Ed Heath’s
Airplanes
Remembering Ed Heath by
Bob Whittier
Photos from EAA Archives It’s a rare aviation enthusiast who has not heard of Ed Heath and his little parasol monoplanes. However, many present-day sport flying enthusiasts know little or nothing of the Heath story. So this month we’ll do something about this state of affairs. Edward Bayard Heath was born in Amsterdam, New York, in 1888, the son of parents prominent in that area. As a boy he showed much interest in mechanical things. When the Wright brothers flew at Kitty Hawk in
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December 1903, Heath was then 15 years old, and this accomplishment fascinated him. In the years that followed he read everything he could find on the subject of aviation. His family moved to Chicago, where he graduated from high school with very good marks in the fields of mechanics and drafting. He was not fortunate enough to go to college to gain a formal education in engineering. But like many other aviation pioneers, he had an inborn
feel for how mechanical things should be built and used. And inspired by the Wrights, he had a powerful urge to design and build his own airplane.
Ed Heath did much of the testing for the Heath Super Parasol on floats at Lake Zurich, Illinois. The lake, situated northwest of Chicago and alongside one of the major roads of the area (Route 12), gave Heath and his crew an ideal location for flying the spritely seaplane.
