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Norman Mayer (1916-2015) was an aerospace engineer, whose professional career spanned 65 years in the airship industry. Mayer graduated from the Academy of Aeronautics in Queens, New York, in March 1941 and immediately began his career at the Goodyear-Zeppelin Corporation in Akron Ohio as a design, research and flight test engineer for Naval patrol airships. After his work at Goodyear, he worked for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C. as an expert in lighter-than-air (LTA) technology. In 1961, Mayer joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) where he managed research in space stations, lunar and planetary bases, orbiting telescopes and composite materials. While at NASA, he served as a consultant to the State Department and the World Bank on LTA systems. He retired from the government in 1984 and continued to consult in LTA systems for government and industrial organizations. He was an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, an Associate Member of the Society of Naval Architects, an Honorary Life member of the Lighter than Air Society and of the Navy Lakehurst Historical Society and technical chairman of the Naval Airship Association.

 Identifier

NASM.2016.0022

Creator

Mayer, Norman

Date

bulk 1940s-2000s

Provenance

Margaret Mayer, Gift, 2016

Extent

16.6- Cubic feet ((17 boxes))

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of approximately seventeen cubic feet of LTA material created or gathered by Norman Mayer during his career, 1941-2000s. The material spans from early Goodyear, Navy and Zeppelin design material, to later LTA designs from the 1970s-2000s, including those from Airship Industries Ltd, American Skyship Industries and CargoLifter AG. The types of material include: photographs, drawings, manuals, patents, conference reports, notebooks, design and feasibility studies/reports, scrapbooks and 16mm film.

Rights

Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests

Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Citation

Norman Mayer Lighter-than-Air (LTA) Collection, Accession 2016-0022, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Topics

Aeronautics

Airships

Type

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Reports

Photographs

Drawings

Manuals

Motion pictures (visual works)

Scrapbooks