Charles Lawrance

Charles Lanier Lawrance (September 30, 1882 – June 24, 1950) was an American aeronautical engineer and an early proponent of air-cooled aircraft engines.

Charles Lawrance
Born
Charles Lanier Lawrance

(1882-09-30)September 30, 1882
Lenox, Massachusetts
DiedJune 24, 1950(1950-06-24) (aged 67)
East Islip, New York
NationalityUnited States
EducationYale University
École des Beaux-Arts
OccupationEngineer
Spouse(s)
Emily Margaret Gordon Dix
​
​
(m. 1910; his death 1950)​
Children3
Parent(s)Francis C. Lawrance Jr.
Sarah Eggleston Lanier
Engineering career
ProjectsLawrance J-1
Significant advanceAir-cooled aircraft engine
AwardsCollier Trophy 1927
Elliott Cresson Medal (1928)

Early life

Lawrance was born on September 30, 1882 in Lenox, Massachusetts, the son of Francis Cooper Lawrance Jr. (1858–1904) and his first wife, Sarah Eggleston Lanier (1862–1893).[1] After his mother's death in 1893, his father remarried to Susan Ridgeway Willing, a sister of Ava Lowle Willing (who married John Jacob Astor IV).[1] They had a daughter, a half-sister to Lawrance, Frances Alice Willing Lawrance, who married Prince Andrzej Poniatowski of the House of Poniatowski in 1919.[2] From his parents marriage, Lawrance had a younger sister, Kitty Lanier Lawrance, who was raised by their paternal grandfather, as their parents died when she was still young.[3] In 1915, Kitty married W. Averell Harriman, the Governor of New York (they divorced in 1928).[4]

Lawrance's maternal grandfather was banker Charles D. Lanier, a close friend of Pierpont Morgan.[5] His great-grandfather was James F. D. Lanier, who founded Winslow, Lanier & Co. His paternal grandfather was Francis Cooper Lawrance, of Paris and Pau, France.[3] In 1885, his paternal aunt, Frances Margaret Lawrance, married George Venables-Vernon, 7th Baron Vernon.[6]

Lawrance attended the Groton School in Groton, Massachusetts before Yale University, where he graduated in 1905, where he was a member of Wolf's Head.[1]

Career

Shortly after his graduation from Yale, he joined a new automobile firm that went bankrupt by the financial panic of 1907. He then went to Paris, where he studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts, experimenting with aeronautics at the Eiffel Laboratory.[7]

Lawrance Aero Engine Company

Lawrance returned to the United States in 1914 and in 1917, he founded the Lawrance Aero Engine Company in 1917.[8] He designed the Lawrance J-1 air-cooled aircraft engine, the direct ancestor of the extremely successful Wright Whirlwind series of engines. Long-distance flights of Admiral Byrd, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Clarence Chamberlin were all made possible by the Whirlwind series of engines, which could operate continuously for 33.5 hours. Despite sensational publicity that Lindbergh's flight attracted, Lawrance himself remained in relative obscurity. In discussion with Harry Bruno about his need for publicity to attract funds, he complained, "Who remembers Paul Revere’s horse?"[9]

Developed with US Navy funding in 1922, Lawrance's J-1 engine used aluminum cylinders with steel liners operated for an 300 hours, when 50 hours endurance was normal. The Army and Navy urged the Wright Aeronautical Corporation to buy Lawrance's company, and subsequent engines were built under the Wright name. [10] In May 1923, Lawrance's company was purchased by Wright Aeronautical, as the United States Navy was concerned that Lawrance couldn't produce enough engines for its needs.[11] Lawrance was retained as a vice president. The radial engines gave confidence to Navy pilots performing long-range overwater flights. In 1925, after Wright's president, Frederick B. Rentschler, left the company to found Pratt & Whitney, Lawrance replaced him as company president.[12]

1927 Collier Trophy
President Coolidge congratulates Charles Lawrance on the air-cooled aircraft radial engine that won the 1927 Collier Trophy

President Calvin Coolidge congratulated Charles Lawrance for his development of the air-cooled aircraft radial engine that won the 1927 Collier Trophy for the year's greatest achievement in American aviation.[13] [14]

In 1932, he wrote a book entitled Our National Aviation Program .[15]

Personal life

In 1910, he married Emily Margaret Gordon Dix (1885–1973), a daughter of Rev. Morgan Dix, the rector of Trinity Parish.[16] They lived at 153 East 63rd Street,[17] in the National Register of Historic Places listed Barbara Rutherford Hatch House,[18] and together, their children were:

Lawrance died at his Long Island home, Meadow Farm in East Islip, New York, on June 24, 1950.[7][25]

References
  1. Kerstein, Bob. "Charles Lanier". smokershistory.com. Bank History, Central Trust Company of New York. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  2. Staff (December 5, 1919). "Frances Lawrance Asks 160,000-Franc Allowance to Wed Prince Poniatowski". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  3. Staff (July 3, 1915). "MISS LAWRANCE TO WED W. A. HARRIMAN Romance in Match of Late Railroad Magnate's Son and C. Lanier's Granddaughter. FIANCEE A SPORTS DEVOTEE Just Recovered from Injury Received While Horseback Riding with the Young Financier". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  4. "Mrs. W. Averell Harriman Dies; Former Governor's Wife Was 67". The New York Times. September 27, 1970. Retrieved February 17, 2015.
  5. Vincent P. Carosso, Rose C. Carosso, "The Morgans" (Harvard University Press, 1987) p. 248
  6. Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
  7. The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Charles Lanier Lawrance American aeronautical engineer". britannica.com. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  8. Gunston, p. 125
  9. Harry Bruno (1944) Wings over America, page 159, Halcyon Press
  10. Bilstein, Roger E. (2008). Flight Patterns: Trends of Aeronautical Development in the United States, 1918–1929. University of Georgia Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0-8203-3214-7.
  11. Gunston, p. 125, 244
  12. Gunston, Bill (2006). World Encyclopedia of Aero Engines, 5th Edition. Phoenix Mill, Gloucestershire, England, UK: Sutton Publishing Limited. ISBN 0-7509-4479-X.
  13. "Coolidge to Give Medal". The Semi-Weekly Spokesman-Review. Spokane, Washington. Associated Press. February 29, 1928. p. 1 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Collier 1920–1929 Recipients". National Aeronautic Association. Retrieved November 10, 2019.
  15. https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah01789.xml
  16. Staff (April 5, 1910). "MISS DIX TO BE A BRIDE. Daughter of Late Rector of Trinity to Wed Charles Lanier Lawrance". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  17. Staff (October 23, 1933). "TROTH ANNOUNCED OF MISS LAWRANCE New York Girl's Parents Make - Known Her Engagement to Drayton Cochran. MADE DEBUT 2 YEARS AGO Granddaughter of the Rev. Dr. Morgan Dix Fiancé a Graduate of Yale University". The New York Times. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  18. Alberts, Hana R. (November 13, 2013). "Spike Lee Wants $32M For UES Home With Celeb-Studded Past". Curbed NY. Curbed NY. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  19. "FRELINGHUYSEN, EMILY LAWRANCE". The New York Times. December 26, 2004. Retrieved April 7, 2016.
  20. Bayot, Jennifer (January 13, 2005). "Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, Memoirist of Wartime Escape, Dies at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved July 1, 2008. Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, whose memoir, "Passages to Freedom," chronicled his escape from a prison camp in Italy during World War II, died on Saturday in Morristown, N.J. He was 92 and lived in Far Hills, N.J. The cause was pneumonia, said his daughter Barbara F. Israel.
  21. "Joseph S. Frelinghuysen, 92, WWII POW, marathon runner". The Star-Ledger. January 11, 2005.
  22. "Deaths FROST, MARGARET". The New York Times. March 19, 2005. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  23. Staff (October 5, 1986). "Diane B. Sperandio Weds". The New York Times. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  24. Staff (February 15, 1981). "Anne Dunn Bride Of F.C. Lawrance". The New York Times. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
  25. "C.L. LAWRANCE, 67, AN INVENTOR, DIES; Developed Wright Whirlwind Engine That Powered Noted Distance Plane Flights" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved April 9, 2016.
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