Leonard Greene

Leonard Michael Greene (June 8, 1918 – November 30, 2006) was an American inventor and aerodynamics engineer who held more than 200 patents, many of which are aviation-related. He is most well known for his contributions to aviation technology, including his invention, the Aircraft Stall Warning device, which warns pilots when a deadly aerodynamic stall is imminent. To build the device, Greene established the Safe Flight Instrument Corporation in 1946.

Apart from his inventive life, Greene also served as the founder and president of the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies, a think tank to address issues such as poverty and social awareness. Additionally, he co-founded the Corporate Angel Network, a charitable organization that flies patients in corporate aircraft. In 1991, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Greene died on November 30, 2006, at the age of 88 in Mamaroneck, New York. The cause was complications from lung cancer.

Early life and family Leonard M. Greene was born in New York City on June 8, 1918. Max Greene, his chemist father, and Lyn Furman Greene, his artist mother, encouraged their son to create his own toys. His parents made him a gift of their old stove, which he could take apart. Greene experienced poverty as a youth during the Depression and never forgot it. When Leonard was 16, his father died.

Greene first married Beverly Kaufman, with whom he had three children; this, however, ended in divorce. Then, he adopted four children of his second wife, Phyllis Saks Greene, with whom he had another child. Phyllis Saks Greene, an heiress of the Saks Fifth Avenue department store family, died in 1965. Greene's third marriage was to Joyce Teck Meller in 1967, which also ended up in divorce in 2005.

A son from the second marriage, Donald Greene, died September 11, 2001, abroad United Airlines Flight 93 when it crashed in Pennsylvania.

Education Leonard Greene graduated in 1938 from the City College of New York with a B.S. in Chemistry, and went on to receive a M.S. in aeronautical engineering. He received a pilot license at the age of 19 and later did postgraduate work in aeronautics at the Guggenheim School of Aeronautics at New York University.

In 1977, he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Civil Law honoris causa by Pace University.

Inventions

Aviation & safe flight instruments

Stall Warning Device During World War II, Greene joined the Grumman Aircraft Corporation in Bethpage, NY, as an aerodynamicist and engineering test pilot. There he witnessed an aircraft crash caused by stall. In aviation, a stall occurs when the airflow over the wings is no longer sufficient to provide lift – essentially, a stalled wing ceases to function. This happens when the wing exceeds its critical angle of attack. Greene realized that the accident could have been avoided if the pilot had been warned of an imminent stall. Aerodynamic stalls caused the majority of aviation deaths at the time.

In the mid-1940s, Greene developed the first practical way to warn the pilot of the aerodynamic stall. His first design and apparatus included threaded bolts, a bicycle horn and other odd components, all powered by flashlight batteries. Greene filed his device for a patent in 1944, and the patent was issued in 1949. In order to develop his design, Greene founded the Safe Flight Instrument Corporation in White Plains, NY, in 1946. There, he refined and marketed the stall warning indicator.

Corporate Angel Network In 1981, Greene, whose second wife died of cancer, helped start and finance Corporate Angel Network (CAN), a charitable organization which arranges free transportation on corporate jets for cancer patients. This organization has 500 participating corporations who generously offer their empty seats to cancer patients. CAN flies more than 2,500 cancer patients a year. To date, the organization has flown more than 50,000 patients to treatment centers nationwide.

Sailing An avid sailor, Greene became a technical adviser to several America's Cup races before buying two-time winner Courageous from Ted Turner in the early 1980s. Sailing under the aegis of the Yale Corinthian Yacht Club, the only undergraduate sailing club ever to participate, the Courageous Syndicates 1986 run at the Cup spearheaded Greene's campaign to restore the Corinthian ideals of amateur sportsmanship to the competition, and more broadly, to team sports in general. Despite several of Greene's modifications to the keel, the boat's age remained a problem, and his team withdrew during the 1986 competition. Following the 1997 donation of Courageous to the Museum of Yachting in Newport, RI, the famed 12-meter was named Rhode Island's State Yacht. Senator John H. Glenn Jr., a former astronaut, inducted Greene into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1991 and placed him among "American inventors who have changed our world in ways we can see every day of our lives."2 Recipient of the 2002 Philip J. Klass Award for Lifetime Achievement U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Contribution to American Innovation Award (2002) Special Act Award of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Flight Safety Foundation’s: Air Safety Award (1949 and 1981) Award for Meritorious Service (1981) Allied Signal/Bendix Trophy Award for Aviation Safety (1999) National Business Aviation Association's: Pilot Safety Award (1961) Award for Meritorious Service to Aviation (1996) Aviation Week & Space Technology's: Laurels Award in the Field of Electronics (1999) Laureate Award for Lifetime Achievement as a Pioneer in Flight Safety, Performance and Innovation (2001) Foundation for Westchester Community Colleges: Medallion Award for Distinguished Achievement in Business, Science and Humanitarianism Life member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots

Key patents Greene, , "Air Stall Warning Device for Airplanes" Greene, , "Aircraft Auto Throttle System" Greene, , "Wind Shear Warning System" Greene, , "Supersonic Aircraft"