Thomas Foster Hamilton (July 28, 1894 – August 12, 1969) was a pioneering American aviator and the founder of the Hamilton Standard Company.
Since 1930, Hamilton Standard (now Hamilton Sundstrand) was involved with revolutionizing the propulsion technology of propeller-driven aircraft, prior to World War II. The introduction of Frank Caldwell's variable-pitch propeller made Hamilton Standard one of the leading aerospace companies of today. Hamilton contributed a great deal in shaping the aviation industry into what it is today. Hamilton worked hard from an early age to understand technical concepts and their application to aircraft design and manufacturing. He was also a skilled businessman and marketer, known in social and political settings, and a devoted family man.
Life Hamilton was born on July 28, 1894.World War I draft registration He spent most of his childhood in Seattle. He was the older of two boys (his brother, Edgar Charles Hamilton, born later) to his parents (Thomas Luther and Henrietta Hamilton). Hamilton's early interests in aviation began when he was around 10 years old. His mother had taken a trip to see the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, where there was a display of gliders organized by Octave Chanute and, somehow on her return, Hamilton became more focused on aeronautics. Mrs. Hamilton may have made a connection with Chanute at the fair since the young Tom Hamilton did not make the long trip with her. Some years later, Hamilton indicated that he often wrote to Chanute concerning technical matters related to his early aircraft, though no record has been found mentioning Hamilton in Chanute's letter collection currently located at the Library of Congress thus far.
During the 1909 Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition, held in Seattle (held on the site of the present-day University of Washington), the young Hamilton, now at the age of 14, had a job of repairing hot-air balloons. This job would also allow him to ride what he repaired (possibly a type of insurance policy to ensure the balloons were fixed properly) which helped fuel his continuing interest in aviation.Vaughn, Wade. Seattle Leschi Diary. Seattle, WA: The Council, 1982. Also, during this time, Hamilton and a school friend, Paul J. Palmer established a partnership and called their company “Hamilton and Palmer”. Their office and factory were located in their respective parents' garage and kitchen tables. The two built and experimented with various biplane glider designs of the time. The two quickly gained a better understanding of the principles of how aircraft worked and were put together. Three gliders were actually built and flown around the steep hills around their neighborhood in Seattle called Leschi which was on the west shores of Lake Washington. There was only one mishap. The second glider jerked out of the hands of Palmer and soared away and crashing into pieces blocks away. Many years later, Hamilton would recall that even though he got a scar on his left hand from one of the flights, he had learned how to fly from those tests.
In 1910, after finishing their experiments with the gliders they moved on to building propeller-driven aircraft. At this point, there was a disagreement between Palmer and Hamilton, and the former was no longer involved with the company and was totally removed from the partnership. It seems this split was so severe that Hamilton changed the name of the company to the “Hamilton Aero Manufacturing Co”.
Early aircraft designs In 1911, Hamilton teamed up with Ted Geary, a young yacht designer, to create a number of unique seaplane designs that were seen around Seattle's Lake Washington and various aerial demonstrations of the day. The total number of known aircraft built by Hamilton's Seattle company is estimated to be around 10 to 25 aircraft, though a more accurate account of his aircraft built during the 1909 to 1914 period is yet unknown. His designs were a combination of other designs of the era and his own unique ideas incorporated into the aircraft. Even at an early age, he was able to comprehend and build complicated flying machines. Although he dropped out of high school and did not have any formal education after that, he was able to manufacture and sell these aircraft all before he was 16 years old. This was done prior to William Boeing taking his first flight and setting up his operation in Seattle, which is the Boeing Company of today. Incidentally, Hamilton and Boeing became friends during this time and their friendship lasted throughout the years both professionally and personally. It was recorded that in 1914, Hamilton introduced Bill Boeing to Conrad Westervelt (a young Navy lieutenant commander) at a club in Seattle that was the start of the Boeing Company.
Also in 1914, a number of wealthy businessmen from Vancouver, British Columbia, approached Hamilton. They were looking for someone to build airplanes for the non-profit, private BC Aviation School Ltd. that would teach their Canadian sons to fly in the Great War being fought over in Europe. Hamilton accepted the invitation and immediately moved his whole operation up to Vancouver and established the Hamilton Aero Manufacturing Ltd.Hamilton Aero Manufacturing Company. Catalog of Everything Aviatic, Including Aeroplanes, Motors, Parts, Supplies, and Accessories. 1900s. The contract was to build four planes to be used in training purposes for the school. However, only one airplane was ever completed. It was a biplane patterned after a Curtiss tractor design, with two seats, a six-cylinder engine, and a tricycle landing gear. Unfortunately, the aircraft was not successful because it crashed in a muddy field outside of Vancouver. Out of the 12 students, two were able to graduate and went on to fight in the war with the RFC (Royal Flying Corps – the precursor to the RAF). The rest were integrated into other aviation training programs and transferred to the war effort later. In the meantime, Hamilton had become very interested in the physics of propellers and had started making inquires about his possible involvement in the war effort for the United States. This was around 1917; at this point, the U.S. just entered the war and needed experienced people to help the country establish an aviation industry in support of the war overseas in Europe.
Military interest The US military was very interested in Hamilton's background and requested that he come out east. The military leaders at the time wanted to keep most of their aviation resources closer to Washington D.C., and not in the remote Pacific Northwest. A Milwaukee woodworking firm, the Matthews Brothers Furniture Company, needed an experienced person to run their new aviation division since a large military contract was signed to produce wood propellers for the Navy and Army. Hamilton became their director of aviation in 1918.Hamilton, Thomas F. Biography and Scrapbook. 1911. However, once the war ended Hamilton bought their entire inventory of wood propellers and again started his own company called the Hamilton Aero Manufacturing Company in Milwaukee. Around this time, Hamilton met and married Ethel Inez Hughes, from Milwaukee. The Hamiltons spent ten years in Milwaukee, where it was established as one of the nation's major aviation hubs in the 1920s.Hardie, George. Papers. 1880.
Propeller manufacturing Propellers were the first item to be manufactured by the new Hamilton Manufacturing Company, in Milwaukee. The limitations of using wood as a material for aircraft propellers were well known. Metal propellers can be thinner, more closely approximating the ideal airfoil sections needed for maximizing efficiency, while not being affected by the problems caused by moisture and vibrations, which can cause wood propellers to delaminate.
Float manufacturing Pontoons were the second product to be manufactured by the company. Again, wood was also used in the construction and even preservatives to protect them, prolonged exposure to water caused the wood to deteriorate quickly.
Despite the clear advantages, there was initially a strong resistance to using materials that rusted easily but this changed with the widespread introduction of a new aluminum alloy developed at Zeppelin. Duralumin may have been the greatest metallurgical advance of its time and allowed aluminum to be used for structural members for the first time, normally being too soft in its pure form, while still being lighter than steel and very resistant to the types of corrosion that would compromise the strength of iron and steel alloys.Rosen, George, and Charles A. Anezis. Thrusting Forward: A History of the Propeller. [United States]: Hamilton Standard, Division of United Technologies Corp, 1984.
All-metal aircraft Following World War I, the German Junkers Flugzeug-und Motorenwerke company was the first to manufacture all-metal, monoplane transport aircraft, the Junkers F.13. This was a development of their wartime all-metal corrugated-skin aircraft. In turn, having seen examples that had been imported by Junkers-Larsen, Stout copied Junkers's construction methods but failed to see much success until his company was bought by the Ford Motor Corporation, where he developed the similar Ford Tri-motor, affectionately called the “Tin Goose”. Like the Junkers aircraft, it too had a cantilevered monoplane wing and corrugated metal skin over a metal framework and was built to haul mail and passengers. In response, Hamilton and some shareholders in the Milwaukee community also decided to build an aircraft out of metal, which resulted in a new company called the Hamilton Metalplane Company being formed to do just that.
Hamilton Metalplane H-18 The first aircraft built by this company was the Metalplane H-18, christened the “Maiden Milwaukee” in 1927. Its design came from the chief designer of the Metalplane Company of the time – James McDonnell. McDonnell had worked for Stout and Ford and incorporated similar features and new ideas into the construction of the H-18. It used a tubular frame with corrugated skin, a thick monoplane wing projecting from the fuselage beneath an open cockpit, with a Wright J-4 Radial engine in the nose, and using a Hamilton (metal) propeller. The “Maiden Milwaukee” was the first aircraft produced by the Hamilton Metalplane Company and it achieved a number of awards. It first came in second during the Ford Air Tour of 1927 and it won the Spokane Air Race of the same year. It was also the first all-metal airplane to achieve certification in the United States. It was designed primarily to haul the mail, with passengers as a possible revenue bonus for the airlines. The design reflects this priority, as the wing root was in the middle of the fuselage and hardly any passengers could fit.
Hamilton Metalplane H-18 Helicopter Experiment One of the interesting concepts, was when the designers took the H-18 and fitted two large downward facing propellers (i.e. on under each wing at midpoint) driven by a small engine mounted in the fuselage. It was claimed that this conversion resulted in an aircraft that could take off in a very short distance. Very little else is known about the conversion of an H.18 to this mode."Helicopter Plane Passes Successful Tests" Popular Mechanics, February 1930, rare photos of conversion of H-18
Hamilton Metalplane H-45 and H-47