Background
Chauncey Milton "Chance" Vought was born on February 26, 1890, in New York City. He was the son of George Washington and Annie Eliza (Colley) Vought.
engineer manufacturer aircraft designer
Chauncey Milton "Chance" Vought was born on February 26, 1890, in New York City. He was the son of George Washington and Annie Eliza (Colley) Vought.
Vought attended the public schools of New York City, the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, and New York University, where he specialized in the study of internal combustion engines.
Subsequently, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, but left in 1910 without graduating and became consulting engineer for Harold F. McCormick of Chicago.
Vought was associated with McCormick in experimental developments. Vought learned to fly at the age of twenty, under the instruction of the Wright brothers. He became a finished and skillful, though not a professional, pilot, and continued to fly actively until 1917. From 1912 onwards, his career was exclusively devoted to aeronautics. His first aviation appointment was that of consulting engineer for the Aero Club of Illinois.
In 1914, he became editor of the pioneer aviation weekly, Aero & Hydro. In 1916, as chief engineer of the Wright Company, Dayton, Ohio, he produced the famous Vought-Wright Model V military biplane. In 1917, soon after the Wright-Martin Aircraft Company merger, Vought launched out for himself in the Lewis & Vought Corporation, which was financed by Birdseye B. Lewis. During the war, he served as consulting engineer to the bureau of aircraft production in Washington, and to the Engineering Division of the Army Air Corps at McCook Field, Dayton. The early days of the Lewis & Vought Corporation in Long Island City were perhaps the most interesting, as they were the most critical of Chance Vought's career.
The Lewis & Vought Corporation and its successor, the Chance Vought Corporation, rapidly became the outstanding constructors of the two-place advanced training plane known as the Vought VE-7 (1919). Even in the period of the box-like aircraft, Vought designs had been singularly attractive in appearance, and as design improved, Vought airplanes continued in the forefront. The Vought UO-1 (1922 - 25) convertible observation airplane, specially designed for use from battleships and cruisers and for operations on aircraft carriers, solved the difficult problem of catapulting a heavy and fully equipped plane.
The FU-1 single-seat high-altitude supercharged fighter (1925) was but little less noteworthy. The Vought O2U Corsair was a famous single-float seaplane, convertible into a landplane for catapulting and deck landing. This type, as a stock naval seaplane, set four world's records for speed and altitude. Vought worked above all for tactical flexibility in naval aircraft, developed his types by wise evolution, and maintained unsurpassable standards of workmanship. The operations of the Chance Vought Corporation were highly successful and in 1930 it employed 700 men as compared with the initial dozen.
In February 1929, Vought joined with the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company of Hartford and the Boeing Airplane Company in forming the vast United Aircraft & Transport Corporation, securing thereby an excellent return for his interests. He was very active on the directorate of the United and continued as president and consulting engineer of the Chance Vought unit until his death.
He died on July 25, 1930, in the Southampton Hospital, Southampton, Long Island, of septicemia, leaving his large personal fortune to his wife and their children.
In association with the Mayo Radiator Works in New Haven, Connecticut, Vought designed and constructed an advanced training plane, used by the British during the World War. This airplane laid the foundation of his reputation as a designer. During his busy career, he found time to write many papers and articles for technical journals on aircraft design, construction, and performance, and to be active in the Aircraft Committee of the Society of Automotive Engineers.
Vought was ambitious, daring, and of strong mechanical bent. Possessing a remarkable charm of manner and at home in any society, he was idolized by his small group of a dozen workmen. Neither by education nor instinct was he a plodding, finished calculator. He had, however, an intuitive, artistic sense for clean, streamlined airplanes, combined with the practical ability and a thorough knowledge of the structure and uses of aircraft, particularly as regards naval requirements.
An indefatigable worker, he developed new designs practically alone and knew how to realize his drawings in the shop, working at times with his own hands. He had a keen business sense and could hasten a government payment when necessary to meet the payroll of his small concern.
His wife had been closely associated with him in his work and had personally assisted him in the shop in the earlier stages of his career.
On December 4, 1920, Vought married Ena (Lewis) Vought, daughter of Birdseye B. Lewis. They had two children.
