David Gordon Wilson
David Gordon Wilson is emeritus professor of engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[1]
Born in Warwickshire, England, Wilson came to the U.S. on a post-doctoral fellowship in 1955. He returned to Britain in 1957 to work in the gas-turbine industry. He taught engineering in Nigeria from 1958 - 60. He started a branch of a US company in London and in 1961 was moved to the US. In 1966 he joined the MIT faculty and taught engineering design and pursued a long-standing interest into human-powered transport, coauthoring Bicycling Science. He is credited, along with Chester Kyle, with starting the modern recumbent bicycle movement in the USA.
One of the most famous[citation needed] recumbent bicycles, the Avatar 2000 was designed by Wilson and Richard Forrestall in 1980. Tim Gartside (Australia) rode it as the Avatar Bluebell (UK) to a world record (51.9 mile/h) in the US in 1982.
Wilson is the co-founder of Wilson Turbo Power Inc., which was founded in 2001 to commercialize two breakthrough energy technologies developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).[2]
Wilson is the inventor of the 'Wilson Turbogenerator' which is currently being developed. An electrical efficiency of greater than 50% is claimed for his design. A prototype 300 kW microturbine was under development in 2008 when work was terminated and Wilson was removed from the board and, later, from his company.
[edit] Notable Publications
- Wilson, David Gordon; Whitt, Frank Rowland et al. (April 2004). Bicycling Science (3rd (paperback) ed.). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262731546. http://www.amazon.com/Bicycling-Science-David-Gordon-Wilson/dp/0262731541/ref=sr_1_1. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
- Wilson, David Gordon; Korakianitis, Theodosios (January 1998). Design of High-Efficiency Turbomachinery and Gas Turbines, The (2nd (paperback) ed.). Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0133120004. http://www.amazon.com/Design-High-Efficiency-Turbomachinery-Gas-Turbines/dp/0133120007/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_2. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
- Beck, Douglas; Wilson, David Gordon (January 1996). Gas-Turbine Regenerators (hardcover ed.). Springer. ISBN 978-0412983313. http://www.amazon.com/Gas-Turbine-Regenerators-Douglas-Beck/dp/0412983311/ref=sr_1_1/002-8251432-9620827?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1182202566&sr=1-1. Retrieved 2010-09-05.
[edit] References
- ^ "MIT MechE - David Gordon Wilson". http://meche.mit.edu/people/index.html?id=98. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
- ^ "Wilson Solarpower" http://www.wilsonturbopower.com/index.php/company.html. Retrieved 5 September 2010
