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Francis Thomas Evans, Sr. (3 June 1886 - 14 March 1974) was a pioneer aviator. He was one of the earliest United States Marine Corps aviators, the first person to perform a loop in seaplane, and a pioneer of stall and spin recovery techniques. ==Biography== Evans was born in Delaware, Ohio, on 3 June 1886. He became one of the earliest United States Marine Corps aviators, being designated Marine Aviator Number 4. By early 1917, Evans was the most experienced Curtiss N-9 floatplane pilot in the world. Although the consensus among aviators and even the N-9s manufacturer was that the N-9 could not be looped, Evans believed it was possible. On February 13, 1917, he flew an N-9 over the Gulf of Mexico off Pensacola, Florida, and began attempts to loop it. He succeeded on his fourth try, becoming the first person ever to loop a seaplane. Lacking witnesses, he flew over Naval Air Station Pensacola and repeated the feat. In 1936, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for this achievement.〔Knapp, Walter, "The Marines Take Wing," ''Aviation History'', May 2012, p. 51.〕 More important, however, were the stall and spin recovery techniques he discovered that day. During his first three loop attempts, the N-9 stalled before he reached the apex of the loop and fell into a spin. He found that by releasing back-pressure on the stick and aggressively applying opposite rudder to the direction of the spin he could change the spin into a normal dive and recover, something previously thought impossible in an N-9. His stall and spin recovery techniques remain in use to this day by aviators around the world.〔Knapp, Walter, "The Marines Take Wing," ''Aviation History'', May 2012, p. 51.〕 During World War I, Evans was stationed in the Azores in 1918 in command of a seaplane squadron. Evans took actions after the 29 June 1925 earthquake in Santa Barbara, California, to help save the city from fire, for which he received a letter of commendation from the United States Secretary of the Navy and a resolution from the City of Santa Barbara. The Marine Corps lacked any kind of ambulance aircraft in the 1920s and early 1930s, so Evans came up with a way of housing a stretcher and a medical attendant aboard a modified Douglas P2D-1 patrol floatplane, and the Marine Corps used the modified aircraft in support of its occupation duties in Haiti and Santo Domingo. Evans was grounded after two serious crashes in 1935 and was retired for physical disability in July 1937. However, he was recalled to duty later in 1937 and continued to serve in the Marine Corps until December 1944. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Francis Thomas Evans, Sr.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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