Education
California Institute of Technology. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
California Institute of Technology. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
He spent his career working for Convair which became General Dynamics, then Lockheed, and then Lockheed Martin. His feisty personality and at times insubordinate attitude at one time led company leaders to strongly consider firing him. However, his brilliance at envisioning and designing desirable aircraft years before there was even a market for them led to his appointment as Vice President for science and engineering for all of General Dynamics.
Born in Hawthorne, New Jersey, Widmer earned degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the California Institute of Technology.
He began his career working for the California division of Convair, initially as a designer of marine aircraft. He eventually joined the company"s main branch in Fort Worth, Texas, where he notably designed the Convair B-58 Hustler which was the first United States Air Force"s bomber capable of Mach 2.
He went on to lead the design teams for the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark and the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. In 1983 he was awarded the by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
In 2007, he was inducted into the Rensselaer Alumni Hall of Fame.
Widmer died in Fort Worth, Texas in 2011 at the age of 95.