Irv Culver

{{Short description|American aeronautical engineer}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}

{{Use American English|date=December 2021}}

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| honorific_prefix =

| name = Irv Culver

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| nationality = American

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| birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|5|11}}{{cite web |url=https://www.californiabirthindex.org/birth/irven_h_culver_born_1911_136497 |title=The Birth of Irven Culver |website=California Birth Index |access-date=September 23, 2021}}

| birth_place = Saugus, California

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1999|08|13|1911|5|11}}

| death_place = Bakersfield, California

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| module = {{ infobox engineering career

| discipline = Aeronautics

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| employer = Lockheed

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Irven Harold Culver (May 11, 1911 – August 13, 1999) was an American aeronautical engineer.{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1871993/irven-culver-obituary-mentions-hanson/|title=Irven Culver Obituary mentions Hanson|date=September 20, 1999|pages=12|via=newspapers.com}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-17-mn-11249-story.html|title=Skunk Works' Irven Culver Dies|date=September 17, 1999|website=Los Angeles Times}}

Most notable of all his accomplishments, Culver is credited for solving a fatal flaw in the Lockheed P-38, related to high-speed compressibility problems which killed a test pilot.{{cite web|last=Hall|first=Stan|title=Final Glide|url=http://www.ssa.org/FinalGlide?show=blog&id=695|publisher=SSA}}

A humorous episode during World War II resulted in giving the very secret Lockheed Advanced Development Projects division the name "Skunk Works". A phone call from the U.S. Department of the Navy to W. A. "Dick" Pulver was misdirected to Irv Culver who answered the phone with "Skonk Works, inside man Culver" and the name stuck.{{cite web|last=Capp|first=Al|title=F-117A: The Skunkworks|url=http://www.f-117a.com/Skunk.html|work=F-117A The Black Jet|publisher=n/a|accessdate=10 April 2012}} Another variant of the story relates that the original Skunk Works was located in a circus tent adjacent to the Lockheed plastics fabrication facility which smelled bad and reminded the engineers of the L'il Abner comic strip. Reportedly, Culver showed up for work wearing a civil defense gas mask as a gag and when he answered the phone he said "Skonk Works" referring to the cartoon. "Kelly overheard him and chewed out Irv for ridicule: "Culver, you're fired," Johnson roared. "Get your ass out of my tent." Culver showed up for work the next day and Johnson never said a word.{{cite book|last=Rich|first=Ben|title=Skunk Works|date=February 1996|pages=111–112|isbn=0316743003}} Kelly Johnson referred to Culver as "a brilliant designer" in his autobiography {{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Kelly|title=Kelly More Than My Share of it All|date=17 December 1989|page=98|isbn=0874744911}}

Culver was interested in a variety of aircraft configurations and developed guidelines for laying out the twist distribution on tailless aircraft.{{Cite web|url=http://www.b2streamlines.com/Culver.html|title=Culver Twist Distribution}} He also helped to design an experimental helicopter, distinguished by a forward-sweeping blade, that was extremely easy to fly. In 1966, Culver, Thomas Hanson and Lance Hook were awarded a patent (US3261407) for a rigid rotor system which set world speed records for Lockheed helicopters and laid the foundation for aerobatic rotorcraft.{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-17-mn-11249-story.html|title=Skunk Works' Irven Culver Dies|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=4 March 2015}} It earned Culver the Dr. Alexander Klemin Award from the American Helicopter Society.

In recent years, Culver was noted by Dan Armstrong, President of Experimental Soaring Association, for his work with Jim Maupin designing gliders intended to be built by craftsmen from plans. Culver is a well-known aerodynamicist.{{cite web|last=O'Neill|first=Kevin|title=Designs that fly|url=https://www.sfu.ca/~koneill/DKO_DesignsThatFlyAERA09.pdf|publisher=Paper: Presented to SIG-Learning Sciences|accessdate=11 April 2012}} He published a 13-page paper on the design analysis for the Windrose 15-meter glider that he designed with Maupin.{{cite web |last=Culver |first=Irv |title=Transcription of Irv Culver's Analysis for Windrose 15m |url=http://carbondragon.us/culver.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511192739/http://carbondragon.us/culver.htm |archive-date=11 May 2021 |accessdate= |publisher=Self}}