engineering

Steve Wittman

Steve Wittman is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Steve Wittman rather than just read about it. In short: Sylvester Joseph "Steve" Wittman (April 5, 1904 – April 27, 1995) was an American air-racer and amateur aircraft engineer. An illness in Wittman's infancy claimed most of his vision in one eye, which convinced him from an early age that his dream of flying was unattainable.

Key takeaways

Steve Wittman belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Steve Wittman to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Steve Wittman from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sylvester Joseph "Steve" Wittman (April 5, 1904 – April 27, 1995) was an American air-racer and amateur aircraft engineer. An illness in Wittman's infancy claimed most of his vision in one eye, which convinced him from an early age that his dream of flying was unattainable. However, he learned how to fly in 1924 in a Standard J-1 and built his first aircraft, the Harley-powered "Hardly Abelson" in late 1924. From 1925 to 1927, he had his own flying service, offering joyrides, and during this time also became a demonstration and test pilot for The Pheasant Aircraft Company and the Dayton Aircraft Company, flying the Pheasant H-10 in multiple events. He also began his air-racing career, flying his first race in 1926 at a Milwaukee event in his J-1. After competing in his first transcontinental air race from New York to Los Angeles in 1928, he attained a medical waiver on his eyesight and received his pilot's certificate soon after (signed by Orville Wright). He then went on to design, build and pilot his own aircraft, including "Chief Oshkosh" in 1931 and "Bonzo" in 1934. Wittman's first race in an aircraft he had designed was in "Bonzo", in the 1935 Thompson Trophy race, where he placed second. In 1937, piloting his second homebuilt, "Chief Oshkosh", Wittman placed second in the Greve Trophy Race. Wittman flew "Bonzo" in the Thompson Trophy race, and he led for the first 18 laps of the 20 lap race, at an average speed of over 275 mph (442.57 km/h). Suddenly his engine began to run rough, and Wittman was forced to throttle back to remain in the race, finishing in 5th place. In 1938, he was awarded the Louis Blériot medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Also in 1937, Wittman designed and built "Buttercup". A high wing design built to outperform the Cubs, Chiefs, T-Crafts, and Luscombes of the day. Based on that aircraft, he built the Wittman Big X in 1945, and the popular Wittman Tailwind series of homebuilts. During World War II, his Wittman Flying Service was part of the Civilian Pilot Training Program, training pilots for the Army Air Corps. After the war, Wittman finished eighth in the 1946 Thompson Trophy race with a clipped-wing Bell P-63 Kingcobra fighter. In 1947, Bill Brennand won the inaugural Goodyear class race at the National Air Races piloting Wittman's 'Buster'. "Buster" was a rebuild of the pre-war "Chief Oshkosh", went on to win many more Goodyear/Continental Trophy races, and was retired after the 1954 Dansville, New York air races. It is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Wittman built an entirely new "Bonzo" for the 1948 National Air Races, where he flew it, finishing third. Wittman raced "Bonzo" through the 1950s and 1960s, including the first few Reno National Championship air races, before retiring from Formula One competition in 1973. "Bonzo" is now displayed next to Wittman's prewar "Bonzo" in the EAA Aviation Museum, along with several other Wittman airplanes. Wittman was manager of the Oshkosh, Wisconsin, airport from 1931 to 1969, which is now named after him (Wittman Regional Airport). Wittman became involved in the newly formed Experimental Aircraft Association in 1953 and was instrumental in bringing the EAA's annual fly-in to the Oshkosh Airport in 1970. He designed and built the Wittman V-Witt to compete in the new Formula V Air Racing class. He competed in races with that aircraft until 1979. Winners of the Formula V National Championship are presented with the Steve Wittman Trophy. Wittman remained active in aviation his entire life. For Wittman's 90th birthday celebration, he demonstrated aerobatic maneuvers in his V-Witt and Oldsmobile-powered Tailwind. He also used "Buttercup" to give Young Eagles flights. Letters of appreciation were given by US President Bill Clinton and Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson. Steve married Dorothy Rady in 1941. He taught her to fly and she accompanied him to most of his races. Dorothy died in 1991 and Wittman married Paula Muir in 1992. On April 27, 1995, Wittman and Muir took off for a routine cross-country flight from their winter residence in Ocala, Florida, to their summer residence in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The Wittman "O&O" N41SW (41 for 1941, year of his first marriage, plus SW, his initials) crashed five miles south of Stevenson, Alabama, killing both Wittman and Muir. The cause was improper installation of the wing fabric, causing it to debond, resulting in aileron/wing flutter. Wittman was posthumously inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1998 and the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2014.

Wittman-designed aircraft Wittman Hardley Ableson Wittman Chief Oshkosh Wittman D-12 Bonzo Wittman DFA "Little Bonzo" Wittman Buttercup Wittman Big X Wittman Tailwind Wittman V-Witt

References

External links Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame website National Aviation Hall of Fame website

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Steve Wittman

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Steve Wittman claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Steve Wittman before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Steve Wittman ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Steve Wittman

In research: Steve Wittman appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Steve Wittman in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Steve Wittman is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1904 births, 1995 deaths, 20th-century American engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Steve Wittman outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Steve Wittman” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Steve Wittman in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Steve Wittman means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Steve Wittman out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Steve Wittman in simple terms?

Why does Steve Wittman matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Steve Wittman?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Steve Wittman.