Taylor, Charles Fayette, 1894-1996

Charles Fayette Taylor, professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Instiute of Technology (MIT), was born in New York City in 1894. He enrolled in the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale in 1912 and received the bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1915. During World War I Taylor first served as a civilian inspector of aircraft material for the US Signal Corps. After three months he was appointed Ensign in the Naval Reserve Corps and placed in charge of the Navy’s Aeronautical Engine Laboratory in Washington, DC, a position he held for the duration of the war. In 1919 Taylor resigned from active service to return to Yale, and in 1920 he was awarded the master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

From 1920 to 1923, Taylor was the civilian engineer in charge of the US Army’s Air Service Laboratory at McCook Airfield in Dayton, Ohio. There he supervised numerous engine endurance tests, aircraft flight tests, and fuel anti-knock tests. Taylor next went to work for the Wright Aeronautical Corporation. He was in charge of airplane engine design and development from 1923 to 1926, when the Wright Corporation was developing the air-cooled “Whirlwind” engine used on the historic flights of Lindbergh, Byrd, and Chamberlain.

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