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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Leader

Honored by:
Mrs. Richard C. Dehmel

Inventor Electronic Flight Simulator.

In 1943, Richard C. Dehmel licensed the Curtiss-Wright Corp. to produce flight training devices under the 44 patents he held. In 1951, an electronics division was formed and a modern Curtiss-Wright plant was opened in Carlstadt, NJ. The immediate value of Dehmel's Electronic Flight Simulator was proven when Pan American World Airways trained 125 flight crews, plus 40 British Overseas Airways and 85 Military Air Transport crews during 13,000 hours of simulator time. The simulator enabled Pan Am to reduce crew training costs by 60% and in-flight training time from 21 to eight hours per crew. Today, simulators are used around the world to train commercial, military and corporate pilots to fly sophisticated aircraft of all descriptions.

A San Francisco native and graduate of the University of California, Dehmel moved east in 1927 as an employee of Bell Laboratories. Ten years later, he moved back to California, and while there, learned to fly at Telegraph Atlantic Airport, near Los Angeles. It was during that period that Dehmel began to develop the electronic simulator.

He joined Curtiss-Wright in 1943 as a chief engineer and became director of engineering and manufacturing of the Electronics Divisions in 1946. In 1959, he was promoted to vice-president of engineering and research. He retired from Curtiss-Wright in 1964 and for the next 17 years as a consultant to several U.S. military agencies and private advisory commissions.

He and his wife, Madeleine, reside in Short Hills, NJ.

Inducted Aviation Hall of Fame of New Jersey 1991.