Foil: 11 Panel: 1 Column: 3 Line: 49

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Mr. Jack Kowal

Fred was born on August 17, 1918 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He grew up dreaming of flying and how he would one day either become a pilot or work in the aircraft industry. At age nine, Fred talked his dad Max into driving out to Roosevelt Field on Long Island and watched as Charles Lindbergh took off on his historical field to Paris.

Fred graduated from A.J. Demarest High School at the age of fifteen and enrolled at Casey Jones School of Aeronautics in 1934. During his time at Casey Jones, he gained the foundation needed to begin his career in aviation.

Fred started his career at Sikorsky’s in Stratford Connecticut where he worked as a junior engineer under the guidance of Igor Sikorsky in the design and testing of the earlier Sikorsky helicopter, the R4. After working at Sikorsky for two years, he left Stratford in 1939 and began his long tenure at Republic Aviation in Farmington, New York. During his earlier years at Republic, he was assigned to Edwards AFB (Muroc Army Air Base) and was present when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier. After the assignment in California, Fred was sent to Omaha, Nebraska as one of Republic’s representatives to SAC. He later was Republic’s consultant to the Brazilian Air force.

Upon Fred’s return to Republic on in 1950, he worked as an Field Test Engineer with designer Alexander Kartveli on the popular F-105 Thunderchief and in later years as the Project Engineer in the development of the A-10 Thunderbolt II “Warthog”. Before retiring from Republic/Fairchild in 1980, he was assigned to Boeing in Seattle and worked there for two years before retiring retiring to Fripp Island in South Carolina.