Background
Allen Cecil was born on August 16, 1882 in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, the son of William Wilbur Scott, a farmer, and of Elizabeth Johnson, caterer at the local Masonic Temple.
Allen Cecil was born on August 16, 1882 in Omaha, Nebraska, United States, the son of William Wilbur Scott, a farmer, and of Elizabeth Johnson, caterer at the local Masonic Temple.
Allen Cecil Scott was educated in the Omaha public schools.
While a railroad inspector, Scott got his start in the tent and awning business by turning over old burlap to an Omaha tent manufacturer. Within a year he had bought the firm, and he built his Scott Tent and Awning Company. This eventually led him, during World War I, to travel to Washington, with an invention that gave him a claim to fame.
In 1918, when the only successful parachutes used by the military, except those of the Germans, were static chutes fixed to the sides of observation balloons and opened by static ripcords, Scott developed the idea of a pilot chute. This was popped out of the individual parachute pack by a spring when the pilot pulled the ripcord; this small chute dragged the main parachute free.
A patent granted in 1921 covered the packing of the main chute, the harness and release, and the pilot chute. Scott was elected president of the Omaha Chamber of Commerce in 1923. He was a president of the Omaha Manufacturers Association.
He retired from his firm in 1964, shortly before he died at Omaha.
Allen Cecil Scott was the founder of Scott Tent and Awning Company, that became a nationwide firm. His packing of the main chute, the harness and release, and the pilot chute were patented and became the basic design of all later chutes. He was known throughout the city for paying for the installation of signs at dangerous intersections warning motorists to be careful because Omaha needed its children.
Scott was genial and helpful, quietly doing good deeds of which not even his friends were fully aware.
On August 2, 1905, Scott married Ethel Smith. They had one son. After his wife's death he married Gladys Thornton on May 21, 1921; they had three daughters.
