Ralph Hazlett Upson

[1] Upson designed the world's only all-metal stressed-skin airship and contributed to aerospace technology research.

He was born in New York City on June 21, 1888, to Grace Hazlett, a physician, and William Ford Upson, a Wall Street attorney.

Upson graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1910 and began work in the aeronautical office at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio.

[2] In the 1930s, Upson did consulting work for the US Navy, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and taught aerodynamics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

[2][5] During World War 2, Upson was head of the aeronautics department at the Heinz Company, a builder of plywood gliders.