering from a longterm illness which led to his death later the next year.[3]

The club grew quickly to 500 members in its first year, then to 1,000 by the end of its second year.[2] In the 1970s there were 1,500 members, including women for the first time. By 2011, membership had decreased to about 1,200.[1] Members met at the Yale Club in the first few years, then in April 1946 the Wings Club relocated to the Biltmore Hotel where it stayed for 37 years.[2] The Biltmore was torn down in 1981, so the club moved to nearby 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, a 20-story building opposite Grand Central Terminal. The Wings Club maintained a library, kitchen and dining hall on the 18th floor until 2002 when they stopped keeping their own quarters and instead met only at the Yale Club. In 2011, the club again moved into a permanent home, consisting of offices and a boardroom inside the MetLife Building, formerly the headquarters of Pan Am.[1]

Activities

Many notable aviators have delivered speeches at lunches and dinners hosted by the Wings Club. The first lunch talk was delivered by Gill Robb Wilson, the president of the National Aeronautic Association and an invited guest of the Wings Club. This event was so well received that it was used as the template for monthly lunch speeches. The first annual dinner speech was presented by founding club member Eddie Rickenbacker on March 22, 1944.[2]

Following the record-breaking 1945 Japan–Washington flight made by three U.S. Army Air Force generals in Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, the generals and their crews were invited to a Wings Club dinner held in their honor at the Yale Club. B-29 generals Curtis LeMay and Emmett O'Donnell Jr were able to attend, as were other USAAF generals such as Carl Andrew Spaatz and Jimmy Doolittle.[4]

In early 1964, Joseph A. Walker, the chief test pilot for NASA, spoke about NASA's space program, especially about the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle for which he served as project manager. Walker expressed great confidence in the likelihood of a successful moon landing but he died two years later in an air collision and never saw the program to completion.[5]

Also in 1964, founding club member, former club president and retired USAF General Harold Ross Harris implemented the annual "Sight Lecture" series at which a leading aviation notable was to be invited to deliver a lecture adhering generally to "insights, foresights and hindsights" of aviation.[6] Each lecture was to be published in book form by the Wings Club.

Beginning in 1975, the Wings Club selects one or more organizations or individuals each year to be honored with the "Distinguished Achievement Award", conferred at the annual dinner in October. The first awardee was aviation pioneer and USAF General Jimmy Doolittle.[7]

Beginning in 2010, the Wings Club began to recognize organizations or individuals each year to be honored with the "Outstanding Aviator Award", presented at the annual meeting in March. The first recipients were the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American pilots to serve in the US Army Air Corps. during World War II. [8]

Since 2000, the club has awarded scholarships to aviation and aerospace students, beginning with Maurice Stanley who was studying aviation management at Dowling College, Long Island, New York.[9]

Guest speakers

• (1943) Gill Robb Wilson, President of the National Aeronautic Association[2]
• (March 19, 1946) Carl Andrew Spaatz, "Future Use of Air Power"[10]
• (1947) Dwight D. Eisenhower[2]
• (January 18, 1956) Henri Coandă, describing his early jet experiment, the Coandă-1910[11]
• Bernt Balchen[5]
• Alan Shepard[5]
• Jimmy Doolittle[5]
• Grover Loening
• Vincent Bendix
• Jerome Lederer
• Wernher von Braun
• (April 22, 1981) Senator Barry Goldwater
• (May 18, 1988) Neil A. Armstrong

Notable members

• Gordon Bethune[2]
• Caleb Bragg[1]
• Robert Crandall
• Herb Kelleher
• Eddie Rickenbacker
• C. R. Smith
• Frederick W. Smith
• Juan Trippe

Honorary members

• Henry H. Arnold[2]
• Jerome Clarke Hunsaker
• Fiorello LaGuardia
• L. Welch Pogue

Sight Lecture Series

Some notable Sight Lectures include:

• The first Sight Lecture was delivered by Igor Sikorsky on November 16, 1964, under the title "Recollections and Thoughts of a Pioneer".[12] Sikorsky spoke primarily about the future role of the helicopter; he was certain that it would remain an important type of aircraft despite experiments with VTOL fixed-wing designs.[13]
• The 5th Sight Lecture was delivered on May 15, 1968 by Dr. Wernher von Braun. His topic was "Space Flight Past, Present, and Future".
• Senator Barry Goldwater, a former military ferry pilot and an avid private pilot, delivered a Sight Lecture in 1981 titled "The state of our industry and raw materials in relation to defense."
• In 1984, the lectures were renamed the "General Harold R. Harris 'Sight' Lecture" in honor of his contributions to the Wings Club, serving as club president in 1958/59 and conceiving the Sight Lectures. On May 16, 1984, General Harris presented the 21st Sight Lecture: "The First 80 Years".
• The 25th Sight Lecture in 1988 was delivered by Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong on May 18, 1988. His lecture was titled "Wingless on Luna", in which he hoped "to give some insights into the history and unique problems confronted in developing methods for flying a machine over the lunar surface".
• Joseph F. Sutter of The Boeing Company is the only two-time presenter (as of 2016). His 1986 lecture was titled "Changing Scene in the U.S. Air Transportation System", and in 2007 he presented "The Boeing 747: Definition of a Champion".
• Frederick W. "Fred" Smith, the founder of FedEx, is scheduled to deliver a Sight Lecture in May 2012.[14]

A complete list of speakers, topics and dates collected from the published volumes of Sight Lecture Series is summarized in the table below. Note: there is some ambiguity regarding lectures and numbering from 1997-2009.

#	Year	Date	Presenter	Topic
1	1964	16-Nov-1964	Igor I. Sikorsky	Recollections and Thoughts of a Pioneer
2	1965	26-May-1965	Dr. Jerome C. Hunsaker	Some Lessons of History
3	1966	18-May-1966	William Littlewood	Perspectives In Air Transport
4	1967	19-Apr-1967	Sir William Hildredy	Administrative Aspects of International Air Transport
5	1968	15-May-1968	Dr. Wernher von Braun	Space Flight Past, Present, and Future
6	1969	21-May-1969	Grover Loening	The Air Road Will Widen! With Systems Approach and Design Courage
7	1970	20-May-1970	Air Commodore F. R. Banks	Aircraft Prime Movers of the Twentieth Century
8	1971	19-May-1971	C.R. Smith	Safety in Air Transportation Over The Years
9	1972	17-May-1972	Sir Peter Masefield	Gateways to the World over the Years
10	1973	16-May-1973	William P. Gwinn	Technology-Key to the Universe
11	1974	15-May-1974	Edward C. Wells	Aerospace Engineering: 1916-1974
12	1975	16-Apr-1975	Wayne W. Parrish	A Traveler-Journalist Views the Air World
13	1976	2-Dec-1976	H.R.H, The Prince of the Netherlands (Bernhard Leopold)	The Netherlands People, Their Country and Their Civil aviation, To-day and in the Future
14	1977	20-May-1977	Juan T. Trippe	Charles A. Lindbergh and World Travel
15	1978	12-Apr-1978	Richard M. Jackson	The Second Generation Speaks Out
16	1979	16-May-1979	Dr. Knut Hagrup	Cooperation in World Civil Aviation
17	1980	14-May-1980	Robert B. Hotz	The Promise Of The Space Age
18	1981	22-Apr-1981	Senator Barry Goldwater	The State of Our Industry and Raw Materials in Relation to Defense
19	1982	21-Apr-1982	Jerome Lederer	Aviation Safety Perspectives: Hindsight, Insight, Foresight
20	1983	15-Jun-1983	Willis M. Hawkins	Maintaining Aerospace Leadership
21	1984	16-May-1984	General Harold R. Harris	The First Eighty Years
22	1985	16-May-1985	Gerhard Neumann	Aircraft Engines. . . Never A Dull Moment
23	1986	21-May-1986	Joseph F. Sutter	Changing Scene in the U.S. Air Transportation System
24	1987	20-May-1987	Ralph H. Robins	To The Standards of Sir Henry Royce
25	1988	18-May-1988	Neil A. Armstrong	Wingless on Luna
26	1989	24-May-1989	Sergei I. Sikorsky	Reflections on a Pioneer
27	1990	16-May-1990	Sanford N. McDonnell	Much May Be Made of a Scotsman: The Story of McDonnell Douglas
28	1991		Max E. Bleck
29	1992	20-May-1992	R. Dixon Speas	Perceptions of the Past as a Prologue for the Future
30	1993		Thomas P. (Paul) Poberezny
31	1994		Russell W. Meyer, Jr.
32	1995	17-May-1995	David Russell Hinson	Air Carrier Safety - A New Paradigm for the 21st Century
33	1996	15-May-1996	Charles H. Kaman	Kaman Helicopters and the Evolution of Vertical Flight
	1997		Al Ueltschi	The History & Future of Flight Safety International
	1998		Admiral Donald D. Engen
	1999		Brian Rowe
	2000		Ronald E. G. Davies
34	2007	15-May-2007	Joseph F. Sutter	The Boeing 747: Definition of a Champion
35	2008	21-May-2008	Fernando Alonso	The A380 Adventure from the Inside
40	2009	14-Jun-2009	Michael D. Griffin	The Importance of Human Spaceflight
41	2010	19-May-2010	Tom Ridge	Risk Management: Security, Resiliency and the Aviation Sector
42	2011	25-May-2011	General Duncan J. McNabb	Meeting A Global Challenge
43	2012	24-May-2012	Frederick Smith	Air Cargo: Back to the Future
44	2013	14-Sep-2013	Marillyn A. Henson	How to Inspire Innovation
45	2015	26-Mar-2015	Robert L. Crandall	Reality and Aspirations: Building a Better Aviation System for the Future
46	2016	22-Sep-2016	John Leahy	The Global Revolution in Commercial Aviation: From the Jumbo Jet to the A350 and Beyond
47	2017	16-Nov-2017	Jim Albaugh	Reflections on Aerospace; Past, Present and Future
48	2019	20-Feb-2019	Jeff Bezos	Barnstorming the Next Frontier

See also

• Order of Daedalians
• Quiet Birdmen

References

1. Negroni, Christine (August 2, 2011). "Aviation Club Secures a Home on Park Avenue, in a Space With Significance". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
2. "History". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
3. "Ceb Bragg Dies; Flier, Auto Racer; Pioneer in Automotive Field Also Noted as an Inventor and Speedboat Pilot". The New York Times. October 26, 1943. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
4. American Aviation. 9: 52. 1945. Missing or empty |title= (help)
5. Berg, Bradford (2008). Brad's Story of Dreams and Addiction. Trafford Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 1-4251-5073-X.
6. Narvaez, Alfonso A. (July 29, 1988). "Harold Ross Harris Is Dead at 92;, Early Pilot and Aviation Pioneer". The New York Times. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
7. "Distinguished Achievement Awards". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
8. https://www.wingsclub.org/about/awards
9. "Scholarship". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
10. Head, William P. (2003). Plotting a true course: reflections on USAF strategic attack theory and doctrine : the post-World War II experience. Greenwood. p. 37. ISBN 0-275-97717-X.
11. Winter, Frank H. (December 1980). "Ducted Fan or the World's First Jet Plane? The Coanda claim re-examined". The Aeronautical Journal. Royal Aeronautical Society. 84: 408–416.
12. Leishman, J. Gordon (2006). "Bibliography". Principles of helicopter aerodynamics (2 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 53. ISBN 0-521-85860-7.
13. "Sikorsky Finds VTOL Unequal to Copter". The New York Times. November 17, 1964.
14. "Upcoming Events". Wings Club. Retrieved February 9, 2012.