Eugene Vidal
Eugene Vidal was born in Madison, South Dakota. He was an athlete, winning letters in football, baseball, basketball and track. He graduated from West Point with a degree in engineering, plus four letters and two sabres for his athletic abilities. He competed in the Olympics at Antwerp, finishing in seventh place in the Decathalon, despite the fact that his throwing arm had been injured in a car wreck and he had to throw the javelin with the other hand. (Lucky for him he was ambidextrous).
He joined the Army Air Corps and learned all about airplanes. After he left the service, he invested his savings in real estate and lost everything. He coached football in Oregon for a couple of years, then invested money in a silent toilet-flusher. He lost his savings on that venture, too, when the toilet turned out to be noisy. In 1928, he got a job with Transcontinental Air Transport, working his way up from the bottom to eventually become assistant general manager. While there, he and Paul Collins had the idea to put in place a commercial airline. Their friend Amelia Earhart was the publicist for this idea. The airline showed a profit even without the mail route subsidy.
During the New Deal, Eugene Vidal was placed in charge of U.S. civil aviation. His dream was to produce a small plane that would be as affordable as an automobile. He began a research corporation in which he experimented with a "cooked plywood" method which he hoped would revolutionize the airplane industry by coming up with material from which to make a cheaper airplane.
Vidal was known for his ability to bounce back from adversity, always ready to dream again.
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