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David B. Thurston has 60 years of intensive design and manufacturing experience in the aircraft industry. In 1940, he earned an aeronautical engineering degree from New York University, Guggenheim School of Aeronautics, receiving the Chance Vought Award for his senior-year aircraft design project. Since that time, he has been associated with the design of 20 aircraft, including export models of the Brewster Buffalo fighter, various Grumman aircraft including special projects for Roy Grumman during World War II, the F9F Panther and F 11 F Tigercat carrier fighters, the supersonic Rigel missile, and later models of the Albatros amphibian. More recently, Mr. Thurston has organized and managed his own aircraft corporations and has been active in the personal and homebuilt aircraft fields, designing the Colonial Skimmer predecessor to the Lake Buccaneer amphibian, the small TEAL amphibian, the four-place TA 16 Seafire amphibian, the high-performance Sequoia aerobatic landplane, and similar small aircraft. His Navy research on hydro-ski and hydrofoil development resulted in his preparing the manual of hydrofoil seaplane design for the U.S. Navy. Mr. Thurston received the Aviation/Space Writers Association Earl D. Osborn Award for the best general aviation writing of 1978 and also their Northeast Region Award in 1985. Since 1975, he has headed his own aircraft design consulting firm, Thurston Aeromarine Corporation, and is an FAA-appointed Designated Engineering Representative (DER) for airplane structural design, powerplant installation, and systems and equipment installation. Mr. Thurston has been flying since 1945 and holds a private pilot’s license with instrument and water ratings. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and is an active member of the Aircraft Owner’s and Pilot’s Association, the Experimental Aircraft Association, and the Seaplane Pilot’s Association. He has written several books, articles, and papers on aircraft design and safety and general aviation and is qualified to serve as an expert witness in aircraft accident litagation.
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