Ladislao Pazmany

Ladislao Pazmany (November 25, 1923 – August 21, 2006) was an aviation pioneer, aeronautical engineer, designer, builder, pilot, teacher, speaker, and author. Born a Hungarian, Pazmany grew up, went to school and worked in his formative years in Argentina, then immigrated to the United States where he lived for the remainder of his life.

His design engineering stretched from early model airplanes made of wood as a child in Argentina through six decades of work on gliders, small planes, jets, and missiles both for private purchase and for the largest defense contractors in America including Convair, General Dynamics and Rohr. Contributions to the unmanned stealth aircraft were utilized in action during the Iraq War in 2004. And for Ryan the Cloudster was his commercial contribution.

With a passion for small personal aircraft he became recognized as a world authority on landing gear, light aircraft, and flight efficiencies through his books, plans and planes: The Pazmany PL-1 and PL-2, were used for training, the PL-4A, is a single seat VW powered, T-Tailed with folding wings; and the PL-9 Stork is a ¾ adaptation of the Luftwaffe STOL warbird. He was inducted into the Experimental Aircraft Association Hall of Fame in 1997 for his work in homebuilt aircraft.

"His work and reputation as an aeronautical engineer stretched across continents and touched people in every level of aviation, from government officials to young amateur pilots."

The Pazmanys, a Hungarian family of landed gentry with a rich cultural heritage, trace their ancestral roots back to the Middle Ages and to prominent Churchman Peter Pazmany, who codified the literary Hungarian language. “Pazmany, a Jesuit Cardinal and a master of Hungarian prose, was outstanding as an orator and essayist. His writing was characterized by a vigorous and clear, though far from simple, style, and the use of popular expressions and solid argument He led the Counter-Reformation in Hungary and is honored as national figure with the University he founded in Budapest which is still a seat of higher learning today.

Ladislao’s father Zoltan carried on the literary tradition as a journalist and contributing writer who spoke seven languages and, following the devastation of World War I moved his family of wife Maria Kacelli, and young sons Ladislao and Zoltan from the rural enclave of Zenta to the thriving metropolis of Buenos Aires, Argentina's capital city, in 1926. In their new house in the Padilla district, the family prospered.

Older son Ladislao made his first model plane at age five, followed by others, and was encouraged by his father to visit the airports and trains stations, developing an interest in trains, planes, motors and engines - leading to his first flying, in gliders at age 15. A prodigious student, the young Pazmany began teaching elementary aviation to adults while still a young man and later graduated with an honors degree from the prestigious Escuela Tecnica Otto Krause. He continued four years of aeronautical engineering study at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata.

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