Luis de Florez

Luis de Florez
Commander Luis de Florez
Born	(1889-03-04)March 4, 1889 New York City
Died	November 1962 (aged 73) Connecticut
Allegiance	United States
Service/branch	United States Navy
Rank	Rear Admiral
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Legion of Merit

Luis de Florez (March 4, 1889 − November, 1962) was a naval aviator and a Rear Admiral in the United States Navy that was actively involved in experimental aerospace development projects for the United States Government. As both an active duty and a retired U.S. Navy admiral, de Florez was influential in the development of early flight simulators, and was a pioneer in the use of "virtual reality" to simulate flight and combat situations in World War II.

Luis de Florez was from New York City. De Florez attended MIT, and graduated in 1911 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. He wrote his thesis on the subject of an aircraft problem, titled "Thrust of Propellers in Flight." The Admiral DeFlores Design and Innovation Award is named after him, and his son, Peter de Florez, who was an MIT professor, established a $500,000 fund to foster and encourage activities related to humor at MIT. The de Florez Prize in Human Engineering was established in 1964 at his bequest.

De Florez worked in the United States Navy as a career officer in World War I. He worked in the aviation section of the Navy and also on the development of refinery technology.

In the 1930s, De Florez also worked as an engineering consultant for various oil companies. His name is on several patents, including a 1918 U.S. patent (#1,264,374) for a "Liquid prism device" with rigid closed sides which included a system for varying the density of a medium filling the prism and thereby varying the refraction of light waves passing through the prism, and a 1930 Canadian patent for the "cracking and distillation of hydrocarbon oils". During World War II, he gave up his business to help solve the Navy's training problems.

In 1941, then Commander de Florez visited the United Kingdom and wrote what would become an influential report on British aircraft simulator techniques. It influenced the establishing of the Special Devices Division of the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics (what would later become the NAWCTSD). Later that year, Commander de Florez became head of the new Special Devices Desk in the Engineering Division of the Navy’s Bureau of Aeronautics. De Florez championed the use of "synthetic training devices" and urged the Navy to undertake development of such devices to increase readiness. He also worked on the development of antisubmarine devices. De Florez has been credited with over sixty inventions.