Peter Garrison
Encyclopedia
Peter Garrison is an American journalist and amateur aircraft designer/builder. He was born in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
in 1943. He received a degree in English from Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
in 1965.
From 1968-1973, while living in Tarzana, California, he designed and built an all-metal, two-seat, single-engine low-wing monoplane. The design was influenced by the T-18 of John Thorp
John Thorp
John Willard Thorp was an aeronautical engineer who made significant contributions to aircraft design throughout his life....
and the PL-2 of Ladislao Pazmany
Ladislao Pazmany
Ladislao Pazmany was an aviation pioneer, aeronautical engineer, designer, builder, pilot, teacher, speaker, and author...
, both California airplane designer/builders. Garrison called the plane Melmoth (after the novel "Melmoth the Wanderer"), and, with his companion Nancy Salter, used the aircraft to fly to Europe, Japan and South America.
In 1981 they had a son, Nicholas, who also attended Harvard University. Their daughter Lily, born in 1988, attended Brown.
In 1981 he began design on a four-seat enlargement of Melmoth. In 1982 the original Melmoth was destroyed at Orange County (California) Airport while awaiting takeoff when a landing airplane lost control and ran into it. The larger aircraft first flew in 2002. It appeared at the 2003 Experimental Aircraft Association's national meet, and was featured on the cover of August 2003 edition of Flying Magazine. It was constructed of glass- and carbon-fiber-reinforced composite instead of aluminum, and has four seats; the rear seats face aft, an arrangement that reduces the required cabin size and center-of-gravity variation. The airplane, which has retractable landing gear, large hydraulically-operated Fowler flaps and a 200 hp turbocharged engine, is based at Whiteman Airport in Los Angeles.
Peter Garrison is a free-lance writer, often contributing articles to Smithsonian Air & Space
Air & Space
Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine is a bimonthly magazine put out by the National Air and Space Museum. Because the museum is a part of the Smithsonian Institution, which puts out its own Smithsonian magazine, the magazine's full title is Air & Space/Smithsonian...
magazine and Conde Nast Traveler
Condé Nast Traveler
Condé Nast Traveler is a US magazine published by Condé Nast. It has its origins in a mailing sent out by the Diners Club club beginning in 1953, listing locations that would take the card. It began taking advertising in 1955. In order to attract more advertisers, it became a full-fledged magazine,...
. He also writes two monthly articles for Flying
Flying (magazine)
Flying is an aviation magazine published since 1927 . It is read by pilots, aircraft owners, and aviation-oriented executives in business and general aviation markets worldwide....
magazine (Aftermath and Technicalities); he has written for Flying since 1968. With David Pinella, he co-founded AeroLogic, a company that creates and sells computer software programs which analyze fluid dynamics.
Mr. Garrison has 4,000 hours of flight time. He holds a single/multiengine commercial pilot license with instrument, Learjet, helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
, seaplane
Seaplane
A seaplane is a fixed-wing aircraft capable of taking off and landing on water. Seaplanes that can also take off and land on airfields are a subclass called amphibian aircraft...
, glider
Glider (sailplane)
A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the sport of gliding. Some gliders, known as motor gliders are used for gliding and soaring as well, but have engines which can, in some cases, be used for take-off or for extending a flight...
, gyroplane and hot-air balloon ratings.
Mr. Garrison provided the foreword of the 2002 book Simplified Aircraft Design for Homebuilders by Daniel P. Raymer PhD.
Mr. Garrison is sometimes confused with Peter Garrison which is the pseudonym used by Craig Shaw Gardner
Craig Shaw Gardner
Craig Shaw Gardner is an American author, best known for producing fantasy parodies similar to those of Terry Pratchett.He was also a member of the Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America , a loose-knit group of Heroic Fantasy authors founded in the 1960s, some of whose works were anthologized...
, a prolific science-fiction writer born in 1949.