![]() ![]() A year later considering the fact that from week to week he had to find a new bank to try to cash the company’s checks he decided to quit this manufacturer. Therefore after three and a half years he left Cessna to take on the new job. Umbaugh Aircraft Corporation was looking for an aviation test engineer in view of the certification of its Umbaugh U-18 Flymobile gyroplane. One day he read an advertisement in the Aviation week magazine. The young man was teamed together with a small group of 7-8 engineers and along with them he learned to do everything.Īlthough the CH-1 Skyhook had excellent performances to Frank Robinson that aircraft seemed too complicated and so even then after work and in his spare time he began to design a light two-seater helicopter.įrank liked his job at Cessna but the salary was not very good and therefore he started looking around for alternative employment. In 1957 Frank Robinson bought a copy of Jane's All the World's Aircraft and wrote to several helicopter builders seeking for a job.Ĭharlie Seibel, who at the time worked on behalf of Cessna on the Cessna CH-1 Skyhook project, offered him the opportunity he was looking for. In 1928 Wichita proclaimed itself "The Air Capital of the World". This city has a long-standing aviation tradition as some of the leading aircraft manufacturers such as Stearman Aircraft Corporation, Cessna Aircraft Company, Mooney Aircraft Corporation or Beech Aircraft Company were based here. In 1957 at the University of Washington he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME), and that was for him a moment of great happiness and satisfaction.Īfter the university he attended graduate school at the University of Wichita (Kansas) as an aeronautical engineer. Much later he then obtained the commercial helicopter pilot license. ![]() That's how he managed to pay for his college studies and later university.ĭuring the college years he obtained an airplane pilot license. At the age of 16, during the summer holidays, he obtained permission to work on commercial vessels. Since that moment he undertook his studies with much more determination with the hope to enter one day in the world of the rotary-wing.Īmong other things as a teenager he gave his own contribution to the family’s budget by hunting mink to sell their furs. The idea that an aircraft could hoover in mid-air fascinated the boy, and set the course for his life’s work. At the age of nine or ten he saw in the Seattle Post Intelligencer an image of Igor Sikorsky at the controls of the VS-300. ![]() Since he was a child Frank Robinson was very interested in mechanics. The two-room school on Whidbey Island had neither running water nor electricity. His father who was an unemployed coal miner supported his family by hunting, fishing and growing vegetables. Like millions of Americans he had a difficult childhood. The youngest of four children he grew up in the very difficult period that followed the Great Depression of 1929. Frank Robinson’s childhood and studiesįranklin Davis "Frank" Robinson was born on Januin the small village of Carbonado located about 80 km SE of Seattle (Washington). Forty years after its debut in the civil market, we retrace the story of one of the most popular helicopters and its talented inventor. On Mathe Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued the Robinson R22 type certificate to Frank Robinson.
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