Ladislao Pazmany (November 25, 1923 – August 21, 2006) was an aviation pioneer, aeronautical engineer, designer, pilot, teacher, speaker, and author. Born in Hungary, Pazmany grew up, went to school, and worked in his formative years in Argentina. He later moved to the United States, where he spent the rest of his life.
Pazmany has become recognized as a world authority on landing gear, light aircraft, and flight efficiencies through his books, plans, and planes. His contributions include the Pazmany PL-1 and PL-2,Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation 1980. which were used for training; the PL-4A, a single seat VW powered, T-Tailed with folding wings; and the PL-9 Stork which is a ¾ adaptation of the Luftwaffe short takeoff and landing (STOL) warbird. He was inducted into the Experimental Aircraft Association Hall of Fame in 1997 for his work on homebuilt aircraft.
Ancestry The Pazmanys are a Hungarian family of landed gentry. They trace their ancestry back to the Middle Ages, to the Jesuit Cardinal Peter Pazmany, who codified the literary Hungarian language. Peter Pazmany was known for his skill as an orator and essayist, and his writing style was characterized by a vigorous and clear, although not necessarily simplistic, use of popular expressions and solid arguments. He played a key role in the Counter-Reformation in Hungary and is regarded as a national figure, honored with the founding of a university in Budapest, which remains a prestigious seat of higher learning to this day.Encyclopædia Britannica. Com. Peter Pazmany Contribution to Hungarian Literature
Childhood and early life Ladislao's father, Zoltan, continued the literary tradition as a journalist and contributing writer. He spoke seven languages. After World War I, he moved his family, including his wife, Maria Kacelli, and young sons, Ladislao and Zoltan, from the rural enclave of Zenta to Buenos Aires, the capital city of Argentina, in 1926. They settled in the Padilla district, where the family prospered in their new home.
His interest in design engineering began with early model airplanes made of wood during his childhood in Argentina. Over the next six decades, Pazmany worked on gliders, small planes, jets, and missiles, both for private purchase and for the largest defense contractors in America including Convair, General Dynamics and Rohr. His contributions to unmanned stealth aircraft were used in action during the Iraq War in 2004.
Ladislao Pazmany made his first model plane at age five. He was encouraged by his father to visit the airports and train stations resulting in him developing an interest in trains, planes, motors, and engines. This interest led to his first flight, in gliders, at age 15. A prodigious student, the young Pazmany began teaching elementary aviation to adults while still a young man, and later graduated with an honors degree from the prestigious Otto Krause Technical School in Buenos Aires. He continued four years of aeronautical engineering study at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.Margarita Pazmany Interview: “Biography” Early Years March 2011 www.Pazmany.com
Following his experience with gliders, Pazmany's first plane was a Piper J-3 Cub and then a Cessna, becoming a pilot at only 15 years old. As the barnstorming spirit was very much alive in him and his like-minded friends Pazmany learned to fly over the cow pastures and farmlands outside of Buenos Aires, logging hours and integrating hundreds of hours of practical flight experience into a growing knowledge of aeronautical engineering.Kitplanes September 1996 "The Chinese Connection" By Shirley Hanson
Career
Buenos Aires, Argentina
For nearly a decade he designed aircraft, pipelines, high tension power lines, suspension bridges, chemical and hydroelectric plants, and was an instructor (at Raggio Escuela Tecnica), an aeronautical school in Buenos Aires. He also worked as an auto company draftsman, and at some point held 3 jobs at once.Sport Aviation December 1997 Hall Of Fame Inductions, Ladislao PazmanySport Aviation October 1971 Ladislao Pazmany Designer and Builder By Roy Gordon
He also worked for The Air Force of Argentina (Fuerza Aerea Argentina), Techint Engineering, the international conglomerate, and helped with the wing design of the Dewoitine 7–10.
After the end of World War II and a decade of political, social and economic unrest, the Peron regime ended and the many restrictions on professionals – including engineers, were lifted, allowing Ladislao Pazmany to pursue the unlimited possibilities of aeronautics in the United States, with its growing economy, expanding commercial aviation, and huge cold war contracts in the defense industry.Juan Domingo Peron : A History AuthoAlexander, Robert Jackson, Westview Press, 1979
Immigration to the United States In 1948, Ladislao Pazmany married Margarita Byro, a ballet dancer and an artist, also Hungarian with a similar ancestry. Ladislao and Margarita and had two young daughters when he arrived in San Diego, California in May 1956. With a house downtown just minutes from Lindbergh Field, Pazmany would make a home for his family, raise his children to maturity, become an American citizen, and years later have residence and office overlooking the airport and bay.Margarita Pazmany Interview: “Biography” Immigration March 2011 www.Pazmany.com
San Diego, California
“In 1953, the Soviets exploded a thermonuclear device and were supposedly working on ICBMs to carry uranium and hydrogen warheads. In reaction to this, in March 1954, the Western Development Division, a special missile command agency created by the Air Research and Development Command, awarded Convair its first long-term contract for engineering and fabrication of an ICBM.”U.S.Centennial of Flight Commission www.centennialof flight.go
The threat of Soviet supremacy in the nuclear age heightened Cold War tensions and spurred an expansion of spending, research, and building in the defense industry that would continue unabated until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. In addition to the strengthening of the American deterrent, great strides were made in aeronautics that spread and applied to all fields of aviation.
Pazmany quickly earned a position at Convair, which was a division of General Dynamics. He worked on the company's innovative Delta wing-designed jets – the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger an interceptor plane that was known as the "Deuce" and used in Vietnam, and the more advanced Convair F-106 Delta Dart a supersonic jet technology which prevailed well into the 1980s.
During this period of about 25 years, starting with Convair, and General Dynamics, Pazmany also worked on aerostructures and engines at McDonnell Douglas. McDonnell Douglas was a specialist in fighter aircraft who merged with Boeing in 1967. At Rohr, Inc., he produced related components, including engine nacelles, thrust reversers, and mounting pylons for both military and commercial aircraft. Pazmany's engineering talents stretched from conventional prop-driven aircraft to jets, missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned stealth craft, aero systems and parts. He earned seven patents for inventions for aircraft thrust reversers to emergency natural gas shut-off valves that activate during earthquakes.
He researched, analyzed and wrote the NASA contractor report: “Potential Structural Material and Design Concept For Light Airplanes” NASA CR93258" 1968, for mission analysis division. National Aeronautics Space Administration. Ames Research Center Moffett Field, California.Rohr, Inc: Private Company Information – BusinessWeek
Pazmany then joined T. Claude Ryan (Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis is credited to Ryan) and his son in developing the Ryson ST-100 Cloudster, a tandem two seat motor glider that was intended for cross country flight.
“The Cloudster is a powered sailplane or an airplane that soars, whichever you prefer. As a touring airplane, it cruises at 135 mph (75-percentpower) using just 6 gph to yield a range of 690 miles. At lower power settings, the range can be greatly increased. Only 20-percent power is required to keep the Cloudster in level flight."Plane and Pilot February 10. 2009 Ryson ST-100 Cloudster
University teaching From his defense work Pazmany introduced new concepts, innovations, principles and practices as a lecturer at both the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), 1979–1980; and San Diego State University (SDSU), 1975–1979. Subjects ranged widely from light aircraft design, engineering, and construction to larger, jet, missile, and space applications.Sport Aviation December 1997 Hall Of Fame Inductions, Ladislao Pazmany
Experimental Aircraft Association After only one month of arriving in the United States and getting his start at Convair, Ladislao Pazmany attended his first Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) meeting – the EAA had been founded shortly before this, in January 1953 at Curtis-Wright Field in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Led by Paul Poberezny and a small group of aviation enthusiasts who promoted sport aviation, these pilots quickly expanded their mission to include antiques, classics, warbirds, aerobatic aircraft, ultra-lights, helicopters, and contemporarily manufactured aircraft.History, The EAA. www.eaa.org
Planes
Pazmany PL-1 The EAA chapter in San Diego began a group design project that evolved into Pazmany's own unique vision of a two-seat, side-by-side, low-wing, tri-cycled gear airplane that was stressed for aerobatics with a plus 9 and minus 4 1/2G ultimate load factor at full gross weight. It was planned to carry all its fuel in two 13 gallon fiberglass wing tip tanks. The "P" in the name came from Pazmany, the "L" was for Laminar, and the "1" to recognize that the design was a prototype. It would be quickly followed by an improved successor, the PL-2.Air Progress August/September 1963 "We Fly The Pazmany PL-1" Don Downie
Pazmany PL-2 The basic configuration of the PL-2 incorporates two-place, side by side seating, a low wing of rectangular plan form, and tricycle landing gear. The overall layout is compact and light compared with some other contemporary aircraft in the same category. The structure is stressed to + 6 g's limit for safety and aerobatics. Aluminum 2024-T3 is the basic material. Landing gear and engine mount are made from 4130 steel tubes and plates. There are no double curvature skins in the whole airplane. Very few formed blocks are necessary, considering that the wing and horizontal tail have constant chord. The wing has a 15% thickness laminar airfoil, with the single spar located at the maximum thickness and is assembled as a unit to the fuselage and can be removed in approximately two hours. The wing-fuselage connection is provided by two bolts at the main spar and two bolts at the rear spar. The seats form an integral structure with the wing. Also, the control sticks and flap control lever are directly attached to the wing structure. The elevator trim is located in a centre box between the seats. Aileron and flaps are piano-hinged to the bottom skin. The elevator trim is located in a centre box between the seats. Aileron and flaps are piano-hinged to the bottom skin. Ailerons are mass-balanced and push-pull controlled, having differential displacement. The three-position flaps run through the fuselage.
Top Speed 138. Stall 41 Rate of Climb 1200 Engine Lycoming Length 19.3 Wing Span 27.8Pazmany Blueprint Homebuilder Plans Pazmany PL-2 Specifications 1968 Ladislao Pazmany
Trainers “Due to Pazmany's great concern for safety his planes were used as trainers because they would respond exactly as expected to the requirements of flight"Margarita Pazmany Interview: “Biography” Career March 2011 www.Pazmany.com