Joseph Gordon Vaeth

Joseph Gordon Vaeth (1921-2012) was an officer in the United States Navy and a civilian aeronautical engineer employed by the Office of Naval Research and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Vaeth was a lifelong advocate for the use of lighter-than-air aircraft. He was the author of eight books and numerous articles.

Joseph Gordon Vaeth
Born	February 12, 1921 New York City
Died	March 11, 2012(2012-03-11) (aged 91)[1] Olympia, Washington
Burial place	Rock Creek Cemetery
Nationality	American
Other names	J. Gordon Vaeth
Occupation(s)	Engineer, Author

Early life

Vaeth was the son of Joseph Anthony Vaeth (d. 1938), a New York University professor of languages, and his wife Sara (Billard) Vaeth, the sister of Coast Guard Commandant Frederick C. Billard.^[2] In 1941, he graduated from New York University with a Bachelor's of Arts; in September 1941, he was employed as an instructor at the Admiral Billard Academy, named for his uncle.^[3]

Career

During World War II, Vaeth was commissioned as a Lieutenant and commanded the US Navy airship fleet in the South Atlantic. After the war, Vaeth was employed by the Navy Special Devices Center, and was involved in Project Helios, a plan for a manned balloon flight to 100,000 feet.^[4] He was a member of the American Rocketry Society, the British Interplanetary Society, the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences and the League of Aeronauts.^[4]

Vaeth worked with the naval unit at the White Sands Proving Ground, and in 1951, he authored 200 Miles Up, a history of guided missile development.^[4] In 1955, he was quoted in press about US plans to launch an artificial satellite.^[5][6] Vaeth served as an aeronautical engineer with the Office of Naval Research. In 1960, he was employed as a manned spaceflight expert by Reflectone Electronics.^[7] In the 1970s, Vaeth served as Director of Systems Engineering for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.^[8] In 1977, Vaeth published an article concluding that Amelia Earhart likely died after running out of fuel.^[9][10]

The Graf Zeppelin airship was the subject of Vaeth's 1959 book

Veath was a longtime advocate of airships. Journalist James J. Kilpatrick said that Vaeth:^[11]

is known around our office as 'the airship man.' Mr. Vaeth, a former naval officer, [was] system director of engineering for the National Environmental Satellite Service. His other fulltime job, a labor of pure love, [was] to promote the airship revival. In the same way that other men are nuts about fire engines or steam locomotives, Mr. Vaeth [was] nuts about zeppelins.

As early as 1939, Veath was advocating for the use of airships.^[12] In 1959, Vaeth authored a book about the Graf Zeppelin airship. In 1963, papers carried an image of Vaeth holding a piece of wreckage from the USS Shenandoah, a dirigible which crashed in 1925.^[13] In 1974, Vaeth testified before the United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences about the possibility of nuclear-engines permitting dirigibles to achieve speeds up to 150 miles per hours.^[14]

Personal life

In 1951, Vaeth married Joanne Corell; the two had a son.^[15] After her death, in 1995 he married Corrine Ranken of Olympia, Washington.^[16]

Works

• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1951). 200 miles up : the conquest of the upper air. Ronald Press Co. p. 207.
• Vaeth, J Gordon (1958). Graf Zeppelin: The Adventures of an Aerial Globetrotter. New York: Harper & Brothers., on the Graf Zeppelin
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1962). To the Ends of the Earth: The Explorations of Roald Amundsen. Harper & Row.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1965). Weather eyes in the sky : America's meteorological satellites. Ronald Press, U.S.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1968). Langley, man of science and flight. Ronald Press.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (1968). The man who founded Georgia. Crowell-Collier Press.
• Vaeth, Joseph G. (1992). Blimps & u-boats: U.S. Navy airships in the battle of the Atlantic. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute Pr. ISBN 978-1557508768.
• Vaeth, J. Gordon (2005). They Sailed the Skies: U.S. Navy Balloons and the Airship Program.