Today is 59 years since the death of Asen Jordanoff, designer of the first Bulgarian aircraft. He died on 19 October 1967 in White Plains, New York, aged 71.
Jordanoff was born in Sofia on 2 September 1896. In February 1912, aged 15, he built a glider from wood, canvas and wire and tested it himself. That year he went to France to study at the school of Louis Blériot, one of Europe's first great aviators.
The Jordanoff-1, a plane built entirely to his own design, took off in August 1915. He was 18. Bulgarians date the start of Bulgarian aircraft building to 10 August 1915.
A few months later, Bulgaria entered the First World War. Jordanoff was a military pilot until 1918 and flew 84 combat missions. After the war, the Treaty of Neuilly barred Bulgaria from having military aviation, and in May 1921, aged 24, he left for the United States.
In the 1930s he worked at Curtiss-Wright and advised Boeing and Douglas. He wrote technical manuals and textbooks, including ones on the B-17 heavy bomber and the DC-3 airliner. Accounts often say he also helped design the two planes, but that is an exaggeration. His job was to explain the complex machines to pilots and technicians.
His books for beginner pilots, including "Flying and How to Do It" (1932) and "Your Wings" (1936), sold more than 750,000 copies. Jordanoff founded the Jordanoff Aviation Corporation, then Jordanoff Electronics in 1946 and Stratoport Corporation of America in 1956. In Bulgaria he is called the father of Bulgarian aviation.