El rey borge jeppesen biography of williams

Elrey Borge Jeppesen

Pilot & Innovator

Born: January 28, 1907 in Lake Charles, Louisiana
Death: November 26, 1996
Enshrined: 1990

Began flying as a barnstormer with Tex Rankin’s Flying Circus.

Obtained a job flying for Fairchild Aerial Surveys, photographing the entire Mississippi Delta area around New Orleans.

Compiled information from city and county engineers, surveyors, farmers, road maps and from his own mountain and smokestack climbing to create maps and charts for flying. At the time, pilots used Rand-McNally road maps to help guide them as no adequate navigational guides for pilots existed. Jeppesen decided to print copies of the material and allow his friends to buy the manual for $10 each. The business grew so much, that it was necessary to move into a building near the Jeppesen’s home.

United bought Jeppesen’s service for their pilots and the U.S. Navy adopted his “Jepp Charts,” as they were called, to be its standard flight manual during World War II.

Flew with United Airlines until 1954.

Sold his firm to the Times Mirror Publishing Company of Los Angeles in 1961 but remained as President and later Chairman of the Board.

By Cary Baird

A new book, “Capt. Jepp and the Little Black Book: How Barnstormer & Aviation Pioneer Elrey B. Jeppesen Made the Skies Safer for Everyone,” recounts the life of the “father of aerial navigation,” one of aviation’s least known pioneers. The book delights the reader with thrilling stories of aviation’s rodeo days—a time when visionaries dared to change the world forever.

Jeppesen’s pioneering work in aeronautical mapping spawned a business that today employs 1,400 people in Denver and nearly 3,000 people worldwide. A vast majority of modern airline pilots around the world carry Jeppesen charts in their flight cases, and many private and business aviation pilots use Jeppesen charts. Nearly all airplanes that use a database to run a navigation system are using some form of Jeppesen NavData. The global company, owned by Boeing since 2000, has expanded its core competency of navigational data to serve the marine and rail industries.

Denver residents Flint Whitlock and Terry L. Barnhart coauthored the book, released in January 2007 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Jeppesen’s birth.

“Terry and Flint have beautifully captured my father’s character, his entrepreneurial spirit and adventurous talents,” said Jim Jeppesen, Elrey Jeppesen’s eldest son. “Like most kids, when I was growing up, I didn’t realize or completely understand how truly amazing my dad’s life was. Now, as an adult, I’m still fascinated by the story. Reading this great biographical book is very rewarding.”

Elrey Borge Jeppesen, the son of Danish immigrants, was born on 28 January 1907 in Louisiana, in the USA. When he was fourteen years old, Jeppesen had the opportunity to fly in a Curtiss Jenny with a travelling barnstormer. From then on, he was determined to pursue a career in aviation. Jeppesen used the money he earned from delivering newspapers and from odd jobs at a local airport to save up for flying lessons. After two hours and fifteen minutes of flight training, he completed his first solo flight. At the age of eighteen, Jeppesen was employed by famous barnstormer Tex Rankin to work in various positions, including ticket clerk, wing walker and propeller turner. Soon enough, Jeppesen was able to earn a living as a pilot, by ferrying aircraft and serving as a photo pilot for aerial survey flights. In 1930, during the Great Depression, Jeppesen found employment with Boeing Air Transport as an airmail pilot.

At the time, pilots used roadmaps and terrain features, such as railway lines, to navigate. Flying at low level, often in bad weather or over mountains, made this occupation notoriously dangerous. Jeppesen realized that it was not uncommon for his fellow pioneering pilots to die in accidents. In an effort to preserve his life and the lives of his friends, Jeppesen began to draw airfield charts and made notes of flight routes in what he referred to as his ‘little black book’. He even climbed mountains to determine their height, drove to airfields to examine obstacles and made a telephone number list of farmers who were willing to share weather-related information with pilots. Jeppesen made copies of his notebook for his friends, but the ‘little black book’ became so popular, that he decided to sell copies instead of simply giving them away. He later updated his book with newly introduced radio beacon information and terrain elevation profiles and, in 1934, he founded Jeppesen & Co.

With his chart business growing, Jeppesen continue