Frank Robinson Dead At 92

I was fortunate to hear this remarkable man speak at a Royal Aeronautical Society lecture in London. He even graciously answered a question from me. He changed the lives of many thousands of people by introducing them to helicopters, by making them light and simple. The R22 weighed half of the Enstrom I learned on – and it burned half of the fuel. His designs were a game-changer. Such engineering giants don’t come around often – I think he is up there with the best.

Bob G.

I’ll never forget meeting Frank for the first time in Miami at the HAI helicopter symposium in 1993. I was a ground systems tech for the FAA but flew helicopters for fun. I attended the symposium and they put FAA on my symposium badge. And I didn’t give it a second thought. Seeing all the new helicopters as a pilot I was like a kid in the candy store jumping from helicopter to helicopter.

I came upon the Robinson helicopter display and saw for the first time the R44 helicopter. I looked at the guy standing at the new helicopter and asked if I could take a look? I quickly began opening panels asking about a specific bearing in the drive system. The guy at the display said, you know quite a bit about these helicopters. I explained that only a couple years earlier I had to crash land one in Washington DC when the drive tension bearing burned up in flight.

There is a procedure to check these bearings before flight with a temp sensing strip and…