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Joseph Gordon Vaeth (1921-2012) was an officer in the United States Navy and a civilian aeronautical engineer employed by the Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Vaeth was a lifelong advocate for the use of lighter-than-air aircraft. He was the author of eight books and numerous articles.

Early life

Vaeth was the son of Joseph Anthony Vaeth (d. 1938), a New York University professor of languages, and his wife Sara (Billard) Vaeth, the sister of Coast Guard Commandant Frederick C. Billard. In 1941, he graduated from New York University with a Bachelor's of Arts; in September 1941, he was employed as an instructor at the Admiral Billard Academy, named for his uncle.

Career

During World War II, Vaeth was commissioned as a Lieutenant and commanded the US Navy airship fleet in the South Atlantic. After the war, Vaeth was employed by the Navy Special Devices Center, and was involved in Project Helios, a plan for a manned balloon flight to 100,000 feet. He was a member of the American Rocketry Society, the British Interplanetary Society, the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences and the League of Aeronauts.

Vaeth worked with the naval unit at the White Sands Proving Ground, and in 1951, he authored 200 Miles Up, a history of guided missile development. In 1955, he was quoted in press about US plans to launch an artificial satellite. Vaeth served as an aeronautical engineer with the Office of Naval Research. In 1960, he was employed as a manned spaceflight expert by Reflectone Electronics. In the 1970s, Vaeth served as Director of Systems Engineering for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1977, Vaeth published an article concluding that Amelia Earhart likely died after running out of fuel.

Veath was a longtime advocate of airships. Journalist James J. Kilpatrick said that Vaeth:

is known around our office as 'the airship man.' Mr. Vaeth, a former naval officer, system director of engineering for the National Environmental Satellite Service. His other fulltime job, a labor of pure love, to promote the airship revival. In the same way that other men are nuts about fire engines or steam locomotives, Mr. Vaeth nuts about zeppelins.

As early as 1939, Veath was advocating for the use of airships. In 1959, Vaeth authored a book about the Graf Zeppelin airship. In 1963, papers carried an image of Vaeth holding a piece of wreckage from the USS Shenandoah, a dirigible which crashed in 1925. In 1974, Vaeth testified before the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences about the possibility of nuclear-engines permitting dirigibles to achieve speeds up to 150 miles per hours.

Personal life

In 1951, Vaeth married Joanne Corell; the two had a son. After her death, in 1995 he married Corrine Ranken of Olympia, Washington.

Works

• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1951). 200 miles up : the conquest of the upper air. Ronald Press Co. p. 207.
• Vaeth, J Gordon (1958). Graf Zeppelin: The Adventures of an Aerial Globetrotter. New York: Harper & Brothers., on the Graf Zeppelin
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1962). To the Ends of the Earth: The Explorations of Roald Amundsen. Harper & Row.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1965). Weather eyes in the sky : America's meteorological satellites. Ronald Press,U.S.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1968). Langley, man of science and flight. Ronald Press.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1968). The man who founded Georgia. Crowell-Collier Press.
• Vaeth, Joseph G. (1992). Blimps & u-boats: U.S. Navy airships in the battle of the Atlantic. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Pr. ISBN 978-1557508768.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (2005). They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program.

References

1. "Obituary for Joseph Gordon Vaeth". The Olympian. March 15, 2012. pp. A4 – via newspapers.com.
2. "Obituary for Joseph Arthony Vaeth". Ste. Genevieve Herald. 8 October 1938. p. 1.
3. "Admiral Billard Academy Opens with 144 Enrolled; Three Instructors Added". The Day. September 23, 1941. p. 6 – via newspapers.com.
4. ^ "Guided Missile History Treated By an Engineer". Richmond Times-Dispatch. October 14, 1951. p. 103 – via newspapers.com.
5. "Scientists Hail Satellite Project as Greatest Ever". Wichita Falls Times. August 11, 1955. p. 25 – via newspapers.com.
6. "Our First Jump into Outer Space". The Charlotte Observer. September 16, 1956. p. 119 – via newspapers.com.
7. "Evening star 12 Jun 1960, page 55". Newspapers.com.
8. "J. Gordon Vaeth Collection | National Air and Space Museum". airandspace.si.edu.
9. "'Lady Lindy' Remains Mystery Figure". Spokane Chronicle. November 9, 1977. p. 24 – via newspapers.com.
10. "Mystery Clouds Final Flight of Amelia Earhart". The Indiana Gazette. November 2, 1977. p. 37 – via newspapers.com.
11. "Progress Report on a Dream". Suffolk News-Herald. July 20, 1975. p. 4 – via newspapers.com.
12. "Daily News 27 May 1939, page 143". Newspapers.com.
13. "Dirigibles To Help Arctic Development". The Akron Beacon Journal. October 11, 1963. p. 2 – via newspapers.com.
14. "Dirigible Gets Navy's Attention". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. November 28, 1974. p. 165 – via newspapers.com.
15. "Marriage of Corell / Vaeth". The Reporter Dispatch. January 2, 1951. p. 6 – via newspapers.com.
16. "Marriage of Dixon / Cooper". The Olympian. May 13, 1995. p. 20 – via newspapers.com.

• 1921 births
• 2012 deaths
• 20th-century American engineers
• 20th-century American writers
• United States Navy personnel of World War II
• American aviation writers
• American military writers