Viking Magazine - November 2018 - 26

Cool Under Pressure
Egtvedt had a knack for making rapid
calculations and keeping track of
complicated figures in his head; he was
also famously cool under pressure and
admired for his perseverance.
His sister, Mrs. George Hale, told
the Milwaukee Journal in a 1944
article that Egtvedt had navigated a
commercial fishing boat during the
summers to help pay his way through
college. On one occasion, he calmly
rode out a vicious storm, saying there
were only two possibilities: The ship
" Few have
contributed as
much to the
development
of aircraft as
Claire Egtvedt. "
-Jonathan P. Lee,
Boeing engineer
pilot Eddie Hubbard flew the Boeing
B-1 " flying boat. " A supervisor bet that
it would never get off the water. It did,
but it almost didn't get much higher
than the level of the ships anchored
below.
" Then the engine stalled, and the
plane started to dive toward the water, "
Egtvedt recalled in his notebook. " Nose
down, the engine picked up, and we
zoomed skyward just over the ships'
masts only to have the whole procedure
repeat several times. The plane zoomed
and dived several times until Hubbard
in rural Wisconsin and Washington
state, willing to work tirelessly on a
mechanical problem, Egtvedt's sister
recalled in her interview with the
Milwaukee Journal.
Boeing soon noticed his work
ethic, as well. Egtvedt was named
vice president and general manager
of Boeing in 1926 and later rose to
company president from August 1933
to September 1939.
A company chronology shows that
Egtvedt became board chairman in
1939, while Phil Johnson took over
the role of company president. But
Egtvedt resumed those old duties
after Johnson died unexpectedly in
September 1944. When William Allen
was appointed president in September
1945, Egtvedt returned to his role as
chairman of the board.
would either stay afloat or it would go
down. The experience didn't scar him,
as sailing became one of his lifelong
hobbies.
The Wisconsin Aviation Hall of
Fame, in honoring Egtvedt as one of
its own, noted that he became Boeing's
chief experimental engineer only a year
after joining the company. He was
quickly promoted to chief engineer,
where he designed aircraft and then
rode with the test pilots, a notepad
strapped to his leg, calmly taking notes
on how the plane performed.
On one occasion, Egtvedt and test
26 VIKING NOVEMBER 2018 sonsofnorway.com
was able to find a clear area and made a
hasty landing. "
As the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of
Fame biography notes, that near tragedy
was fodder for the engineer's notebook.
" We discovered that the fuel pump
only delivered fuel when the nose was
down-point it up and the fuel flow
ceased, " Egtvedt wrote. " A workable
pump and a wider elevator was the
result of that first test hop. "
All-Night Tinkerer
Fortunately for Boeing, the new chief
engineer grew up as backyard tinkerer
Father of the Flying Fortress
Boeing engineer Jonathan P. Lee
noted in a paper he presented at an
aerospace conference in 2017 that
even Egtvedt's Norwegian surname
carried a suggestion of flight, since the
first part of " Egtvedt " is likely derived
from an Old Norse word for a wagtail
species of bird. " This connection is
appropriate, as few have contributed
as much to the development of
aircraft as Claire Egtvedt, " Lee wrote,
calling Egtvedt a " great visionary "
who had a hand in engineering or
approving Boeing designs through the
development of the 747 jet airliner.
The 1930s, when Egtvedt started
piloting the company, proved to
be crucial years for Boeing and the
country. America's military officials
realized the country needed more
weapons in its arsenal. Egtvedt had
the vision to foresee how to make the
aircraft more versatile.
" Under Egtvedt's direction, the
Boeing Airplane Co. began building
larger and more complex airplanes
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Viking Magazine - November 2018

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