Patrick Young Alexander

Patrick Young Alexander (28 March 1867 – 7 July 1943) was a British aeronautical pioneer fascinated by the prospect of heavier-than-air flight. He was an enthusiastic balloonist and he was also particularly active in meteorology. He performed many metrological and aviation experiments, designing and building his own equipment. He travelled widely, visiting Australia in his youth and later making many visits to USA — crossing the Atlantic at least 50 times — he travelled widely in Europe and visited Mexico, Russia, Siberia and Africa in pursuit of his interests.

Patrick Alexander was respected by fellow aeronautical pioneers and close friends of such eminent people including Octave Chanute, the Wright brothers, Alberto Santos-Dumont, Lawrence Hargrave, Louis Blériot, Henry Farman, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, Charles Rolls of Rolls-Royce, Major Baden Powell to name only a few, as well as head of states and royalty in Europe. Patrick, a world traveller, arranged meetings with aeronautical experts and gave lectures on the development and progress being made in aviation.

Read more about Patrick Young Alexander:  Early Years, At Sea, Taking Off, First World War, Teaching, Legacy

Famous quotes containing the words patrick, young and/or alexander:

    “What strikes many twin researchers now is not how much identical twins are alike, but rather how different they are, given the same genetic makeup....Multiples don’t walk around in lockstep, talking in unison, thinking identical thoughts. The bond for normal twins, whether they are identical or fraternal, is based on how they, as individuals who are keenly aware of the differences between them, learn to relate to one another.”
    —Pamela Patrick Novotny (20th century)

    “But O, young beauty of the woods,
    Whom Nature courts with fruits and flowers,
    Gather the flowers, but spare the buds;
    Lest Flora, angry at thy crime
    To kill her infants in their prime,
    Do quickly make the example yours;
    And ere we see,
    Nip in the blossom all our hopes and thee.”
    —Andrew Marvell (1621–1678)

    “Take the serious side of Disney, the Confucian side of Disney. It’s in having taken an ethos ... where you have the values of courage and tenderness asserted in a way that everybody can understand. You have got an absolute genius there. You have got a greater correlation of nature than you have had since the time of Alexander the Great.”
    —Ezra Pound (1885–1972)