Arnold Robinson

United States of America

 

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Arnold Robinson earned a B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering in 1951 from Polytechnic University of Brooklyn and a M.S. in the same discipline from Drexel University of Technology in 1955.  He worked for Republic Aviation of Farmingdale, N.Y., the Navy in Pennsylvania, and Omega Aircraft Corp. in New Bedford, Massachusetts before becoming a partner with DeVore Aviation in 1960. He served as vice president of engineering from 1968 until he became president in 1991. Along with logo lighting, DeVore Aviation’s products include exterior lighting systems for helicopters and “pulse light approach slope indicator” units used at airports worldwide. According to Jonathan Bent, the current president of DeVore Aviation, “Arnold Robinson could sit down and explain to you in great detail how a helicopter flew and why, and all the concerns about it.” Robinson would say, “I picked a helicopter because that’s a kind of a mystery to a lot of people about how those things stay in the air.”

Arnold Robinson Chairman of the Board of DeVore Aviation Corporation of America, a 50-year-old company probably best known for its vertical tail “logo lighting,” died October 10, 2005 of leukemia. He was 75.

AHS Update: Vertiflite Spring 2006