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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:

Frank Burhans was a pioneer designer of aircraft and automotive gas turbines. Born in Hagerstown, Maryland in 1920 he studied mechanical engineering at Johns Hopkins University, graduating in 1942. From 1945 to 1955 he worked in experimental test, development, and design of Pratt and Whitney first American axial flow aircraft gas turbine, the J-57.

He assisted in experimental test and development of General Electric's first turbo-prop engine, the T-G-100 for the Army Air Forces (later the newly formed U.S. Air Force) Air Materiel Command Power Plant Laboratory at Wright Field, Dayton Ohio (1946-1947).

He served as design engineer of the automotive gas turbine engines for Ford Motor Company from 1955 to 1958, then assisted in the design of the J-83 air breathing missile engine for the Fairchild Engine Division from 1958 to 1959. He served as the senior design and development engineer of industrial and aircraft turbines for The Boeing Company's Industrial Products Division from 1959 to 1967, and finally as principal design engineer for Boeing's Commercial Airplane Division working on the 747 and 767 engine installations until retirement in 1985.