Robert Edison Fulton, Jr. was an American inventor and adventurer, who was the grandson of Robert Fulton. He known for having traveled around the world on a motorcycle and for several aviation related inventions. Fulton was also a professional photographer[1].
Inventions
During World War II, Fulton invented a training aid for aerial gunners [1]. After the war, he designed and built an airplane that was convertible to be an automobile, called the "Amphibian" [1]. It was not a commercial success. During the 1950s, Fulton developed the Fulton surface-to-air recovery system, also called the "skyhook" for the CIA, the US Navy, and the US Air Force. It was a system that was used to pick up people from the ground with an aircraft [2][3]. It was used by the US Air Force until 1996.
Travels/Adventures
While he is not the first person to do so (New Yorker Carl Stevens Clancy is widely held to be the first person to travel around the world on a four-cylinder Henderson motorcycle in 1913), he captured his trip on movie film. In July 1932 Fulton left London, England aboard his customized 1930 Douglas Twin T6 and embarked on an 18 month trip through Western Europe, down through Greece and Turkey into Syria, Jordan and Iraq. Because of the winter, he bypassed Persia, taking a steamer to Bombay, India. From there, he traveled to Rajputana, the Punjab, Kashmir, Sind, Waziristan, and Balchustan - now parts of India or Pakistan. He even traveled to Kabul and Kandahar in Afghanistan. From India, he took another steamer to Asia - the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), Sumatra, Malaya, Siam (Thailand) and Indochina (Vietnam and Laos) and onto China. In Japan, he met the US ambassador. He arrived back in the US in San Francisco before riding across the country to New York on Christmas Eve 1933 after having traveled 64,000 km. Fulton recorded the detail of his trip both on still camera and film; he also wrote about his journey in the book One Man Caravan. The book was reprinted in 1996 and a video Twice Upon a Caravan narrated by Fulton was also produced from his film. He died in 2004 at age 95.
References
- ^ a b c EXPLORATIONS - Robert Edison Fulton Jr.. Voice of America (2004-09-24). Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
- ^ Robert Fulton's Skyhook and Operation Coldfeet. Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
- ^ Fulton Surface-to-Air Recovery System. National Museum of the United States Air Force. Retrieved on 2007-03-27.
- Johnson, Allan (February 24), "An adventure tour worthy of the name", The Toronto Star: G25, <http://www.thestar.com/Wheels/article/184754>
