continued from page 4
The stealth and modern
avionics of the sixth-genera-
tion fighters today gives them
the advantage of being able to
spot and shoot down an
enemy before the bad guys
even know they are there, in a
technology known as “beyond
visual range.”
Windecker gave up his
dental practice to work on his
airplane project in the early
1960s and the Midland
Development League recruit-
ed him to the burgeoning
Permian Basin, where he set
up shop in a climate-con-
trolled hangar at Midland
International Air and Space
Port, the building that now
houses
the
American
Airpower Heritage Museum.
“Dad’s project was funded
by Dow at Lake Jackson-
Freeport,” Ted Windecker
said. “First, they successfully
flight tested a wing on an exist-
ing [Cessna 182] aircraft with
full FAA observation.” The
project moved first to a
research center in Hondo
where Dow had an aban-
doned Air Force base. Ted’s
brothers Bob and Skip joined
in, with all three becoming
production engineers, and
today they all work at
Windecker Aviation in Austin,
where Ted is the chief tech-
nology officer.
“I was the composite engi-
neer who developed the com-
posite aircraft and was manag-
er in all the stealth things we
did,” Ted said. “We were
there [Hondo] for about a
year when we moved to
Midland” in January, 1962,
he said.
Leo Windecker graduated
from University of Texas den-
tal school in 1948 and Dow
g
decided it needed a dentist in
Lake Jackson, a Dow compa-
ny town.
He opened a dental office
there and several of his
patients told him about
advanced
research,
Windecker said. They were
the first to make fiberglass,
first to develop epoxy resins,
and some of Dow’s work led
to the creation of styrofoam.
“When he [Leo] was in
dental school, an anatomy
professor said the human
bone is one of most efficient
for strength and weight in the
world with the strength in the
cortical
layer,”
Ted
Windecker said. “Fiberglass
with resin almost exactly
duplicated that bone.”
Dr. Windecker had opened
his dental practice with his
wife Fairfax, the second of
three mates. She wanted to
join him in the aircraft project
“but Dad said she had to keep
the dental practice open to
provide money,” Ted said.
“She said she wanted to
join him and he asked what
she would do,” he said. “She
said she would sweep the
floors or anything to be part of
the project and she went to the
cabinet and brought the
broom out. She was a dental
specialist, was number one in
her dental school class and
here she was offering to sweep
floors,” he said. “So after a few
months, we all packed up and
moved.”
Fairfax didn’t sweep floors,
though. She became a
research assistant and Ted,
then 13, inherited the broom.
Leo Windecker died in
2010 and Fairfax about 20
years earlier.
“He was a little ahead of his
time – on the leading edges,”
former Midland Mayor Wes
Perry said. Perry now is CEO
of EGL Resources. “The air-
port is our number-one asset,”
he said.
Midland was the base for
the Army Air Forces
Bombardier School during
World War II, one of four
used to train young bom-
bardiers to use the then-new
Norden bombsight.
“Businesses
are
why
Midland is here,” Perry said.
“Leo was a brilliant guy. It’s
just a part of our history, an
important part.”
The Eagle got new life
recently with the restoration of
the seventh plane of the nine,
tail number N4198G.
“In 2009 I acquired all
rights to the Eagle,” Ted
Windecker said. “I found an
investor in China [Wei Hang]
who was interested [in restor-
ing the Eagle] and we closed
in November of 2013. He’s
been funding it ever since.
The new iteration, based
on 98G, will be developed in
China and likely will be even
faster than the 159-knot (183
mph) 98G, he said. Wei plans
to replace the 285 horsepower
Continental IO-520 with a
310-horsepower Continental
IO-550.
Wei’s company is Chinese
but it has named American
engineer John Roncz to be
chief designer of the new,
revised Eagle.
Current plans are to pro-
duce the new airplane in both
China and the US.
Composites join technolo-
gies like instrument flight, jet
engines, supersonic flight and
others as the airplane
advances from the flimsy pow-
ered glider of the Wright
Brothers. And that develop-
ment was born just up the
road in Midland, Texas.
D esert O asis F Or s ale
Quilts
Etc.
by
Marguerite
Made in the Big Bend
HWY 118 • Terlingua
1/4 mi S of Hwy 170
432.371.2292
10.5 quiet, secluded acres in Casa Piedra, one hour south of Marfa.
Adobe house, artesians well, garden space, shop, carport and studio.
C ontACt L Auren M eAder F owLkes , r eALtor At F Ar w est t exAs r eALty : 432.295.2849
Acupuncture
•
Herbs
•
Bodywork
Shanna Cowell, L.Ac.
N EW L OCATION :
303 E. Sul Ross • Alpine
432.837.3225
Mon. - Fri. by appointment
Radio f or a Wide Range
Serving F ar W es t T e x as a t 9 3.5 FM
Bec ome a member a t www . marf apublicr adio . or g or 1-800-90 3-KR T S
AYN FOUNDATION
(DAS MAXIMUM)
ANDY WARHOL
g
W HITE C RANE
A CUPUNCTURE
C LINIC
“The Last Supper”
MARIA ZERRES
“September Eleven”
Brite Building 107-109 N Highland, Marfa
Open weekends noon to 5 pm
For hours, please call: 432.729.3315
or visit www.aynfoundation.com
Cenizo
First Quarter 2017
27