Who was Russell Colley ?
Alan B. Shepard Jr, the American astronaut should be able to tell you that Russell Colley invented the pressurized suit. But that was just one of the this American inventor's invention. Try gadgets like the Riv-nut, the rubberized pneumatic deicer and other such devices.
Russell Colley was born in 1899, in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Surprinsingly enough Colley had shown interest in becoming a fashion designer early on in life. He also was showing himself to be very mechanically inclined. Supposedly, peer pressure led him to the Wentworth Institute of Mechanical Engineering where he graduated in 1918.
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Wiley Post and Russell S. Colley testing a pressure suit in 1934.
In 1928 the mechanical engineer was working in Akron, Ohio, for BF Goodrich the rubber people.
Russell Colley witnessed the entire birth of the aircraft industry and the massive WW1 aircraft innovations and then more. By 1935 he was married and using his wife's craft kits to put together a flight suit for a pilot called Wiley Post.
Russell Colley invented aviation stuff but he also designed. How much better can one combine his skills.
Wiley Post on the other hand was more of a dare devil and broke altitude and distance records for a living.
After his work at BF Goodrich Russell Colley joined NASA where he continued to innovate on his designs and invent new ones. In 1994 he received the Distiguished Public Service Award from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
His love for form and design never left him. Until his death in Springfield, Ohio, in 1996 Colley continued to dabble in the creative process.
He left behind many artifacts of his existence including water colour paintings, unique jewelery which he'd designed, and a list of 65 patents accredited to Russell Colley who invented aviation stuff.
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