Glidden Doman
Glidden Doman (January 28, 1921 – June 6, 2016) was an American aeronautical engineer and pioneer in helicopters and modern wind turbines.
[6] This program featured the creation of Boeing's MOD-2 with the Doman conceived flexible rotor design, two-bladed wind turbine with a teeter hinge.
[7] Following the NASA project, while working for Boeing, Hamilton Standard division of United Technologies, and Aeritalia (later known as Alenia) in Italy, Doman developed large two-bladed, teeter-hinged wind turbines, including the WTS-3, WTS-4, and the Gamma 60.
[1][8] Gamma Ventures subsequently invested in, and sold a license to Seawind Ocean Technology of the Netherlands, to commercialize the same two-bladed, teeter-hinge wind turbine concept.
[2][8] Doman, along with noted German-born aerospace engineer Kurt Hohenemser (a partner and confidant of the well-known German airplane and helicopter designer Anton Flettner), maintained that a flexible two-bladed helicopter type wind turbine rotor design that is compliant with the forces of nature was more suitable for producing electricity than the rigid industry standard three-bladed airplane type wind turbine rotors that, by design, can only be constructed to resist the forces of nature.
[2] At Ranger, Doman gained experience in using strain gauges to analyze the vibratory loads on the rotating parts of engines.
[14] For the duration of World War II, he ran a program to match and balance the blades of all the Sikorsky helicopters before they were delivered.
[2] In this case, however, the pilot somehow got the helicopter flying backwards, which enabled the blades to regain their lifting ability and prevent a crash.
[14] The company was initially located in the back of a law office in New York City, but soon moved into a barn in Stratford, Connecticut, not far from the Sikorsky plant.
[14] With financial assistance from the United States Army Air Corps, Doman obtained a war surplus R-6 Sikorsky helicopter.
[14] They received certification from the United States FAA, and from the equivalent Canadian authority, for sale and commercial use, after passing the rigorous tests necessary for such approvals.
[2] Doman helicopters were a technical success but the company was unable to raise sufficient venture capital to set up an assembly line for mass production.
[2] The 1973 arab oil embargo triggered a great interest in wind energy at Boeing and numerous other companies.
[6][16] In January 1978, Doman returned to Connecticut as Chief Systems Engineer of the wind energy program at Hamilton Standard division of United Technologies.
[14] However, when oil prices plummeted in the mid-1980s, United Technologies deemed the wind energy market to be uneconomical and halted the program.
[2][8] There had been intentions to build many more Gamma 60 wind turbines, but Italian politics and a lack of urgency due to relatively low oil prices in the 1990s resulted in the program being cancelled.
[8][21] Doman remained active right up to the end of his life in 2016; thoroughly engaged in business, technical strategies, and analysis toward superior wind turbine performance at less cost in the application of his novel rotor technologies.
[8] He was also an avid supporter of the New England Air Museum (in Windsor Locks, Connecticut), where two of his helicopters – the converted R-6 (Doman-LZ1A) and a Doman LZ-5/YH-31 – are on display.
