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A. Howard Hasbrook

Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame
Enshrined 1992

A. Howard Hasbrook was born in Trenton, New Jersey and grew up in DuBois, Pennsylvania. During World War II, he served as a civilian flight instructor and engineering test pilot for the U.S. Army Corps. He later became interested in flight safety and crash survival design as the result of being seriously injured in an aircraft accident. In 1950, Howard joined Cornell University’s Crash Injury Research Program and became its Director in 1955. He later moved the Program to Arizona. In 1960, he joined the FAA’s Civil Aeromedical Research Institute in Oklahoma City as a senior research scientist and chief of crash safety and flight performance.

Howard Hasbrook’s aviation career spans 57 years and involves flight research, flight safety, crash injury investigation, and crash survival design. He pioneered the use of restraint systems in automobiles and aircraft, crash injury investigation, analysis and reconstruction of air carrier accidents, crashworthy design and the delethalization of aircraft cabin/cockpit interiors. He is the recipient of many awards and honors and is a Fellow in Aerospace Medicine. The Life Sciences and Biomedical Engineering Branch of the Aerospace Medical Association has named an award in his honor. Howard is a commercial pilot with multiple ratings and has logged more than 16,000 flying hours.