Harl Vaughn Brackin, Jr. (1920-1977), began his career at The Boeing Company in Seattle as an engineer and in the early 1940s became a lead wind-tunnel designer. He later used his talents as an illustrator to create the product genealogy pictured here, "Boeing Parade of Progress," which depicts of all the propeller airplanes, jet airplanes, and helicopters produced by Boeing in Seattle between 1915 and 1965.
Mr. Brackin later became corporate administrator of historical services for Boeing, and was also a founder of the Pacific Northwest Aviation Historical Foundation, Volunteer Director of PNAHF's Museum of Flight, Special Advisor to the Red Barn Air Park Project, and Historian for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The Library and Archives at Seattle's Museum of Flight is named in his honor.
Caption information source: "Harl V. Brackin, Jr.," The Seattle Times, October 4, 1977, p. 27; and "Aviation Pioneers to be Honored," The Seattle Times, November 13, 1984, p. 61.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
