Inventor Name
Herzog, Adolph F.
Repository
Hagley Museum & Library
Manuscripts & Archives Department
P.O. Box 3630
Wilmington, DE 19807-0630
302-658-2400
https://www.hagley.org/research
Physical Description
34 items.
Summary
Adolph F. Herzog was an aeronautical engineer who worked for the Pitcairn Aircraft Company in 1926-28, the Pitcairn-Cierva Autogiro Company in 1935-38, and later for the Platt-LePage Aircraft Company. In the course of his career, he collected books and memorabilia relating to the development of autogiros and helicopters. The principal item is a prospectus for the formation of the Platt-LePage Helicopter Company (later Platt-Le Page Aircraft Company), founded by Haviland H. Platt and Wynn Laurence LePage with the backing of the Rockefellers in 1938. The company later produced the XR-1A, the Army’s first production model helicopter, at its Eddystone, Pa., factory. There are also several letters of introduction for a trip LePage made to Germany in 1938 to inspect its first successful helicopter, which he suspected to have been developed from information in his first German patent, plus bills and receipts from his stay at the Adlon Hotel in Berlin. There are several clippings on Platt-LePage helicopters. The collection also contains two trade catalogs for Pitcairn Aircraft, Inc., biplanes, one for the "Sport-Mailwing" and one for the "Super-Mailwing." Herzog’s collection of photographs may be found in the Pictorial Collections Dept. A Pitcairn Autogiro catalog and LePage’s autobiography, GROWING UP WITH AVIATION, may be found in the general Imprints Dept. collections.