Ernest G. McCauley

McCauley was born August 9, 1889 in Baltimore, Maryland to Harry Gilbert McCauley and Norma H. Corby. Attending Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and worked as the chief draftsman for a farm equipment manufacturer in New York. He married and worked as chief tool designer for the Corona Typewriter Company of Groton, New York.  [5] In 1917, he began his career at the government's Propeller Research Department of the Airplane Design Section, Aviation Section of the Signal Corps based at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. At McCook Field, McCauley worked on the first aircraft hydraulic wheel brakes and hydraulic flight controls. [5] He jointly developed military propellers improvements with the chief engineer of the Propeller Research Department, Frank W. Caldwell. McCauley owns 55 patents and with Caldwell holds multiple joint patents on propeller innovations.[5] Together they developed the synchronizing reversible pitch propellers (1922) and hydro-controllable Propeller. [6] The hydro-controllable propeller was the first to use engine oil for pitch adjustments and he sold this patent to Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation in 1929; joining Hamilton to further improve propellers. [5] In 1938, Ernest G. McCauley founded the McCauley Aviation Corporation which reincorporated into McCauley Steel Propeller Company in 1939.  [2] McCauley who suffered from poor hearing was featured in a Sonotone hearing aid advertisement; he used a hearing aid to improve his work innovating and manufacturing propellers. [7][4]

After McCauley Aviation Corporation 1938 founding, innovations continued with: ground-adjustable solid-steel propeller (1939); the one-piece Met-L-Prop for light airplanes (1947);[8] two-blade constant speed propeller "Met-L-Matic" (1953); two-blade constant, full-feathering propeller, alcohol de-ice system "Feth-R-Matic" (1960); three-blade constant speed propellers, three-blade full feathering propellers, constant speed governors (1965); electric propeller de-ice systems (1967); single-piece hub design with threadless blade retention (1970); Synchrophasing governors (1974); three-blade propellers for high-speed turbine engines, magnetic head synchrophasing control systems (1979); four-blade propeller for turbine engines (1980); five-blade turboprop propellers (1987); five-blade propellers with scimitar-shaped blades (1992); Predator B Propeller to General Atomics (2006); and the first composite fixed pitch propeller for Light-sport aircraft (2020).[9]

Today his namesake company boasts: "McCauley is one of the world's largest full-line propeller manufacturers, with over 500 models available. Historically, our propellers are FAA certified as original equipment for aircraft built by Hawker Beechcraft, British Aerospace, Cessna, Fairchild, Grumman, Jetstream, Piper, Stoddard Hamilton and many others. Our aluminum product lines have always served a wide range of markets: commercial, military, agricultural and commuter airlines, as well as personal and business aviation. McCauley propellers are in the field on more than 350,000 aircraft around the world - a testimony to our continuing commitment to excellence." [9]

About 1912, McCauley married Ruth "Rose" Dewitt (1896-1952). They had six children: Dr Milton E McCauley (1912-1969); Norma H McCauley Corby (1913-1992); Ward D McCauley (1922-1980); Mabel Adams and two step-daughters, Phyllis Godfrey and Joyce Frohock. McCauley divorced Ruth in 1938 and filed suit against Dr John DeForest Smith for alienation of affections.  [10] On January 9, 1953 he married Rose M. Harkness in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.[11]

McCauley died on 11 Sep 1969, in Pompano Beach, Florida. The family plot interment is in Dayton Memorial Park Cemetery Dayton, Ohio. The 1954 citation by the Secretary of the US Air Force for Ernest G. McCauley reads: "His invention of the HYDRO-CONTROLLABLE PROPELLER in 1924 has been an outstanding achievement, and culmination with his more recent inventions of the SOLID STEEL Propeller for trainers in 1939, and the one-piece MET-L-PROP for the light airplane in 1947: All are aviation firsts in their fields, and thus Mr. McCauley can be credited with a very important role in the advancement of aviation in the past 36 years." signed Harold E. Talbott. [5]

• Wallace Rupert Turnbull
• Sylvanus Albert Reed
• McCauley Propeller Systems
• Frank W. Caldwell awarded 1933 Collier Trophy

• Ernest G. McCauley at Find a Grave
• McCauley website
• McCauley history video

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