Nationality American Role Inventor | Name Vincent Bendix Significant projects Bendix Corporation | |
Born December 12, 1881 Moline, Illinois Died March 27, 1945, New York City, New York, United States Organizations founded Bendix Corporation, Bendix Aviation, Bendix Helicopters | ||
Vincent Hugo Bendix (December 12, 1881 – March 27, 1945) was an American inventor and industrialist. Vincent Bendix was a pioneer and leader in both the automotive and aviation industries during the 1920s and 1930s.
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Background
Vincent Hugo Bendix was born in Moline, Illinois. He was eldest of three children born to Methodist clergyman, Reverend Jann Bengtsson, a native of Angermanland, Sweden, and his wife Anna Danielson, also an immigrant from Sweden. While in Moline the family name was changed to "Bendix". They later moved to Chicago, Illinois and Vincent purchased the Palmer Mansion in 1930, for $3,000,000.
Career
Vincent Bendix founded the Bendix Corporation of Chicago in 1907 to manufacture automobiles, called Bendix Buggies. After two years and producing 7000 vehicles the company failed. In 1910 however, Bendix invented and patented the Bendix drive, a gear that could engage an engine at zero rotational speed and then (through the aid of a spring and the higher speed of the running engine) pull back and disengage automatically at higher speed (nominally the engine's running speed). This drive made the electric starter practical for automobile engines and later for engines in aircraft and other motorized vehicles.
Bendix founded the Bendix Brake Company in 1923, which acquired the rights to French engineer Henri Perrot's patents for brake drum/shoe design a year later.
He started the Bendix Aviation Corporation in 1929, and founded the Transcontinental Bendix Air Race in 1931. In 1942, Bendix started Bendix Helicopters, Inc. Bendix Aviation and Bendix Brake would later be renamed Bendix Corporation.