HISTORY OF DAVID THURSTON AND HIS AMPHIBIOUS AIRCRAFT

(UNOFFICIAL WEB PAGE)

Mr. Dave Thurston has impressive credentials. He graduated at the top of his class at the Guggenheim School of Aeronautics at New York University and won the Chance Vought design award. After completing school, Dave worked at; Brewster, Chance Vought, Grumman (14 years), and then Schweizer Aircraft.

While working at Brewster he was involved in the design of the Brewster Buffalo export fighter.

During and after WW2 and the Korean Police Action Mr. Thurston worked for Grumman and was a project leader for the projects he worked on. He was involved in the design of twelve or so aircraft. Some of them were; F6F Hellcat fighter, F9F Panther Jet fighter, Rigel guided missile, and F11F Tiger Jet fighter.

After the wars while employed at Grumman he designed three postwar personal aircraft; AgCat (agricultural application airplane), Colonial Skimmer amphibian (now the Lake Buccaneer) and Teal amphibian. The Teal design was sold to Schweizer Aircraft, while he was working for them. The Lake series is still in production.

Mr. Roy LoPresti did some of the design work for Mr. Thurston on the Colonial Skimmer. Mr. LoPresti went to the same school as Mr. Thurston, won the same Chance Vought design award, and he also worked at Grumman.

Some of Mr. Thurston's later projects included; Seafire, Trojan and Sequoia aircraft. The Seafire design is now being produced as the Seafire TA16.

Mr. Thurston is a Designated Engineering Representative of the FAA. The FAA accepts him as an expert and allows him to sign off and approve other peoples designs.

Mr. Thurston wrote three books for McGraw Hill; Design for Flying, Design for Safety, and Homebuilt Aircraft. Design for Flying, is a classic.

In 1978 Mr. Thurston won the prestigious Earl D Osborn award from the Aviation Space Writers Association. This is their top award for writing on the subject of general aviation.