Stanley Marquiss
My father Raymon E, Marquiss was a pilot receiving his US pilot's license just prior to WW II. During the war he was in Patton's army at The Battle of the Bulge in the infantry and was wounded.
Around 1955 he bought a Fairchild WWII primary flight trainer, the PT 19, in which we often flew together.
At this time in Sacramento one could buy flight worthy North American P- 51 aircraft from the California Air National Guard for about $600 dollars: although their overall condition was indeterminate, and the operational costs, then as now, quite high.
Still later around 1976 he built from flat sheet aluminum a perfectly constructed high performance all aluminum single seat aircraft, for which he also built all of the manufacturing tooling.
As a child I read all of the aerodynamics books around the house, and developed a strong interest in aviation and the physics of flight which continues on to this day. This same interest drove all of my invention and patent work in lightweight fiber composites, and electromagnetic drivers and motors.
This initial background in aviation continues on into rockets, and the physics of space flight.