Hugh L. Willoughby

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Hugh L. Willoughby (1856-1959) was an early designer and builder of seaplanes.

Biography[]

Hugh de Laussat Willoughby was born on August 7, 1856 at Solitude, in the town of Middletown, New York. He was the son of Samuel Augustus Willoughby (a Brooklyn banker who was born in Nova Scotia) and Estelle de Laussat Willoughby.

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1877 with a BS in mining engineering.

In 1897 Willoughby undertook a canoe trip in the Everglades on Florida with several others. The next year he wrote a book about the exposition, Across the Everglades: a canoe journey of the expedition.^[1]

His summer home was a mansion named The Chalet in Newport, Rhode Island. In the early 20th Century he designed and built seaplanes at his home. On April 17, 1917 his son, Hugh L. Willoughby, Jr. (b. 1885), was commissioned as a lieutenant (junior grade) in the Naval Coast Defense Reserve for service during World War I.

He is credited with being and pioneer in developing seaplanes for military use.

He died on 4 Apr 1939 (aged 82), at "Mandalay," his estate at the southern tip of Sewall's Point, Martin County, Florida.

He is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.^[2]

References[]