Vornado Plane Material [Ralph K. Odor]

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Ralph K. Odor (1895-1987) was an inventor who conceived an aircraft design in the 1920s in which the air was pushed from a propeller into a tube, later named the Vornado Plane. This collection consists of approximately 0.54 cubic feet of material relating to Ralph K. Odor and the Vornado Plane.

Ralph K. Odor (1895-1987) was an inventor who conceived an aircraft design in the 1920s in which the air was pushed from a propeller into a tube. A small model of the aircraft was tested in 1929. In 1932, Odor was invited to work with the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, Oklahoma Engineering Experiment Station (Project No. 26), to further develop his propeller assembly concept and it was there that the name "Vornado Plane" was born. Odor filed a patent on his propeller assembly in 1934, which was approved in 1938. The Vornado Trust was formed in 1935 to handle all legal and financial aspects of the Vornado Plane and Vornado principle. In 1936, Odor began to work with Kern Dodge, a mechanical engineer and member of the Vornado Trust. Additional testing was conducted on using the Vornado principle for air circulation and by 1938, the concept of the Vornado Plane was put aside to focus on using the technology for fans. Additional patents were granted to this end in the late 1930s and early 1940s. In 1939, the Vornado Trust contracted with the Propellair company to produce fans using Odor's principles, however these plans were derailed by World War II.

Identifier

NASM.2016.0012

Creator

Odor, Ralph K., 1895-1987.

Date

1929-1986
bulk 1930s

Provenance

Donald Morris, Gift, 2016, NASM.2016.0012

Extent

0.54 Cubic feet (1 box, 1 reel, and 1 DVD)

Archival Repository

National Air and Space Museum Archives

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of approximately 0.54 cubic feet of material relating to Ralph K. Odor and the Vornado Plane including photographs; news clippings; technical reports and drawings; patents; legal documents; test reports; documents outlining the history of the Vornado Plane's development; and correspondence. Also included are two CDs which hold scans (made by the donor) of some of the textual and photographic materials contained in the collection as well as a 16mm film showing a test of a Vornado Plane scale model at the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, and a copy of the film on DVD.

Arrangement note

Collection is arranged by type of material.

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

Vornado Plane Material [Ralph K. Odor], NASM.2016.0012, National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

Topics

Aeronautics
Aerodynamics

Type

Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Photographs
Reports
Technical drawings
Patents
Motion pictures

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