Harry Nelson Atwood (November 15, 1883 – July 14, 1967) was an American engineer and inventor known for pioneering work in the early days of aviation, including setting long-distance flying records and delivering the first delivery of air mail in New England.

He trained at the Wright Flying School at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton, Ohio, with fellow students Thomas D. Milling, Calbraith Perry Rodgers and Henry H. Arnold.

Within three months of his first lesson he flew a record-breaking 576 miles (927 km) from Boston to Washington, D.C., and on July 14, 1911, landed on the White House lawn.

The company purchased Franklin Park race track in Saugus, Massachusetts, and converted it into an airfield, which they named after Atwood.

[9] Harry Atwood was also a pioneer the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and other authorities called "The Father of Plastic Planes."

He introduced a somewhat revolutionary method of constructing a plane by molding wood veneers treated with cellulose acetate.

He and his followers of this technique for aircraft manufacturing felt that a plastic or synthetic resin would solve the bonding problems.

On March 2, 1914, Atwood married Ruth Satterthwaite in a courthouse ceremony in her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania.