Elrey Borge Jeppesen

Elrey Borge Jeppesen (January 28, 1907 – November 26, 1996) was an American aviation pioneer noted for his contributions in the field of air navigation.

He worked as a pilot and began making detailed notes about his routes at a time when aviators had to rely on little more than automobile road maps and landmarks for navigation.

[2][3] In 1925, at the age of 18, he joined Tex Rankin's Flying Circus "as a ticket taker, a prop turner, a wing walker, and an aerial acrobat".

[2][4] He soloed after two hours and 15 minutes of flying lessons and purchased his own Jenny for $500,[2] using money borrowed from customers on his newspaper route.

[1] For two years beginning in 1928, he worked for Fairchild Aerial Surveys, flying photographers to map Mexico in a de Havilland DH-4.

While airway beacons assisted aerial navigation on specific routes, most pilots at that time depended on dead reckoning, generally using automobile road maps (such as those from oil companies or commercial mapmakers), railroad tracks, and landmarks to find their way.

[9] In the 1940s, with the onset of World War II, the United States Army and Navy kept Jeppesen busy supplying them with his charts.

[10] The Jeppesen Company continues to exist today, currently as a subsidiary of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, which acquired the business in October 2000.