Terrence O'Neill

 Author Info

   Terrence O'Neill soloed Porterfields, Cubs and Aeroncas at age 16, four months after two atomic bombs ended WW II.  At age 23, he transferred from AeroEngineering to get a BA in Journalism, Notre Dame, Korean War time, then enlisted in the Navy Air Corps. He flew P2V patrol bombers in Patrol Squadron FOUR in the Pacific until 1957. After service he worked many day-job years as a reporter, tech writer, free-lance writer, PR manager, and administrative director. After hours in 1960 he restored the last Waco aircraft, the tail-prop AristoCraft. In 1967 he incorporated O’Neill Airplane Company , and he designed, built, test flew it, to manufactur the Model W, a six-place lightplane, earning FAA Provisional Type Certificate A19CE in 1969 just as the General Aviation market crashed and capital ran out.  Next he designed, built and flight tested a dedicated bush plane with swing-tail to carry one-ton loads and snowmobiles. He also modified and flew a Mitchell flying wing.  In between times he and his wife Cynthia used their experimental tandem-wing Dragonfly, and now their Lancair to visit their six grown children, scattered college grads.

   O'Neill's primary interests are sport aircraft design and writing. He has more than 15 years as a Tech Counselor and Flight Advisor for Experimental Aircraft Association. 

In 1985 he started developing a state-of-the-art blended-wing-body design for himself, which led him to study the Northrop B-35 and B-49 Flying Wings and be puzzled by the Wing’s publicized 'problems' which didn’t make aerodynamic sense.  His research spun-off inventing, with assist of son Timothy, a device for providing roll-yaw stability for all swept wing aircraft, awarded US Patent 5,078,338.  The research also motivated him to investigate why the Air Force bought inferior B-36 Peacemaker ‘Stick’ instead of stealthy (1948!) B-35 Flying Wings, which is the story of ‘Goodbye Beautiful Wing’.

    O'Neill has about 2000 hours as a Commercial Pilot license with single- and multi-engine, instrument, instructor ratings.