Engine Expert For Aviation Pioneers

WILLIAMSPORT--Great aviation pioneers Charles Lindbergh, Admiral Richard Byrd and Amelia Earhart all have one Williamsport connection in common—Thomas “Doc” Kinkade, whose work tuning each of their engines and helped each complete successful milestone flights.
Kinkade was born in Richmond, Quebec, Canada on Aug. 23, 1892. His family later moved to Bayonne, N.J.
According to a May 1951 “Grit” article, Kinkade was always interested in mechanical things. An example of this was when he took apart a $1 watch that he won for memorizing Bible verses. “I always had a burning desire to know how the watch worked. I took apart and then was able to put it back together,” Kinkade said.
At age 16 his first job was the Crane Motor Car Co., sweeping floors. His mechanical aptitude around engines soon became apparent and he was promoted to work with engine design and testing.
During World War I he became an aeronautical instructor and tested engines for the Wright Airplane Co. By the mid-1920s Kinkade gained the reputation as one of the leading aeronautical engineers in the aviation industry and his knowledge of engines was legendary.
It was because of this knowledge that Admiral Richard Byrd brought Kinkade along to look after the engines of his Fokker plane when he attempted to become the first man to fly over the North Pole in May 1926. It was Byrd who gave Kinkade the nickname “Doc.” Byrd considered Kinkade a “doctor of engines.”
Byrd was fulsome in his praise of Kinkade and his work with Byrd’s engines. He discussed Kinkade’s role extensively in a 1927 article in “American Magazine,” titled, “Doc Kinkade: The Man Who Put Us Across.”
He wrote in part, “We owe him a debt we never hope to repay. All members of the expedition are deeply indebted to him. We could not have successfully completed this milestone flight without his help and knowledge. He is probably the best engine man in the business.”
A year later, Kinkade was overseeing work on Charles Lindbergh’s “Spirit of St. Louis.” In May 1927 when Lindbergh became the first man to fly solo across the Atlantic. Lindbergh regarded Kinkade as the best aircraft engine expert in the business and said he felt safer knowing that Kinkade had checked over this engine.
In June 1928, Amelia Earhart used Kinkade’s services when she made the first solo transatlantic flight by a woman. He also checked the engines used by Clarence Chamberlin in his 51-hour endurance flight in 1929.
Kinkade came to Williamsport in 1927 to work for Lycoming Motors (now Textron-Lycoming). His engineering wizardry was well used by Lycoming not only for overseeing aircraft engines but for marine engines as well.
“Doc” Kinkade’s son, Thomas H. Kinkade, Jr., a Loyalsock Township resident, remembers his father as a “weekend dad.”
“We only saw him on weekends, sometimes only from Saturday afternoon to Sunday night,” Thomas recalled. “He never talked about his aviation activities or his role in the Byrd, Lindbergh and Earhart flights. He was just our dad.”
While at Lycoming Motors “Doc” Kinkade tested Lycoming’s first radial engine in 1929 and was a prominent booster in the development and promotion of the new Williamsport Airport in 1929.
Thomas said he remembers as an young boy being one of those selected to turn the earth in the groundbreaking for the Williamsport Airport.
“One humorous thing I remember about my dad was the fact that he had this white Austin car and when us kids played baseball at Cochran Elementary School he used to get a kick out of driving it down the first base line and around the rest of the ball diamond. That was quite a thing to see,” Thomas said.
Kinkade retired in 1950 and lived in quiet retirement until his death at the Muncy Valley Hospital on Feb. 13, 1963.
“My dad was a very modest man and always seemed to get a quiet satisfaction from all of the work that he did in the aviation industry,” his son recalled. “I am very proud of him and all that he was able to accomplish in being part of some of the most significant events in aviation history."