Glenn Odekirk (born Waseca, Minnesota 9 May 1905 - died New York January 12, 1987), was an American aerospace engineer who made significant contributions to the work of Hughes Aircraft.
The son of Edward John and Louise (Lewis) Odekirk, Glenn, also know by his nickname 'Ode' was an Oregon State University engineer, graduating in 1927. During the 1930s and through World War II 'Ode' was the assistant to the president of Hughes Aircraft, and had a very close, professional relationship with the man who was president, the billionaire Howard Hughes. Odekirk met Hughes on the set of his movie Hell's Angels, and Hughes was very impressed with him. For several years, the two flew around the country together, testing the young engineer's ideas and arguing constantly over the most trivial matters of airplane construction.
It was Odekirk who carefully examined airplane after airplane during the 1930s, to find the one Hughes eventually used to set his record-breaking round-the-globe flight of 91 hours. A plane Odekirk helped design during 1935, known to historians as the Hughes H-1 Racer, set a world speed record of 352.39 miles per hour in September of that year, beating Raymond Delmotte's (of France) record of 314.32 miles per hour. The plane was revolutionary for its time and was one of the first planes in history to sport retractable landing gear and special countersunk screws and flat rivets to reduce wind resistance. Odekirk's most famous project was the work he contributed to the legendary H-4 Hercules and 'Ode' was aboard when Hughes piloted the plane on its one and only flight on November 2, 1947.
According to "The Ouderkerk Family Saga 350 Years in America'', Chapter: Glenn Odekirk & Howard Hughes page 180, Glenn Odekirk was not on the Spruce Goose. See page 181 paragraph 4; Glenn Odekirk recalls that day. "I dropped Hughes down on the dock and he said to me, 'Odie, you don't mind not being aboard while I taxi'"...and I said, "Oh, come on." "The fellows back there (the Brewster committee) were giving him a bad time and told him the thing would never fly. So that is when I knew real well that he would take off if possible. I know darn well if it feels right, you are going to fly it." Odekirk stay behind. Why? "Because Mr. Hughes didn't want another pilot on board because someday someone would come out and say that Howard Hughes didn't fly it, so-and-so did."
In the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator, Matt Ross portrayed Odekirk.
References
Oregon State University Alumni Association
The Ouderkerk Family Saga 350 Years in America, editor H. John Ouderkirk
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