Aviation Inventor, CAN Co-Founder Was 86

He was an accomplished and prolific inventor... but above all, perhaps, Dr. Leonard Greene was a humanitarian.

The impact Greene had on aviation can't be measured solely in the hundreds of inventions he created, or the number of patents he held... and he held many. It was Greene who brought us such commonplace -- and vital -- safety devices like the stall warning indicator, and the wind shear warning system.

"If Elmer Sperry showed aircraft pilots the way home, it was Leonard Greene who insured our safe arrival," said US Senator John Glenn.

Noted CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite echoed that sentiment, saying "There is scarcely a flying machine built today that does not include his devices to enhance safety. And surely thousands of lives have been saved through their use."

Greene also won many awards, including the 1996 Award for Meritorious Service to Aviation from the National Business Aviation Association. In its presentation, the NBAA noted that during World War II, Greene presented a paper to the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences offering a theory on breaking the sound barrier -- a theory that set forth some of the principles on which the ultimate Mach 1 breakthrough was based.

In 1996, Greene patented a design for a supersonic transport aircraft with virtually no sonic boom, and a new type of powerplant, the turbo/ram jet engine, to power it. Boeing bought the rights to both breakthroughs.

But Greene also had a higher calling. In 1981, he co-founded the Corporate Angel Network, a not-for-profit organization that offers empty seats onboard corporate jets, for free, so cancer patients may travel to receive treatment. It was Greene himself who flew the first CAN flight that year, bringing a patient home to Detroit from treatment in New York.

Today, 530 companies offer seats on their planes to the Corporate Angel Network, and the charity flies more than 2,500 cancer patients annually.

Sadly, the very disease he set out to defeat claimed Dr. Greene's life in the end. Greene died November 30, after a long battle with cancer.

We've no doubt he is now soaring high, however, at the controls of his plane... with every seat onboard filled with people in most need of a lift.

FMI: www.corpangelnetwork.org