JKM Mk2
07-06-10, 05:42 AM
Simple idea based on a tube became one of Ike's four weapons to win WWII
STEVEN GREENHOUSE
June 7, 2010
EDWARD GEORGE UHL
INVENTOR
24-3-1918 - 9-5-2010
EDWARD Uhl, an American aerospace executive who as a young soldier during World War II helped invent the bazooka, a devastatingly effective weapon against German tanks, has died after a stroke at Easton in Maryland. He was 92.
The bazooka, often called the stovepipe, was a shoulder-fired rocket launcher that could penetrate a tank's armour plate.
The Allied supreme commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, hailed it as one of the four ''tools of victory'' that won World War II. (The other three were the C-47 transport aircraft, the Jeep and the atomic bomb.)
After the war, Uhl climbed rapidly through the aerospace industry and in 1961 became president and chief executive of Fairchild Industries, a company that manufactured missiles, satellites and aircraft.
Uhl greatly expanded Fairchild's capabilities and diversified its business, acquiring Hiller Aircraft, a helicopter manufacturer, and Republic Aviation, a military aircraft manufacturer, before retiring from Fairchild in 1985.
Uhl was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and graduated from Lehigh University on a scholarship available to returned servicemen, and majored in engineering physics.
He had enlisted in the US Army and served from 1941 to 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel in its ordnance corps. As a captain in 1942, he was teamed with Leslie Skinner, who would retire as a colonel, to develop what became the bazooka. The weapon was named after an improvised tubular musical instrument that the comedian Bob Burns had popularised. After a prototype was tested in 1942 and hit its target, the army immediately ordered 5000 bazooka launchers and 25,000 bazooka rockets. It was estimated that more than 450,000 bazookas were eventually distributed during World War II.
Uhl said the main concern was to figure out how a soldier could fire the weapon without the burning powder (propellant) burning his face. He stumbled on the solution when he noticed a 1.5 metre long tube that was 60 millimetres in diameter lying on a scrap heap; it happened to be the same size as the grenade that was being turned into a rocket. ''I said, 'That's the answer! Put the tube on a soldier's shoulder with the rocket inside and away it goes','' he recalled in 2007. They added a hand grip and trigger.
After the war, Uhl joined the Glenn L. Martin Company, leading its efforts to develop guided missiles. Then, from 1959 to 1961, he was a vice-president at Ryan Aeronautics.
Uhl married Maurine Keleher in 1943. She died in 1966. Later that year he married Mary Brugh, who survives him, along with two sons, a daughter, two stepsons, a sister, four grandchildren, and five stepgrandchildren.
NEW YORK TIMES
JKM
STEVEN GREENHOUSE
June 7, 2010
EDWARD GEORGE UHL
INVENTOR
24-3-1918 - 9-5-2010
EDWARD Uhl, an American aerospace executive who as a young soldier during World War II helped invent the bazooka, a devastatingly effective weapon against German tanks, has died after a stroke at Easton in Maryland. He was 92.
The bazooka, often called the stovepipe, was a shoulder-fired rocket launcher that could penetrate a tank's armour plate.
The Allied supreme commander, General Dwight Eisenhower, hailed it as one of the four ''tools of victory'' that won World War II. (The other three were the C-47 transport aircraft, the Jeep and the atomic bomb.)
After the war, Uhl climbed rapidly through the aerospace industry and in 1961 became president and chief executive of Fairchild Industries, a company that manufactured missiles, satellites and aircraft.
Uhl greatly expanded Fairchild's capabilities and diversified its business, acquiring Hiller Aircraft, a helicopter manufacturer, and Republic Aviation, a military aircraft manufacturer, before retiring from Fairchild in 1985.
Uhl was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and graduated from Lehigh University on a scholarship available to returned servicemen, and majored in engineering physics.
He had enlisted in the US Army and served from 1941 to 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant-colonel in its ordnance corps. As a captain in 1942, he was teamed with Leslie Skinner, who would retire as a colonel, to develop what became the bazooka. The weapon was named after an improvised tubular musical instrument that the comedian Bob Burns had popularised. After a prototype was tested in 1942 and hit its target, the army immediately ordered 5000 bazooka launchers and 25,000 bazooka rockets. It was estimated that more than 450,000 bazookas were eventually distributed during World War II.
Uhl said the main concern was to figure out how a soldier could fire the weapon without the burning powder (propellant) burning his face. He stumbled on the solution when he noticed a 1.5 metre long tube that was 60 millimetres in diameter lying on a scrap heap; it happened to be the same size as the grenade that was being turned into a rocket. ''I said, 'That's the answer! Put the tube on a soldier's shoulder with the rocket inside and away it goes','' he recalled in 2007. They added a hand grip and trigger.
After the war, Uhl joined the Glenn L. Martin Company, leading its efforts to develop guided missiles. Then, from 1959 to 1961, he was a vice-president at Ryan Aeronautics.
Uhl married Maurine Keleher in 1943. She died in 1966. Later that year he married Mary Brugh, who survives him, along with two sons, a daughter, two stepsons, a sister, four grandchildren, and five stepgrandchildren.
NEW YORK TIMES
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